The Pledge

Well, hello friends, Dick Fultz again with stories to make sense of it all. We've been reading through the book that Ruth and I wrote some time back, called Known Finding Deep Friendships in the Shallow World, and we're in chapter 15, and this chapter comes under the umbrella of what we call covenant, and the chapter is called the pledge, and we're going to do a little differently today, instead of me reading the entire chapter, I'm just going to read bits and pieces, and in the middle of it, along the way, I'm going to have a conversation with a good friend, and I'll come to that in just a moment. So here we go, the pledge, God didn't make a contract with us, God made a covenant with us, and God wants our relationships with one another to reflect that covenant. Dr. Henry J. M. now, and bread for the journey, a daybook of wisdom and faith. It is enlistment day, and the cluster of young people stand at the semblance of attention. When told, they raise their right hands and repeat after the officer, I do solemnly swear, that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me according to the regulations and the uniform code of military justice, so help me, God. This is folks now, parenthetically, saying that I have not been in the military. I did take one semester of Air Force ROTC at Cal Berkeley, a hundred years ago, but when I talk to military people, they just roll their eyes and say, that's not military, that's philosophy or literature or something. So I have never said this pledge that I'm reading to you, but I've said other pledges back to the book. The statement can be called a pledge of allegiance and oath or a promise, but at its heart, it's a covenant, a word that has fallen out of favor or fashion, actually. That's unfortunate. Covenant carries a punch. Covenant suggests the depth of relationship, the contract culture doesn't quite grasp. The very idea has gotten lost along the way, and that's understandable. It's an ancient practice. When you read the scriptures, you find all kinds of covenants. You can actually sort of read through the Bible with those pieces in mind, covenant with Adam, covenant with Noah, with Abraham, so forth. And then he gave them the Ten Commandments. That was the big covenant. That moment at Sinai is the defining moment in Israel's history. Abraham, Joshua, Heschel, Hebrew scholar, put it this way. Israel gave his word to Israel, and Israel gave its word of honor to God. A pledge goes on forever. It is a moment that does not vanish. It is a moment that determines all other moments. Then he quotes Chronicles, remember his covenant forever, the word which he pledged for a thousand generations. Israel accepted the covenant. Israel gave its word of honor to stand by it. What covenants at one level or another, relationships don't work. Work doesn't get done, progress isn't made, et cetera, et cetera. Now I want to introduce you to a friend of mine to talk about this theme. Some years ago, when Ruth and I lived in Washington, DC from 1993 to 2008, a gentleman who was for some years my boss when we lived in Illinois called and said, our son, Verne, is coming back to the Pentagon. He had been there several times, and like it is swing by and see him. So I started going to see Verne Clark. When I first met him there at the Pentagon, he was a three-star admiral. He was what they called the J3, the director for operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and then just a handful of years, he became the head of the entire Navy, chief of naval operations, which would be someone who has responsibilities that are huge in terms of leadership, in terms of personnel, dollars, all of that. So in coming to this theme of the pledge or oath or promise, I could think of no one better to chat with about this, and I've had lots of conversations with Admiral Clark about this by introducing him to you. So here's Admiral Verne Clark speaking to us about the oath. You know, the oath has played significantly in my life, and it has been used to read either initially state or remind ourselves by restating a commitment that we are making of our total self to whatever the oath is about. So you know, you and I have studied and Bible study about not swearing to things, you know, somewhere along the line that became an issue in even in our military, I would say, because after the initial oath of enlistment, the one option for the restatement of the oath is I do solemnly reaffirm, and I think that it has meaning here and helps us understand what it is. I reaffirm my commitment. So the way I've always thought about the oath is that it is a personal promise or commitment to do something specific. So when I'm trying to convince one of my playmates when I'm in the fourth grade and I just reeled off that little kid's diddy across my heart and hoped to die sticking needle in my, that didn't go very far, right? Well, it has a little transient piece to it, so yeah, so it is so extreme that one sincerity is probably immediately in question. So Timmy, I'm sure when you used it the first time you met it completely, but I'm sure I did. Yeah. What was the first oath that you ever took or made? Can you remember? Yes, I think I can. I think it was when I was joining the Cubscaps. You know, I was in the Cubscaps. And then we got to Rowdy and they told us not to come back, the den mother and I didn't for a couple of weeks and when I went back, everybody else had gone back, but I, so I got, I have the great distinction of being thrown out of the Cubscaps. You know, that's sort of my thing, but you persevered. But enough about my four goals as a young kid and the Cubscaps. To let me continue this by just saying, nowhere does the idea of oath or promise or pledge have more impact than when it is in the context of leadership and what leaders do. And Vern has a lot more to say on that. So when you went to Capitol Hill, for example, to testify, how you go across the river from the Pentagon and your various roles, to testify the Armed Services Committee. You have to take an oath to do that periodically, depending on the subject, but not routinely. Okay. But if you were going over for your hearing to be confirmed, yeah, you certainly would, they would ask you to rise in and do your solvenous work to tell the truth, the whole dream about the truth. So I helped you got. Yeah. And over the years, you have become a, not just an aficionado, but a proponent of what is called covenant leadership, can you give us just a snapshot of where that came from, whether it's books or people or whatever, and then how that played out. Let's just take a few minutes and talk to us about that. Yes. Well, so I got that from initially from Max DePri and the title of the book was, leadership is an art. And DePri was a chief executive of furniture company and, you know, over the years became law-ditorian for his leadership principles that he taught. And actually, I didn't know what I was going to bump into covenant leadership. I didn't pick up the book to go find that. I did pick up the book to see what he had to say about something that I had read that said he spoke about the things leaders do and that the first thing that a leader is called him on to do is to define reality. And that really appealed to me. I would say that's what I was after when I picked up the book. But I came across were these incredible series of truths that I heard him talk about that had great meaning to me and became the most, the book besides the Bible that I picked up most often to read and reinforce themes. How about sharing two or three of those truths that you like? Also, what was so appealing to me with covenant leadership was the fact that the act of leadership was a two-way relationship, not a one-way relationship, and I will tell you that in my observation of leaders, sometimes I would talk about a book that I read years ago called Bad Leadership. We automatically presume when we use the word leadership, we presume goodness, don't we? But the reality is that, and you may have been in an audience where I've done this, where I ask people to raise their hand if they had a bad leader. I've never been in an audience when I asked that question that less than 90% of the people in the audience raised their hand, but they had bad leaders. So this first truth then is the leadership as a two-way street. What are another couple of truths in that cluster? So another truth is that the relationship does not prosper if there aren't neutral investments in the activity that is occurring inside the organization where leadership, subordinate relationship is established and is going on every day. So in my conversation with Vern, he talked about having the stage as chief of naval operations to pursue some of these ideas. Basically, I was incredibly turned on by this whole idea that in an organization you could talk about something other than that you had a boss and you had a subordinate. That you had a boss, but the boss had obligations in that relationship. And of course, it fits so nicely with the fact that we took an oath to serve. And of course, the oath that occurred for a young sailor was I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, again all in the enemies foreign and domestic. I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. And I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me. Now to many leaders, it stopped right there. And you know what I said to the Navy, I said no, no, no, it doesn't stop right there. And my question on day one to the Navy was that sailor promised that, and this is covenant leadership. And you're the boss. What do you promise in return? I took over on Friday, you remember, and on Tuesday, I met with all the global fleet and force command master chiefs and I'll never forget this as long as I live. You know, these are the master chief would be the highest non-commissioned officer. Yes. And so some years before, somebody had figured out that every commanding officer really needs and a senior enlisted advisor. And it functionally was a collateral assignment on a ship until the command got very large and then it would become a full-time responsibility, a master chief, the senior chief petty officer in the command, whoever that is. And that person was identified specifically with an open door to provide advice and counsel to the commanding officer, things that the commanding officer needed to hear from a very senior enlisted person. So you're sitting here with all these guys. And they happen to be each one of them was the senior guy to either a fleet or force commander. So that's a three or four star. So they were from all over the world. And in the Navy, we had a guy called the master chief petty officer in the Navy. And he selected for a four-year tour and I inherited this guy. And I didn't really know him well, but I'd gotten to know him during the transition. And he said to me, he said, I'm going to have all the fleet force master chiefs in to Washington for a meeting so that they can attend the change of office for the CNL. And he said, I would really appreciate it if you would make time on your schedule to speak to them. And on Tuesday morning, after I took over on Friday, they were the first group that I addressed in my new role as the chief of naval operations. And so what is a covenant? And we'd have that discussion and it would either have a legal context because it's contract or a very personal context because it's promised. And then I remember talking to them about what I thought was wrong with our name from a people point of view. We had a cautious attrition of sailors, 39% of our sailors didn't make it through their enlistment. So four out of ten young Americans were coming in the Navy to fail. And I told them, I refused to be the CNL when they be like that, not going to be. So how did they respond when you started talking? It's so happened that, and I didn't really know this was going to be this way. When I got there, they had were invited to bring their spouses. So I was addressing a mixed audience. And when I got to this place and I'm talking about the things that we've done wrong, the mistakes that we've made, the things that we said that we believed that we clearly didn't believe that people were number one. And then we allowed four of them intent to fail so they could go home to their parents and their neighborhoods. With this failure experience that they got from raising their right hand and taking an oath to serve the nation. And then saying, I'm not going to be this chief of naval operations of a Navy like that. And the tears are flowing down people's face. And they had never quite heard anything like that. And it was about a shocking reality when I just asked simply, those sailors promised that thing to support and defend, obey the orders of the President of the United States. And I'm asking you, what are you promising in return? And the room was so quiet you could hear, Ben Drums. Of course at the heart of covenant and the whole discussion is, who am I as an individual? What does that have to do with my integrity? And so I was constantly talking to our people and this discussion started big time with our admirals. Who are we? Who do we say that we are? That phrase isn't that, Jesus said, who do people say that I am? I mean, by the way, I didn't pick this up in a leadership book. I picked this up in the scriptures. Who do we say that we are? And then what do we believe it? So along the way, as the admiral was teeing this up in the Navy, a young lieutenant commander, a female officer asked if she could serve in some way by doing research to find out what folks were thinking. He encouraged her to do that. And then she reported back to them. And here's that conversation. And so the room was about a dozen admirals that worked for me at second fleet. And you know, they were all commanders of various subordinate groups and so forth. I remember at the end of the briefing, I asked her and said, would you please help me understand what things we do, you know, guys like me, the rest of us sitting here, what things we do that really turn off our sailors. And she said, she didn't answer for a little bit. And then she said, do you really want me to say that? And I said, yes. She said, this is part of the oath. I'm going to listen. You know, we serve not just by running our mouth. She said, stop talking about taking care of them. She says, stop talking about taking care of them. And I didn't say anything and she let it hang there. And then she said, because they think that you think that they can't. I'm having this bold discussion of my admirals telling them, our sailors don't want to hear this out of you and me. Now what do they want to hear from you and me and start defining this environment that we are taking as part of our commitment to them? So covenant is only language, it's only words until the rubber hits the road if you will. And he told me, he weren't told me about this time in Japan where the young man asked him directly a question about, so what are you going to promise us? And this was his response. It wasn't near Koshka. It was at the Naval Air Station in that Sugi Japan. And it was the big movie theater. And he was standing on the side of the wall over there, all the seats were full. And he asked this question and I said, so the most important promise I make to you personally is this and this issue, I will get you the resources so that you can make a difference for the United States of America, you. I will see to it that you get the best training that we know how to deliver to you. I will see to it that you have the other resources that, you know, boom, boom, boom. So that, and you know, I mean, this is a commitment that costs you billions of dollars. But instead of spending $2 billion to build a new destroyer, the first thing I did was take a billion eight and I spent every last penny of it on starting to turn around fixed readiness. Within two years, you know, we had gone from having two and a half carriers ready to go at any given time to have in six ready to go any time and another two and all the ships that went with them. So we think about that thing called war that no one in his or her right mind wants. We think of that as between nations and all of that, but there's a battle that comes earlier than that, and that's the battle for people, for strong and good people. And that's where the whole idea of retention came into play here. And Verna saw articulate what he talks about that because retention of people who have been trained is a huge deal in leadership, and we're going to wrap up with this segment. But the kids responded to this, Dick, which is why we had the best retention that ever occurred in the history of the Navy. I mean, the response was stunningly immediate. I mean, I never, ever thought that winning the war for people would be realized in my time, Dick. I thought I was doing nothing but planting the seeds for the next guy. The Navy could not believe what was happening to itself, but they loved the new message. The new message was covenant leadership, bosses are held accountable for what they promise in return. That was the biggest thing that changed the environment overnight. So where were you two years down the road with? Two years down the road and started the third year, the chief of naval personnel called me and said, Admiral, we got a really big problem. And I said, gosh, nor what is it? He said, it's retention. And I said, what do you mean we got a big problem? It's better than it's ever been in history. He said, that's the problem. He said, we have a number of sailors that were waiting for the new fiscal year so that they could reenlist because they wanted to reenlist, but they also wanted to have a reenlistment bonus. And he said, first term retention right now is 83%. He said, boss, we don't know how to run the Navy like this. On that note, I'm going to say, thank you very much, Admiral Verne-Plarke. All right. Okay. I love that. I'll catch you later, Verne. Thank you. All right. I know you got all the things to do. Thank you. All right. I got to go and do all this and figure out how in the world I'm going to get all that in 12 minutes. Well, you can. So you've picked something. You know, build a framework yourself and not make a point of two for you. Take care. Thanks, Brother. I'll see you in a couple of years. Bye-bye, you too. Bye-bye. Wow. I so enjoy talking with Verne, being with him, and the things he says and that he's learned are so stimulating, and I hope you have felt that even in the listening today, covenant, big word, core idea to how life really works. Let me ratchet it back to the more personal. Let me take you from the bowels of the Pentagon, if you will, to our house. The whole theme of what we're talking about is how our friendships built, maintained, and deepened, and covenant is at the heart of that. I love how my wife Ruth puts it and how she put it. This is how she sees covenant and friendship in her own words. To be together in life, even though our paths may part, to listen with our hearts and tell each other the truth, to lend a helping hand when the journey is too much, to end the day as friends. This is our covenant. Bye-bye.