In her excellent Proceedings article, “Surviving the Shipyard Requires Grit and Grind,” Lieutenant Phoebe Kotlikoff addressed an important but mostly overlooked facet of an officer’s career—how to lead, manage, and deliver in the large engineering projects that form a significant proportion of a modern warship’s life.1 I aim to add to the small volume of writing on naval leadership in engineering projects by providing my observations of the attributes that deliver success in the shipyard.
In one of his dispatches from the Battle of Jutland, Royal Navy Admiral John Jellicoe stated, “The prelude to action is the work of the engine-room department,” before praising the steaming efficiency and absence of material failures in the British fleet.2 The work completed in maintenance remains as vital today as it was 106 years ago in ensuring the ability to deliver violence when and as required. This work cannot be left solely to a navy’s industrial partners. If a navy’s people do not invest in their ships and submarines alongside and in the dock, then the navy will not deliver the effect required at the other end.
Naval Officer Leadership and Command Engagement
I have observed in non-engineer warfare officers a disinclination toward active involvement in engineering projects. This is perhaps a unique Royal Navy behavior, as the presence of specialist engineering officers disengages the warfare/executive officers from being too involved in maintenance projects. But I suspect it is a problem in other navies, as well. The attitude opined by one commanding officer before heading on leave that “you don’t sit in your car when it’s in the garage” does not deliver success.
This “prelude to action” may be
the work of the engine-room department, but engineers require much to support them—supply chain, catering, human resources, and medical and health services. Health, safety, and security are all vital to success. Maintenance is a whole-ship evolution that requires engagement throughout the chain of command. Moreover, commanding officers are uniquely positioned to shape and influence the relationship between their crews and the organizations essential to completing the maintenance project.
Collaboration with the Contractor
The relationship between the ship’s crew and the shipyard contractor (the prime industrial partner) is vital to the success of the project—the two depend on each other in innumerable ways. The details vary, but the crew provide a safe working environment, control/commissioning of systems, stores and spares, plant operation, and specialist knowledge and skills. Meanwhile, the contractor provides most of the project labor hours, has repair skills that the ship’s technicians do not, and will largely write the maintenance schedule.
The key to making the relationship work is close collaboration, underpinned by understanding the other party’s perspectives, motivations, and constraints, and maintaining open and honest communication. For naval officers, understanding civilian colleagues is vital to make the most of their support and remove the personal aspect of many of their frustrating behaviors. For example, junior officers should understand dockyard workers will likely want to work late and on weekends for the overtime pay. Count on tasks scheduled to finish on Fridays drifting into the weekends and have a contingency to support them. Understand they are not conspiring to deny the ship’s crew weekend leave—it is how they best provide for their families. For the department head or commanding officer, understand which metrics of project success the contractor most values and where its constraints and limitations lie, such as inadequate support contracts or sensitive industrial relations.
At all levels, honest communication will build trust and lead to a collaborative working environment to resolve issues. If the ship’s team makes an error, or is responsible for a delay, talk honestly to the contractor partners to resolve the issue. Parochialism and defensive behaviors will only keep the ship alongside longer. Demonstrate the right behaviors, then challenge the contractor to do the same. A collegial atmosphere of trust will make the “difficult” conversations between organizations easier and more productive.
At the junior level, collaboration will lead to greater productivity. At the senior level, it will lead to a project able to “talk with one voice,” one to be respected for representing its successes and failures honestly and that can manage the expectations of its seniors effectively.
Never Be A Victim
It is easy to feel powerless in the shipyard. The crew cannot control the output (quantity or quality) of the civilian workforce, there will be endless audits and inspections (of which the ship will fail at least some), and the maintenance schedule never seems to hold. In poorly led teams, this leads to a form of dockyard victimhood—the world is against them, they become withdrawn and defensive, and their interactions with the other organizations become progressively less productive. In a vicious cycle they receive more criticism and performance falls even further.
Well-led teams concentrate on the things they can affect and work to grow their circle of influence—particularly through collaboration. They use their disappointment at a poor audit to take ownership of the corrective action. This is the junior officer who fixes the noncompliant security account, the department head who openly investigates the procedural noncompliance, and the commanding officer who ensures relationships remain collaborative in the face of criticism. Some of the worst days in a career will happen in the shipyard, but good leadership at all levels will prevent victimhood.
Good leadership in the shipyard can significantly improve the performance of the maintenance projects that underpin success at sea. It must therefore be an area in which naval professionals aspire to deliver, and where their training and education prepare them for success. It will never be the glamorous end of naval operations, but naval officers must not only survive the shipyard, but also thrive in that environment. To do so I encourage all officers on ships in shipyards to engage with their projects, collaborate with their industrial partners, and never become victims.
1. LT Phoebe Kotlikoff, USN, “Surviving the Shipyard Requires Grit and Grind,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 146, no. 10 (October 2020).
2. “Despatch of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe GCB GCVO Commander-in-Chief Grand Fleet reporting the action in the North Sea on 31 May 1916,” Third Supplement to the London Gazette of Tuesday, 4 July 1916.
