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Turn the Ship Around: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders
"Leadership should mean giving control rather than taking control and creating leaders rather than forging followers."
David Marquet, an experienced Navy officer, was used to giving orders. As newly appointed captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine, he was responsible for more than a hundred sailors, deep in the sea. In this high-stress environment, where there is no margin for error, it was crucial his men did their job and did it well. But the ship was dogged by poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention in the fleet.
Marquet acted like any other captain until, one day, he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why the order wasn't challenged, the answer was "Because you told me to." Marquet realized he was leading in a culture of followers, and they were all in danger unless they fundamentally changed the way they did things.
That's when Marquet took matters into his own hands and pushed for leadership at every level. Turn the Ship Around! is the true story of how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the U.S. Navy's traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, he instead achieved the vastly more powerful model of giving control.
Before long, each member of Marquet's crew became a leader and assumed responsibility for everything he did, from clerical tasks to crucial combat decisions. The crew became fully engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day, and the Santa Fe started winning awards and promoting a highly disproportionate number of officers to submarine command.
No matter your business or position, you can apply Marquet's radical guidelines to turn your own ship around. The payoff: a workplace where everyone around you is taking responsibility for their actions, where people are healthier and happier, where everyone is a leader.
David Marquet, an experienced Navy officer, was used to giving orders. As newly appointed captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine, he was responsible for more than a hundred sailors, deep in the sea. In this high-stress environment, where there is no margin for error, it was crucial his men did their job and did it well. But the ship was dogged by poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention in the fleet.
Marquet acted like any other captain until, one day, he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why the order wasn't challenged, the answer was "Because you told me to." Marquet realized he was leading in a culture of followers, and they were all in danger unless they fundamentally changed the way they did things.
That's when Marquet took matters into his own hands and pushed for leadership at every level. Turn the Ship Around! is the true story of how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the U.S. Navy's traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, he instead achieved the vastly more powerful model of giving control.
Before long, each member of Marquet's crew became a leader and assumed responsibility for everything he did, from clerical tasks to crucial combat decisions. The crew became fully engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day, and the Santa Fe started winning awards and promoting a highly disproportionate number of officers to submarine command.
No matter your business or position, you can apply Marquet's radical guidelines to turn your own ship around. The payoff: a workplace where everyone around you is taking responsibility for their actions, where people are healthier and happier, where everyone is a leader.
Audiobook
First published May 16, 2013
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About the author
L. David Marquet
19 books344 followersDavid Marquet imagines a world where everyone engages and contributes their full intellectual capacity, a place where people are healthier and happier because they have more control over their work–a place where everyone is a leader.
David is the bestselling author of Turn the Ship Around!, the Turn the Ship Around Workbook, and the #1 new release Leadership is Language. Fortune magazine called Turn the Ship Around! the “best how-to manual anywhere for managers on delegating, training, and driving flawless execution.”
Turn folldsowers into leaders - www.davidmarquet.com
Learn about Intent-Based Leadership - www.intentbasedleadership.com
Enroll for your free 1-min leadership nudges - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM6P...
David is the bestselling author of Turn the Ship Around!, the Turn the Ship Around Workbook, and the #1 new release Leadership is Language. Fortune magazine called Turn the Ship Around! the “best how-to manual anywhere for managers on delegating, training, and driving flawless execution.”
Turn folldsowers into leaders - www.davidmarquet.com
Learn about Intent-Based Leadership - www.intentbasedleadership.com
Enroll for your free 1-min leadership nudges - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM6P...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,647 reviews
May 4, 2017
6-stars! The best leadership book I have read in years. After having read different books that referenced USN Captain David Marquet's "Leader-Leader" approach (Steven R. Covey, Simon Sinek), I decided I just might learn something from a sailor. Once I started the read, I devoured the book. I recognized good leadership practices I had adopted or experienced and I found myself deepening my understanding of why they work or had worked. This is a book that, if internalized by a leader and his or her organization, will positively change the individual and collective experience of all. The basic premise (in my words) is to invest in leader development and your people, focus on excellence and constant improvement. Sounds simple? Well, once you've read Dave's experience and reflected on his "questions to ask" you realize it is a difficult and turbulent, but highly rewarding and gratifying journey that pays off in the long term. I can't wait to start!
July 13, 2016
The rating is for the book, not the content. The ideas and concepts the book brings up are quite interesting and sound like they would be quite useful to many organisations. However, it's written in a simplistic structure that came off cheesy and often annoying. The writing, in general, was amateurish and the narrator for the audiobook (who happened to be the author as well) did a pretty horrible job. The feeling I got from the whole experience was that the author managed to get some success with a new leadership methodology and let that success get to his head.
The tone felt very pretentious throughout the book which really didn't endear me to the author. The format for all the anecdotes was to point out a problem that occurred, followed by explaining the solution they used and ending with the lessons they learned. This simplistic structure led to the reader having to make some leaps of faith when trusting the generalised concepts since many of the situations were very context and person specific. Another issue with the generalisations was that they often made things sound easy to implement, which if you actually stop and think about them, would definitely not be. Although he adds a caveat at the end of the book regarding how his system needs customization for every organisation, there's a lot of prerequisites required in an organisation before considering implementing his ideas.
Overall, it was quite a tedious read/listen, even though most of the ideas were quite clever and with some cherry picking and altering, could be applied to many scenarios. If I had to rate this book by content, I'd probably give it a three or four star rating. Therefore, I would recommend it to most people simply for the exposure to the concepts and the examples of how they were applied. There are better management books out there, but even badly written ones like this one can teach you interesting things.
The tone felt very pretentious throughout the book which really didn't endear me to the author. The format for all the anecdotes was to point out a problem that occurred, followed by explaining the solution they used and ending with the lessons they learned. This simplistic structure led to the reader having to make some leaps of faith when trusting the generalised concepts since many of the situations were very context and person specific. Another issue with the generalisations was that they often made things sound easy to implement, which if you actually stop and think about them, would definitely not be. Although he adds a caveat at the end of the book regarding how his system needs customization for every organisation, there's a lot of prerequisites required in an organisation before considering implementing his ideas.
Overall, it was quite a tedious read/listen, even though most of the ideas were quite clever and with some cherry picking and altering, could be applied to many scenarios. If I had to rate this book by content, I'd probably give it a three or four star rating. Therefore, I would recommend it to most people simply for the exposure to the concepts and the examples of how they were applied. There are better management books out there, but even badly written ones like this one can teach you interesting things.
July 5, 2017
This is one of those books that is hard to put down. Easy to read (even though I don't know anything about the Navy or submarines) while it is PACKED with so much leadership truth. My favorite part? It's not a "this is the way things must be done" kind of book. He raises serious problems and tells you how he attacked them. He shows his strengths and weaknesses in leadership. I greatly appreciated this read.
November 5, 2020
Thanks readers and reviewers of Turn the Ship Around!
We simplify the concepts and mechanisms from the books into 1-minute bite-sized pieces on our YouTube channel because the reminders help people. It's called "Leadership Nudges" and I invite you and your team to subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/c/LeadershipNu...
We simplify the concepts and mechanisms from the books into 1-minute bite-sized pieces on our YouTube channel because the reminders help people. It's called "Leadership Nudges" and I invite you and your team to subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/c/LeadershipNu...
December 4, 2025
To be honest - I have never had a strong interest in military-oriented reading material, fiction or non-fiction. Aside from my interest in pre 20th century piracy on the high seas (more of social class/mobility angle here) - I haven't really read any books about life on boats or submarines.
David Marquet has written an incredibly clear and easy to understand book - that happens to be about submarines and their crews. The details about life on the submarine are sometimes a bit more than my interest can tolerate but overall the message about process and changing the structure from leader-follower to leader-leader is crystal clear. His writing style is incredibly well structured and meticulous -- all the examples work really well for his story.
As noted in the introduction, the core belief is that we can all be leaders - and the best way to get to that is to have a leader who can help identify the shared goals and vision for the team, and then let them do their work, providing feedback on what is working best as a way to attain excellence (vs avoiding mistakes). This is a system of empowerment that is focused on outcomes, and which worked so well for the author in his command that he DOUBLED the number of chiefs (who then transferred off to other ships the next day to new roles).
He discusses situations where team members automatically executed incorrect instructions from their leader or where mistakes were made because someone was operating on "auto pilot." Changing the processes to focus on the outcomes and goals rather than process/method made a huge difference.
The key concepts in this book include:
1. Achieve excellence - don't just avoid errors.
2. Use "I intend to... " to turn passive followers into active leaders. Avoid disempowered phrases such as "Request permission to . . . I would like to . . . What should I do about . . . Do you think we should . . . Could we . . ." (and I was always told "hopefully"). In empowering the officers to be responsible for their work - "the goal for the officers would be to give me a sufficiently complete report so that all I had to say was a simple approval."
3. Enhance opportunities for informal communication -- encourage team members to "THINK OUT LOUD is a mechanism for CONTROL" and ORGANIZATIONAL CLARITY. Author says "when I heard what my watch officers were thinking, it made it much easier for me to keep my mouth shut and let them execute their plans." This is related to "deliberate action." For example - where there is a process that has a significant impact (whether it's torpedoes or sending out an e-mail blast) - it helps to talk through what you intend so that a peer can catch any potential mistakes before the actual action. "Take deliberate action. We learn (everywhere, all the time). Don’t brief, certify."
4. Search for organizational practices or procedures that would need to be changed in order to effect the change required - that means updating any documentation, handbooks, wiki etc.
5. "Fake it til you make it" - or, as the author says "Acting your way to new thinking" as a mechanism for control. Even if you feel bad - smile - that will eventually make you feel better (it's proven). If you have doubts and don't fully commit to a new thing - it will come through so fake it til it feels natural and only then will you be able to determine the efficacy.
6. Short early conversations make efficient work (another mechanism for control) - this is basically like a daily standup in Agile - it helps to talk through any questions and get an idea of where potential misunderstandings or misdirections may lie. A standup isn't intended to solve all the problems - you may create more meetings out of this but it's a good touchpoint!
7. "RESIST THE URGE TO PROVIDE SOLUTIONS is a mechanism for CONTROL." The leader has to create space for open decision by the entire team; in crisis situations - you can have the team brainstorm and then as a leader vet the best option for action.
8. "ELIMINATING TOP-DOWN MONITORING SYSTEMS is a mechanism for CONTROL." Marquet emphasizes the use of mechanisms that actually give ownership and describes a log of work requests that was owned and maintained but not accessible by the entire team so they could actually see the backlog of work and get things done. He also says to avoid systems where senior personnel are determining what junior personnel should be doing as their day to day tasks - giving them goals and then reviewing their tactics (ie the "I intend to" reports).
9. "EMBRACE THE INSPECTORS is a mechanism for CONTROL, organizational control." Use the opportunities provided by inspection to learn where improvements can be made.
10. "WE LEARN (EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME) is a mechanism for COMPETENCE." This was a great section on learning from mistakes without coming down really hard on the team members - everything is a learning opportunity.
11. "DON’T BRIEF, CERTIFY is a mechanism for COMPETENCE." - this was fantastic because instead of the chief reading off the process while everyone else's eyes glazed over, the person who would be doing the task would identify the steps that he would be taking and the others would certify that process was correct (technical competence).
12. "CONTINUALLY AND CONSISTENTLY REPEAT THE MESSAGE is a mechanism for COMPETENCE."
13. "SPECIFYING GOALS, NOT METHODS is a mechanism for COMPETENCE." and CLARITY. Two excellent examples were around fire drills - which weren't going well because of process (ie "I'm not in charge of this area/shift") to make everyone responsible and the crew members CLOSEST to the fire would be responsible for taking action. On the ship, stealth (ie, not making loud noises) is critical so any time some loud noise is made - it can affect the sonar. The goal of a stealth ship was emphasized and everyone was required to report noises instead of the sonar team trying to find the source of a transient noise. This resulted in identifying a lot of other issues that they were able to fix and move even closer toward excellence.
14. "BUILDING TRUST AND TAKING CARE OF YOUR PEOPLE is a mechanism for CLARITY." Providing them opportunities and materials to improve themselves both in their professional and personal goals builds a much stronger, competent and empowered team.
15. "USE YOUR LEGACY FOR INSPIRATION is a mechanism for CLARITY." Note achievements and legacy - these are helpful for guiding the team.
16. "USE GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR DECISION CRITERIA is a mechanism for CLARITY." Development of guiding principles (see the book - fantastic list created by his chiefs) is critical to empowering a team.
17. "USE IMMEDIATE RECOGNITION TO REINFORCE DESIRED BEHAVIORS is a mechanism for CLARITY." The author would provide immediate positive feedback vs submitting a form and waiting for a process to give the reward/recognition to the individual. He also points out that "Simply providing data to the teams on their relative performance results in a natural desire to improve."
18. "BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND is an important mechanism for ORGANIZATIONAL CLARITY." The author worked with his officers in weekly one-on-one mentoring sessions to discuss goals and what they wanted their evaluations to look like 1, 2 and 3 years hence -- working with them to develop goals that cascaded down from the organization's goals. This turned into an opportunity for 2-way feedback and the end result was that his officers were able to achieve those goals by the end of their terms.
19. "ENCOURAGE A QUESTIONING ATTITUDE OVER BLIND OBEDIENCE is a mechanism for CLARITY."
All in all - a really solid book with a ton of great examples from the author's experiences. I'd LOVE to read a book written by one of the enlisted men on that ship to see his perspective and to see how that has carried over to other assignments on different vessels that may have had a top-down structure of leadership.
URL: http://www.livegreenwearblack.com/201...
© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.
David Marquet has written an incredibly clear and easy to understand book - that happens to be about submarines and their crews. The details about life on the submarine are sometimes a bit more than my interest can tolerate but overall the message about process and changing the structure from leader-follower to leader-leader is crystal clear. His writing style is incredibly well structured and meticulous -- all the examples work really well for his story.
As noted in the introduction, the core belief is that we can all be leaders - and the best way to get to that is to have a leader who can help identify the shared goals and vision for the team, and then let them do their work, providing feedback on what is working best as a way to attain excellence (vs avoiding mistakes). This is a system of empowerment that is focused on outcomes, and which worked so well for the author in his command that he DOUBLED the number of chiefs (who then transferred off to other ships the next day to new roles).
He discusses situations where team members automatically executed incorrect instructions from their leader or where mistakes were made because someone was operating on "auto pilot." Changing the processes to focus on the outcomes and goals rather than process/method made a huge difference.
The key concepts in this book include:
1. Achieve excellence - don't just avoid errors.
2. Use "I intend to... " to turn passive followers into active leaders. Avoid disempowered phrases such as "Request permission to . . . I would like to . . . What should I do about . . . Do you think we should . . . Could we . . ." (and I was always told "hopefully"). In empowering the officers to be responsible for their work - "the goal for the officers would be to give me a sufficiently complete report so that all I had to say was a simple approval."
3. Enhance opportunities for informal communication -- encourage team members to "THINK OUT LOUD is a mechanism for CONTROL" and ORGANIZATIONAL CLARITY. Author says "when I heard what my watch officers were thinking, it made it much easier for me to keep my mouth shut and let them execute their plans." This is related to "deliberate action." For example - where there is a process that has a significant impact (whether it's torpedoes or sending out an e-mail blast) - it helps to talk through what you intend so that a peer can catch any potential mistakes before the actual action. "Take deliberate action. We learn (everywhere, all the time). Don’t brief, certify."
4. Search for organizational practices or procedures that would need to be changed in order to effect the change required - that means updating any documentation, handbooks, wiki etc.
5. "Fake it til you make it" - or, as the author says "Acting your way to new thinking" as a mechanism for control. Even if you feel bad - smile - that will eventually make you feel better (it's proven). If you have doubts and don't fully commit to a new thing - it will come through so fake it til it feels natural and only then will you be able to determine the efficacy.
6. Short early conversations make efficient work (another mechanism for control) - this is basically like a daily standup in Agile - it helps to talk through any questions and get an idea of where potential misunderstandings or misdirections may lie. A standup isn't intended to solve all the problems - you may create more meetings out of this but it's a good touchpoint!
7. "RESIST THE URGE TO PROVIDE SOLUTIONS is a mechanism for CONTROL." The leader has to create space for open decision by the entire team; in crisis situations - you can have the team brainstorm and then as a leader vet the best option for action.
8. "ELIMINATING TOP-DOWN MONITORING SYSTEMS is a mechanism for CONTROL." Marquet emphasizes the use of mechanisms that actually give ownership and describes a log of work requests that was owned and maintained but not accessible by the entire team so they could actually see the backlog of work and get things done. He also says to avoid systems where senior personnel are determining what junior personnel should be doing as their day to day tasks - giving them goals and then reviewing their tactics (ie the "I intend to" reports).
9. "EMBRACE THE INSPECTORS is a mechanism for CONTROL, organizational control." Use the opportunities provided by inspection to learn where improvements can be made.
10. "WE LEARN (EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME) is a mechanism for COMPETENCE." This was a great section on learning from mistakes without coming down really hard on the team members - everything is a learning opportunity.
11. "DON’T BRIEF, CERTIFY is a mechanism for COMPETENCE." - this was fantastic because instead of the chief reading off the process while everyone else's eyes glazed over, the person who would be doing the task would identify the steps that he would be taking and the others would certify that process was correct (technical competence).
12. "CONTINUALLY AND CONSISTENTLY REPEAT THE MESSAGE is a mechanism for COMPETENCE."
13. "SPECIFYING GOALS, NOT METHODS is a mechanism for COMPETENCE." and CLARITY. Two excellent examples were around fire drills - which weren't going well because of process (ie "I'm not in charge of this area/shift") to make everyone responsible and the crew members CLOSEST to the fire would be responsible for taking action. On the ship, stealth (ie, not making loud noises) is critical so any time some loud noise is made - it can affect the sonar. The goal of a stealth ship was emphasized and everyone was required to report noises instead of the sonar team trying to find the source of a transient noise. This resulted in identifying a lot of other issues that they were able to fix and move even closer toward excellence.
14. "BUILDING TRUST AND TAKING CARE OF YOUR PEOPLE is a mechanism for CLARITY." Providing them opportunities and materials to improve themselves both in their professional and personal goals builds a much stronger, competent and empowered team.
15. "USE YOUR LEGACY FOR INSPIRATION is a mechanism for CLARITY." Note achievements and legacy - these are helpful for guiding the team.
16. "USE GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR DECISION CRITERIA is a mechanism for CLARITY." Development of guiding principles (see the book - fantastic list created by his chiefs) is critical to empowering a team.
17. "USE IMMEDIATE RECOGNITION TO REINFORCE DESIRED BEHAVIORS is a mechanism for CLARITY." The author would provide immediate positive feedback vs submitting a form and waiting for a process to give the reward/recognition to the individual. He also points out that "Simply providing data to the teams on their relative performance results in a natural desire to improve."
18. "BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND is an important mechanism for ORGANIZATIONAL CLARITY." The author worked with his officers in weekly one-on-one mentoring sessions to discuss goals and what they wanted their evaluations to look like 1, 2 and 3 years hence -- working with them to develop goals that cascaded down from the organization's goals. This turned into an opportunity for 2-way feedback and the end result was that his officers were able to achieve those goals by the end of their terms.
19. "ENCOURAGE A QUESTIONING ATTITUDE OVER BLIND OBEDIENCE is a mechanism for CLARITY."
All in all - a really solid book with a ton of great examples from the author's experiences. I'd LOVE to read a book written by one of the enlisted men on that ship to see his perspective and to see how that has carried over to other assignments on different vessels that may have had a top-down structure of leadership.
URL: http://www.livegreenwearblack.com/201...
© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.
February 29, 2016
If a nuclear submarine could gain leadership at all levels by giving control, building competence and achieving organizational clarity, your enterprise has no excuse to continue exploit people in a command & control environment like it's still 1900's.
Great book with inspiring stories, illustrating the leader-leader model step by step. Highly recommended to read for people who are in charge of other people, as well as people who have other people in charge of them.
Great book with inspiring stories, illustrating the leader-leader model step by step. Highly recommended to read for people who are in charge of other people, as well as people who have other people in charge of them.
February 27, 2020
One of the greatest books I've read so far. Describes pretty well the advantages of transitioning from the more industrialist "leader-follower" model, to "leader-leader" model that assumes everybody is in fully in charge of what needs to be done to reach the organisation's goals.
September 27, 2017
What? Yet another book on leadership, filled with generic statements focused on WHAT (which is quite straightforward) instead of HOW (the hard part ...)? Not really, not this time.
First, I've read this one because:
1. ... of recommendation that came from a person I respect
2. ... I was told this book explicitly is a foundation one successful organization has built its engineering culture upon, drawing strongly from its wisdom & principles
So, what about the book then?
It doesn't try patronizing you, doesn't pretend there's a magic sequence of works, secret super-efficient technique or just a new "framework" to free good spirits of self-organization within your team :) It's just a story (not complete one, just particular, representative scenarios) of developing leader (Captain - Commanding Officer of LA-class submarine) who've managed to elevate its crew from far beyond average to top notch performers by applying careful, highly aware leadership practices in so called leader-leader model, where everyone can contribute in highly autonomic way that utilizes her/his potential & skills.
One can raise some arguments that the environment was specific (military, elitist, non-typical supply:demand in "job market", etc.), but in fact author's ideas are applicable in different contexts, sometimes with re-adjustments (SKIN IN THE GAME!), but they remain quite valid.
Will this book shake your world? In my case, it didn't, but as it's a nice set of R-L cases, it's truly educative & I believe it has provided my some additional input to "digest" intellectually.
Good stuff.
First, I've read this one because:
1. ... of recommendation that came from a person I respect
2. ... I was told this book explicitly is a foundation one successful organization has built its engineering culture upon, drawing strongly from its wisdom & principles
So, what about the book then?
It doesn't try patronizing you, doesn't pretend there's a magic sequence of works, secret super-efficient technique or just a new "framework" to free good spirits of self-organization within your team :) It's just a story (not complete one, just particular, representative scenarios) of developing leader (Captain - Commanding Officer of LA-class submarine) who've managed to elevate its crew from far beyond average to top notch performers by applying careful, highly aware leadership practices in so called leader-leader model, where everyone can contribute in highly autonomic way that utilizes her/his potential & skills.
One can raise some arguments that the environment was specific (military, elitist, non-typical supply:demand in "job market", etc.), but in fact author's ideas are applicable in different contexts, sometimes with re-adjustments (SKIN IN THE GAME!), but they remain quite valid.
Will this book shake your world? In my case, it didn't, but as it's a nice set of R-L cases, it's truly educative & I believe it has provided my some additional input to "digest" intellectually.
Good stuff.
October 19, 2020
I loved this book. It is one of the best leadership books I have read. In this book, David Marquet shares concepts like leader-leader vs. leader-follower model & clarifies the control-competence-clarity factors of the leader-leader model. He uses the story of a ship under his command and how this philosophy and techniques helped the ship move from amongst the worst in the fleet to amongst the best. There are many elements of mindset, language and culture he covers in his approach.
April 24, 2014
Very inspiring.
April 19, 2019
VERY GOOD
March 16, 2020
I'm not very much into business books, most are one blog-post drawn out into 200 pages, but this one kept popping up on a few computing blogs, and these writers normally don't tolerate fluff.
This is kind of an autobiography, but it's also an in-detail description of changing a ship's structure from 'one leader, many followers' (leader-follower) to 'one leader, many leaders' (leader-leader) - instead of having one guy saying what's to be done, you shift decision making power downwards so you get independent layers and groups. That's the basic gist, but there's much more here, how to get people to politically, emotionally, socially accept such changes, how Marquet himself struggled to implement these changes, what went well, what went wrong, really good thoughts on empowerment vs. emancipation within organisations, the strange benefits of deliberate action [1], and so on.
I'm always looking for books that teach me more about how to look after my students. Within scientific research there's more 'leading' than 'following' going on, with very little command structure, and PhD students and Postdocs usually being the leader of their project. There's collaboration but it's not easy for people to work on the same project without unnecessary duplication of work. Still, there's so much useful advice here on how to lead and teach, I recommend this to people who are looking to hone their leadership/organisational skills.
And how often do you get a submarine commander who's recommending Edward Tufte?
[1] There's a fun link between Marquet's elaborative action and Japanese train conductors - in both systems you point and gesture before you do an action, which reduces errors and reduces forgetfulness, which looks really strange the first time you see it while you're waiting for your train. In Marquet's case it's also a neat way to signal up the chain of command - since people are 'emancipated' within their organisational structure they don't stop thinking and anticipate the next move so they start to gesture before the order is given, which serves as a great memory help to the higher-ups!
This is kind of an autobiography, but it's also an in-detail description of changing a ship's structure from 'one leader, many followers' (leader-follower) to 'one leader, many leaders' (leader-leader) - instead of having one guy saying what's to be done, you shift decision making power downwards so you get independent layers and groups. That's the basic gist, but there's much more here, how to get people to politically, emotionally, socially accept such changes, how Marquet himself struggled to implement these changes, what went well, what went wrong, really good thoughts on empowerment vs. emancipation within organisations, the strange benefits of deliberate action [1], and so on.
I'm always looking for books that teach me more about how to look after my students. Within scientific research there's more 'leading' than 'following' going on, with very little command structure, and PhD students and Postdocs usually being the leader of their project. There's collaboration but it's not easy for people to work on the same project without unnecessary duplication of work. Still, there's so much useful advice here on how to lead and teach, I recommend this to people who are looking to hone their leadership/organisational skills.
And how often do you get a submarine commander who's recommending Edward Tufte?
[1] There's a fun link between Marquet's elaborative action and Japanese train conductors - in both systems you point and gesture before you do an action, which reduces errors and reduces forgetfulness, which looks really strange the first time you see it while you're waiting for your train. In Marquet's case it's also a neat way to signal up the chain of command - since people are 'emancipated' within their organisational structure they don't stop thinking and anticipate the next move so they start to gesture before the order is given, which serves as a great memory help to the higher-ups!
February 29, 2020
I would've never guessed that I could enjoy a book written by a submarine captain, but I must say this is one of the best books on leadership that I've read.
December 6, 2022
First, identify where excellence is created in your company. There may be some internal processes that generate excellence and there may be some interface processes that generate excel-lence. Generally I find that interfaces with the customer and with the physical world are two key interfaces. Then, figure out what decisions the people responsible for the interfaces need to make in order to achieve excellence. Finally, understand what it would take to get those employees to be able to make those decisions. This typically requires an intersection of the right technical knowledge, a thorough understanding of your organization's goals, authority to make the decision, and responsibility for the consequences of the decisions made.
Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet was given to me by Dom and Jed, two former Royal Marine Commanders and successful business people from the consultancy Albany York, whose work I would throughly recommend to companies looking for coaching on building high performance teams. (https://www.albanyyork.com/about-us#team)
The book, by a former US nuclear submarine commander, is based on his real-life experience of turning around an underperforming ship, the Santa Fe, by turning the traditional top-down management model upside down.
As often with business books, much of the key content can be found in an online summary, TED talk or in this case, this excellent animation my link text, which is how I was introduced to the book.
The full book itself I found a little dull packed as it is with details of Marquet’s actual experiences with the Santa Fe and its crew, relayed with lots of navy jargon and acronyms (not sure I really needed to know that fresh fruit and vegetables are known as FFV). I suspect it would be of more interest to those fascinated with submarines, and with US submarines in particular (there are some passages of American exceptionalism that are cringeworthy).
But then it is good to read a business book based on real incidents, not anonymised case studies, and which shows how the approaches were developed, and indeed the mistakes made and corresponding learnings along the way. And Marquet does provide top and tail each chapter with the key learning points and with templates for how to apply this to other situations.
The first step he took in his early days on the ship was to remove the requirement for the Captain to be the final authority to sign-off shore leave (having also been signed off my every intermediate level in the chain of command) and pass the final authority to a sailor’s direct superior. Now I’m a business context this is an odd example - I think this sign-off by the supervisor would be standard practice in most businesses and most where I have worked have taken it further and left the employee to sign off their own leave. That said, it does illustrate his principle well - when there was a chain of sign-off those lower down the chain would then take no real responsibility for or ownership of the decision and the Captain would be too far from the situation and not really best utilised to sign off 150 people’s leave.
He also suggests a thought exercise of first identifying where a decision would ideally be made and then asking participants to talk through “When I think about delegating this decisions I worry that” and finally addressing these issues, which is his terms usually comes down to competence (which necessitates training) and context.
With the holiday decision an obvious concern of the change in approach was that a sailor’s immediate supervisor might not know the overall context in granting leave (say, was an inspection coming up that might require all hands) but the solution to that is to push that context down. Indeed my biggest take away from the book is the need to cascade context, to push information down that people need to make good decisions, and then let the decisions come up, rather than the other way round.
Overall a business book with some powerful concepts which can be applied in very different situations, embedded in an inside view of life on board a US submarine (helping to protect a country with levels of freedom apparently unprecedented in human history) which may or may not appeal. 4 stars and 2 stars respectively for an average of 3.
Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet was given to me by Dom and Jed, two former Royal Marine Commanders and successful business people from the consultancy Albany York, whose work I would throughly recommend to companies looking for coaching on building high performance teams. (https://www.albanyyork.com/about-us#team)
The book, by a former US nuclear submarine commander, is based on his real-life experience of turning around an underperforming ship, the Santa Fe, by turning the traditional top-down management model upside down.
As often with business books, much of the key content can be found in an online summary, TED talk or in this case, this excellent animation my link text, which is how I was introduced to the book.
The full book itself I found a little dull packed as it is with details of Marquet’s actual experiences with the Santa Fe and its crew, relayed with lots of navy jargon and acronyms (not sure I really needed to know that fresh fruit and vegetables are known as FFV). I suspect it would be of more interest to those fascinated with submarines, and with US submarines in particular (there are some passages of American exceptionalism that are cringeworthy).
But then it is good to read a business book based on real incidents, not anonymised case studies, and which shows how the approaches were developed, and indeed the mistakes made and corresponding learnings along the way. And Marquet does provide top and tail each chapter with the key learning points and with templates for how to apply this to other situations.
The first step he took in his early days on the ship was to remove the requirement for the Captain to be the final authority to sign-off shore leave (having also been signed off my every intermediate level in the chain of command) and pass the final authority to a sailor’s direct superior. Now I’m a business context this is an odd example - I think this sign-off by the supervisor would be standard practice in most businesses and most where I have worked have taken it further and left the employee to sign off their own leave. That said, it does illustrate his principle well - when there was a chain of sign-off those lower down the chain would then take no real responsibility for or ownership of the decision and the Captain would be too far from the situation and not really best utilised to sign off 150 people’s leave.
He also suggests a thought exercise of first identifying where a decision would ideally be made and then asking participants to talk through “When I think about delegating this decisions I worry that” and finally addressing these issues, which is his terms usually comes down to competence (which necessitates training) and context.
With the holiday decision an obvious concern of the change in approach was that a sailor’s immediate supervisor might not know the overall context in granting leave (say, was an inspection coming up that might require all hands) but the solution to that is to push that context down. Indeed my biggest take away from the book is the need to cascade context, to push information down that people need to make good decisions, and then let the decisions come up, rather than the other way round.
Overall a business book with some powerful concepts which can be applied in very different situations, embedded in an inside view of life on board a US submarine (helping to protect a country with levels of freedom apparently unprecedented in human history) which may or may not appeal. 4 stars and 2 stars respectively for an average of 3.
September 19, 2019
As a former Navy “Nuke” I am a bit biased towards this book as it spoke of situations I am familiar with in a language I was fluent in.
One of the advantages of a small command is the abutting completely affect change. This gave the author an advantage as he and his crew made changes, evaluated the results, and made further changes. They also had the advantage of a built in set of measurements.
To me the above does not diminish what they achieved. These were the attributes that made it possible to make all of these changes in such a short time.
I will be purchasing the Kindle version of this book so that I can make extensive highlights and notes.
One of the advantages of a small command is the abutting completely affect change. This gave the author an advantage as he and his crew made changes, evaluated the results, and made further changes. They also had the advantage of a built in set of measurements.
To me the above does not diminish what they achieved. These were the attributes that made it possible to make all of these changes in such a short time.
I will be purchasing the Kindle version of this book so that I can make extensive highlights and notes.
April 9, 2019
I liked the book, found little to none repetitions and typical management crap.
The principles mentioned were somewhat new to me and seem of great value.
I’d sum it up as one big team transformation story that acts as a tip book on how to reveal people’s talents via trusting them with owning stuff and creating a culture where continuous self development is a core value and side prerequisites to make it all work. Recommend!
The principles mentioned were somewhat new to me and seem of great value.
I’d sum it up as one big team transformation story that acts as a tip book on how to reveal people’s talents via trusting them with owning stuff and creating a culture where continuous self development is a core value and side prerequisites to make it all work. Recommend!
June 24, 2020
A captivating book. I've read it in just 2 days.
From simple ways to first, improve you and after the people around or even your team, to more complex things like transforming the way we think and see things, how to run a business, and like the name suggests be a leader and not a follower at every level in your life or in your organization.
"I must be the captain of my soul and the master of my fate"
From simple ways to first, improve you and after the people around or even your team, to more complex things like transforming the way we think and see things, how to run a business, and like the name suggests be a leader and not a follower at every level in your life or in your organization.
"I must be the captain of my soul and the master of my fate"
July 12, 2020
A very powerful idea of creating many leaders in your organization.
However, the specific context of military submarine makes the book more inspirational than practical. Described methods are to be heavily adapted while working in different areas (e.g. volunteer organizing in NGO).
Also the navy story may appeal to some, but not to others.
However, the specific context of military submarine makes the book more inspirational than practical. Described methods are to be heavily adapted while working in different areas (e.g. volunteer organizing in NGO).
Also the navy story may appeal to some, but not to others.
December 10, 2019
“leadership is the enabling art.” The best book I've read so far on creating a culture of engagement and empowering an organization working in complex environments. It is not long but a very dense book. Key points are presented well on this slide deck (still it is very much recommended to read the entire book): https://www.slideshare.net/micrimson/...
“The leader-leader structure is fundamentally different from the leader-follower structure. At its core is the belief that we can all be leaders and, in fact, it’s best when we all are leaders. Leadership is not some mystical quality that some possess and others do not. As humans, we all have what it takes, and we all need to use our leadership”
“Control, we discovered, only works with a competent workforce that understands the organization’s purpose. Hence, as control is divested, both technical competence and organizational clarity need to be strengthened”
Several principles from Covey's 7 Habits and 8th of Habit were covered throughout the book and Covey was a big fan of the author's success in empowering his organization.
*Achieve excellence - don't just aim to avoid errors.
*Use "I intend to... " to turn passive followers into active leaders. Avoid disempowered phrases such as "Request permission to . . . I would like to . . . What should I do about . . . Do you think we should . . . Could we . . ." Enough context (justification) should be provided with this statement so that there would be no need for additional clarification and you can just approve the statement.
*Enhance opportunities for informal communication - encourage team members to think out loud as a mechanism for control and organizational clarity.
*Search for organizational practices or procedures that would need to be changed in order to effect the change required.
*"Fake it til you make it" - or, as the author says "Acting your way to new thinking" as a mechanism for control. Even if you feel bad - smile - that will eventually make you feel better.
*Short early conversations make efficient work
*Resist the urge to provide solutions (something that myself violate often)
*Eliminating top-down monitoring systems
*Embracing the inspectors. Use the opportunities provided by inspection to learn where improvements can be made.
*We learn everywhere, all the time.
*Don't brief, certify.
*Continually and consistently repeat the message.
*Specifying goals, not methods.
*Building trust and taking care of your people.
*Using your legacy for inspiration.
*Using guiding principles for decision criteria (critical for empowering a team).
*Using immediate recognition to reinforce desired behavior.
*Beginning with the end in mind.
*Encourage a questioning attitude over bling obedience.
“People who are treated as followers treat others as followers when it’s their turn to lead.”
“Those who take orders usually run at half speed, underutilizing their imagination and initiative.”
“When the performance of a unit goes down after an officer leaves, it is taken as a sign that he was a good leader, not that he was ineffective in training his people properly.”
“The leader-leader model not only achieves great improvements in effectiveness and morale but also makes the organization stronger. Most critically, these improvements are enduring, decoupled from the leader’s personality and presence. Leader-leader structures are significantly more resilient, and they do not rely on the designated leader always being right. Further, leader-leader structures spawn additional leaders throughout the organization naturally. It can’t be stopped.”
“Focusing on avoiding mistakes takes our focus away from becoming truly exceptional. Once a ship has achieved success merely in the form of preventing major errors and is operating in a competent way, mission accomplished, there is no need to strive further.”
“If all you need to do is what you are told, then you don’t need to understand your craft. However, as your ability to make decisions increases, then you need intimate technical knowledge on which to base those decisions.”
“Don’t move information to authority, move authority to the information.”
“Taking care of your people does not mean protecting them from the consequences of their own behavior. That’s the path to irresponsibility. What it does mean is giving them every available tool and advantage to achieve their aims in life, beyond the specifics of the job.”
“The problem with specifying the method along with the goal is one of diminished control. Provide your people with the objective and let them figure out the method.”
“People who are treated as followers have the expectations of followers and act like followers. As followers, they have limited decision-making authority and little incentive to give the utmost of their intellect, energy, and passion.”
“The leader-leader structure is fundamentally different from the leader-follower structure. At its core is the belief that we can all be leaders and, in fact, it’s best when we all are leaders. Leadership is not some mystical quality that some possess and others do not. As humans, we all have what it takes, and we all need to use our leadership”
“Control, we discovered, only works with a competent workforce that understands the organization’s purpose. Hence, as control is divested, both technical competence and organizational clarity need to be strengthened”
Several principles from Covey's 7 Habits and 8th of Habit were covered throughout the book and Covey was a big fan of the author's success in empowering his organization.
*Achieve excellence - don't just aim to avoid errors.
*Use "I intend to... " to turn passive followers into active leaders. Avoid disempowered phrases such as "Request permission to . . . I would like to . . . What should I do about . . . Do you think we should . . . Could we . . ." Enough context (justification) should be provided with this statement so that there would be no need for additional clarification and you can just approve the statement.
*Enhance opportunities for informal communication - encourage team members to think out loud as a mechanism for control and organizational clarity.
*Search for organizational practices or procedures that would need to be changed in order to effect the change required.
*"Fake it til you make it" - or, as the author says "Acting your way to new thinking" as a mechanism for control. Even if you feel bad - smile - that will eventually make you feel better.
*Short early conversations make efficient work
*Resist the urge to provide solutions (something that myself violate often)
*Eliminating top-down monitoring systems
*Embracing the inspectors. Use the opportunities provided by inspection to learn where improvements can be made.
*We learn everywhere, all the time.
*Don't brief, certify.
*Continually and consistently repeat the message.
*Specifying goals, not methods.
*Building trust and taking care of your people.
*Using your legacy for inspiration.
*Using guiding principles for decision criteria (critical for empowering a team).
*Using immediate recognition to reinforce desired behavior.
*Beginning with the end in mind.
*Encourage a questioning attitude over bling obedience.
“People who are treated as followers treat others as followers when it’s their turn to lead.”
“Those who take orders usually run at half speed, underutilizing their imagination and initiative.”
“When the performance of a unit goes down after an officer leaves, it is taken as a sign that he was a good leader, not that he was ineffective in training his people properly.”
“The leader-leader model not only achieves great improvements in effectiveness and morale but also makes the organization stronger. Most critically, these improvements are enduring, decoupled from the leader’s personality and presence. Leader-leader structures are significantly more resilient, and they do not rely on the designated leader always being right. Further, leader-leader structures spawn additional leaders throughout the organization naturally. It can’t be stopped.”
“Focusing on avoiding mistakes takes our focus away from becoming truly exceptional. Once a ship has achieved success merely in the form of preventing major errors and is operating in a competent way, mission accomplished, there is no need to strive further.”
“If all you need to do is what you are told, then you don’t need to understand your craft. However, as your ability to make decisions increases, then you need intimate technical knowledge on which to base those decisions.”
“Don’t move information to authority, move authority to the information.”
“Taking care of your people does not mean protecting them from the consequences of their own behavior. That’s the path to irresponsibility. What it does mean is giving them every available tool and advantage to achieve their aims in life, beyond the specifics of the job.”
“The problem with specifying the method along with the goal is one of diminished control. Provide your people with the objective and let them figure out the method.”
“People who are treated as followers have the expectations of followers and act like followers. As followers, they have limited decision-making authority and little incentive to give the utmost of their intellect, energy, and passion.”
May 21, 2020
I got to listen to the author talk at an Agile Australia conference a few years back, basically the same as this talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzJL8.... Ever since I've been meaning to get around to this book.
The basic gist of it is using the author's experience in transforming an under-performing submarine crew into the top performing submarine crew in the US Navy in about 18 months, and translating that experience to a set of leadership concepts that he feels would be generally applicable in any organization.
The language he uses is very "motivational speaker" and a lot of the anecdotes seem wrapped up a little too nicely, but I think his principles are sound and this is definitely an interesting approach to people management.
The basic gist of it is using the author's experience in transforming an under-performing submarine crew into the top performing submarine crew in the US Navy in about 18 months, and translating that experience to a set of leadership concepts that he feels would be generally applicable in any organization.
The language he uses is very "motivational speaker" and a lot of the anecdotes seem wrapped up a little too nicely, but I think his principles are sound and this is definitely an interesting approach to people management.
December 31, 2025
One of the best books on leadership I have ever read. Moreover, it reads like real story not some preachy formulas which is great bonus!
August 17, 2015
Marquet takes us on his journey at the helm of the USS Santa Fe submarine and a transformation from Leader-Follower to Leader-Leader management. Having read quite a bit on empowering management styles there was a lot here that you can find elsewhere, though David does so in a very story friendly format. Noticeably different is the attention to detail around communication. Specifically around the words of "intention" for empowerment. I "intend to, i plan, i will, we will, etc" do some action. Coming from the software world it was interesting to see "stop focusing on no errors" coming from a nuclear submarine captain. I loved the focus on excellence instead. I could learn a LOT here. I thought it was interesting his observation about thinking outloud as a major difference in performance. Learning vs Training was articulated better than I had seen elsewhere. A must read for leaders.
March 16, 2016
Very inspirational
The book is a step by step guide of changes from top-down management approach in organisation like US Navy. Story starts with Cpt. Marquet assigned in charge of submarine with worst results in the fleet, and turns it around within a year to the best one, by changing the top-down (leader-follower) approach to the empowerment (leader-leader) approach.
This book is great addition to the book "team of teams", written by US General Stanley McChrystal, which also explain how fast pace of modern times challenges top-down approaches of the past.
The book is a step by step guide of changes from top-down management approach in organisation like US Navy. Story starts with Cpt. Marquet assigned in charge of submarine with worst results in the fleet, and turns it around within a year to the best one, by changing the top-down (leader-follower) approach to the empowerment (leader-leader) approach.
This book is great addition to the book "team of teams", written by US General Stanley McChrystal, which also explain how fast pace of modern times challenges top-down approaches of the past.
December 17, 2018
Absolutnie warta polecania - jeśli chcesz być dobrym liderem, to postawa przedstawiona przez autora jest podstawą! Utwierdza w przekonaniu że nikt nie jest z natury zły i kiepski w tym co robi, często to liderzy sami stwarzają warunki do rozwijania się „patologii”.
November 16, 2020
The best book on leadership I've ever read. The author nails down the three pillars that enable organisations to shift from a leader-of-followers paradigm to the leader-of-leaders. This transition has enabled him to turn the worst-performing submarine with 100% employee churn to an award-winning submarine with 100% retention, in under a year.
Every chapter is gold. I keep going back to the book over and over again.
I can't recommend it highly enough. 💯
Every chapter is gold. I keep going back to the book over and over again.
I can't recommend it highly enough. 💯
February 2, 2021
A really good example of how to be a good empowering leader. Definitely one I’ll refer back to if I lead a team in the future.
May 2, 2025
I thought the concepts were great and genuinely valuable. I guess this is on me, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so heavy on submarine talk, which made it a bit hard to stay engaged.
If you’re into submarines or the mechanics of how war machines operate, and you’re looking to build a team of leaders rather than followers, this might be right up your alley.
If you’re into submarines or the mechanics of how war machines operate, and you’re looking to build a team of leaders rather than followers, this might be right up your alley.
September 8, 2021
This book was suggested by a work friend. I did enjoy it, since it has a few rules to follow if you want to implement a leader-leader system at your job.
April 16, 2021
A decent book adumbrating a how-to for empowerment. I did think it was at times, a bit over-the-top with self promotion...the author’s chronicles of the awards he won, and peacetime accolades were obnoxious, but the ideas regarding ways to instill empowerment and deliberate action (to counteract automatic thinking) were nonetheless, meaningful.
October 19, 2016
Great insights about leader-leader structure
I really like the examples about how the captain transformed Santa Fe's crew. Eye opening in many ways.
I'd appreciate more examples from business environment (i.e. add "Application to business" section at the end of each chapter)
I really like the examples about how the captain transformed Santa Fe's crew. Eye opening in many ways.
I'd appreciate more examples from business environment (i.e. add "Application to business" section at the end of each chapter)
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