Page 46:

Once the crewmen remembered what we were doing and why, they would do anything to support the mission. This was a stark contrast to earlier, when people were coming to work simply with the hope of not screwing up.

Achieve excellence, don’t just avoid errors.

Page 66:

First, we needed to create a work environment that would give the men respect and dignity; a place they were happy to go each day. Then behavior would change, and morale would improve naturally, on its own … When you’re trying to change employees’ behaviors, you have basically to approaches to choose from: change your own thinking and hope this leads to new behavior, or change your behavior and hope this leads to new thinking.

Page 83:

Eventually, the officers outlined their complete thought processes and rationale for what they were about to do. The benefit from this simple extension was that it caused them to think at the next higher level.

Page 92:

Resist the urge to provide solutions is a mechanism for control. When you follow the leader-leader model, you must take time to let others react to the situation as well. You have to create a space for open decision by the entire team, even if that space is only a few minutes, or a few seconds, long.

Page 132:

To get the most accurate answers from your customers, frame your questions to ask about specific events or decisions and focus on the present or recent past:

  • The purpose of training is to increase technical competence.
  • The result of increased technical competence is the ability to deletegate increased decision making to the employees.
  • Increased decision making among your employees will natrually result in greater engagement, motivation, and initiative.

Page 150:

I didn’t realize the degree to which old habits die hard, even when people are emotionally on-board with the change … They hear and think they know what you mean, but they don’t. They’ve never had a picture of what you are talking about. They can’t see in their imagination how it works. they are not being intentionally deceitful; they just are not picturing what you are picturing.

Page 158:

Specifying to the crew that the true objective was to put the fire out as quickly as possible was a mechanism primarily for competence … The problem with specifying the method along with the goal is one of diminished control. Provide your people with the objective and let them figure out the method.

Page 179:

When thinking about the principles and their utility, I used this question: If I were a crew member and faced with deciding between two different courses of action, would these principles provide me with the right criteria against which to select the appropriate course of action?

Page 204:

  • Instead of focusing on intimate review of the work, I focused on intimate review of the people.
  • Instead of requiring more reports and more inspection points, I required fewer.
  • Instead of more “leadership” resulting in more “followership”, I practiced less leadership, resulting in more leadership at every level of the command.