Jeff Withington
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- Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover Corpus1 savers
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I have attempted to solve this problem of responsibility by assigning to each project an officer whom I hold personally responsible to me for the entire project. It is up to him to use whatever means he has to in order to get it done. For example, there is a project officer for the Nautilus, one for the Sea Wolf, one for the Central Station Nuclear Power Plant, and so on. These officers are kept on duty for 5, 6, or 7 years -- as long as necessary. In this way I achieve permanence and responsibility. It is futile to imagine that an individual can take charge of a highly technical project, stay…
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusCol. Leslie Simon who was at the U. S. Army Aberdeen Proving Grounds during the war was one of those sent to study the German technological effort. He reported that the German Air Force had been far superior to the German Army and Navy in science and in technology because the German Air Force had available at their headquarters' organizations people who were equally competent as those in industry with whom they had to deal. As a result, it is safe to say that, considering the effort required and the limitation of men and materials, the German Air Force performed the outstanding development job…
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusCol. Leslie Simon who was at the U. S. Army Aberdeen Proving Grounds during the war was one of those sent to study the German technological effort. He reported that the German Air Force had been far superior to the German Army and Navy in science and in technology because the German Air Force had available at their headquarters' organizations people who were equally competent as those in industry with whom they had to deal. As a result, it is safe to say that, considering the effort required and the limitation of men and materials, the German Air Force performed the outstanding development job…
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover Corpuswhat is right today may be wrong tomorrow. Don't be consistent; consistency is the refuge of fools.
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusMore than ambition, more than ability, it is rules that limit contribution; rules are the lowest common denominator of human behavior. They are a substitute for rational thought.
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusTo multiply himself more than 3 times the only recourse is to train others to take over some of his work.
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusMuch of my time and that of my leading people is spent in personally pointing out errors. One thing that has impressed me about our Naval Service is the infrequency with which officers I worked for took time personally to explain my mistakes to me. I have always considered this a primary part of my duty - because it is the best way of transmitting what we know to those who follow us and who will have to assume our responsibilities. This day-to-day personal attention is the essence of training.
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusMuch of my time and that of my leading people is spent in personally pointing out errors. One thing that has impressed me about our Naval Service is the infrequency with which officers I worked for took time personally to explain my mistakes to me. I have always considered this a primary part of my duty - because it is the best way of transmitting what we know to those who follow us and who will have to assume our responsibilities.
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusIn selecting civilian engineers I have come to the conclusion, after many years of experience, that I can do better by employing young men just out of college, and training them myself, than by hiring so-called experienced engineers who already know all the answers
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusAn example of how we act rapidly is the manner in which we incorporate into the Nautilus such changes as have been found to be necessary as the result of operating experience on the submarine prototype at Arco. We have a Change Board consisting of three members, one from my organization, one from Westinghouse and one from Electric Boat. The three people meet once every two weeks, go over recommended changes and make final decisions on the spot, and that same day.
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusAs a rule, the higher people are in an organization, the more receptive they are to new ideas, and the problem is how to get to these high people.
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusThis requires tenacity and considerable patience, because the Navy Department is like an automobile with six individual brakes; the car cannot start until all six passengers agree to release their brake. Many individuals in a large organization have the power to say "No" - and many projects are stopped because the originator meets discouragement after discouragement and finally says "what the hell", or else is transferred to other duty.
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusBut I knew that it was important that the Chief of the Bureau understand what we were doing. So I compiled a list of reports which were to be prepared during the year and assigned them to individuals to prepare. The result was, that once every two weeks a report covering a specific technical subject was sent out. These reports served two valuable purposes; they forced the students to learn the specialized subject, and at the same time they served to educate the leading people in the Bureau of the actual status of nuclear power.
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusThe first step toward accomplishing anything is to have a goal. Goals are set by people and not by organizations. At some point, sooner or later, organizations lend their names to a project, but the concept and the initial work is always started by an individual. This is difficult for military people to comprehend, because they are used to operating under a relatively rigid impersonal system. Official letters, for example, are written in the third person; the appearance is that a Bureau or an Office does something. It should be obvious that Bureaus and Offices are inanimate, and therefore cann…
Rickover 1954 Administering Large Projects Speech — The Rickover CorpusWhat he’s really done is he’s created this immense vertical filing cabinet in his brain of layers and layers and layers of files of information that he can draw back on now for more than 70 years worth of data.
Curius / Onboarding