Lost shipwrecks. Successful projects.

It’s not every day that a project that you’ve been working on makes both CNN and the New York Times, but nothing about this story ended up being typical. On April 23, 1945, the USS Eagle PE-56 was sunk off Portland, ME resulting in a loss of life of 49 American sailors. Originally classified as an accident, it was the last US Navy warship sunk on the East Coast during WWII and almost forgotten in the waning days of the war. However, due to the efforts of a local historian and author, Paul Lawton, the realization was made that this ship was lost due to enemy action and the Navy reclassified the loss in 2003 for the first time in Naval history. Despite numerous eyewitness accounts and searches over the years, this wreck was never found.

Almost 5 years ago and after reading a book which was written on the subject called Due to Enemy Action, a team of local divers known as the Nomad Exploration Team began the project for the discovery, exploration and documentation of this wreck. I was humbled and honored to be a core member of this team. While far more details will be shared later this year when the Smithsonian Channel airs a series called the “Hunt for Eagle 56”, there are three fundamental things that I learned in this project which carry over to every aspect of our personal and professional lives.

Team

It is impossible to achieve success in a complex project without a tight-knit team that can trust one another completely. As Simon Sinek once said, “A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other.” Team dynamics include the necessity for transparency, collaboration, trust and a willingness to admit and correct weaknesses quickly. When evaluating your career and role, I always suggest and recommend to people that team is prioritized over any other factor. Both success and enjoyment of the project can be gauged on the strength of the team.

Planning

There is a saying in the dive world, “There are old divers. There are bold divers. But there are no old and bold divers.” Planning is the key to success. In the technical diving environment, every hour underwater is often preceded by five to ten hours of planning beforehand. This same concept is equally true in the professional environment. While most technology companies intuitively know this on the sales side – planning and predicting activities and quarterly revenues, this is less often applied on the software, marketing or strategy side. Planning and ensuring predictability for deliverables is equally important in every aspect of an organization. Growth, improvement and success can only truly be realized when planning is measured honestly against the expected outcomes.

Persistence

The value of hard work and persistence cannot be under-valued. Passion and fire for success is essential in every member of the team. Our search for the Eagle 56 began in earnest in 2015 and was not an immediate thing. And trust me, the days where success seemed a lifetime away, were more than a little difficult. As a colleague of mine once said at a small technology start-up where we were facing some hard decisions about our future, “Just because we work our butts off, doesn’t mean that we will be successful.” The difference between a success and failure is the awareness to know that these are the days that you keep going. You will not be successful if you don’t persist through those darkest days as a team.

While this project was one of the more exciting projects I’ve been involved with, it is one that is played out in almost every organization and group. Knowing and understanding the value of team, planning and persistence is what drives success.