David Marquet (Author of Turn The Ship Around!)

David Marquet is now friends with Tish Thawer

David Marquet liked Edward's review of Turn The Ship Around!: How to Create Leadership at Every Level:

" What a great book on leadership and trust. Having experienced the military and governmental machines, I have seen how top down leadership in terms of controlled decision making can demoralize new minds and ways, and kill a great team. This story i... " Read more of this review »

David Marquet rated a book 5 of 5 stars

Happy Hour Is 9 to 5 by Alexander Kjerulf

Happy Hour Is 9 to 5: How to Love Your Job, Love Your Life, and Kick Butt at Work
by Alexander Kjerulf

read in February, 2013

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Success and happiness: we have it backward.

Traditional thinking is that if we are successful, we’ll be happy. In our organizations, leaders think that once the company has some success their people will be happy and morale will improve.

This is fundam...more

David Marquet made a comment on his review of Scrum and XP from the Trenches

"My software friends are talking about Scrum, Agile, Pair Programming and I knew nothing about it. I have a friend who even suggested that Agile could...more My software friends are talking about Scrum, Agile, Pair Programming and I knew nothing about it. I have a friend who even suggested that Agile could be extended to general organizational design and even leadership!

I read Henrik Kniberg's book, Scrum and XP (Extreme Programming) from the Trenches, on his suggestion and, well, he's right!

Kniberg's book is a concise "how to" on how his company implements Agile in their software development business. It's chock full of great ideas and details that come only from those that have actually practiced something. As such, I gained a good insight into how Agile and Scrum work, and you will too.

What I want to explore more, however, is the idea that Agile can be applied as a model for leadership, or, more precisely, how can the practices of Agile be applied more broadly to knowledge workers? I think the best way to think about it to briefly recap the points of Agile and at every point where you see the word "product" think "culture." Let's see how that works.

1. The Agile process starts with describing stories about how the product should work. The focus is not on how things aren't working but how they should work. Process step 1: collect stories.

2. In preparation for the sprint planning meeting, have the product backlog (the list of stories about how we want our culture/product to be) in shipshape. This means being clear about the outcome including an defined "when done." This invokes the element of clarity and measurability. When we do workshops on changing culture this reminds me of the step where I ask, "...and how would we know...."

3. Have the sprint planning meeting with the team. Allow the team to determine the scope of what projects will be included in the upcoming sprint. Principle: give control, don't take control. Corollary: move authority to information, not information to authority.

4. Determine overall sprint goal prior to closing the planning meeting. This ensures the necessary supporting condition of clarity is in place.

5. Launch the team and get managers, coacher, owners, out of the way. Again, giving control to the people who know (the coders, testers, developers).

6. Always test the product with a demo before saying "done." This emphasis on actual products is very helpful, especially when changing business cultures where sometimes there is a tendency to think in terms of vague changes in mindset. Instead, we should focus on specific behavioral changes that we can observe and measure.

7. Conduct an assessment of how the Sprint went and measure team velocity. This would apply to following up on whether behavioral changes are sticking or not?

OK, well, that seems clear enough but when it came down to it, what was the leadership team actually working on -- the parallel to the code the developers were writing? Well, I think the code (sometimes I call it the DNA) for the company's culture is written in the policy documents that give authority for making decisions and detail how we will interact with each other. The cultural "coders" work on these policy documents in the same way the software developers work on the code.(less)"

David Marquet rated a book 5 of 5 stars

Scrum and XP from the Trenches
by Henrik Kniberg (Goodreads Author)

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David Marquet rated a book 5 of 5 stars

What the Best College Teachers Do
by Ken Bain

read in January, 2013

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Isn’t it all about getting people to think?

College costs since I graduated in 1981 have risen twice as fast as medical costs, three times as fast as family incomes and four times as fast as inflation. With average private school costs approaching $40...more Isn’t it all about getting people to think?

College costs since I graduated in 1981 have risen twice as fast as medical costs, three times as fast as family incomes and four times as fast as inflation. With average private school costs approaching $40,000 a year and public school costs approaching $20,000 a year, the OECD estimates that the United States spent 2.6% of GDP in 2008 on education, about $370 billion. Given the investment, understanding what the best educators do is important.

Ken Bain, Director of the Research Academy for University Learning at Montclair State University is attempting to answer that. He has written about it in his 2004 book What the Best College Teachers Do.

The book is based on research done studying (observing, videotaping, interviewing) what the best college teachers do. One could poke holes at the rigor of the study (who defines what “best” is, who identified the “best” teachers, is it anything close to the complete set, and so forth) and claim that the findings are essentially expert opinion. Even so, the book is supremely useful.

The findings are presented along the following lines:
1. Outstanding teachers know their subjects, including the history of their subject, extremely well.
2. Exceptional teachers treat their lectures, discussion sessions and classes as serious intellectual endeavors.
3. The best teachers expect more thinking from their students.
4. The best teachers create environments where learners feel a sense of control over their education, work collaboratively with others, believe their work will be considered fairly.
5. Highly effective teachers tend to reflect a strong trust in students.
6. All the best teachers have a systematic program to assess and continue to improve their own efforts.

In the end I was struck that it all amounts to getting people to think. Of course, this is exactly what businesses with knowledge workers are trying to do, so the question that begs to be asked is this: to what degree are these ideas applicable to business leaders, and to what degree should businesses attempt to replicate the best practices, environment of these college professors? In other words, shouldn’t a business that is trying to get people to think feel like a college classroom where we are trying to get people to think?

Criticism of the book has been along the lines of it being “too idealistic,” “not applicable to the real world,” “only would work with highly motivated students in Ivy League schools.” I’m not worried about all of that. However, one area that I did miss was an emphasis on stories. From my speaking experience, I have learned that stories are a wonderful way to make an emotional connection and convey content that people will remember. Bain cites examples where the best teachers have used stories, like Feynman’s frog in the swimming pool, but he doesn’t specifically call it storytelling, he calls it “good explanations.”(less)

David Marquet liked Christopher Jefferson's review of Turn The Ship Around!: How to Create Leadership at Every Level:

" An amazing book. I loved the ideas and practices that were discussed and the case studies that were given. I used these ideas throughout my job and institute the Leader-Leader model with my team members. My direct reports have started to read the... " Read more of this review »

David Marquet liked Doug Della pietra's review of Turn The Ship Around!: How to Create Leadership at Every Level:

" "Excellent and easy read! Follow the progress of Captain David Marquet as he attempts to transform his and his nuclear sub's leadership approach from that of leader-follower to leader-leader. He focuses on 3 areas ("legs") for success: control, co... " Read more of this review »

David Marquet rated a book 4 of 5 stars

Christmas Holiday
by W. Somerset Maugham

read in December, 2012

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W. Somerset Maugham
Christmas Holiday
Published 1939.

The first thing you need to know about W. Somerset Maugham’s Christmas Holiday is that it has nothing to do with Christmas.

The book was written in 1939 when Maugham was 63. It is one of his last maj...more

David Marquet rated a book 5 of 5 stars

Happiness at Work
by Srikumar Rao

read in September, 2012

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We have a human instinct to search for a magic bullet, some instantaneous fix for our problems. So it was with skepticism that I started into Srikumar Rao’s Happiness at Work. How could it be, I wondered, that one read of a book could make me happier...more

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	Turn The Ship Around!: How to Create Leadership at Every Level 4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 avg rating — 51 ratings — published 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Turn The Ship Around!: How to Create Leadership at Every Level 0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

David Marquet is now friends with Tish Thawer
Jun 15, 2013 07:23am · like
David Marquet liked Edward's review of Turn The Ship Around!: How to Create Leadership at Every Level: " What a great book on leadership and trust. Having experienced the military and governmental machines, I have seen how top down leadership in terms of controlled decision making can demoralize new minds and ways, and kill a great team. This story i... " Read more of this review »
Apr 30, 2013 05:29pm · see review
David Marquet rated a book 5 of 5 stars Happy Hour Is 9 to 5: How to Love Your Job, Love Your Life, and Kick Butt at Work by Alexander Kjerulf read in February, 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Success and happiness: we have it backward. Traditional thinking is that if we are successful, we’ll be happy. In our organizations, leaders think that once the company has some success their people will be happy and morale will improve. This is fundam...more
Feb 11, 2013 11:09am · see review
David Marquet made a comment on his review of Scrum and XP from the Trenches "My software friends are talking about Scrum, Agile, Pair Programming and I knew nothing about it. I have a friend who even suggested that Agile could...more "
Feb 06, 2013 08:16am · see review
David Marquet rated a book 5 of 5 stars Scrum and XP from the Trenches by Henrik Kniberg (Goodreads Author)	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 06, 2013 08:15am
David Marquet rated a book 5 of 5 stars What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain read in January, 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Isn’t it all about getting people to think? College costs since I graduated in 1981 have risen twice as fast as medical costs, three times as fast as family incomes and four times as fast as inflation. With average private school costs approaching $40...more
Feb 04, 2013 07:11am · see review
David Marquet liked Christopher Jefferson's review of Turn The Ship Around!: How to Create Leadership at Every Level: " An amazing book. I loved the ideas and practices that were discussed and the case studies that were given. I used these ideas throughout my job and institute the Leader-Leader model with my team members. My direct reports have started to read the... " Read more of this review »
Jan 06, 2013 05:35pm · see review
David Marquet liked Doug Della pietra's review of Turn The Ship Around!: How to Create Leadership at Every Level: " "Excellent and easy read! Follow the progress of Captain David Marquet as he attempts to transform his and his nuclear sub's leadership approach from that of leader-follower to leader-leader. He focuses on 3 areas ("legs") for success: control, co... " Read more of this review »
Jan 06, 2013 05:35pm · see review
David Marquet rated a book 4 of 5 stars Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham read in December, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
W. Somerset Maugham Christmas Holiday Published 1939. The first thing you need to know about W. Somerset Maugham’s Christmas Holiday is that it has nothing to do with Christmas. The book was written in 1939 when Maugham was 63. It is one of his last maj...more
Dec 27, 2012 11:46am · see review
David Marquet rated a book 5 of 5 stars Happiness at Work by Srikumar Rao read in September, 2012	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
We have a human instinct to search for a magic bullet, some instantaneous fix for our problems. So it was with skepticism that I started into Srikumar Rao’s Happiness at Work. How could it be, I wondered, that one read of a book could make me happier...more
Sep 06, 2012 09:49am · see review

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