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Book-Summary - Turn the Ship Around

This book has very good advice on how to lead a team. Here are some notes from the book -

  • Think out loud about the decision you took in front of the team. Let them understand why a particular decision was made on what parameters. 
    • Let them also think out loud on why they think it is wrong or why that is right
  • How do we make sure team can express their uncertainties freely. Expressing uncertainties is a strength than posing as know all or understood everything.
  • Embrace the inspectors
    • Make the public or external review as an opportunity to learn about how others are solving your type of problems
    • Also it is an opportunity to show that you are eager to learn
    • It is an opportunity to showcase your learning 
  • Introduce deliberate action to help stop mistakes from happening in auto mode. Ask operator to verbalize the action so that it forces them to think of what they are doing. Let others be there when they are verbalizing. So that they can correct if they are doing something wrong.
  • Without competence of your subordinates even if you delegate, work will not happen. It will lead to more work.
    • Key is learning. Everything we do and everything we experience is a learning exercise. When we are getting reviewed it’s the opportunity to learn. When someone is asking questions it’s about understanding the unknowns or gaps that we should think in future or fix it.
    • To understand the teams gaps in competence, identify the scenarios where you wanted to delegate work to junior engineers and what info they had would have made them to effectively do that work. Identify such tasks or areas and setup training for them
  • Don’t brief rather certify
    • Make your subordinates and team mates active learners.
    • Instead of telling them what to do, rather ask questions of the status. Make them to read the doc before hand and you can ask them questions to know things rather than telling them.
    • Dedicate some time every week for them study the system or learn.
  • Continually and Repeat the message 
    • When you become a leader it is not a privilege rather it is more responsibility. You are responsible for your team. So any event you are on the ground giving shoulder to your team. 
    • We need to constantly remind the message or new way to bring the focus. It should be repeated to the point of boring. 
  • Specify Goals and not Method
    • Make sure that objective is not masked by process. 
  • Build trust and take care of your people
    • Taking care of your people does not mean shielding them from the consequences of their behavior.
    • It is providing all the tools and knowledge necessary to achieve their goal. You can be critical if there are short coming in their end, they would be okay with that critique as long as they trust you and you have worked hard for their improvements 
  • Use your legacy to inspire others
    • But if you repeat often, there is a chance that it might loose it’s value.
  • Use immediate recognition for re-enforce desired behavior 
    • Have an infinite award system to avoid competition within team. Any one meets the objective will get it 
    • There is no THEY in this org. 
    • Recognize the performance or work and immediately award it.
  • Begin with the end in mind
    • Think of 2-3-5 years ahead and think of what you want to achieve.
    • Write your goals such that it aligns with that long term vision. These goals should be measurable.
    • Mentor others. This helps in getting clarity of the team. In the process you will learn as well.
  • Encourage a questioning attitude over blind obedience 
    • When you have leader interaction and not leader follower interaction, this will automatically happen
    • When you are in higher position it is not a position of privilege rather it is a position of responsibility. You are responsible for the entire team you are leading.
  • Follow leader - leader approach rather than leader - follower approach.
  • Act your way into the thinking - When initially you are starting, it is better to do this rather than first get the full understanding of why we need to do it.
  • Short and early conversations make the efficient work
  • Use “I intend to …” to turn passive followers to active leaders
  • Eliminate top down monitoring
  • resist the urge to provide solutions.
  • Achieve excellence - do not just aim for avoiding errors.
  • Why do we need an empowerment program?
  • You should always aim for building an institution such that it will thrive when you are there as well as when you are not there. Absence of you should not hinder the progress. Build systems that helps delegating the power and decision making into individuals.
  • All the above points comes under 3 categories in leader - leader model -
    • Control
      • Find the genetic code for control and rewrite it
      • Act your way to new thinking
      • Short, early conversations make efficient work
      • User “I intend to …” to turn passive followers into active leaders
      • Resist the urge to provide solutions
      • Eliminate top-down monitoring systems
      • Think out loud - both superiors and subordinates
      • Embrace the inspectors
    • Competence
      • Take deliberate action
      • We learn (everywhere, all the time)
      • Don’t brief, certify
      • Continually and consistently repeat the message
      • Specify goals, not methods
    • Clarity
      • Achieve excellence, don’t just avoid errors.
      • Build trust and take care of your people
      • Use your legacy for inspirations
      • Use guiding principles for decision criteria
      • User immediate recognition to reinforce desired behaviors
      • Begin with the end in mind
      • Encourage a questioning attitude over blind obedience
  • Finally, do not empower others rather emancipate