Lessons to turn a ship around

I recently finished ready David Marquet’s book “Turning the ship around” . It’s an interesting real-life tale of a submarine captain that completely change the culture of his team. Instead of the traditional blind obedience, “leader-follower” model, seen in most military organization, Marquet put forward the “leader-leader” model. Instead of cogs in a machine, everyone in the team is leader in what they do and have a say.

I remember my early days as a tech lead. I’d propose an idea to the team and… silence. People would slowly nod. To me, that was the sound of a bad idea. Or at least one that hadn’t been interrogated enough to be seriously considered.

In the software world, we are building ever more complex systems. One way to tackle this is through team work. If anyone is proposing solutions to a problem that is going to take weeks or months to be implemented, we should all scrutinize it. Poke holes in it. Make make sure we are convinced it solve the actual problem and that the trade-offs are well understood.

Each person has different skills and expertise. When we look at a proposal, it’s as if we were looking from different perspectives and angles. It’s a way to interrogate the proposal, in order to become confident in it. It’s team work, at work.

In Marquet’s words: we should encourage a culture of questioning over blind obedience. Optimize for effectiveness, not obedience.

Another dimension of an effective team is communication. Having the right level of information and the right flow helps the team organize itself. Marquet’s process was to “think out loud”; broadcast action intentions and then their execution. It allows the team to prepare for the next steps or prevent errors if there’s an information mismatch.

I’d add to that list broadcasting thought processes: how and why did you come up with decision or solution. It tells the story behind it, guiding the team, instead of jumping to the conclusion. It’s also a great opportunity to pick each others’ brain and learn other ways of reasoning.

All in all, it was an interesting read. A real-life experience of a leader changing an organization’s culture over months and his thought process along the way.

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