Tony, Renee, Craig and special guest host Tyson Nutt catchup with David Marquet, author of “Turn The Ship Around!” and the “Turn Your Ship Around” companion workbook at the Agile Australia conference and talk about how similar a nuclear submarine and an Agile team really are:

• leadership is not about telling people what to do and how to do it
• all investments in human beings are long term
• the approach spread from the bottom up, now the book is on the official reading list of two Navy’s (including New Zealand)
• “I intend to” does not mean they get to do it – gives psychological ownership and to spark the conversation
• thinking out loud is about saying what is going on in our head, this even works when teaching your children how to drive!
• feed the beast – don’t respond by hiding, feed them with as much information as you can as data puts you in control
• you can’t empower people, you can only unempower them
• you give control while ensuring competence and clarity
• whilst not telling people what to do can be good for their learning, sometimes you just need to tell people what to do (in the absence of competence and clarity)
• good to have you team hold you accountable when you fall back to old habits
• deal with the “frozen middle” by giving them decision making authority they previously didn’t have
• when learning about a new team ask “what do you hope I will change” and “what do you hope I won’t change”, this is easy when you have not created the culture
• “I imagine a world where we all find satisfaction in our work” – you need embrace your fears, on a submarine that can be fear of death
• need to seek permission to proceed and embrace feedback rather than pursuing signoff
• instead of saying “are you sure?”, ask “how sure are you?”
• David is working on a couple of new books – a book of success stories and a colouring book
• when talking to yourself, use the third person for motivation
• signup for a weekly leaderhip nudge on David’s website

TheAgileRevolution-106 (40 minutes)