Turn the Ship Around - Testing Insights

El control, según descubrimos, solo funciona con una mano de obra competente y que entiende el objetivo de la organización 

Control, we find, only works with a competent workforce and understands the purpose of the organization

If you have not read this book I would highly recommend you to do so.

It's a real life story about the U.S. Navy Submarine Commander "David Marquet" and his leadership ideologies in the Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Santa Fe (SSN 763).

Before you dwell further here is a good read : Turn The Ship Around – A View Into Agile Leadership

Here is a quick video from the man himself:

and a very interesting white boarding on similar principles:

Some quick snippets:

My favorite: “One of the things that limits our learning is our belief that we already know something.” 

“Don’t move information to authority, move authority to the information.” 

“Empowerment programs appeared to be a reaction to the fact that we had actively disempowered people.” 

“Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.” 

“I was also modeling that lack of certainty is strength and certainty is arrogance.” 

“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.” 

“Don’t preach and hope for ownership; implement mechanisms that actually give ownership. Eliminating the tickler did that for us. Eliminating top-down monitoring systems will do it for you. I’m not talking about eliminating data collection and measuring processes that simply report conditions without judgment. Those are important as they “make the invisible visible.” What you want to avoid are the systems whereby senior personnel are determining what junior personnel should be doing.” 

“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.” 

“You may be able to “buy” a person’s back with a paycheck, position, power, or fear, but a human being’s genius, passion, loyalty, and tenacious creativity are volunteered only.” 

“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.” 

“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.”