You can’t intend for somebody else to do something. That’s basically telling people what to do as a subterfuge. Here’s David with more about how “intent” works.
Hey, you can’t intend for somebody else to do something. For example, you can’t say “I intend for you to be on time.” That’s basically telling people what to do as a subterfuge.
So the idea of intent is two ways: 1. leaders give intent, not instructions AND the team gives their intentions back to the leader. So, the team says something like, or the person in charge (or the officer, in my case on the submarine) would say, “I intend to submerge the ship. I intend to load a torpedo tomorrow at noon. I intend to load certain torpedoes. I intend to start the nuclear reactor.”
And since we had clear role definition in the Navy, we had clear ownership. It was clear when the officer said “I intend to start the reactor” that would be the engineer – and everything that was necessary to start the reactor was within that person’s area of responsibility. Those clear lines made it easier for the officers to understand what they could intend to do. And some things they needed to negotiate with the other departments before they intend to do it.
But the clearer the ownership was along these lines when they came forward and said “here’s what I intend to do.” That made it easier.
I’m David Marquet. That’s your Leadership Nudge.
