Book Notes from 'Extreme Ownership' by Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
- Cover and Move
- I was so focused on our own
squads dilemma, I didn’t think to coordinate with the other team, OP1, to
work together.
- This was the first rule in
Jocko's Laws of Combat - Cover and Move
- We had operated
independently, failing to support or help each other.
- It was foolishness to not
work together.
- We were all trying to
accomplish the same mission
- We should have utilized
every strength and tactical advantage possible
- The most important tactical
advantage we had was working together as a team, always supporting each
other.
- I had become so immersed in
the details, decision points, and immediate challenges of my own team that
I forgotten about the other team, what they could do for us and how we
might help them.
- Principle
- Cover and Move: put simply -
cover and move means teamwork.
- Mutually supporting one
another for that singular purpose.
- Departments and groups
within the team must break down silos - depend on each other and
understand who depends on them.
- Often, when smaller teams
within the team get so focused on their immediate tasks, they forget
about what others are doing or how they depend on each other teams.
- The focus must always be on
how best to accomplish the mission.
- When the team succeeds,
everyone within and supporting the team succeeds.
- Application to Business
- While he was right that they
were a different company, both companies fell under the leadership of the
same parent company.
- What you just called the
worst part should be the best part - you are both owned by the same
corporation - so you have the same mission - and that is what this is all
about, the overall mission, the overall team.
- Not just your team, but the
whole team, the entire corporation - all departments within your company
- you must all work together and support each other as one team.
- The enemy is all the other
competing companies in your industry that are vying for your customers.
- You are all on the same team
- you have overcome the 'us versus them' mentality and work together,
mutually supporting one another.
- The production manager must
now be willing to take a step back and see how this production team's
mission fit into the overall plan
- Its about the bigger
strategic mission
- How can you help this
subsidiary company do their job more effectively so they can help you
accomplish your mission and you can all win.
- Engage with them
- Build a personal
relationship with them
- Explain to them what you
need from them and why.
- Make them part of your
team, not an excuse for your team.
- Depended on them and they
depended on us - so we formed relationships with them and worked
together to accomplish the overall
mission.
- Work together to win.