As I’ve described earlier, West Point and the Army made deliberate decisions to move from a culture of compliance to a culture of commitment, from measuring who could survive to investing in who could lead. That is a culture turnaround. It is one of the most transparent examples I know of what large-scale culture change … Read more
In the spring of 2020, Patrick McBrayer was the CEO of ACell Inc., a medical device company with a workforce that had gone home, a supply chain under pressure, and an industry landscape that was changing by the week. The pandemic was not a problem that could be solved with a good quarter or a … Read more
The Real Mutual Accountability Early in my career, not long after I became the Platoon Leader of an armored cavalry platoon with 41 Soldiers and 10 armored vehicles, my Platoon Sergeant (second in command) asked to inspect my fingernails. I was stunned but complied. His name was Sergeant Mac, and he was the kind of … Read more
The Safety in Learning While in command during a major exercise at the National Training Center in the Mojave Desert, we faced a professional enemy that was not about to cooperate with the plan I had developed. As we approached the critical moment of the battle, my staff could now see what I could not, … Read more
Making People Matter Few of us knew that roughly 40 percent of my class entering West Point would not graduate four years later. That attrition was not an accident. It was, in some respects, by design. The culture of the institution then was built around pressure, endurance, and the belief that only those who could … Read more
Defining The Culture of Commitment Not long ago, I was working with a car dealership General Manager who told me a story I have never forgotten. He was walking his service bays at the end of a long workday when he stopped to talk to one of the technicians (a young man named Jack, as … Read more
