NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS BOOK NEWS

LESSONS FROM THE HANOI HILTON

SIX CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE TEAMS By PETER FRETWELL AND TAYLOR BALDWIN KILAND
WITH DR. J. P. LONDON AND DR. JAMES B. STOCKDALE II
What is your tap code? Any leader or organization should ask that question about the way they communicate. Peter Fretwell and Taylor Kiland lay this out for us as they describe the leadership characteristics of true American heroes. Honor and mission focus should be embedded in everyones tap code. VICE ADM. CUTLER DAWSON, USN (RET.), president/CEO of Navy Federal Credit Union I have had experience in a range of public and private sector organizations. In every case a handful of leadership qualities were critical to the success of the organization, and the qualities displayed by the POWs were similar: culture, sustained focus, teamwork, adaptability, and communication. These qualities were evident in the Hanoi Hilton and integral to highperforming commercial organizations everywhere. PHILIP ODEEN, former CEO of TRW and member of the board of directors of AES Corporation and Booz Allen Hamilton I can think of no better lens on leadership than the lessons of Adm. Jim Stockdale and how he built a sustainable high-performance culture in the most extreme circumstances. Stockdale epitomized the very highest levels of integrity, honor, discipline, and love; I continually draw strength, resilience, and practical guidance from his inspired example. Learn his lessons, employ them, and you will be better. JIM COLLINS, author or coauthor of six books, including international bestsellers Good to Great, Built to Last, and How the Mighty Fall
PETER FRETWELL is the general manager of The
Classical Network, based in New Jersey. During his MBA studies in strategic leadership, he became convinced that the lessons the POWs brought home could benefit other organizations, and he spent more than seven years researching the topic. He lives in Robbinsville, New Jersey.

TAYLOR BALDWIN KILAND, a former naval officer,

is a management consultant with a large technology and strategy consulting firm and lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She is the author or coauthor of three books, including Open Doors: Vietnam POWs Thirty Years Later. She holds a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

A BOOK FOR REVIEW

hy were the American POWs imprisoned at the Hanoi Hilton so resilient in captivity and so successful in their subsequent careers? Lessons From the Hanoi Hilton seeks to answer this question by presenting six principles practiced within the POW culture that can be used to develop high-performance teams for any organization. The authors offer examples from both the POWs time in captivity and their later professional lives that illustrate, in real-life situations, the characteristics necessary for sustainable, high-performance teamwork. The book takes readers inside the mind of James Stockdale, a Navy fighter pilot with a degree in philosophy, who was the senior ranking officer at the Hanoi prison. To deal with the challenges of captivity, he created a mission-centric organization, not a leader-centric one, with the understanding that a truly sustainable culture must not be dependent on a single individual. Drawing parallels between Stockdales guiding philosophies from the Stoic Epictetus and the principles of modern sports psychology, including training methods used by Navy SEALs and Olympic athletes, Peter Fretwell and Taylor Baldwin Kiland show readers how to apply these principles to their own organizations in order to create a collaborative culture with the resilience and capability of handling any situation. Of particular note is the discussion on PTGpost traumatic growth (as opposed to the well-known PTSD)a tangible experience of perceived benefits or improvement as a result of the trauma that for some people is deeply meaningfulsuch as the American POWs held at the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. The group of men wereand still arethe longest-held group of POWs in our nations history, yet they maintained a highly cohesive and unified front while in captivity and have an average lifetime incidence of PTSD of 4%. Their mental and physical health has been tracked for 40 years by the Mitchell Center for POW Studies in Pensacola. Lessons From the Hanoi Hilton takes a look at how and why these men thrived while in captivity when other POW populations from other wars did not. At one level, this book is a business-school case study, but any group willing to apply these six principles can move their mission forward and create a resilient culture with staying power one that readily incorporates new members into the groups purpose and thrives even when key individuals depart. Lessons From the Hanoi Hilton provides a means to meet any challenge and to succeed even in uncertain times.

LESSONS FROM THE HANOI HILTON: Six Characteristics of High-Performance Teams

By Peter Fretwell and Taylor Baldwin Kiland Publication date: 15 May 2013 184 pages, 11 figures, notes, bibliography, index. Hardcover list price: $27.95 21.95 ISBN: 978-1-61251-217-4 eBook edition also available. Business Leadership
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