How to Land a New Management Philosophy in a Stable Organization - Brian Turner
Successful CEOs are in the business of developing leaders. We often turn to outside experts for new concepts and new tools to fit the period we are leading in. When it works, it is magical. When it doesn’t, it can slow you down.
A colleague of mine reached out recently that his son, attending the Naval Academy, heard a lecture from L. David Marquet, author of Turn the Ship Around, is one of my favorite books on intent-based leadership. We introduced Marquet and his leadership framework to my organization from 2018–2019. Until the pandemic disrupted everything, we improved the alignment and collaboration across the organization — producing a “golden period” where we were all on the same page.
I can also tell you that, over a decade, we tried unsuccessfully to bring other outside insights and tools into the organization — most started great and then flamed out in the weeks and months that followed. So, what are the ingredients that determine whether outside perspectives will stick in your organization?
New management insights and tools have to align with culture. Marquet’s work resonated because my organization originated from employee ownership, where accountability and empowerment sit with the employee.
A burning mandate for change is needed. In 2018–2019, we were struggling with collaboration across teams and role clarity. We could see this show up in our slowness to execute our strategies and our willingness to take risks — and our leaders could see it.
Change doesn’t follow the org chart; it follows where value gets created. We didn’t need mandates or incentives to integrate Marquet’s concepts into our organization because it gave our customer-facing employees new tools and new language to increase customer value and job satisfaction.
The importance of language at every level — we adopted a new language, from top to bottom. We carefully used the words introduced to us by Marquet — it was different, and we were intentional about sticking to the language. As we did our work, we reinforced concepts in every meeting, every conversation, and every feedback loop.
Daily reminders — Marquet’s “Nudges” were a brilliant tactic. It was his way of breaking his insight into bite-size, just-in-time chunks that could be easily digested. We introduced a “nudge” weekly to reinforce a concept that we could see would be important to our success. We were able to tie a nudge specifically to a problem that we were trying to solve.
I encourage other CEOs and senior executives to think critically about how to bring new insights and concepts into the organization for staying power. As the developer of leadership talent and the head coach for every play, you’ve got to be willing to embrace and embody new concepts in everything you and your team do.
Brian is a transformative leader with over three decades of experience in guiding organizations through transformative change. Known for his pragmatic, human-centered approach, he collaborates with CEOs and executive teams to address complex challenges and drive meaningful impact. Dedicated to developing future leaders, Brian actively engages in community initiatives, mentorship, and fostering partnerships across sectors.
Connect with Brian on LinkedIn.
