US Navy submarine captain and author David Marquet discusses leadership lessons from turning the USS Santa Fe from worst to best, focusing on “pushing authority to information” rather than pushing information up a hierarchy. Marquet critiques industrial-age leadership language that seeks obedience and creates “bobblehead” agreement, arguing that real engagement comes from giving people decision-making authority,

He also explains “distancing,” as a leadership and decision-making tool: viewing oneself from a third-person, from a different time, and/or from a different place to reduce ego and defensiveness over previous decisions.

A thoroughly fascinating chat with a very talented and fun individual.

External Links for items referenced in the conversation:

• David’s 3 books can be found here: Turn the Ship Around (+ workbook), Leadership is Language, and Distancing
• Here are two of many of David's talks to be found on YouTube: What is leadership? and Turn the Ship Around at the World Web Forum
• Here's the YouTube video of David rating submarine movies for how realistic they portray life under the waves.
• David talks about advice given to him by Simon Sinek
• Some of Jono's other skecthes references in this podcast include: Solvitor Ambulando (it is solved by walking); 9 windows (problem solving tool); Anchors and Tugboats (self-talk)
• David talks about ultra-runner extraordinaire Courtney Dauwalter

Summary

00:00 From Cold War Kid to Submariner

03:02 Life Aboard a High-Performing Sub

03:53 The Arbitrary Officer Divide

04:40 Student Not "Expert"

05:51 Words That Kill Curiosity

08:44 What Leadership Was Taught

12:37 Pushing Authority to Information

16:03 Submarine Leave Approval Hack

20:02 Authority in Everyday Workplaces

21:59 Bias for Action and Excellence

22:46 Distancing to Decide Better

25:41 Put Them In Your Chair

26:12 Distancing In Space & Time

27:45 Inviting Feedback Culture

28:52 Nine Windows Thinking Tool

30:25 You Can Do It Self Talk

32:28 Regret Proof Decisions

38:04 Journaling Into A Book

39:41 Be Your Own Coach

45:50 Team Reviews Without Defensiveness

47:19 Live Big Bold Lives

48:14 Submarine Movies And Ambiguity

50:55 Wrap Up

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Using Jono’s sketch of four archery targets, we discuss why and how accuracy and precision differ.

Using many different examples, we frame the distinction as “accuracy being true to intention and precision being true to itself,” also phrased as doing the right thing versus doing it right.

The sketch is inspired by Simon Winchester's book, Exactly, where precision and accuracy are connected to the industrial revolution via Henry Maudsley’s innovative screw-cutting lathe, micrometer, and the concept of interchangeable parts. The conversation broadens to explore examples in food (McDonald’s vs artisan meals), recipes, recruiting, IQ tests (validity vs reliability), indoctrinated beliefs, gut feelings, culture’s return to individual craftsmanship, AI’s variable answers, LED mask wavelength tolerances, and targeting weapons.

External links

Also referenced in this episode:

• Jono's sketch that describes the difference between Reliability and Validity.
• Jono's sketch inspired by Roger Martin's Knowledge Funnel.
• Jono's sketch outlining The Beard Cycle.

Episode Outline

00:00 Accuracy vs Precision: the Four Target Sketch

03:23 True to Intention

04:11 Ball Through Window

05:44 Precision Built World

09:45 Food and Recipes

13:27 Calibration and Scales

14:47 Manufacturing Tolerances

16:51 Hiring and Testing

19:16 Beliefs and Education

23:01 Culture and Craft

26:09 Doctors Robots and AI

29:03 Wrap Up and Credits

All music on this podcast series is provided by the very talented Franc Cinelli and you can find more tracks at franccinelli.com

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If you like the finer details of grammar and punctuation, then you're gonna love this episode.

We geek out on the subtle, but incredibly important and occasionally crucial differences between three little horizontal lines: the hyphen - the En Dash – and the Em Dash —

Jono explains hyphens for line breaks and compound terms, how usage can evolve into single words (e.g., wildlife, wellbeing), and why hyphen placement can change meaning (e.g., five-dollar bills). The en dash is described as linking ranges and relationships (pages, dates, times, scores, routes, debates, partnerships, negotiations), with notes on how to type it. The em dash is framed as a stronger-than-comma interruption for added thoughts, with style cautions and typing methods. They discuss underscore origins from typewriters, punctuation differences across countries, and how AI popularized em dashes as a telltale sign of machine-written text.

Most importantly though, we discuss why this matters and that if used correctly, they can help avoid misunderstandings.

Episode Summary

00:00 Welcome to Sketchplanations

00:40 What Are Dashes

03:09 Hyphen Basics

04:32 Hyphenated Words

05:35 Language Evolves

07:00 Hyphen Pitfalls

07:31 Tom on Hyphens

10:38 Meet the En Dash

11:41 Typing En Dashes

12:32 En Dash Use Cases

14:47 Spacing and Style

15:30 Introducing Em Dash

15:33 Em Dash Basics

16:15 Style Guide Rules

18:08 Brackets vs Speech

18:57 Where Names Come From

20:32 Underscore Origins

22:05 Reading Dashes Aloud

24:39 Does It Matter

26:04 Oxford Comma Stakes

28:36 AI Em Dash Tell

29:59 Typing Em Dashes

30:32 Punctuation By Country

31:41 Morse Code And Minus

32:43 Final Sign Off

External Link

There's only one link this week:

• Jono referenced the book Strunk and White : The Elements of Style

All music on this podcast is provided by the very talented Franc Cinelli.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.