As a leader, would you like the people in your team to take more initiative? You might say,
“Of course I want them to take more initiative! That’s a no-brainer.”
If that’s what you think, good – because I’ll show you how to start encouraging people to take more initiative.
But I should warn you this isn’t always what you want. It’s not always a “no-brainer” that you want people to take more initiative.
For example, I see this a lot with AI rollouts. Let’s say your organisation is rolling out some new AI system to improve efficiency, and your job as a leader is to get your team on board with this new system.
Do you want your team members to take initiative? Well ... maybe. But probably not!
You actually want the opposite: to be compliant. They must follow the rules and use the new software. Not keep using the old system, especially secretly behind your back.
So, sometimes initiative is the last thing you want. But you want to move past that point as soon as possible, and start showing more initiative.
This isn’t easy!
David Marquet, commander of the US Navy’s nuclear submarine Santa Fe, discovered this in 1999.
At the time, he was leading his crew through exercises In Pearl Harbor, taking them through a series of intense training exercises.
In one such exercise, Marquet ordered the engineer to shut down the nuclear reactor, testing the crew’s ability to deal with the situation, and find and correct the fault. The submarine switched to its battery backup, and the trouble-shooters started working diligently through their checklist, trying to isolate the fault before the battery died.
Marquet – by his own admission – became bored, and decided to raise the stakes by increasing the submarine’s speed. That would significantly increase the drain on the battery, adding extra pressure to the process.
He nudged his Officer On Deck, Lieutenant Commander Bill Greene, and asked him to increase the speed from “ahead one third” to “ahead two thirds”. Greene immediately barked out the order to the helmsman, “Ahead two thirds!”
And then … nothing. Nobody said anything, the helmsman didn’t respond, and Marquet noticed him squirming in his seat. He asked why, and the helmsman replied, “Captain, there is no such setting on this ship!”
Marquet realised he had probably been told this during his training, but he had forgotten. He later took Greene aside to ask him why he ordered it. Greene admitted he, too, knew there was no “ahead two thirds”, but went ahead and ordered it “because you told me to”. He went on to say, “I thought you had learned something secret at Commanding Officer school that they only tell the Commanding Officers.”
Marquet was stunned. This was his first role commanding this type of submarine, so he was one of its least experienced crew members. But, because he had the title, his crew would respond without question to his orders. He resolved to transform that culture from blind obedience to individual empowerment, and did that over the next twelve months.
Marquet realised this crew, as good and as smart as they were, were still compliant. They would obey the hierarchy.
He spent the next twelve months building a different culture and turning that around. He tells the story in his book, “Turn the Ship Around”.
One of the key principles – and one I encourage you to use – is this simple idea: push authority to information.
Push authority to information.
If all people do is alert you to problems, that’s fine. But even better is when they have the authority to act on that information without always checking in with you.
Of course, there are situations where they should check in – that’s a matter of judgement. But the first and most important thing you can do to encourage initiative is to push authority to information.
If you want people to take more initiative, push authority to information.
Download my worksheet here to use with your team to identify ways to put this principle into practice.
https://swiy.co/go-push-authority-to-information
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