In 1999 L. David Marquet took command of the submarine USS Santa Fe at Pearl Harbor. The ship “had the worst retention in the submarine force.” Marquet changed one phrase. Officers stopped saying “Request permission to submerge the ship.” They said: “I intend to submerge the ship.” The captain could still stop it.
Marquet called the old way “permission-based… I request permission, and you approve it.” He reported: “We went from worst to first in most measures of performance.” His book Turn the Ship Around! appeared in 2012.