Why Doing Inspections is Important as a Leader – Jocko Willink

we’re on chapter five the conduct of inspections and i’ll tell you this as i was as i was parsing this book the first time i prepped for it i thought leif and i were gonna get through half of it and i thought leif and i will do back-to-back podcasts we’ll do half in one podcast so we’d cover 60 or so pages and then we do half we just do doing back to back we made it through 13 pages so now as i’m reading it i’m looking for like the breaking points or where i can go okay this is a good section this section today the the end of this section we’re going to cover today is it’s it’s it’s freaking epic i’m i don’t throw that word around very often so we’ll get there but this this chapter five starts off with the conduct of inspections and the first question is why inspect and then it says there is a saying an organization does well only those things the boss checks this truism originated in so far as i am concerned from a speech that i heard made by a vice president of one of our largest corporations this is not a new thought to anyone who has military experience because i’ve often heard it expressed as anything that has not been inspected has been neglected i changed the way i said that word to neglected but it made it sound a lot better so anything that has not been inspected has been neglected if these sayings are true and i think they are it follows that anyone who has an important position must be able to check in on or inspect the operations which he’s responsible leif when leif saw this i think i sent a picture of this to leif because this is you know a line that i hear late say a lot it’s a line that he heard me say a lot and we always attribute it to hackworth we always attribute it to hackworth and guess what it didn’t come from hackworth so how to inspect we’re talking about how to inspect civilians often think of a non-commissioned officer and officer as a demon inspector a demon inspector a good inspector is certainly not a demon but good inspectors are not plentiful in the army or out of it however to be a successful non-commissioned officer or a successful officer one should be a competent inspector this quality cannot be attained without a considerable amount of study planning and practice now this is interesting because i i wasn’t sure how much of this section to cover because inspections are not something that i utilize to any great extent as a leader when i was a leader i didn’t inspections was not one of my big tools and so i thought well you know um we’ll talk about it you know you certainly have to inspect things and i get that and that’s why i would say that hey an organization does well only things the boss techs i’ve said that many times and i believe it but also i believe that if i have to inspect you that means i’m doing something wrong somewhere else you know what i’m saying like if i’ve got if my gig is i’ve got to inspect you that means i’m making some other kind of mistake somewhere because should i have to inspect that your weapon is ready yeah should i have to inspect that you’ve prepared for an operation should i have to inspect that you’ve done the work that you’re supposed to i shouldn’t have to inspect it if i’ve led correctly then you know why you’re doing what you’re doing and therefore you don’t really need to get inspected because you understand the why and you make things happen so i’ve always had that attitude it’s been very successful for me so i wasn’t sure how i wasn’t sure how much i was going to get into this whole inspection mode because what i don’t want to do is create a bunch of leaders that are going out there becoming these inspection happy you know dig down hey i’ll come and inspect you you know what’s funny with my kids [Music] if if you know my kids whenever my wife’s not around my kids i they have to do everything right and so i’ll say are you you know what time will you be ready for inspection and they just get so they know what that means i’m going to inspect i’m going to inspect and it better be squared away so i didn’t want to create i don’t want to pass on this this idea that hey you guys got to be inspection inspection freak you know i never want people to think that the military is what the military is portrayed in boot camp which is you’re getting inspected all the time so that being said as i as i read through this i thought might better cover this because well you’ll see so here we go back to the book it is very seldom that i visit a unit an installation or a headquarters that i do not see things which are apparently not correct and which need pointing out which only need pointing out to get them promptly corrected so it’s very sudden that you go somewhere and you see something you go hey man why isn’t that right and all you have to do is tell them that it’s not right and they fix it i notice a similar situation in reading the reports of the inspector general inspections i often wonder why the responsible person on the spot has not noticed them and corrected them like you’re there why don’t you notice that this shortfall exists here’s one reason it may be because he has lived so close to them that his ability to notice them has become fatigued so what does that mean you’re not detached you’re not detached so you don’t see these mistakes but i am inclined to think that it is because so that’s a possibility but i am inclined to think that is because he has not conducted his inspections in a systematic and effective way so even when you’re not detached even when you’re totally engaged if you inspect correctly you should still be able to pick up on things that you would otherwise miss too often officers and senior uncommissioned non-commissioned officers have a general look-see rather than an inspection they go through their areas of responsibility without noticing things to correct and what is more without noticing good things for which someone should be complimented that’s one of the reasons why i had to cover this because an inspection isn’t about finding what i can nitpick about you it’s actually about what i can find to compliment you on totally different attitude my purpose for inspecting you so i can find things that you’re doing awesome at and compliment you for them to become a good inspector requires as i have said before study planning and practice it requires study to be sure that he knows what is correct and what is not correct in the field of his responsibility it requires planning to prepare a schedule of inspections in such a way that over a period of time he has given the necessary attention to all aspects of his field of responsibility and then it requires practice in order to notice promptly whether the important things are correct or incorrect notice he said important things important things and you can absolutely get bogged down in things that are not important and in fact the military if you if you’re not careful yeah you will start to focus on things that are not important you know on the last podcast you were talking about the fact that when you were a squadron commander your attitude was we are inspection ready at all times does that mean that we scrub the grout on the back side of the whatever bathroom in the third floor no because does that really matter is that an important thing no is it clean yes it’s clean absolutely it’s clean it’s fully functional it’s it’s totally ready but we’re not wasting time on it because it’s not really that important what is important the mechanics of the freaking aircraft yeah the cleanliness of the of the area where we’re actually doing work that keeps these machines up and running if i had my guys scrub the grout of the bathrooms prior to someone coming to visit i’m telling them that’s what i care about and that’s not what i want them to care about in the study phase most people find that a checklist is necessary think about that a checklist is necessary this ensures and you know you can tell and i’ve i’ve been picking this up as i’m reading this you know this this general clark he’s kind of an anal retentive dude for sure he’s about checklist he’s about inspections he’s got that nature to him so we need to keep that in mind we need to keep in mind that why is he why is this guy with all this experience why is he using a checklist why is that oh because it works this i i used to take every single piece of gear that i would take on trips and i would have a little check box next to it to make sure i had what i needed to have checklist why checklist this ensures that important things are not overlooked and assist the inspector until he has become so proficient through practice that he carries a mental checklist in his head there are inherent evils in the use of a checklist unless it is made out well it does focus great attention to the items listed which may cause other important things which may have been left off the checklist to be overlooked it must be remembered that to inspect is to emphasize which is what you just said to inspect is to emphasize if you are cleaning the grout on the third floor bathroom that’s what you’re emphasizing as important and and honestly do i want one minute of time when i’m running an f-35 squadron that has multi-million dollar aircraft that are life-saving machines do i want anyone scrubbing on the third floor in the third floor bathroom that never gets used and never gets seen no in the planning phase one should make a list of all items or phases of his responsibility on which he wants to check in most jobs this list will probably have 30 or 40 items on it it is manifestly impossible in one trip through a platoon company battalion battle group or similar area to check adequately all 40 items therefore he should keep this list and select from it three or four items each week or other interval when he inspects he should do a very thorough job on these selected items of course to do a thorough job he must have studied up on each item selected beforehand so that he knows what is right and what is wrong and what to look for by selecting a new group of three or four items each week he will over a period of time have covered all of them and by the time he comes to the end of the list will he will have really checked all the aspects of his responsibility and will become a master of his job what is more at that time if he has been effective as an inspector his responsibility will be carried out in a superior manner great you know what else is awesome about that what’s cooler what’s better what to your last to the last podcast about being about humanizing yourself to your troops what does a better job of humanizing telling you hey once every three months i’m going to come and inspect 40 items and it’s going to take eight hours and you’re going to be standing at parade rest the whole time or i’m gonna come down once a week i’m gonna check two or three things get to know you to talk to you game it’s it’s it’s obvious yeah and maybe even tell you hey you’re doing an awesome job down here this is good to go uh the difference okay let me ask you this let’s say i’m a nit picker let’s say i roll down to your flight line and i see that there’s whatever some some dust on one of these pieces of tools and i walk over with my white glove and i inspect it and i hold it up to you and i go this is junk you’re a slob everything else quite about you’re a slob okay first of all what do i care about i’ve showed you that i care about dustin’s tools second of all are you inspired to do a good job for me no what if i come down and i look at your toolbox and i go man i can see the way you got your tools labeled that you are a professional that is legit you know what every time i’ve start up one of these aircraft i’m gonna feel good in my heart that you’re down here maintaining these aircraft thank you what does that guy do that guy’s polishing his tools man he’s polishing his tools so do you want to rule out a fear do you want to rule out of admiration oh god how is that hard if you take us one step back and think of the outcome you’re trying to create the the real outcome that you’re trying to create and as a squadron commander you just described it i want 150 maintainers who are who their entire commitment to life is to make sure these airplanes are safe to operate that’s what i want a commitment to to making sure that we have these machines that are safe if i just think about that it’s actually not hard to go well which of these two ways is going to get my guy my marine to think the way that i want him to think it’s really not that hard you just have to reverse positions and go how would i feel about the guy coming down doing this to me go oh well this makes sense that doesn’t make sense just do the one that makes sense and you actually will get the outcome that you want you know when you’re saying that i was thinking if you can get a little connection of hey hey uh jocko i noticed these tools up here like kind of dusty are these kind of a weight do you not use these are these not necessary is this a bunch of stuff that you got to manage that’s not important because these things are getting used like crazy hey is there a way to kind of relieve you of some just some connection have to go actually sir those things are terrible we don’t use them because they don’t work and they just sit over there and collect dust it’s just an example but if you can make the connection between what they’re doing to get that outcome that you want it’s actually not that hard to do man man all right back to the book whether he announces beforehand the items that he is going to check each you know that whole the whole conversation we just had that’s like something that we need to continue to talk about in that’s i i see this all the time is like you it’s really obvious with ego right when you’re in it you don’t notice how stupid you look and when you step outside and you see someone else behaving that way you go oh this person’s an idiot their ego’s involved but when it’s you no this it’s me it’s different it’s different it’s different no one will notice i i want that attention i want that hey you didn’t recognize me i want you know what i want my black belt how’s that work yeah not good