I just had the pleasure of reading David Marquet's book, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders*, and I have been encouraging everyone I see to also read it. Marquet became the commander of one of the worst submarines in the Navy. By using some rather unorthodox methods of leadership, at least by Navy standards, he was able to lead his men from worst to first in two years. More importantly, his crew continued their success long after he left the ship. He transformed the organization from a leader-follower group to a leader-leader group. Instead of requiring constant direction, the crew became self-starters, and easily handled challenges regardless of nature. This is what you want from an organization. Read more ( )

Hi. I'm the author of Turn the Ship Around! I wrote this book to help pioneer a better way of treating each other, a way of treating each other that will allow more of us to freely give of our passion, intellect and creativity. In short, that way means treating others as equals, as co-leaders, and not as followers. It means giving control not taking control.

I believe this unlikely but true story of a leadership revolution on board a nuclear submarine makes the case that this is a better way to interact. Not only did the submarine improve in the moment (something I call ACHIEVEMENT) but it continued operating at a superior level long after I left and an amazing 10 of its officers were selected for their own submarine command. This embedding of the capacity for achievement in people and the practices of the organization I call LEADERSHIP. I think we confuse these two things.

You will share what I learned about the conditions under which empowerment steps are effective and what happens when you give decision making control without the necessary pre-conditions.

You will also know exactly what we did, what mechanisms we implemented and what changes we made to our HR documents. These mechanisms, though they may not be the exact ones your organization needs, will likely provide you with sufficient grist for robust discussions in your workplace.

We have too many problems for them to be solved by some set of experts at the top. The only way is to get everyone involved.

Let me know what you think,
all best,
David Marquet ( )