0:02 Who are you and where are you going? What do you want? [Music] Hello and welcome to Business Lessons from the Military. I'm your host, Kevin Beml, and I'm here every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about military history. doctrine, the practices of milit military leaders, all from which we I distill lessons that we
0:37 can apply to our businesses and professional practices. So, this is my way of giving back to all of you, my fellow citizens, who were who were and continue to be so supportive of the American military, including the time that uh I was in the United States Navy. So, uh, you know, you spent literally billions of dollars, uh, on our training and so, you know, a little a little ROI for you. How about that? So, today I'm going to be talking about I the episode is called Deep Lessons, I think. And uh it it hearkens back. So in uh 20 uh 2012
1:18 uh I had uh left active duty and uh come back to Los Angeles and I I went into the Navy reserves and toward the very end of the year I got a call from the commanding officer of what's called the NOS Naval Operating um service center or something like that. Anyway, it's it's the place where reservist all their administrative uh functions are taken care of. And I had met him a couple of months before. Um I
1:55 I I was around his age, actually a little little bit older than him. We we hit it off and he he called me up and he said, "Hey, um the submarine squadron down at PointLoma is uh looking for a chaplain. They lost their chaplain over a year ago and the Navy the the active duty Navy which is you know this the submarine squadron was part of the active duty Navy they haven't been able to send them a new chaplain and so I thought I'd reach out to you and and see if you were interested in helping them out. Uh so now I will say see come from
2:32 the business world networking like that was natural to me. Okay. Little did I know that uh you know freelancing an active duty position was from the chaplain corps's uh perspective for boat and you know they wanted to control everything. You know my perspective was oh these people need a chaplain and uh I told him how that'd be very interesting. I said, you know, my dad was an anti-ubmarine warfare officer and he had great respect for the submariners as as he and they called themselves. And uh so
3:09 so sure, you know, I' I'd be happy to, you know, if this can be worked out. And and in the event uh it we did and come I think it was late February, early March of 2013, I became the uh chaplain for um Subron 11, Submarine Squadron 11. Um the uh commodor at the time, who's now I think now he's a vice admiral was was Thomas Ishi. Uh and and um the the the arrangement I worked out was I would be down there during the week and then on
3:45 Friday midday I would I would go home in Los Angeles so I can be with my family and then on Sunday evening I would drive back down to PointLoma and be with the submarine squadron during the week. And then over the summer my daughter uh stayed with me um and she went to a camp in in in in the area. So, and and Pointloma is in my experience the most beautiful base, the most beautiful naval base uh in in the world as far as the places I've been. Um it's very peaceful. It's beautiful. A lot of the base was was built a long time ago. So, the
4:20 buildings have that older look and feel to them that that I that I think is just so so beautiful. Um, but aside from that, I got to work with these sub submariners, submariners, and they are a they are a unique group in the Navy. Uh, first of all, just the just the the entry into the submarine community, you have to be pretty brilliant is really what it comes down to. So, the Navy spends
4:57 a million dollars a piece on the initial training for almost everyone who's going to be on a submarine. Okay? And I'm talking enlisted officer, it doesn't matter because they have to be nuclear qualified. Okay? Which is a very it a Now I was I was with what what were called fast attack boats. These are the small submarines that do things like reconnaissance and and and that sort of of of activity as opposed to the boomers which are much
5:33 larger. The boomers are basically like a Navy destroyer that goes under the water and they carry at the time I was with the with the subron they carried uh nuclear warheaded missiles um and then also some uh ballistic missiles with conventional warheads. So these these boomers were enormous compared to the little um fast attack boats that that comprised my my my submarine squadron or the submarine squadron to which I was assigned. Uh and uh but they all carry a
6:08 nuclear reactor and um I got to actually go into the nuclear spaces one time. One of the boats they took me on a tour so I could see what it was all about. It's quite fascinating. Um, I don't know if civilians could ever I you know I I did take civilians on the boat from time to time uh including my daughter and um I I wasn't I I never I don't think I ever asked them if they can see the nuclear spaces. I I assumed the answer would be no. Uh I I had a I had a security clearance. I had a a secret security clearance. So I think that's I think you have to have that to go into
6:44 the nuclear spaces. But um these people are all of them very bright. Okay. Uh and I remember one day so there was one particular sailor um that I got to know. Um he he he worked in the um in the division um in the squadron headquarters building which was out on the pier. And he had had some medical problems which is why he wasn't on a boat. And uh we had gotten to know each other and one day I was leaving the squadron
7:20 headquarters building and I get about you know 20 30 yards down the pier and I hear him calling after me. Uh Rabs Rabs that was my nickname in the Navy short for Rabbi Rabs. And so I stopped and he came running up and he says I got to show you something. He was holding his cell phone and I'm thinking to myself, do I really want to see something on the cell phone of a 20year-old sailor? You know, I'm thinking probably not, right? Um, but he said, "You've got to see this." Okay, What What What do you have? Right. He said, "This is called
7:56 Minute Physics. This guy is going to explain the theory of relativity in actually 90 seconds." And he played it for me. Right. This is what this this, you know, young man was watching on his cell phone, right? I mean, kind of remarkable. I don't know too many, you know, young men in their their 20s who are watching, you know, physics explanations on their cell phones, right? But this and and he was he was typical. He was absolutely typical in the sense that he had very profound intellectual interests. He was very
8:33 smart. uh you know he he was um very motivated um and and in his case um um he wanted actually to qualify to be a Navy Seal. He had um he had um I think he had gotten into BUDS once and had um and had uh you know not made the cut um but he was looking for an opportunity to maybe do that again. So you can see the I mean you know anyone who aspires to be a Navy Seal. Th this is a this is a you know
9:09 focused uh ambitious uh you know young man. So these were the kind of individuals that I worked with. Um these were the junior sailors, the senior sailors. So I spent a lot of time with this with the senior chiefs and and and the docs uh and the doctor in in in the medical um division of the squadron. got to know them pretty well. Um, these were among the finest chief petty officers uh that I met in the United States Navy. Um, they abs they were the quintessal
9:47 chief petty officers. They they knew what they were there to do. They were there to build young sailors to take their place, young enlisted sailors to take their place, and they were there to help officers like me. uh you know be learn to to be better officers. Um I and I I remember um this was um on a Friday afternoon. It was the first time I was going to get underway on a submarine which I really was looking forward to doing. I was very excited about it. I gave up a weekend with my family in
10:23 order to get underway. And I was sitting in the medical spaces waiting for it to be time for me to go on the boat. And all of a sudden, I started shaking and I guess my my face like went like ghost white. And uh both of the senior chief petty officers were there uh kind of hanging out with me. We were talking and one of them looked at me and said, "Are you all right there, Rebs?" I said, "Actually, I'm starting to freak out." I said, "I'm a little bit prone to claustrophobia and the idea of being in a steel tube under the water." it suddenly hit me that, you
10:59 know, in a couple of hours that's where I'm going to be and it's freaking me out, right? And you know, honestly, in other contexts, um, you know, I would have gotten teased, uh, but but I'd gotten to know these men well enough and and and, um, you know, they they knew at that point that, you know, per perhaps the difference between me, you know, successfully dealing with being on a submarine and not being successful there was was in their hands. And and they they, you know, talked to me about it. And one of them even said, he said, "You
11:34 know what? The fir when I was in your place the first time," he said, "I I honestly I felt the same way." He said, "It freaked me out." And he said, "But you know, I got on board, I started doing my duty and next thing I know, I looked at a, you know, depth gauge and we were, you know, 40 feet underwater or whatever it was." And he said, he said, "It it it he said it'll be okay. just just you know trust me it'll be okay. But also know that a lot of people go what you're you know are go go go through what you're going through. So there's no you know no shame in in in in
12:12 being freaked out by what you think is coming up. And and sure enough it was just like what they described. I got on the boat and I was, you know, I stowed my gear and I was uh, you know, hanging out in the uh, the ward, what's called the wardroom. That's where the officers eat their meals. And a young sailor walked in and he saw me there. And he said, "I I heard we were going to have a rabbi on the boat. Are you him?" I said, "Yes, I am." He said he said, "Oh, this is so great." He said, "I'm I'm I'm I'm Jewish. I I never thought I'd get a chance to meet a Jewish chaplain." So, um, he took me into the into the cruise
12:47 mess and we sat down and we talked for about 30 minutes and, uh, and and I was he said, "So, what do you think about being on a submarine?" And I said, "Well, I was a little trepidacious and you know, I'm still kind of freaked out like what is it going to be to be underwater?" I said, "I I guess I'll find out at some point." And he said he said, "Sir, we're underwater right now." I'm like, "Wait, what?" And he showed me the depth gauge and how far down we were. and he's and I'm like, "Oh, well, this isn't so bad." He's like, "Nah, sir, you're fine." You know, kind of thing. So, just really,
13:22 you know, locked in, but just just really great people. I still I'm still friends with one of the um independent uh duty corman that I met on one of the boats, Ernest Chhatini. He and I really hit it off. Uh I came from the real estate business, as you know. Uh Ernest at the time was uh getting more interested in real real estate and making real estate investments. So we um we talked about that you know incessantly you know and some of the other crew members would come and listen to our conversations. You know, talk about a focused
13:58 uh you know, sailor uh chief petty officer made it when he was very young uh for for a chief and and and just man, you know, and and sometimes I would just kind of hang out with him and the young sail younger sailors would come to talk to him because they knew they were going to get good guidance from uh from you know, Chief Chief Justini. Uh he he since has retired from the Navy. We, like I said, we're we we still keep in touch and we're still friends. So, my experience with submarines um was one of the just
14:34 um most memorable experiences I had largely because of the people with whom I dealt. Um they are, like I said at the beginning, just among the finest sailors uh that you will ever meet. Um and and they uh it's it's it's it's hard to describe. Um if if we could work with people like them in the civilian world, how fortunate our professional lives would would be. Now, by the way, that's not to say that we didn't have problems. We we certainly did. Um there were young
15:12 because most of these sailors are, pardon me, rather nerdish. So, you know, they'd get off work, you know, when when they were, you know, not at sea. So, you know, the work day started at whatever it was, 7:00, 8:00, I forget now. It would end around 5, six o'clock, whatever it was. uh you know and they they'd be in their barracks you know in the evening and and they would get on in these uh online video games and they'd stay up you know a handful of them they would stay up all night playing video games and then they wouldn't get to work on time and you know day after day they
15:48 they would be late for work and you know we would counsel them we would work with them because you know the Navy had already invested a million bucks in these sailors like you don't you you're not going to you're not going to separate a you a sailor when that kind of investment has been made and also the qualification process. There's just not a lot of um people who can get through the qualification process, right? So, we really worked with them but in some cases unfortunately they did not have the maturity to to to re to you know to recognize that um you know that they had
16:25 to get to work on time basically. It's it's it sounds so silly to say it. Um as well um they were um often times got ve you know relatively large in some cases very large uh signing bonuses for example to reinlist. So I had one sailor who got a $50,000 bonus for reinlisting and he promptly went out and bought a high-end MercedesBenz. spent the entire $50,000 uh buying this car. Well, then what he
17:00 realized was the insurance for a a Mercedes uh at, you know, of that level. I I think it was an S-Class if if memory serves, uh is is very expensive and he could not afford the insurance on his on his regular pay. Um, not to mention he didn't take into account that that $50,000 bonus was taxable. Having spent it all on his on buying this car, he couldn't pay the income taxes on the bonus. Uh, and and unfortunately, you
17:37 know, he ended up having to sell the car. Um, and and and I'm I'm sure you can appreciate this. Merced Mercedes, they don't hold their value. You drive them off a lot. Like many cars, the value drops right away. It was it was a a very sad uh lesson that he learned in in financial responsibility. So, you know, these kinds of things went on too because a lot of these, you know, these these these men were they were young and inexperienced never had anything like that kind of money um at their disposal. Uh and and of course there were family problems too. It's very hard on
18:13 families. they would go they would go on a deployment that lasted sometimes six months, nine months. Um, a lot of which they're underwater. So unlike being on a surface vessel where most of the time you have connectivity with your family and so whether that's a good or a bad thing, that's a bourbon question. Um, but you have the ability to be in contact with your family, you know, routinely on on like on the aircraft carrier I was on. Um, the the sailors could go to the internet cafe and they could Facebook
18:49 message their family members and friends. On a submarine, especially a fast well, the boomers as well, but a fast attack boat, you're underwater a lot of the time. And when you're underwater, uh, you're in essentially what amounts to what's called River City on a surface vessel. River City means that out that that communications off the ship are are are not allowed except for the most senior um senior officers on the ship. Um and and so it was very hard on families. Um and I remember doing a um a reunion brief for wives. Um
19:27 it was a I think a week or two before their their their husband's boat was expected back. And uh I put it together with one of the chief petty officers on on the squadron staff and you know we you know uh the chief and I really kind of told these these wives you know this this is what it's going to be like. Now for the wives whose whose sailors had you know whose husbands I mean had been on deployment before they're kind of going yeah right they're shaking their heads. Yes. We're watching them. But the younger wives whose
20:03 husbands, you know, where, you know, their husband was, this was the first deployment while they were married, they freaked out. And I got called in by the deputy commodor. And he's like, "What the heck did you tell these sailors?" He said, "Because these wives are freaked out." I'm like, "Sir, you you can talk to chief, you know, such and such. we told them what in our estimation they needed to know in order to reunite their families successfully. And he said, "Well, I don't know. I'm going to have to look into this, but uh this doesn't
20:39 sound right to me, Chaplain." So, shortly after that, I got a call from him. I was in my office. He asked me to come back to his office, and he said uh he said, "I I owe you an apology." I'm like, "What do you owe me an apology for?" He said, well, he said, I spoke to one, there was one particular wife who was kind of the head of the wives group, so to speak. And he said, I spoke to her and she said that you and Chief absolutely said what needed to be said and and you did you did the job that needed to be done and you did it extremely well. And he and she said,
21:15 "Yeah, you know, young young wives new to the Navy, they freak out in in the submarine service. that's just how it goes. Um but but you couldn't have done a better job than what you did. And he said, "So, um you know, I I I apologize for the way I handled it." I said, "Hey, look, sir, you know, not to worry. The main thing is that, you know, we're taking care of our sailors." and and and to his credit, he really appreciated that that was um that we shared that perspective is really what it came down to because that was what our job was on
21:50 the squadron staff was to make sure that that the officers and sailors were were taken care of. So, so these are the kind of things that go on in the submarine community and you can see that it's a it's a tight-knit community um where uh there's very high expectations um but those high expectations are undergarded um by a lot of support. not support in terms of um uh making it easier for the sailors because that's counterproductive
22:26 in the submarine service. But the kind of support that allows them or or facilitates their excelling that's that's really sort of the ethos of of the submarine service. uh and um and when I would meet submariners um in various capacities. So when I was stationed in Germany, our assistant officer in charge uh was actually a submariner and he and I got along very well because I knew the submarine community and and so we communicated
23:01 quite well and the ethos that that I had that he had from uh you know from being a a submariner um was was very useful for the kind of work we were doing in Germany. So, so, so I wanted to give you that flavor of what the submarine community is like because I, you know, in the Navy you hear a lot about the Airdales, right? I I talk about naval aviation quite often because I spent a lot of time there as well. You, you know, you hear about the Navy Seals, um, which I was also fortunate to spend time with. You don't hear a lot about the
23:38 surface Navy, the so-called black shoe Navy. Um, you don't hear a lot about the CBS, the construction ba battalion sailors. Um, and you don't hear a lot about um, the submariners. What I think what most people's image of Navy submariners comes from World War II movies, you know, um, Operation Petticoat, you know, kind of on the one end and um, you know, Run Silent, Run Deep on the other end, right? Um, and of course those movies are not particularly accurate um, in their day. And they also were filmed at a time when the Navy uh,
24:14 Navy submarines were, you know, diesel powered. They were much smaller even than the fast attack boats are today. Um, and so they don't they don't present an accurate picture of of the submarine service today. Um, but uh, you know, if if you ever get an opportunity to tour a submarine, whether it's a fast small fast attack boat or whether it's one of the boomers, uh, I, you know, take it. Just drop everything and go. Uh, I think you will, you will be fascinated by it.
24:49 And one of the best parts about it will be hopefully getting to talk to some of the crew members uh and and and get to know their their quality as as not just as sailors but as people. So uh all right. So that's that's what this this the sea service is about. Now uh I'm going to um talk about one probably the most frightening thing that happened to me. I got underway on submarines. I think three or four times when I was with Subron 11. Uh, and most of it was pretty routine. I think in another
25:25 episode I talked about doing a burial at sea on a submarine. That was I mean, you know, burial at sea, of course, is somber, but how some of the things that happened were were pretty comical. um you know, smoking cigars with uh one of the um one of the uh you know, skippers of of one of the boats I was on up in the sail was was one of the most pleasant experiences I had in the Navy. Um the mo one of the most frightening things that ever happened to me in the Navy was I was I was on a boat, we were underway, I was in my wreck, that's that's Navy talk for bed. Uh and all of
26:02 a sudden the uh emergency claxon goes off and the executive officer the exo comes over the what's called the 1MC that's the internal boat communication system and he he says uh we have casualty in the I think it was the torpedo room as I recall now fire in the torpedo room damage control unit respond everyone else stay in place uh do not move right and so I'm lying in Iraq in the dark and I'm thinking to myself, there's a fire on board the submarine
26:37 and I'm going to die. And that's all I'm thinking. Of course, silly, that's not, you know, that was not going to happen, but but you know, what did I know? Um, and the damage control unit responded and within I mean it was probably three or four minutes. It seemed like a long time like I'm lying there, you know, but I don't think it was more than three or four minutes. maybe five minutes. Uh the exo comes back on and and he says uh casualty has been eliminated. Uh you know, secure from uh you know, from
27:12 emergency and uh you know, you're you're free to move around the boat again. Um but in in those just few minutes I was both frightened um but also realized how well trained these sailors were and how effectively they could respond in an emergency, right? Just minutes to take care of this. That that's all it was. And and again that is also part of the ethos of the submarine service. So
27:47 there's there's I think I' I've got a um I think six lessons is it? Let me see. I'll look at my list here because I as you know I always make notes. Oh, so I' I've got a list of of of eight thoughts on what on what we can learn from what's also known as the silent service that we can apply to our businesses. Let's take a break first. America is a maritime nation. Our freedom and security depend on strong sea services. The Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League stands with our Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Merchant
28:24 Marine through community support, education, and advocacy. For over 120 years, Americans of all walks of life have heeded our call. No prior military services required to join our mission. the Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League of the United States. Help us support those who serve at sea. Visit navyleague.org. So, this is business lessons from the military and we're talking about the I'm talking about the lessons that that we can learn and apply to our businesses
29:00 and professional practices from the submarine service, the silent service. So talked about what it was like uh to to be I was a chaplain on the uh the staff of submarine squadron 11 subron 11 and shared some of those sea stories with you. So let's let's look at uh let's look at some of the things that that you know we can use for our businesses. So um first of all uh and and and I this is I just just before the the the break I mentioned that the training for example that the uh damage
29:35 control unit had to respond to an emergency was superb, right? And they were they were able to take care of that that fire on on the boat within just minutes, right? So, um, submarine crews on submarines, they train relentlessly before a crisis in order to be able to effectively handle a crisis. So, the the the lesson here is that we need to prepare our teams for worstcase scenarios before they happen, right? So
30:14 whatever that may be, okay, in our businesses and we've got to look at our key vulnerabilities, right? We need to prepare our people to deal with them even though they may never have to or they may only ever have to once in, you know, 5 years or 10 years or something like that. The issue is when the crisis hits, it's too late to train people to respond to it. Okay? and what we stand to lose if our team is not prepared can be large too
30:49 existential to our our business, right? And so and and if you think about it on a submarine, what would h what would have happened if that fire had spread, right? And it couldn't be effectively contained very quickly, right? um you know over a hundred people trapped in a steel tube underwater maybe at best having to make an emergency ascent which can all which is always risky right and and worst case scenario the fl the fire takes over the whole boat and kills everyone on board right not an acceptable
31:24 uh you know event uh for for a submarine and its crew right so they have to train to survive now for most of us our businesses are not existential to the same degree but the crises that we can we we might face can be very very serious right so um we need to build like like um mental muscle memory if you will on what to do when whatever bad things might befall our businesses happen. So maybe we've
32:01 got we're manufacturing a product and uh you know power is lost to our manufacturing facility, right? And now all of a sudden we can't we can't build our product. What are we going to do? And we say, "Oh, that'll never happen." Well, I don't know. You know, there's everything from um discussions about the vulnerability of the electrical grid to things like terrorism to um weather events that can knock out transmission lines um to just, you know, somebody
32:38 does something wrong that causes the the, you know, the power to short out in in in the facility. And you know, what's going to happen? you know, how how quickly can can that be repaired, right? So, and and and again, once it happens, now you're going to be scrambling to fix the problem if if you plan for it and even trained for it. So, the response is going to be essentially automatic. So maybe the plan is that once it's confirmed that the power is indeed out
33:13 and that it's not there's going to be a sign, you know, too long a time gap before it's restored, you're going to bring in uh uh generators or maybe you have generators on site and um you know they need to be started up so that you know work can be you know can continue. Okay. So, how is that all going to work? I I you know, do you want to do you want to rely on Okay, well, people will figure it out if they need to use these generators. I would think not. I think you would that would be something you'd want to have your people trained for and you'd want to have multiple people
33:49 trained in case whoever is the the you know key generator starter if you will um you know is is out sick that day or or god forbid was was injured or worse and so is unable to f you know fill that role right so where are the key vulnerabilities in our businesses that can have you know let's say a similar effect to a fire that a fire on a submarine might have. What are those key vulnerabilities? What is the plan to respond to them? And then how do we train our people so that the response is
34:26 essentially automatic and we have sound business continuity, right? So train relentlessly before a crisis. So that's that's lesson number one. Lesson number two, everyone must know everything. Now part one of the another aspect of the ethos of the submarine community is there is a lot of redundancy in terms of the skills of the sailor. So although a particular sailor may be he may have a rating as a bosen and another may have a rating as a machinist mate um and another one may
35:03 have whatever you know whatever the other ratings they have are on a submarine where you have a crew of only a little over a hundred men. So they need to be interchangeable because you can't carry duplicate. You know, you can't carry five bowins's mates or or whatever, right? So um all of the sailors need to have very flexible skills in order to make sure that if you know again, god forbid, there's a casually on the boat, several sailors are hurt or incapacitated or worse, right? Others can step into those roles.
35:39 Okay, let's say the the the submarine has to go into battle. They need to fire uh torpedoes, right? Uh what happens if in you know the submarine gets um gets hit by some sort of depth charge? By the way, that there are still that's still a way that's still a part of anti-ubmarine warfare, depth charging. And let's say that depth charge knots out the the torpedo crew um while you know still you still have uh uh tubes that that are um that are functional, right? So what is the submarine going to do to defend
36:14 itself? Well, there's got to be other sailors who can step into the breach and continue to fire torpedoes, right? So there's got to there has to be cross trainining. So while it's not literally the case that every um submariner can fill every job on the boat um there is a tremendous amount of cross trainining and for that matter crossuse. So the the table in the ward room, okay, doubles as a surgical table, okay, and the independent duty corman, who's
36:51 not a doctor, um will perform whatever medical procedures are necessary uh in order to sustain the well-being of the sailors. Okay. And we actually had while I was on board one of the one of the subs submarines uh we had a sailor fall coming uh through the hatch um and he he hurt his back and we we ended up putting him on the wardroom table and and and working it out and then you know basically we had to work out a time where we could surface um uh I'm sorry where um where we could get not surface
37:27 we were already on the surface where we could get close enough inshore where we could get um one of the boards that you put people with potential back problems on, strap them onto that board and carry them off the submarine, right? And the independent duty corman, he was the one uh handling all of that, right? So in our businesses as well, especially the smaller our business, the more crossraining is necessary. Okay, if we have if it's a you know big huge company with thousands and thousands of workers. So okay, so you cross trainining may not be as necessary um because we have
38:04 redundancies and maybe if we're working again if it's a manufacturing facility where there's there's multiple shifts working if for some reason a lot of people on one shift are are rendered unable to work. So maybe you can call in people from another shift who do the same thing at least as a temporary uh you know um you know temporary measure. Um but in a small company where you don't have uh redundancies among among your team so then it it will be very beneficial for there to be you know
38:40 a pretty high degree of crossraining. So uh people in marketing you know they they should probably maybe they you know they work with people in uh operations or administration so that if if additional support is needed on the marketing side that's available to them in order to be able to work some kind of new initiative some kind of product launch or service launch or something like that. So I think it's also and I talked about uh cross trainining in a in another episode I think sometime in the last month or so
39:16 but when you think about it it's a great opportunity for your it's a great uh right opportunity for uh employee retention to give them the opportunity to have experiences in in departments other than the one that they're uh assigned to or that they're working uh that they're working in and and this is this is good for the morale of your people, right? It also allows them to understand what people what what co-workers in other departments experience, what they go through. So that even if they're even if somebody in
39:53 in administration, for example, is not going to actually work in marketing, yet they can be more effective in doing their administrative work if they understand better how the marketing department works. Right? So the more the more cross-trained knowledge your team has the better in general they can work as a team. Okay. So everyone must know everything or at least a lot of people should know a lot of what goes on right. Okay. Number three in the silent service
40:28 there's a lot of intentional uh communication. So, uh, you you may have noticed watching my shows, uh, you know, I I I tend to not dangle participles. I tend to not split infinitives. Um, those kinds of things. I I speak a a pretty precise um variety of of of English, right? And one of the reasons I do that is I want to be as clearly communicative as possible, right? to leave as little room for misunderstanding as I can. And this
41:05 is a hallmark of the silent service where communication needs to be very precise. We're dealing with a highly complex piece of equipment called a submarine with a nuclear reactor on board. There is only the narrowest of tolerances for miscommunication. And so submariners learn to speak clearly, briefly, to the point, and with purpose. Okay? And and and they there's
41:42 because there's no room for confusion or ambiguity when you're dealing with a submarine. So I I remember when I got to um con a boat under instruction, which means I had a chief petty officer standing. Actually, he was over this shoulder. Um and I was sitting You have you have two um two sailors conning the boat at the same time. You you you basically do it in unison. So there there's a redundancy there. Um and this was my first time. And it did not occur to me until I sat down and took the I
42:18 don't think it's called a yoke, but it's like the yoke of an airplane that conning a submarine is most similar to flying a plane because not only do you move in, you know, uh, you know, left, right, forward, back, but you also move up, down, right? And and and you know, driving a car is different. You don't have to worry about the car moving up and down. You're on the road. That's it. Same with a surface craft. you're you're on the surface of the water, uh, bicycle, whatever, walking. When you're in a submarine, in an airplane, now you're moving in that third dimension up and down. And it's it's it really takes
42:55 a lot of training and skill uh to be able to uh pilot that boat. Um, and but the reason I bring that up is I'm I was in the uh, you know, kind of the nerve SE center for the submarine and the the I was surprised by how little communication was going on, but how much information was being conveyed through the limited communication, right? And and while I'm sitting there conning the boat and doing my best to keep it level, right? And even the chief behind me, he
43:31 didn't say a whole lot, right? Only only when he thought I was, you know, going to re really c if I was that I might really cause a problem, right? Did he intervene. So, and then the instructions he gave me were clear to the point and and you know, in they were intended to get me back on track and and then, you know, we moved on with our day. So, that's a hallmark of communication on a submarine. And I think it would be I think it's a good idea to foster a similar type of communication in our businesses. Now, we don't necessarily,
44:08 you know, we don't necessarily want to aspire to the level of brevity um that that there is on a submarine where you have you can be on you can be on the um uh um it's not called the deck. Shoot, I'm going up on the word for for where the the the boat is con. Um but um you don't necessarily want it to be that silent all the time. Um there is of course there is a reason why on a submarine uh you know sparse communication is practice and that's because it's part of
44:43 the ethos of being being quiet being silent right so we don't need to do that necessarily in our businesses but the the striving for clarity can you know I I think is is the most important part of this idea of intentional communication so u whether we're giving someone whether Whether it's a supervisor giving an instructions to uh you know a co-orker, whether uh it's it's a a you know um a team member um reporting to a senior um the results of of I don't know
45:20 the day's work or whatever or progress on a project whatever that is. Clarity of communication is important. One of the things about living in the United States is we speak English. English is an enormously uh rich language and it has in in some cases orders of magnitude more words than other languages. So Hebrew has got 20,000 shares what are called roots in it from which every all the words in Hebrew have to be derived. English I think now has something like a million
45:55 words or something. It's it's a crazy number. So 20,000 versus a million, you're talking about what uh 5,000 times the number of words, right? Um we can be very precise in with English. English is the language of science in many ways. It took it took over from from German in that respect um in in the 20th century. And so we should strive for that clarity of communication. Take advantage of the richness that that English gives us. Okay. So intentional communication.
46:31 Okay. Number four, trust is built on qualification. So, one of the most highly prized uh um qualifications that a sailor can earn in the United States Navy are called the dolphins. Okay? It's the submarine insignia. Okay? And what it what it means is a sailor who is wearing dolphins, whether he's enlisted or an officer, he's qualified to stand watch
47:07 on a submarine, which means he basically has the the boat under his charge, obviously subject to the commanding officer. Okay, the skipper commanding officer, same thing. So I I know that one of the issues I dealt with when I was at Subron 11 that was was causing a fair amount amount of heartburn for the Commodore was how could he make coming to the submarine squadron more attractive to chaplain so they would basically say I want to go to
47:42 a submarine squadron. I said, 'Well, one of the ways to do that is to convince big Navy to allow chaplain to earn the submarine. It's called a warfare pin. Um now um somewhat I think idiotically, um the Navy does not allow chaplain to earn so-called warfare qualifications with one exception. And so and that's this was this was the basis of my recommendation. So there is a nonweapons
48:21 version of what's called the um FMF pin, the fleet marine force pin that chaplain can uh earn. Okay. Um I I once had a Marine Corps colonel offer to give it to me without going through the qualification process because because he liked me. we we you know we we became friends and and I said uh you know I I appreciate that sir but I I think I should earn it and unfortunately I never had the time to earn it. Uh and he he went on to become a major general. So I I in retrospect I think I should have taken it but but in any event the Marine
48:56 Corps basically said to big Navy we want our chaplain to understand the Marine Corps ethos in depth. And so we're going to create a modified version of the FMF pin and the really the only difference was that um that a chaplain didn't have to do the small arms qualifications. That was it. Otherwise they did all the rest. So what's interesting is on a on a um on a submarine there to the best of my ability there's no small arms qualifica to I mean sorry to the best of my
49:32 knowledge there's no small arms qualification for the for earning the dolphins right it's all about understanding how to stand watch on a submarine and so I thought it would be a possibility especially given um that our our Commodore had very high standing um with the Navy and in fact he was promoted to admiral after he finished his tour at the Subbron. Um and I think the there would have been a lot of chaplain that would have come to submarine squadrons in order to be able to earn that pin. Um I know to be
50:10 honest, one of the reasons I I floated the idea was because I would have loved to have gotten that pin. Um so um you know, there's there's a tremendous amount of prestige. And if you if you see sailors in their uh khaki uniforms, so they'll be wearing the dolphin pin on their um right breast, it it typically it's it's the the the thing you'll see um um the highest up on their uniform basically. Um and um and uh you know it
50:47 you won't see a lot of sailors wearing dolphins. Okay. On my uniform I actually I'm I think the only chaplain who has the submarine rescue pin. I was allowed to get that and I did earn it. I'll tell you that story another time. Um but um it's it's very prestigious to wear certain of these warfare pins whereas literally tens if not hundreds of thousands of sailors uh earned this the the surface warfare pin um and maybe you know a smaller but still thousands and
51:22 tens of thousands of sailors earn their air warfare pin. uh ve very relatively few uh earn the dolphins and and other qualifications like the submarine rescue pin um and uh um the uh special warfare pin which is what the seals get when they when they finish uh buds when they graduate buds, right? So, the qualifications are uh especially for these other ones are very rigorous. And I I know our um chief staff officer um
51:59 uh he convinced the Commodore to let him go on board a submarine long enough to qualify for the pin. Um he didn't make it his first time out. It took him getting underway three times, a tremendous amount of study. He I think when he first started he didn't realize uh how much work it was going to be but to his credit Jake um you know he he stuck it out he got it done he earned the pin um and I I I I was all I was lucky enough to be uh foj friend of Jake and so I I sort of you know I knew him
52:34 when he was going through that process um it was a lot of work especially for someone that didn't come up in the submarine service. So we can create the same kind of qualifications in our companies. Okay. Now these are different like for someone who's in for example cyber security there's all kinds of qualifications they can get from different uh you know cyber security training vendors and all this kind of stuff right so I'm talking about something different than that I'm talking about something more along the lines of for example when I was a boy my
53:09 dad qualified as what's called a professional engineer a PE um and it was a lot of work my dad was really proud to have been able to earn that qualific ification. So, and this was something basically put together by it was an organization for professionalizing engineering. This was I I think it was in the 1970s if I remember correctly that this all came together for my dad. So we can create similar types of qualifications in our companies and they can challenge our people um but
53:47 also then give us an opportunity to recognize uh their advance their advanced um abilities by having earned these qualifications. They can also create greater morale and greater um uh loyalty to the company by giving people these kinds of opportunities. Okay. So, uh trust is built on qualification but the qualifications they really they have to be challenging to get. They can't be sort of check in the box kind of things. Okay. Next, command by
54:24 consent, not just rank. So, if you're a regular watcher of the show, I I use a submarine as an example all the time of h because the most the the captain of the boat who's a commander, an '05 officer, will as readily listen to an idea from his exo, who's an ' 04, a lieutenant commander, as he will the most junior sailor on board, an E3. um a um like a a you know bozen you know he's just you know entry level bozen for
54:59 example and that's because he the the the the captain of the boat needs to know as much as he possibly can about what's really going on on his boat. and and in many cases it's the junior people who who have that knowledge and can give him the the information and the ideas the suggestions that he needs. Okay. So I I won't say it's literally command by consent because in the end the captain of the boat is responsible for all for
55:34 what happens on the boat. Um, but there is a lot more fluid communication process that's unimpeded by rank on a submarine that you would never see. Well, I shouldn't say never, but that you would almost never see, for example, on a surface uh surface vessel, whether it's a small boy like a destroyer or, you know, a nuclear aircraft carrier. There's just not that fluidity of communication. The only the only thing uh not the only thing but one of the one of the things that's similar would be an an aviation squadron which
56:10 I've also talked about before. Um but it's that level of fluidity of communication that I think is is best for our businesses. So we want our frontline people are is who are typically the most junior people to be feeding us their input their impressions their ideas we want them doing that can only improve our business now you may say I can't listen to all those crazy ideas really okay how many crazy ideas do you have
56:48 right and out of a hundred ideas that you get from you and your management team, how many of them really turn out to be truly good ideas? I mean, is it really such a massively higher percentage than what you might get from your junior people? I I I'll be honest with you, I'm skeptical that that's the case. Okay? I I mean, unless I guess you're you're hiring just complete numps as your junior people, and then why are you doing that? Why don't you hire intelligent uh you know junior people who can give you great ideas, okay?
57:24 Things that you can try out, okay? And what's what what could be more motivating for your frontline people that for them to know that, hey, one of our own gave us, you know, gave the management team this idea and the management team's going to we're going to try it out. Okay, maybe you're going to try it out for a week and just see what happens. you're going to try it out for two weeks or a month or whatever it is. Okay. Gosh, uh to me that sounds like a huge morale booster. And again, getting the information from the people closest to the problem, getting the solution from the people closest to the
58:00 problem, it's got to be more effective than what we cook up. No matter how much we know about the front lines, we don't know everything, right? Okay, let's see. Um okay I'm I'm going to talk about one more. I have eight but I'm going to talk about um uh one more and that is uh surface regularly to check reality. So I was having uh this discussion with my friend Michael. Again, those of you who are regular watchers of the show, I we have an every Monday evening uh call
58:36 where we we talk for anywhere from an hour to sometimes two and a half hours. Um and we were talking about this idea of reality uh you know for it it seems like reality has gotten more subjective maybe especially postcoid um but the reality is right reality exists. what what's subjective is how we perceive reality. Okay. And for a submarine's crew, the one of the key uh aspects to running that boat effectively is that
59:12 they have a uh a a unified perception of reality, I guess, is the best way to put it. and that that requires periodic reality checks, right? So, uh you know, this is part of the training. It's part of the philosophy, the ethos of of of the submarine service, right? And one of the ways that it's achieved is by um in essence taking a mental, if not an actual step back to get the larger
59:48 picture. or on a submarine if it's submerged to, you know, bring up that periscope and look around and see what's really going on. One of the things that I find most kind of freaky about being on a submarine is there, you know, you have you're not able to look outside the boat. So unless it's on the surface and you have permission to go into the sail or on the deck for some reason and and there is and it's not there has to be a good reason. Sailors just just don't go and do it for you know when they want to. Um you're inside that tube, right?
60:26 And and it's very easy to lose your bearings and lose your sense of reality in in some ways, right? So you need to get outside the boat or at least you know look through the periscope to get get yourself sort of re uh realigned right. So we need to do that with our businesses as well. Um this is why you know historically businesses had retreats to kind of get out of the office get in a an unfamiliar environment and kind of look look at the business from a different perspective. We need to do that for all our people,
61:01 not just the senior management team, right? We we we need to be able to give our people the opportunity to get perspective on our business so they can get fresh ideas, new approaches to handling the business, whether it's sales, marketing, admin, operations, whatever it is. We want our people being able to stand back re, you know, assess broadly and then move back in to get into the specifics again. And so we want to build that into how our businesses operate so that we h we can do these
61:37 reality assessments on a periodic basis. So those are the I think the key lessons that can be learned from u from being on a submarine from how this from how the silent service works. Be interested as always to hear your your thoughts, your your comments, your criticisms. Um all the links to um my social media will be in the show notes when this episode posts on YouTube um as well as um my email addresses there as well. So uh let's see. Tomorrow at uh 10 am Pacific
62:12 time is my show People Making Money. And then uh next week on Monday at 10:00 am is my show um Trust and Estates Weekly. Um all the times of course are Pacific time. And then a week from today I'll be back for the next edition of Business Lessons from the Military. So I thank you very much for joining me today. Got some live viewers on on on deck. Uh, and uh, always always good to know that. Um, thank you so much. If you if you like the show, if you found it interesting, share it with a a colleague um, you
62:47 know, someone who's in business maybe or um, you know, I'd really appreciate that. I'd like to spread the word, trying to help as many uh, as many people as I possibly can. So, uh, would would really appreciate if you'd pass it on to them. So once again, thank you so much for joining me. Wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do. Marie Darling, you are my bell. Courage at all times, my friends.