�In addition to the co-authors� combined qualifications, including meticulous research and writing in a lucid, easy-to-grasp narrative style, Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton is a tome, the forerunner of future research into the nature of unyielding courage and its application to strategic leadership principles.� ― Leatherneck Why were the American POWs imprisoned at the �Hanoi Hilton� so resilient in captivity and so successful in their subsequent careers? This book presents six principles practiced within the POW organizational culture that can be used to develop high-performance teams everywhere. The authors offer examples from both the POWs� time in captivity and their later professional lives that identify, in real-life situations, the characteristics necessary for sustainable, high-performance teamwork. Taylor Baldwin Kiland and Peter Fretwell show readers how to apply these principles to their own organizations and create a culture with staying power.
Originally intending their book to focus on fighter pilot James Stockdale�s leadership style, the authors found that his approach toward completing a mission was to assure that it could be accomplished without him. Stockdale, they explain, had created a mission-centric organization, not a leader-centric organization. He understood that a truly sustainable culture must not be dependent on a single individual.