Diving into Lean

What a great week! I spent most of it in Orlando Florida at the Peabody Hotel participating in meetings and discussions around “lean culture” with members of the Lean Enterprise Institute’s Lean Transformation Summit 2013. http://www.lean.org/Events/2013_lean_transformation_summit.cfm The Institute is a non-profit organization made up of people like John Shook and Jim Womack who are certainly […]

FBLA: A brighter future for America

In about two hours, I will be leading the first of three training sessions for part of a group of 3800 students in Hershey PA. We are going to focus on communications and leadership. The title: “Leading is easy… getting them to follow you is the tough part.” Needless to say, even thought I served […]

A new day

Today was a special day. My business web site went live today! I will still continue to add stories and commentary to the Lean Submariner but the website bobmacpherson-speaker.info is my way to satisfy my passion for business process improvement, training services, and speaking. Check it out if you get the chance. In the next […]

The Submariner

Looking back over the last forty years, my thoughts of what a good submariner looks like have become much clearer. I have not been on a boat for over twenty years but there are some things that still stand out even through the haze of the years. I should tell you that I greatly admire […]

Where are you when they need you most?

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on November 30th at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England. His life would have a significant impact on the entire twentieth century as England survived two tumultuous wars and hundreds of smaller conflicts. Winston came from a long line of military leaders with a prestigious history and he added his […]

Life is simple… you’re either qualified or you’re not

I don’t know when qualification cards became part of submarine life. I know they were there when I first came aboard the George Washington. I remember Chief John telling me very specifically that the card was as important as any piece of paper I ever held so I better not lose it. Each week, I would […]

He was the best there ever was (just ask him)

Once upon a time there was a young Machinist Mate serving on a ballistic missile submarine who inherited the job of Repair Parts Petty Officer (RPPO). I am pretty sure he did not know what he had been volunteered for but as in other collateral duties, there really weren’t a lot of choices. The guy […]

Disrespected

Somewhere, Mrs. Stamps (my third grade teacher) is standing with her shoulders slightly slumped and shaking her head. She has just heard one of her students use a noun as a transitory verb for the hundredth time and feels like her mission of bringing proper English to the children of Mt. Vernon Elementary School has […]

Blinders? Why no, these are my new leadership Goggles!

For over a century the leadership of the U.S. Army and Navy were in agreement about how the United States coast would be managed: the Army would defend the beaches and out to the range of their coastal guns, and the Navy would protect anything beyond that range. The advent of the airplane challenged that […]

How Deep Can You Go?

I wish I had a nickel for every time I have heard this question asked. For the past seventeen years I have been delivering speeches to all kinds of organizations about submarine operations during the cold war. Submarines played a key role throughout the Cold War and some of the stories remain buried in secret […]