Tag: stavridis

The Marketplace of Ideas

In this rapidly globalizing 21st century, our nation and our military are out competing in a marketplace of ideas. We live in a 24/7 news cycle with near instant reporting and widespread dissemination of stories. It is a teeming, tumultuous, and exhausting marketplace. There has been a tremendous push for military professionals to understand, quantify, and assess our ability to compete in this arena. On all fronts, we must excel at strategic communication—the ability to get our message out to the right audience, at the right time, with the proper effect, and in all media.

Each of us has a clear obligation to contribute to this effort, to be a part of the conversation, to help our ideas compete. Our nation was founded on ideas that just could not be repressed—those of freedom and liberty. In 1776, we launched these ideas into a world ruled by a different system. Our ideas faced stiff competition, and throughout the years we have even suffered wars to defend them—wars like today’s struggle against extremists who use terrorism as a weapon, often to suppress freedom of expression. Our second President, John Adams, once wrote that the best way to defend our ideas was through using our minds: “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.”

Admiral James Stavridis
USNI Proceedings

The Importance Of Letter Writing – Captain Laurance Safford: Father of Naval Cryptology

A number of his personal letters provide insight into events surrounding the congressional investigation into the attack on Pearl Harbor. One letter refers specifically to the “Winds Message” reportedly intercepted by the U.S. days before the 7 December surprise attack. This infamous message reportedly gave clear indications of the planned Japanese surprise attack.
Unfortunately the actual intercept mysteriously disappeared shortly after the surprise attack and the “Winds Message’s” very existence is only supported by the testimony of Safford and perhaps one or two others who reportedly also were aware of the intercept.

His personal papers also included a four page letter to Vice Admiral C.E. Rosendahl responding to two pages of questions from Rosendahl about the number, distribution, disposition and construction of PURPLE machines prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Other documents included a petition to the Congress and supporting testimony to award Capt. Safford remuneration for his many secret cryptologic inventions, some of which were cited as among the most important and secure communication systems used by the U.S. during WW II. 

As Admiral Stavridis is so fond of saying: “Think, read, write and publish.” If you don’t tell your story – who will know it?

Commanding a ship is the simplest task in the world

“Commanding a ship is the simplest task in the world, even if at times it seems complicated. A Captain has only to pick good courses of action and to stick to them no matter what. If he is good and generally makes good decisions, his crew will cover for him if he fails occasionally. If he is bad, this fact will soon be known, and he must removed with the speed of light.”
Admiral Nimitz – per anonymous
The photo is of our CNO Admiral Gary Roughead and ADM Stavridis. CDR Stavridis relieved CAPT Roughead as CO, USS Barry. These two obviously picked good courses of action and stuck to them.

The Heart of An Officer

“The system of naval officer development we have today is fundamentally a product of the Cold War, with a very strong emphasis on technical education and a career pattern dominated by platform-related assignments. In a career chock full of requirements, “wickets” to be hit, those officers who in the past have received rigorous preparation for joint or interagency command did so more by their own force of will than by the design of the Navy’s personnel system. The Navy’s current generation of joint leaders has risen to joint command despite an educational and career system that has seldom been conducive to their acquisition of joint and regional knowledge or development of strategic communication skills.
Competing demands on naval officers’ time, education, and career assignments have made it increasingly difficult to prepare these officers to be joint leaders in an international and interagency setting. To be sure, since the end of the Second World War the Navy has supported an expansion of several joint educational and assignment initiatives (attendance at the war college, completion of a joint tour, etc.). However, in parallel with the Navy’s acknowledgment of the need for more joint education has come an increased requirement for officers to gain technical education, earn technical subspecialties, and take platform related duty assignments.

With the Navy career already packed in order to meet such demands, one may ask how a larger number of Navy officers can find time for more rigorous joint, interagency, and international preparation. It is doubtful that officers can attain additional joint, interagency, or international preparation without hazarding their technical and platform expertise. It is in that sense that the current Navy career model may have reached its limit. It is increasingly inefficient and stressed by attempts to accommodate the emerging joint, interagency, and international requirements. But to transform the career model from“roadblock” to a “bridge” that leads to a more adaptive officer corps will not be easy. A first step in the task is to understand where the roadblock came from, who built it, and why.”

The Heart of An Officer
Naval War College Review
Admiral Jim Stavridis and Captain Mark Hagerott

What Hyperconnected Leaders Are Doing

Hyperconnected: Are those leaders (ADM Thad Allen (USCG), Admiral Jim Stavridis, (SOUTHCOM) and ADM Tim Keating (PACOM) among the many) who have fully embraced the brave new world, with more devices per capita than their contemporaries and more intense use of new communications applications. They liberally use technology devices and applications for both personal and official leadership use. These individuals are also ‘early adopters’.

What they are doing:

  • Developing service-driven visions and strategies that balance the needs of the hyperconnected with the increased effectiveness of the maritime enterprise. It’s no longer just about how work is done, but how command processes are organized and accelerated. Tools and solutions (including unified communications) currently exist that can increase the speed of a decision, use the Sailor’s time more wisely, and create new kinds of communications-imbedded products.
  • Partnering with HR and NPC to develop a strategy for the ongoing war on talent. As Sailors transition from the Navy, it will find itself increasingly competing for talent. In a matter of years, up to 40% of the workforce could be “hyperconnected,” with many considering an enriched application and connectivity environment a condition for employment.
  • Driving the organization to modify its personnel, detailing and community management policies and practices to support increased connectivity.
  • Evolving their security regimes. Connectivity tools in the hands of Sailors may increase productivity, but they also increase the risk of releasing sensitive information to the outside world.
  • Acknowledging and managing the technicalenvironment. It may be tempting to resist providing formal Navy support for new devices and applications because of the additional stress on thenetwork and the number of devices involved, but the genie is already out of the bottle. Navy networks may at first be tested and strained by hyperconnected Sailors.
  • Working with their N6s as communication solution providers. Only with the help of trusted advisors will you be able to determine which solutions will be most appropriate for your particular situation at the moment. The N6 can bring you wisdom gleaned from other implementations and also help as a catalyst for organizational change in getting your IT department and operations on the same wavelength.

Taken from NORTEL’s “Hyperconnected White Paper”

It’s Our Ship

Category: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

Format: HARDCOVER BOOK
Publish Date:5/12/2008
Price: $25.99
ISBN:9780446199667
Pages:208
Size: 6″ x 9″

Five visitors have been selected to get a free copy of this book.

I’m a big fan of Captain D. Michael Abrashoff’s leadership methods and his books. His latest, IT’S OUR SHIP – The No Nonsense Guide to Leadership is the third in a series based on his command tour aboard USS BENFOLD (DDG65) and building on his experiences with leaders in the business world. In this third book, I see Michael’s growth as an author and as a leader. The third book includes some snippets from the story outlined in his first best seller – IT’S YOUR SHIP. Sure to be a best seller in its own right, IT’S OUR SHIP provides a great blend of Michael’s own story with those of other proven leaders in the business world. These are stories worth telling and Michael tells them exceedingly well. In his latest book, he takes you back to USS Benfold, then to The Container Store, Pitney Bowes, Aflac, 1-800-GOT-JUNK and many other commercial enterprises before ending where he started – USS BENFOLD. From each enterprise, he brings together their leadership lessons with his and demonstrates that these principles work in every environment. All it takes is “collaboration” – the key word in this book.

I come at the three books (the second was GET YOUR SHIP TOGETHER) from a different perspective and much more critical eye than most readers. I was commissioned the same year (1982) Michael was – though from Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island rather than the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. We both assumed command in 1997 (though my command was a shore command) and we both worked for the Secretary of Defense (though mine was Donald H. Rumsfeld – as fine, patriotic, and honest a man as ever served (twice) in that demanding position). When I assumed command, I was taking over for an interim caretaker Commanding Officer who was nurturing a command back to health after two failed Inspector General inspections (somewhat like the Operational Propulsion Plant Examination that USS BENFOLD had failed before Michael assumed command). I know first-hand the challenges of command. I retired as a Navy Captain in 2006 with a career spanning 30 years of service as an enlisted Sailor and a commissioned one. I am a Navyman. I fully appreciate the context of his books and the purpose for which they were written. Read these books, apply the principles and watch your people grow, succeed and surpass your expectations.

I know that the leadership principles that Michael outlined in all three books work. They work extraordinarily well, when properly employed. They worked for him, they worked for me, they work for Commanding Officers at sea and ashore today, and they will work for you. Captain Abrashoff is a masterful leader and brilliant storyteller. I’ve gone back to do some research and can’t validate that “virtually all 310 Sailors were deeply demoralized” or that “clearly his (the former CO’s) leadership had failed”, as Michael has described the situation. I say this, because statements like these are toned down a bit in his second and third books, which shows Michael’s growth as both author and leader. While this over-dramatization tells a better story, Arleigh Burke destroyer Sailors are the cream of the crop of surface Sailors. Michael started off in a far better position than a reader might otherwise think, though he and his crew faced significant challenges and overcame them together to achieve remarkable successes by any measure.

Commander Abrashoff assumed command of a nearly new Arleigh Burke destroyer and inherited a crew that suffered the natural trials and tribulations of pre-commissioning a ship and ‘bringing her to life.’ The truth of the matter is that three of the officers under the former CO and the former CO himself are all Navy Flag officers today – the enlisted Sailors of that first crew went on to enjoy great success as well. The first CO of USS BENFOLD was certainly doing something right and continues to do well on active duty today. I think it’s more a matter of different approaches to leadership – there are many ways to effectively command an Arleigh Burke destroyer.

I give you my own insight so that you understand fully that there is no doubting that Commander Abrashoff’s approach is successful – and he fills you with genuine confidence that you can be equally successful (that in itself is a sign of a good leader). Leaders everywhere would do well to make his three books a part of their libraries – but only putting them on the shelf after they have devoured every word. I remain a student of leadership and Michael’s books have contributed greatly to my education. I could have used them at the start, in the middle and at the end of my Navy career. I read and reread them today. And I will, again, tomorrow. I hope you’ll join me. You will not regret it.

First Printing Sold Out !!

If you haven’t already purchased Admiral James Stavridis’ book, DESTROYER CAPTAIN, you missed your opportunity to own a First Edition copy. Not to worry, they are already printing the second edition. This is a great book. Required reading for those with any interest at all in leadership, the Navy, destroyers, command at sea, Sailors, Chief Petty Officers or serving one’s country. I am biased, but this is a great companion tome for Michael Abrashoff’s IT’S YOUR SHIP. Two completely different approaches to telling the story about the considerable challenges and rewards of ‘destroyer command’.

Destroyer Captain

Lessons of a First Command This memoir of James Stavridis’ two years in command of the destroyer USS Barry reveals the human side of what it is like to be in charge of a warship–for the first time and in the midst of international crisis.

By Adm. James Stavridis, USN,
Commander U.S. Southern Command

Check it out at http://www.usni.org/

I bought 12 copies of this book and Admiral Stavridis was kind enough to inscribe each one personally for me. This book is excellent reading for students of leadership. I am reading it for the second time. I don’t want to miss a single word. Very tough assignment to be a Commanding Officer of an Arleigh Burke destroyer. One man is responsible for about $1B worth of equipment and the lives of over 300 Sailors – the sons and daughters of America. They call him Captain.