As we've discussed, one of Sun Tzu's key tenets is the use of the indirect approach to achieve one's objectives. His view is that a direct attack is one your opponent would expect, be prepared for and would ultimately be resisted very strongly. The end result is typically the expenditure of tremendous resources combined with the failure to achieve one's goal. In contrast, an indirect approach is one that is unexpected and will not be either noticed or understood by the opponent, nor effectively resisted. As Sun Tzu stated, "He who wishes to snatch an advantage takes a devious and distant route and makes of it the short way."

A great example of the use of the indirect approach within one's organization is that provided by Swede Momsen, a young officer in the Navy before World War II. Momsen was a visionary, a technologist and a man who combined thinking with action. Over time, Momsen learned to use the indirect approach to introduce revolutionary technology that would save men in submarines stuck on the bottom of the ocean floor, convince the Navy that its brand new torpedoes were failing to explode, develop the US submarine wolf-pack strategy in World War II and create the design for today's nuclear submarines. Here is his story.

When the submarine USS Squalus malfunctioned, flooded in sections and went down in May of 1939 the men left alive on her could only think about how their comrades on other subs had died. The sub S-51 in 1925 had gone down in 131 feet of water and the S-4 had done the same in 1927 at a depth of 110 feet. Both had men still alive as the subs sat on the bottom of the sea but the technology did not exist to rescue them. After a few days their air just ran out.

As a result of losing a friend aboard the S-51 Swede Momsen, a young submarine skipper, had developed a blueprint for a steel rescue chamber that could go down to a sunken sub and bring its men up to safety. He tested the concept with other skippers and got no objections. He even got a positive review from his base commander, Ernest J. King, who would go on to become the Navy's senior officer in WW II. Momsen's next step was to submit his idea to the Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair for review and approval.

Momsen waited a year for a response but received none. By chance he would eventually find out that no one at the Bureau had even reviewed the idea. When Momsen tried to discuss his idea with the Bureau they viewed him as an upstart who couldn't possibly have come up with a workable solution (since they were unable to) and refused to even test it. Shortly after the Bureau's rejection the sub S-4 went down with the loss of forty men.

Driven by the need to avoid another tragedy, Momsen developed another idea, a breathing device that would allow men to come up one-by-one to the surface. It was called the Momsen lung. However, this time Momsen did not take the direct approach with the Bureau and submit another application for testing. Instead, he enlisted the help of a civilian engineer in the Bureau to gather research. Simultaneously he worked with others in the Navy on an ad hoc basis to get the right materials to build a working model. Then Momsen tested it himself, over and over again until he made it work down to three hundred feet. At the same time Momsen further developed his rescue chamber to work in conjunction with his lung device. Ignored by the Navy bureaucracy, Momsen ran his final test successfully with a newspaper reporter who used the lung himself, then publicized Momsen's success. As the headlines surfaced on papers across the country the Navy brass was forced to listen and take Momsen seriously. He got the resources to develop his concepts into a working model. This was Momsen's first success using the indirect approach.

When the Squalus went down the Navy's first response was to call on Momsen to try to bring the men up. Despite the Squalus being down at 243 feet, facing bad weather and suffering technical difficulties, Momsen was able to rescue every man on the sub who had survived the flooding. It was the first submarine rescue in history and was the reward for his years of effort.

When World War II broke out Momsen was appointed to lead Submarine Squadron Two in the Pacific war against Japan. Early in the war submarine skippers, Momsen's included, found that the new Mark 6 torpedoes were failing to explode when they hit Japanese ships. Although the torpedoes were being fired at a 90 degree angle at the enemy ships, exactly as doctrine said they should, they were not going off. Curiously, the Mark 6 had a higher explosion rate when fired at more of a slanted angle, which was customarily thought to be a much poorer shot.

The Bureau of Ordnance blamed the skippers and their subs, saying that the submariners were just making excuses for poor performance. Examinations by their technicians revealed no defects. Momsen believed his men and did his own tests. Taking some Mark 6 torpedoes and firing them against a cliff, Momsen examined the duds (a very dangerous undertaking, since they could have easily gone off) and found the problem. The firing pin that was to set off the explosion was unable to reach it after a direct, 90 degree angle hit. However, when the torpedo hit at an angle the firing pin worked as planned.

Momsen took quick action. First, he ordered his skippers to fire their torpedoes at a slanted angle until the torpedoes were reworked. Then, without waiting for the Bureau of Ordnance to make their fix on the torpedoes still in production, Momsen had the firing pins altered on existing ones. Soon the US subs were achieving much higher success rates. For this action Momsen was awarded the Legion of Merit.

Momsen's next effort to help the war effort was his development of a "wolf pack" strategy for all US submarines operating in the Pacific. Learning from the German U-boat wolf pack system and from war games he had run, Momsen created a very different strategy for American subs. Whereas German subs would be directed into large wolf packs by land-based radio stations and launch their attacks independently, Momsen's system used only three subs at a time. They would launch their attacks as a team, with one submarine operating from the starboard side of the enemy convoy, one from the port side and one behind to finish off crippled ships. These US subs would coordinate their attacks by communicating via low-frequency underwater sound waves. Ultimately, US subs would isolate Japan from the resources of its overseas empire. For his strategic advance in submarine tactics Momsen would win the Navy Cross.

Swede Momsen's last great legacy to the Navy was in the area of nuclear submarines. Whereas in the past subs were run by battery power and thus forced to spend much of their time on the surface, atomic power would allow them to run below the water indefinitely. Momsen foresaw the advent of the nuclear sub and also knew that, as a result, the hull design of the submarine would have to be radically changed to optimize it for underwater running. However, he also knew that to make his ideas known publicly would lead to their rapid demise, since the Navy was controlled by admirals who favored surface ships such as aircraft carriers over submarines. He would have to take an indirect approach to advance his project.

Instead of asking for funding for a nuclear submarine, Momsen asked for money to build a target submarine for surface ships to practice on! He received the go-ahead instantaneously. Also, by not building a fully functional submarine, Momsen was able to avoid oversight by all the bureaus in the Navy.

Momsen told his designers to assume the new sub would run primarily underwater, therefore, surface speed took a back seat to running as fast as possible submerged. The designers investigated many hull types and looked beyond seagoing vessels to look at aircraft as well, trying to find the optimal shape for undersea cruising. That aerodynamic design would end up being a rounded nose leading to a long body topped by a small, thin tower. Unlike predecessor submarines that had twin propellers for better surface running (but actually slowed the sub underwater) the new sub would only have one screw with five blades for faster submerged speed.

The new sub, named the Albacore, failed miserably as a target, since she could outrun surface ships while underwater and twist and turn on a dime. It was clear to even the surface commanders in the Navy that submarines now had a new and major role in the fleet. The next step was to take the hull design of the Albacore, add a nuclear power plant and launch America's first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus.

We can learn much about making positive organizational change from Swede Momsen. Momsen's vision, dedication to improving an organization that was all too willing to ignore him, and physical and moral courage in turning ideas into reality are inspiring. We can also learn from his indirect methods of achieving his goals. What Sun Tzu said hundreds of years ago can be applied well in the case of Swede Momsen, "Thus, one able to gain the victory by modifying his tactics in accordance with the enemy situation may be said to be divine."

(Key Source: The Terrible Hours - The Man Behind the Greatest Submarine Rescue in History by Peter Maas)