Taking Ownership
The title of this week's Friday focus was inspired by the author of a book called Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink.
In an excellent Ted Talk on this concept, "Taking Ownership," Jocko Willink (a former Navy SEAL and leader of Task Force Bruiser during the Iraq war) shared a story about what it means to take ownership after a tragic result during an engagement with the enemy where he was the commanding officer. I'll share a link to that talk below.
Here are some of my key takeaways from this talk: In his description of the work soldiers like him do, it struck me how difficult a challenge that work can be, especially when I compare it to the work that most of us do daily. He literally risks life and limb on every mission. Most of the rest of us never do that.
He talks at length about how challenging war can be, and when I compare it to the challenges I face daily, it doesn't even come close. When he describes the lessons war teaches soldiers like him, it humbles me to think about how I've reacted to the challenges I face.
He tells the story of a conflict that turned tragic for him and the team he was leading. During what he terms "the fog of war," through a series of mistakes, human error, poor judgment, Murphy's law, and just plain bad luck; friendly forces began to fire upon each other, killing one of the friendly Iraqi soldiers, wounding two others, and wounding a Navy SEAL. He called it "fratricide, the mortal sin of combat and the most horrific part of war."
He was ordered to shut down all operations and prepare a debrief for his superior officers. As he worked on it and began to detail all the mistakes made by those he was leading, he knew that something didn't feel right. He went into the debriefing meeting knowing the answer. As he began to ask each of his men on the mission whose fault it was, each one took responsibility for the outcome. He wouldn't let them. Because what he figured out was that he was 100% responsible for the tragedy as the commanding officer on the battlefield.
What was even more impressive was that everyone on his team felt they were also 100% responsible for the outcome. His quote from the talk is this:
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?"Unlike a team where no one takes ownership of the problems, and therefore the problems never get solved, with us, everyone took ownership of their mistakes. Everyone took ownership of the problems. And when a team takes ownership of its problems, the problems get solved."
I'm going to write more on this subject next week, but I want the reader to focus on what it means for a team to take ownership of its problems instead of trying to figure out which team member made a mistake.
I think this concept has far-reaching implications for everyone.? Here is the video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljqra3BcqWM&t=743s
Quote of the week:
“Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.”
Jocko Willink