Achieving Navigation Plan Priorities
Get Real, Get better

Building enduring advantages in a complex, rapidly changing threat environment demands a warfighting culture focused on continuous improvement. Our Navy team is the most capable in the world. However, over years of study, we have identified pockets of unacceptable variability in our performance; the gap between our best and worst performers is too great. To address this, we must standardize and incentivize Navy-proven best practice leadership behaviors and problem-solving throughout the force to reduce this variability and unleash our full potential.

This is a foundational movement based upon an environment of inclusion, transparency, and honest assessment. In simple terms, this is our Get Real, Get Better call to action.

Get Real requires Navy leaders to ruthlessly self-assess; be honest, humble, and transparent about their capabilities and limitations; challenge their beliefs using data, facts, and diverse input; and “embrace the red”—acknowledge shortcomings—by being curious and taking pride in finding and fixing problems.

Get Better requires Navy leaders to deliberately self-correct; find and fix small problems before they become larger, systemic issues; fix the root causes, not just symptoms; apply critical problem-solving tools and best practices to shift from more activity to better outcomes; set clear accountability; work collaboratively; and quickly identify and remove barriers to progress, elevating problems to higher leadership, if necessary.

A learning mindset is essential. Get Real, Get Better requires Navy leaders to share what they learn to help make others more successful; to be courageous and aim high even if it means initially falling short; to build trust among their teams; to recognize and reward those who adopt Get Real, Get Better principles; and to experiment frequently to find better solutions, adjusting plans based on learning.

The Charge of Command reflects this new set of expectations for our commanding officers to be more self-assessing and self-correcting. It is a clear statement of what the Navy values in our leaders and what we expect our teams to embody to win the future fight.

Get Real, Get Better leadership behaviors, tools, and systems are the key to empowering our people and accelerating our warfighting advantage. We will adjust our leadership education and training to incorporate these principles as fundamental to how we develop our Sailors and build our teams. We will also reform our talent management systems to incentivize Get Real, Get Better behaviors, rewarding leaders for the outcomes they achieve and the culture they create.

Source: Chief of Naval Operations Navigation Plan, 2022 – page 13