Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton

Six Characteristics of High-Performance Teams

By: Peter Fretwell, Taylor Baldwin Kiland

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Why were the American POWs imprisoned at the Hanoi Hilton so resilient in captivity and so successful in their subsequent careers? This book presents six principles practiced within the POW organizational culture that can be used to develop high-performance teams everywhere. The authors offer examples from both the POWs’ time in captivity and their later professional lives that identify, in real-life situations, the characteristics necessary for sustainable, high-performance teamwork.

The audiobook takes readers inside the mind of James Stockdale, a fighter pilot with a degree in philosophy, who was the senior ranking officer at the Hanoi prison. The theories Stockdale practiced become readily understandable in this audiobook. Drawing parallels between Stockdale’s guiding philosophies from the Stoic Epictetus and the principles of modern sports psychology, Peter Fretwell and Taylor Baldwin Kiland show readers how to apply these principles to their own organizations and create a culture with staying power.

Originally intending their book to focus on Stockdale’s leadership style, the authors found that his approach toward completing a mission was to assure that it could be accomplished without him. Stockdale, they explain, had created a mission-centric organization, not a leader-centric organization. He had understood that a truly sustainable culture must not be dependent on a single individual.

At one level, this book is a business school case study. It is also an examination of how leadership and organizational principles employed in the crucible of a Hanoi prison align with today’s sports psychology and modern psychological theories and therapies, as well as the training principles used by Olympic athletes and Navy SEALs. Any group willing to apply these principles can move their mission forward and create a culture with staying powerone that outlives individual members.

©2013 Peter Fretwell and Taylor Baldwin Kiland (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Powerful and Life Changing

The focus and resilience of these men is something from whom everyone can learn. Whether you are diagnosed with PTSD or are wanting to take your performance to the next level: do yourself a favor and listen to this book.

well written

was a good read. the perspectives on this are interesting indeed. if only command would have been this was to other troops instead of disinterest and disregarded followed by the same from us citizens back home. things can be different. this leadership can still be applied for soldiers now. it'll be more productive and retention rates will soar.

WHO selected this narrator?

What did you like best about Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton? What did you like least?

A very well-researched and well-composed discussion of the impact that strong leadership had on men in the most trying of circumstances. The narration is atrocious! First, a whiny voice that sounds as if he is attempting to enunciate each word for First-Graders. And then to be shockingly uninformed as to proper pronunciations that absolutely grate on the nerves. e.g "Than HO-AHH" instead of "Than-wah", "USS ORE-is-KA-NY" instead of "O-RISK-a-knee", and worst of all "Robbie RIZ-ner" instead of "Robbie RISE-ner". How could anyone have allowed a report this important to be so destroyed by the poor narration?

What did you like best about this story?

The reflection of what POW prison life and it's physical/mental challenges can do to make a man stronger.

How could the performance have been better?

Almost ANY other narrator

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Not applicable