Quote
“Don't move information to authority, move authority to the information.”— L. David Marquet, in Turn the Ship Around! (2012) · Turn the Ship Around! →
Why it was said
David Marquet, a submarine captain who turned the worst-performing boat in the US fleet into the best, gives this as the alternative to the leader-follower model he inherited. It is the principle under every mechanism in the book.
What it actually means
In most organisations the person who knows sends the information up to the person who decides, and the delay and the loss of detail on the way are accepted as the price of control. Marquet reversed it: let the person with the information decide, and give them the competence and the clarity to decide well. His sailors said 'I intend to' instead of asking permission. The sentence is a design principle for any team where the decisions are being made too far from the facts.
How to use it
- 1Find one decision that currently travels up to you and push it to the person who has the information, with a clear intent format.
- 2Replace 'may I' with 'I intend to' in your own reporting and see what it changes.