What Would You Take With You?

One of the questions almost always asked during one of my submarine life talks is about sleeping on the sub. Most people who have been around sub sailors have heard about hot racking and I will have to admit to doing so a few times in my career as a lower rated enlisted man. Getting […]

You Need More Mustangs

I have a great friend and mentor in Michigan who taught me a lot about systems and change. One of the things he talks about is the change that goes on in an organization during its journey from an entrepreneurial adventure to one that is more established. If you think about it, a brand new […]

What is the most important part?

Systems thinking is an important part of Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline. In an organization, it mostly means having the ability to see the whole while balancing the importance of the parts. For me, this has always been a touchstone of lean thinking. Every part has its own role and in any system, their interactions make […]

Steam Will Replace Sails? Madness!!!

An Ohio class submarine slips its mooring next to the Delta pier in Bangor Washington. Silently, she glides down the flat calm waters of the Hood Canal on her way to the open ocean. This five hundred sixty foot vessel will soon submerge and begin her primary mission. For over fifty years, ships like this […]

122 Years of Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement for over 122 Years While submarines have existed in one form or another for a very long time, the US Navy formalized the marriage of technologies that would lead to the modern steel warhorses that range the oceans of the world today. After a series of trials in the late 1800’s, a man […]

Prepare to Hover

Hovering Submarines are incredible machines that are designed to operate in a number of configurations. One of the difficult ones is something called “hovering”. A submarine has ballast tanks that control its buoyancy. To start descending, the submarine floods these tanks with outside sea water and to surface, you make that water leave in a […]

Prepare to Dive, Prepare to Dive

“Chief of the Watch, verify boat is ready to submerge” “Aye aye sir … Straight Board” “Very well Chief, Diving officer, Submerge the ship” “Aye Aye sir, Chief of the Watch, sound two blasts of the diving alarm and open all main vents” “On the 1MC… Dive Dive” The boat slides beneath the waves and […]