One of my favorite “business” books is Turn The Ship Around! by L. David Marquet. He describes how he turned one of the Navy’s worst-performing submarines into one of its best, primarily by pushing decision-making down the chain of command and creating a culture of continuous feedback.
You can see his influence all over the place in my work, both at Steady and in the principles of Continuous Coordination:
👉 Leader-Leader: Rather than the traditional “leader-follower” model, he advocates for a model where leadership is distributed throughout the organization. Continuous Coordination believes in high autonomy, high agency teams empowered through context rather than command.
👉 Intent-Based Leadership: Marquet would communicate the “intent” behind orders and then give his team the freedom to make decisions using their best judgment to accomplish that intent. Continuous Coordination believes in consistently communicating intent, both to create a shared vision of the future and teach the team to focus on outcomes rather than inputs.
👉 Competence and Clarity: Marquet was big on technical competence and clear communication. Continuous Coordination is all about getting smart people together and working in the open to create an environment of high performance.
I highly recommend the book if you’re interested in building an empowered, high-performing team.
