NEWPORT, R.I. –
Dr. Steven Spear, a renowned author and senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Sloan School of Management, spoke to the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport workforce and toured the command on April 28.
Spear’s talk, presented as part of a monthlong focus on problem-solving, was based on the subject matter detailed in his 2023 book “Wiring the Winning Organization,” which he co-authored with Gene Kim. The visit also included a lunch with leadership, a podcast recording and a meet-and-greet session with employees.
NUWC Division Newport and MIT have had a relationship for decades, often hosting lecturers at the command. Division Newport and other warfare centers are members of the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP), which allows organizations to harness academic resources to address current challenges and anticipate future needs.
“Wiring a Winning Organization” explores how highly successful companies operate in their problem-solving approach and the relationship between leadership and the employees. Spear opened his presentation by discussing a 1988 study by John F. Krafcik, who sought to find out why Japanese automakers were outpacing U.S. production.
Of the 186 final assembly plants worldwide Krafcik studied, there were five outliers that doubled production of the other 181 with half the input. So what was the difference?
“It’s how you manage people who are working as individuals, so their individual effort harmonizes and integrates into collective action toward a common purpose,” Spear said. “Management is really about creating conditions in which people can solve really, really hard problems.”
Spear said the type of production referenced in the study isn’t limited to the automobile industry and offered an example applicable to Department of Defense (DOD) employees — the U.S. Navy’s goal of reaching 80% combat surge readiness by the close of the Davidson Window on Jan. 1, 2027.
“The idea of being able to do more with less in less time isn’t just a hypothetical they have to worry about in industry,” he said. “This is what we have to worry about in a DOD environment.”
The success of any lofty goal, Spear said, is “grounded on how well we solve the problems associated with that work.” He introduced a problem-solving chart with two distinct areas: the “danger zone” and the “winning zone.” To reach the winning zone, there are three basic mechanisms leaders can implement — “slowification, simplification and amplification.” To build a better problem-solving organization, Spear said, management can create an environment with these principles at the forefront.
Even when trying to solve a problem quicky, slowing down the process “allows other parts of the brain” to examine the issue. “It’s where those seeking a solution can be deliberative and thoughtful and reflective and exploratory,” he said. “It’s where ideas can be tested and refuted and modified.”
To simplify a problem, according to Spear, is to tackle one piece at a time, and not attempt to find an all-encompassing solution. “Solve the first problem you can see, then use that as the foundation for the next one,” he said.
Amplification refers to calling out the smaller problems before they become larger problems because “when they’re big problems that are right in your face, they’re really hard to solve and there’s no chance to do the creative thinking necessary to come to good solutions,” Spear said.
To illustrate his point, Spear touched on Clay Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation. Back in the early 1940s, the chore of digging irrigation ditches was left to men with pickaxes and shovels before the backhoe was invented by workers who thought to attach a bucket to the back of a tractor.
Soon enough, this machine was digging not only irrigation ditches, but deeper trenches, and with more power added became a tool for a wide array of projects. The inventors of the backhoe didn’t set out to create the large, hydraulic excavators we know today, but innovators took an iterative and incremental problem-solving approach that kept the technology moving forward.
Spear referenced a memo sent by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who came up with the “two-pizza” approach to problem-solving. Essentially, in an effort to scale back the size of the problems, he only wanted teams large enough that could consume two pizzas.
“Jeff Bezos realized the complexities of the problems they were trying to solve,” Spear said. “He said, ‘We need to break our problems into component pieces where each piece can be solved by a two-pizza team.’ Then when you start putting the pieces together, they can nest back up into very complex things.”
A member of the audience asked what they should do if they find themselves in the problem-solving “danger zone” and how to communicate that to management. Leaders, Spear said, should start by being good listeners, and employees should be open about explaining the issues they’re having and the roadblocks they’re facing. The problem might not be technical, but one involving culture and environment.
“It requires a behavior change by at least two parties,” Spear said. “One is raise your hand rather than mask the problem, and the other is to show up and say, ‘What’s wrong and how can I help you?’”
When asked about what it’s been like living in Boston, a well-known “innovation hub,” Spear steered the conversation toward collaboration. He spoke about the young innovators who set up shop in California’s Silicon Valley a few decades back and the culture they created that spawned a great deal of “cross-pollination.”
“Innovation requires conversation,” he said. “No problem gets solved by one person alone.”
About a dozen employees took advantage of the opportunity to join Spear for a meet-and-greet session held after the briefing. The back-and-forth conversation was casual, with topics ranging from knowledge sharing, business visionaries and “technical maestros,” who are high-energy leaders who bring the right people together to tackle a problem.
One particularly interesting exchange involved a question that centered around how leadership should communicate with “low-level employees.” Spear challenged the notion that anyone is a “low-level employee” and suggested that organizational charts should be flipped upside down.
“You’d put the people who actually do the work at the top, and then you’d have levels of management under them,” Spear said.
In reference to the communication aspect, Spear created a scenario where a manager wants to speak to an employee. By calling that employee into their office, the tone has been set.
“If you want to understand that employee, you have to go to them. You don’t make them come to you,” he said. “A manager can say, ‘I’m here to understand your experience, so I can support you.’”
Spear referenced the automobile manufacturer Toyota, and said the company’s top executives spend hours each week talking with employees on the shop floor.
“Leadership changed their behavior to listen,” he said.
NUWC Newport is the oldest warfare center in the country, tracing its heritage to the Naval Torpedo Station established on Goat Island in Newport Harbor in 1869. Commanded by Capt. Chad Hennings, NUWC Newport maintains major detachments in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Andros Island in the Bahamas, as well as test facilities at Seneca Lake and Fisher's Island, New York, Leesburg, Florida, and Dodge Pond, Connecticut.