In the second part of this two-part episode of The Idealcast Gene Kim and Admiral John Richardson, former Chief of Naval Operations, continue their discussion on the importance of leadership in large, complex organizations, especially enabling leadership training early in one’s career, and exploring why he views it as so important. Admiral Richardson also shares why radical delegation is needed more than ever, and provides tools and techniques for enabling it.
Kim and Admiral Richardson discuss the important characteristics needed to integrate problems solving into an organization. And finally, they talk about the nature of the US Naval Reactors that are responsible for the safe and reliable operations of the US Naval Propulsion Program, why that warrants the command of a 4-star admiral, and what should ideally happen when accidents occur in complex systems.
Also joining the conversation is Dr. Steve Spear, who has written extensively about the US Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program program in his book The High-Velocity Edge.




ABOUT THE GUESTS
Admiral John Richardson served as the Chief of Naval Operations for four years, which is the professional head of the US Navy. While in the Navy, Richardson served in the submarine force and commanded the attack submarine USS Honolulu in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for which he was awarded the Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale Inspirational Leadership Award. He also served as the Director of Naval Reactors, responsible for the design, safety, certification, operating standards, material control, maintenance, disposal, and regulatory oversight of over 100 nuclear power plants operating on nuclear-powered warships deployed around the world.
Since his retirement in August 2019, he has joined the boards of several major corporations and other organizations, including Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, and Exelon, a Fortune 100 company that operates the largest fleet of nuclear plants in America and delivers power to over 10 million customers. 
Dr. Steve Spear (DBA MS MS) is principal for HVE LLC, the award-winning author of The High-Velocity Edge, and patent holder for the See to Solve Real Time Alert System. A Senior Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School and a Senior Fellow at the Institute, Dr. Spear’s work focuses on accelerating learning dynamics within organizations so that they know better and faster what to do and how to do it. This has been informed and tested in practice in multiple industries including heavy industry, high tech design, biopharm R&D, healthcare delivery and other social services, US Army rapid equipping, and US Navy readiness.  
Visit Steve Spear's Website
 
YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT
Admiral Richardson’s views on the importance of training leadership in the earliest stages of a sailor’s career
Why leadership is so important
Various tools and techniques for enabling radical delegation
Important characteristics of the different ways that integrated problem solving incurs in organizations
The nature of the function organization that is the U.S. Naval reactors, comprehensively responsible for safe and reliably operations of the US Naval Propulsion Program and why it warrants being commanded by a four-star admiral
What should leaders in complex organizations do when accidents occur

 
RESOURCES
Leadership Development and Balancing Creativity and Control with Admiral John Richardson (Part I)
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte
Navy Leader Development Framework
A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority v. 1
A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority v. 2
Amazon Staff Meetings: “No Powerpoint”
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos: The Ultimate Disrupter by Adam Lashinsky
How are the six-page narratives structured in Jeff Bezos' S-Team meetings?
Flipped meetings: Learning from Amazon’s meeting policy by Stowe Boyd
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte
Beautiful Evidence by Edward Tufte
The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Oper