AgilePracticeLibrary

Turn the Ship Around (http://turntheshiparound.com)

David Marquet

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MECHANISMS for shifting from Leader-Follower to Leader-Leader organization - not enough to push/change control in organization... greater levels of control at lower levels need to be supported with greater competence and clarity.

Control

• Find/change the genetic (structural) code that drives behavior (e.g. approving leave)
• Act your way to new thinking, identify behaviors that would define success and find ways to start adopting/encouraging/inviting those now (e.g. pride in ship, buying gear, actively welcoming visitors to the ship)
• Short early conversations, rapid feedback on partial work, don’t have to have everything finished perfectly (basic agile)
• “I intend to...” (I will..., I plan on..., We will...) rather than “Requesting permission to...” (to create active leaders rather than passive followers)
• Resist the urge (as leader) to provide solutions, provide needs and objectives but not methods and solutions, sk more questions, from place of curiosity rather than as way of checking up on people’s work or leading to specific solutions.
• Eliminate top-down monitoring systems, keep/shift responsibility to local groups
• Thinking out loud, share assumptions, intentions, desires, expectations in process
• Embrace the inspectors, openly partner with them, don’t be a victim, own your own inspection results, take control of your improvements, use them as sources of learning and info about how others do well, share solutions and use them to spread them around

Competence

• Take deliberate action (e.g. put hand on lever but pause before making the move, do it deliberately, give time for yourself to do it consciously not automatically, let others have a chance to notice and respond if needed.)
• “We Learn.” it’s what we do, everywhere, always.
• Don’t Brief, Certify. Walk through, asking questions, making sure people really know what will be needed, expected. Mentor-MentOR?
• Continually and consistently repeating the message, e.g. expectations, objectives
• Specify goals, not methods

Clarity

• Achieve Excellence rather than Avoiding Errors
• Building Trust and taking care of your people, not protecting them from consequences but giving them every available tool to succeed, in work and life
• Use your legacy/history for inspiration (e.g. WWII subs practices and history)
• Use Guiding Principles for Decision Making Criteria, not arbitrary, personal
• Use immediate recognition to reinforce behaviors, don’t wait for formal moments, without limits, not competitive, nobody loses when one wins
• Begin with the end in mind, write next performance review now, identify solid metrics for tracking and testing, connect individual goals to larger org objectives
• Encourage a questioning attitude over blind obedience, anyone can stop the line, question the captain

GETTING STARTED

1. Where is excellence created here? What internal processes and/or external interfaces? (e.g. interfaces with customers and with nature are usually ripe)
2. What are the decisions that people responsible need to make to achieve excellence?
3. What would it take to get those people ready, willing and able to make those decisions in ways that support best possible outcomes, new levels of excellence?