Royal Navy Leadership Development and Decision-Making Training

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Today’s rapidly changing environment presents Royal Navy Sailors with increasingly complex decision-making scenarios. The abundance of information, coupled with unpredictable situations, often leaves many unsure: should I act now or wait for more datapoints? Indecision or over-caution can result in missed opportunities or slow responses to emerging situations.

However, the skill of decision-making is a trainable and infinitely upgradable skill. This training aims to equip Sailors with the tools needed to make better, more confident decisions, essential both personally and for the Royal Navy as a whole.

“I changed my behaviours because of this programme and have been surprised at the result. My boss said, ‘something has changed about you’ and my colleagues are waving to me in the hallway… they never did that before.”

– Warrant Officer, Strategic Command

The Importance of Decision-Making
in the 21st Century

Regardless of rank or position, every sailor faces decisions daily, ranging from routine to critical. Effective decision-making is built on a foundation of truth – seeking it, sharing it, and acting upon it. When this foundation is strong, it benefits the individual, the crew, and the mission.

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Strategy & Goal setting

Predicting the future is inherently challenging, and biases can influence our decisions.

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Decisiveness & Reaction Time

Making swift decisions when faced with multiple, often high-stakes, choices.

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Risk
Taking

Navigating uncertainties while making informed choices is crucial.

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Prioritising

Choosing and fully committing to a path while avoiding potential distractions.

Testimonials

“I had a meeting with my stakeholders last week… usually not much gets accomplished at these meetings … told them I am getting coaching on debating to learn vs debating to win… we tried some techniques from the course, and it was our most productive meeting yet… we usually argue about where we want to get to, but this time we debated more about how we want to get there”
CommodoreRoyal Navy
“I tried the practice of exposing my ladders of inference this past week in a meeting – I was surprised how much of a material impact it had on the outcome of the meeting … I think the long-term health of the project will be better because I changed my behaviour”.
Civilian EmployeeDE&S
“The presentation on high expectations/low expectations today and what high performance looks like made me question my team’s expectations… I am realising how low their expectations really are and how it means that the best reviews aren’t standing out – especially when the team are doing 100s of reviews each week and all of them are in the ‘upper echelon’ of ratings."
Lieutenant CommanderRoyal Navy People & Training
“I changed my behaviours because of this programme and have been surprised at the result. My boss said, ‘something has changed about you’ and my colleagues are waving to me in the hallway … they never did that before.”
Warrant OfficerStrategic Command
“I’m more confident calling out poor performance as now realize I’m not helping the person or the team when I don’t do this … because of this course I’m have higher expectations of performance for my team and don’t accept “this the civil service way”.”
Civilian EmployeeDE&S
“The program is “paying dividends” in people being more comfortable talking openly about development vs waiting for the annual review to say anything … the 1-hr per week on self-development is enough to create change.”
CommanderRoyal Navy
“This group and this training is an example of how the Navy is investing in us, how to train the new skills/new ways of thinking, that's why we are doing this... we are changing. If we adopt this, we are the example, and it doesn't have to be everyone to adopt it from the start.”
Petty OfficerRoyal Navy
“This training allows us to be able to talk openly about ourselves, both our strengths and our weaknesses, how valuable that is to have the space for one hour per week.”
Leading HandRoyal Navy
“I was in meeting earlier today and observed people shutting down and noticed that I am picking up all these behaviours that I wouldn’t have noticed before this training. I used to focus in just on mission but starting to be more aware of the dynamics at play in the groups.””
CommanderRoyal Navy
“During the debate, I discovered a real tendency if I really agree- I will struggle to see the other side. I saw that when trying to force talking out the opposite – it was an eye-opener. It helps you define if you really believe it (reinforces your belief) or helps you find answers, that you might not be expecting”
Royal Marine
“I was surprised how fast we got to viable potential solutions given the time constraint [in the breakouts]. Usually, it can feel hopeless or typically put those conversations on the back burner. This was so fast. We heard others’ input in a rapid-fire way and there were viable [solution] options”
Chief Petty OfficerRoyal Navy
“[Reflecting on predictions] there were discrepancies between what I had as top working/not and what the team had as the top. We got enormous value from this, usually, the output from these types of things is very nebulous but this is a very practical outcome. I got 120 point action list prioritized. It is really useful the number of actionable items, well worth an ‘away day’. It also exposed the differences in the level of communication btw layers (ranks), who understood what intent/context.”
CommanderRoyal Navy
“In a military organization, you don’t always request feedback, especially from direct reports—there is the fear of criticism of your leadership, from going through this training, I want to request more feedback from my team—it will change some of my behavior”
Royal Marine
“[This has] caused me to reflect what people’s baseline assumptions are. I can see how it can stifle conversation if you snap it down at first. This gave me the thought exercise of sitting on your hands for a bit and setting constraints aside got more quality input from the team”
Civilian EmployeeDE&S
“I’m a pretty proud individual, the thought of failure is daunting—and over time can be oblivious to feedback—usually I would wait for [performance] reviews to get any feedback, but now, I want to go ask for that feedback sooner because it will make me more effective”
Civilian EmployeeDE&S
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Programme History

In a bid to bring about cultural reform centred on empowerment, relevance, challenge, and delivery, the DIRECTOR NAVAL SUPPORT initiated a pilot programme in 2023 aimed at elevating operational efficiency and enhancing the overall experience of Royal Navy personnel. We are now expanding that pilot to a wider group.

Overall, the programme effectively promoted progressive leadership development, bridging the gap between traditional military norms and the evolving demands of contemporary leadership.

Royal Navy Leadership Development and Decision-Making Training:

  • Engaged around 150 participants, including those from HMS Raleigh, RNAS Culdrose, MCSU, People & Training, and DE&S Ships Support, representing various ranks and primarily occupying leadership roles.
  • Implemented a blended learning approach encompassing both internal and external leadership workshops, mentoring, coaching, strategy periods, and pre-course learning.
  • The result was assessed as progressive, intellectually demanding and occasionally disorientating programme that has strong potential to be truly transformational and to help break through the traditional military and civil service hierarchy, creating a more inclusive environment and contemporary leaders.
  1. Grow the ability to challenge effectively and respond appropriately to drive continuous improvement.
  2. Encourage our leaders and managers to be comfortable with working with less hierarchy and achieve better, faster, more innovative decision-making
  3. Increase two-way conversations and transparency between our leaders, teams and individuals to enable greater trust, empowerment and understanding of our people
  1. Enhanced Decision-making: The programme instilled confidence in leaders to make more innovative and faster decisions with reduced reliance on hierarchy.
  2. Positive Coaching Outcome: Coaching feedback was consistently positive, with increased application of learning observed in latter weeks.
  3. Cultural Impact: A successful pilot with critical insights obtained. Demonstrated significant improvements in team relationships, conflict management, and leadership vulnerability expression for a substantial portion of participants.
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What Does This Training Encompass?

Online Assessment

Perform and complete a Developmental GPS online assessment. This will help you gain awareness into the patterns of thinking that influence your decisions and receive personalized insights to help you train your judgement.

Two-Day Event

Attend a Two- Day in Person Kick Off Event at a Royal Navy Base

• HMS Collingwood: 1-2 November 2023
• HMS Collingwood: 14-15 November 2023
• HMS Raleigh: 28-29 November 2023
• Site TBD: 5-6 December 2023

Decision Making Course
(1 hour per week)

Take 13-Week Course Decision Making Course.

No Homework, Group of Ten People, One Coach, Total of 10 classes. Example:
• Tuesdays at 1PM or 2PM
• Wednesdays at 1PM or 2PM
• Thursdays at 1PM or 2PM

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Your Partner in
Upgrading Decision Making

The Royal Navy has partnered with a company called Next Jump to help Sailors seeking to enhance their decision-making capabilities. Next Jump brings both understanding of the unique challenges faced in today’s work world and a wealth of expertise and experience; having trained thousands of leaders from a variety of industries including military (US and UK), government, large corporates, education, and small startups.

With over 25 years of experience, Next Jump is a recognised leader in the fields of LEADERSHIP and DECISION MAKING. Harvard recognised them as one of two Deliberately Developmental Organisations (DDO), highlighting their track record in promoting both individual growth and business excellence.  Drs. Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, renowned researchers, have acknowledged Next Jump’s expertise.

NextJump is one of two companies globally recognized by Harvard as a “DDO,” an organization which puts learning at the heart of their corporate culture and strategy.

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Over the past 21 years, we’ve engineered tools and programs that foster a culture of leadership and growth. Our goal is for each Next Jumper to lead a successful life, both at work and at home.

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Leadership Development