Teaching officers how to read and lead wardroom seminars

Commanding officers can want serious professional discussion with their junior officers without having been taught how to lead it. Developing the Naval Mind addresses that gap through practical guidance on seminar leadership, participation, and reading. A method for reading becomes especially important when the quantity of historical literature exceeds what a student can approach without a plan. The book pairs that preparation with older Proceedings articles and strategic writing short enough to read in an hour or less. A wardroom can then read the same piece and meet to discuss it during a deployment or in port. Armstrong reports that ships and squadrons were using the book for this purpose.