Turn the Ship Around cover

Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders, by L. David Marquet

A guide to Intent-Based Leadership

Review

Turn the Ship Around! tells the remarkable story of how Captain David Marquet transformed the USS Santa Fe from one of the worst-performing submarines in the US Navy fleet to one of the best. The transformation came from a radical change in leadership philosophy - moving from a traditional "leader-follower" model to what Marquet calls "leader-leader".

The core concepts of the book include:

  • Leader-Leader model
    • Instead of having one leader with followers executing orders, create an environment where everyone thinks and acts like a leader. This distributes decision-making throughout the organization.
  • "I intend to..." language
    • Replace "Captain, what should I do?" with "Captain, I intend to...". This simple language shift moves ownership and thinking to the person closest to the action, while still allowing oversight.
  • Control, Competence, and Clarity
    • To give control to people, they need the technical competence to make good decisions, and organizational clarity about the goals. Without these pillars, pushing control down becomes dangerous.
  • Push authority to where the information is
    • The people closest to the work have the most information. Instead of pushing information up for decisions, push the decision-making authority down to where the information lives.
  • Resist the urge to provide solutions
    • As a leader, when someone brings you a problem, resist the temptation to solve it for them. Instead, ask questions that help them arrive at their own solution.

Turn the Ship Around! resonated strongly with me in my current role at Umbraco. In software development, we often face similar challenges - how do we empower developers to make decisions without creating bottlenecks at the team lead or architect level? The "I intend to..." approach is particularly applicable in code reviews and technical discussions, where developers can propose solutions rather than asking for step-by-step guidance.

The book reinforces the importance of psychological safety and trust in high-performing teams. When team members feel safe to make decisions and own their work, engagement increases and so does the quality of the output. This aligns well with how we try to work at Umbraco - giving teams autonomy while ensuring they have the context and skills needed to succeed.

All in all, Turn the Ship Around! is an excellent read for anyone in a leadership position or aspiring to be. The principles translate remarkably well from a nuclear submarine to software engineering teams.