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Admiral Bob Harward Talks About "The Gouge" · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:00
  Speaker 2: Good person. How are you today?
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I'm terrific. I First let me get this said up front.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for your service to our country, sir. It's
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  Speaker 1: an honor to speak with you.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my friend, thank you, But it's almost embarrassing. It
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: was the greatest honor and privilege and the greatest adventure known.
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  Speaker 2: So I loved every day of it. So I appreciate
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  Speaker 2: people saying that, but they don't understand it. It was
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: like women the lottery. So I'm just grateful for all
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: the support and the people who pay taxes still and
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  Speaker 2: not enabled me to say, but I say that it's
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  Speaker 2: an important point. I'd like to say, Well, all the
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Navy and Army is having a hard time meeting recruiting goals.
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  Speaker 2: I just find that unbelievable because it is such a
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  Speaker 2: great adventure and for any young person to have the
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  Speaker 2: opportunity to serve, they're missing by take it.
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  Speaker 1: But thank you the Gouge. I'm fascinated to know the
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  Speaker 1: backstory first and foremost behind the title. How does a
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  Speaker 1: book get called the gouge?
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  Speaker 2: Great Christen. The gouge is a very infamous military term,
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  Speaker 2: predominantly in the Navy, but it's permeated to other stuff.
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  Speaker 2: It's a famous term that originated World War two. So
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  Speaker 2: the book describes the history of the term, where it
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  Speaker 2: came from, how it supplied with stories and illustrations, and
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  Speaker 2: why it is so important. So the term itself indicates
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  Speaker 2: what if you ask, maybe guys are if you even
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  Speaker 2: google it, they'll attribute it to the inside information, the
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  Speaker 2: scoop what you really need to know. And that's true.
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  Speaker 2: But it came up at War two when we went
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  Speaker 2: to war and we were building hundreds of ships. We
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  Speaker 2: needed demand all those ships, and experienced mariners and experienced
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  Speaker 2: navy people were few and far between. So on these
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  Speaker 2: ships when we threw all these guys. And my father
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  Speaker 2: was one of those guys, a kid from Brooklyn and
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  Speaker 2: who went to the Merchant and Marina Academy so they
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  Speaker 2: could afford to go to school and graduated in summer
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  Speaker 2: forty three. So he was flown on the ship with
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  Speaker 2: all these other people. And what they did was they
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  Speaker 2: trained and educated each other. They passed that experience proactively
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  Speaker 2: to everyone because they were going into war. They were
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  Speaker 2: sporting the landing of flat pan, they were being shot
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  Speaker 2: at torpedoes, Tomakazi's and so they knew the ship could
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  Speaker 2: be hit at any time, and who knew who would survive,
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  Speaker 2: so you could end up having that junior seaman running
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  Speaker 2: the ship. So they were very active and focused on
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  Speaker 2: making sure he knew everything that he needed to stay
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  Speaker 2: alive and run the ship. And they came up with
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  Speaker 2: the term called the gouge, and then that permeated throughout
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  Speaker 2: the Navy for decades on end. Hey, here's what you
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  Speaker 2: really need to know. Here's good gouge, or here's thumb gouge.
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  Speaker 2: But more importantly, and what the book is really trying
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  Speaker 2: to illustrate is not just the term or that inside information,
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  Speaker 2: but really that culture they inculcated during World War II
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  Speaker 2: on those ships. How do you proactively educate, invest in
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  Speaker 2: each other to make sure you can accomplish the mission
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  Speaker 2: or build the business and grow individually. So it played
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  Speaker 2: across both the professional and personal objectives of each other.
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  Speaker 2: So if you're on a team, you're in a business,
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  Speaker 2: you're in any organization, you always struggle with this balance
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  Speaker 2: of growing the business, winning the football team, but at
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  Speaker 2: the same time growing your people, making sure they're goes
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  Speaker 2: succeed personally just as you all do professionally. So that's
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  Speaker 2: what the gouge and the book is all about pressing.
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  Speaker 1: Do you remember the first first time the gouge imposed
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  Speaker 1: itself on you as a military professional without a doubt.
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  Speaker 2: Now, my father, because he was a naval officer, he
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  Speaker 2: growing up as a kid, Okay, here's the gouge and
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  Speaker 2: he called me dumas, which was short to them at
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  Speaker 2: you know, as a young kid, you know, okay, Dumas,
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  Speaker 2: here's what you need to know. But we're really and
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  Speaker 2: so in my family, my father kind of inculcate. But
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  Speaker 2: when I listed in the Navy, I grew up in Iran.
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  Speaker 2: I never had a job. When I graduated from high school,
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  Speaker 2: my curer counselor said, hey, you need to think about
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  Speaker 2: what you're gonna do. Let's go to college. So I
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  Speaker 2: applied to colleges and I was accepted at Colorada Estate.
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  Speaker 2: So I was gonna go be a ski bump because
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  Speaker 2: I loved ski in Iran and has some of the
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  Speaker 2: best skiing in the world. And I went to show
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  Speaker 2: my father that I'd been accepted. He said, that's wonderful.
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  Speaker 2: I'm so proud of you. And he let that sink
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  Speaker 2: for Rowan and they said, uh, how you can pay
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: for that. And I thought, well, I never had a
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  Speaker 2: job going up and iron, you couldn't work because hell, dad,
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  Speaker 2: don't you pay for these Oh no, no, no, you're seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: Now you're on your own. But they have these wonderful
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  Speaker 2: things called Joe's. I go, what's the job? You know,
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  Speaker 2: someone asked you to do something and you do it
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  Speaker 2: and they give you money for it. Oh my job?
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  Speaker 2: You Oh well, we don't use that work. So he
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  Speaker 2: kind of said, what but look, if you're listing the Navy,
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  Speaker 2: I could you could go to this Naval Academy prep school.
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  Speaker 2: And it's seem like, now you go to school, you'll
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  Speaker 2: do your sports, but they're gonna pay you. So I
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  Speaker 2: ended up on that course. Well, I show up at
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  Speaker 2: the Naval Academy Prep school in Newport, Rhode Island, and
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  Speaker 2: you know, when you first the lists and shave the head,
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  Speaker 2: they're putting all your uniform. Here's how you make a pet,
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  Speaker 2: here's how you march. Here's all this information's coming at
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  Speaker 2: you real quick. And one of the seniors from the
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  Speaker 2: Naval Academy who's running our training, pulled us all into
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  Speaker 2: the room and he said, okay, people, Well here's the gouge.
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  Speaker 2: And when he said that word, I thought, Oh, my goodness,
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  Speaker 2: this guy I believe in. He's gonna tell us something
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  Speaker 2: important here, and he did. He said, here's the gouge.
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  Speaker 2: You need to know. You're gonna do this, loving, You're
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  Speaker 2: gonna do all this, but what you got to focus
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  Speaker 2: on is grades. If you get the good grade, you'll
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  Speaker 2: be able to go to the naval capty. So instantaneously
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  Speaker 2: when he used that word the gouge to me a
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  Speaker 2: few things, I said, Ooh, this is important. He's gonna
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  Speaker 2: tell us stuff we need to do. But number two,
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  Speaker 2: it built trust and confidence in him. He took enough
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  Speaker 2: time to synthesize all this stuff that was coming up
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  Speaker 2: and here's what you really need to know. So I
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  Speaker 2: had instantaneous trust and confidence in him and the institution
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  Speaker 2: because they were focused on me and me developing and
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  Speaker 2: succeeded personally. So that was my real first ex experience
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  Speaker 2: of the gouge in uniform, and then it's played off
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  Speaker 2: my career for over four decades. So yes, but that
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  Speaker 2: was it just reinforced the principles and their culture and
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  Speaker 2: that trust and confidence and individuals and leaders when they
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  Speaker 2: used a gouge.
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  Speaker 1: Admiral Bob Harward with me. The gouge is the name
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  Speaker 1: of the book, How to Be Smarter than the situation
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  Speaker 1: you are in. When did you decide or what was
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  Speaker 1: it that inspired the idea that you could take these
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  Speaker 1: principles and then apply them after you left the military,
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  Speaker 1: and that they would be transferable to a civilian life,
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  Speaker 1: to the business.
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  Speaker 2: World, great quested, and it was you know, I just said,
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  Speaker 2: lived it, used it all my life, and it was
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  Speaker 2: a different journey. It was a different purpose. And I
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  Speaker 2: saw leaders in the defense industry who had no concept
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  Speaker 2: of this, and so that's what reinforced it. But more
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  Speaker 2: important to me and learn of the reasons I really
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  Speaker 2: did this book and stuff that just still concerns me today.
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  Speaker 2: You know, since nine to eleven, we lost over six
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  Speaker 2: thousand men and women in combat over the fifteen years,
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  Speaker 2: and each of them was tragic, but more tragic than that.
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  Speaker 2: At the same period, we dealt with one hundred and
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  Speaker 2: twenty five thousand suicides of active and retired and individuals
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  Speaker 2: of service. And this is why I think the gouge
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  Speaker 2: is so important. I still don't understand how any of
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  Speaker 2: those happened. I think sometimes transition from a close knit
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  Speaker 2: family and the different environment is a challenge. I think
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  Speaker 2: sometimes they lose their purpose. But the purpose of the gouge,
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  Speaker 2: I hope will contribute to driving down those numbers that
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  Speaker 2: we invest in our people, not just professionally but personally.
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  Speaker 2: So these transitions, these challenges in life, they can look
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  Speaker 2: through this a different lens and they have hope and
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  Speaker 2: belief in their futures. And then as individuals to prevent this.
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  Speaker 2: I believe cultures, the culture of the gouge and sharing
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  Speaker 2: that proactive leadership to develop our individuals is a critical
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  Speaker 2: component of preventing these suicides. So that was a big
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  Speaker 2: rational and reason why I want to do this.
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  Speaker 1: Admiral, I promised i'd get you out on time for
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  Speaker 1: your next visit. I appreciate you making time for us
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  Speaker 1: today and safe travels in the Ukraine. And again, thank
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  Speaker 1: you for serving our country, sir. It's been an honor.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you very much, really appreciate it.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, sir, The Admiral Bob Harward. And the book
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  Speaker 1: is The Gouge How to be Smarter than the situation
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  Speaker 1: you are in. It's a really good read, little edgy
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  Speaker 1: in play, but the guy's resume deserves the respect that
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  Speaker 1: we show, and the book is definitely worth picking up.
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  Speaker 1: The Gouge and my guest, Admiral Bob Harward, Yes, he
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  Speaker 1: was speaking to us from Ukraine traveling to Poland. Go
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  Speaker 1: figure here. On the Morning Show with Preston Scott