Mission Command and “Turn the Ship Around” by Louis David Marquet
27/02/2018

Turn the Ship Around’s main premise is that many organisations’ management techniques have created Leader-Follower environments, even in the US Navy it seems, and David Marquet sought to bust this approach and develop a Leader-Leader style of Management on board a US submarine – the USS Santa Fe. This book, which will be reviewed in an upcoming blog, gives some excellent pointers on some concrete steps that can be taken to move from the Leader-Follower (often referred to as Command & Control or Micromanagement) style to the Leader-Leader (“Mission Command” or “Centralised Intent”) style.
Per our previous blogs, Mission Command is a technique that began with its rudiments towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars and that has been significantly refined and honed between then and now by most western militaries.
And management (both academic and corporate) today has overlooked this powerful approach to successfully developing and implementing Strategy – mainly because the Industrial Revolution, happening at the same time, gave rise to a parallel methodology starting with factories and then services industries building their own management techniques that have led to the way many organisations are run as we see them now in the 21st century. Generally speaking these techniques have shown themselves time and again to be “patchy” at best.
We’ve had the opportunity to work with several organisations to develop a Mission Command style. Three examples:
- Working with the Command Teams from two Fire Services looking to develop a Strategic Collaboration, by working methodically through the first 2 – 3 stages of our 8-stage process, we were told we had accomplished in two 1-day workshops what these teams had been attempting for the best part of 2 years
- Working with a global technology company, we were driven into the details of solutions (Stages 4 – 6) before completing Stages 1 – 3, and have hit the pause button to see if we can re-engage appropriately
- Working with a large Public Sector body in the North-West of England, we observed a first attempt to align Strategy Execution with the Central Intent, where far too much depth and detail was being covered – leaving many of the senior management confused and the executive team frustrated. A second attempt was much more successful using elements of Mission Command techniques and sticking with the first stage of our 8-stage process – fundamental Central Intent coming through, and then looking at the next level of management down to start fleshing out further stages in more detail.
More case-studies will be developed, and, along with our 8-stage process, will be revealed in forthcoming blogs. It seems as if we’re catching Glimpses of the Blindingly Obvious (GBOs), as we peel back some of the traditional management techniques and begin applying learnings from the military.
As Stephen Bungay observes in discussing GBOs in his book, Art of Action (this quote supposedly attributed to Winston Churchill): “Most people, sometimes during their lives, stumble across truth. And most jump up, dust themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened.”
What will you do?
Categories & Tags:
Leave a comment on this post:
You might also like…
How do I reference journal articles… in the NLM style?
References for journal articles are one of the most used reference types for postgraduate research as these sources are frequently used in assignments. In the NLM Numbered Referencing Guide they are listed under periodicals. Periodicals ...
Royal Air Force Officer Kathy: Why I chose to study Safety and Human Factors in Aviation MSc
Growing up in Southampton with her father, an Air Cadet Instructor, Kathy had an interest in aviation from an early age and was committed to join the Royal Air Force from the age of ...
My journey since completing my Counterterrorism MSc
Richard Robinson, a Chevening Scholar, completed his course in Counterterrorism MSc in the Summer of 2023. After traveling to Cranfield from Montego Bay, Jamaica, Richard was the Head of School for the Caribbean Special ...
Net zero in asset management: The concept and the challenge
The concept of net zero has emerged as a key solution in addressing the pressing global challenges of climate change and environmental sustainability. Industries across various sectors increasingly recognise the need to reduce their ...
My career after doing a Design Thinking MSc
Hello, my name is Chioma Ezeanaka and I am currently working as a Technical Liaison Officer at CHAP. The Design Thinking MDes programme was a positively transformative experience for me, and in hindsight, I ...
Use academic libraries across the UK for free!
If you are studying or working away from our two University sites, you may find it more convenient to use a library service nearer to you. The SCONUL Access scheme gives all our staff and students free ...