Patrick Hill: Uncovering the Alchemy of Trust

Patrick Hill is a musician. He is also an ex-military guy. It surprised me, to be honest. But, come to think of it, somebody has play in those military bands, and Patrick was one of them. In fact, he was the top boss.

The interesting thing is that a band lends itself to self-management. For example the Orpheus classical orchestra doesn’t have a Director, the musicians do it themselves. And Patrick put some of that to work in his own endeavor.

Trust

He put a lot of emphasis on trust, and that means not having secrets related to the work. We would say that this is the equivalent of Transparency in the Radical Foundation-based model.

Co-Ownership

Of course, co-ownership does not work in the military. The military owns it all.

But they don’t own the work itself, the don’t own the music making. That’s what musicians ‘own.’

Like David Marquet, the submarine captain, he voiced his intent and the musicians went about making music themselves to meet that intent. You can read more about in Turn the Ship Around and more recently as Language as Leadership.

Consultant

Patrick left active duty and now acts as a consultant to the military. See his LinkedIn page.