Turn The Ship Around!

by L. David Marquet

One problem that came up as we spread the idea of these short interactions earlier in the process was the question of trust. I could hear the petty officers complaining that the command “didn’t trust them,” and sometimes they challenged me directly with that complaint. For a long time this bothered me because I actually did trust them, but I didn’t know how to answer the question. Then I realized that we were talking about two totally different things. Trust means this: when you report that we should position the ship in a certain position, you believe we should position the ship as you indicated. Not trusting you would mean that I thought you might be saying one thing while actually believing something else. Trust is purely a characteristic of the human relationship. Now, whether the position you indicate is actually the best tactical position for Santa Fe is a totally different issue, one of physics, time, distance, and the movements of the enemy. These are characteristics of the physical world and have nothing to do with trust.