I loved following some of the recent news and programmes to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings.
I remember watching it on the news as an 11 year old boy.
Armstrong’s historic steps took place in the middle of the night for UK
viewers. That may be why the first moon walk from Apollo 11 is imprinted slightly less
on my memory than Apollo 8 breaking from earth’s orbit to head for the moon a
few months earlier. Both are brilliant, mind-blowing memories.
The wider Apollo programme, from Kennedy’s visionary speech at
the start of the decade, through the tragedy of Apollo 1 where astronauts were
killed in a ground test, to the successful exploratory flights and the triumph
of Apollo 11, was a crazy, massively expensive, heroic and incredible journey.
Apollo’s legacy is huge and far-reaching. Many see it as
man's greatest achievement and even those who believe it was an expensive folly
and arms race indulgence would recognise that it was an incredible feat of
ingenuity and courage.
Whatever your view, I believe there are lessons for business
owners which can be drawn from this programme.
These are some which spring to mind:
The vision thing
JFK made his famous speech at Rice University in September1962.
It is worth watching on Youtube to capture its raw power. ‘We choose to go to
the moon’. Kennedy’s statement was simple and specific. To land a man on the
moon, by the end of the decade and bring him back to earth safely. The goal was
achieved in July 1969. How many businesses have a vision? How specific is it
and how is it communicated? Kennedy’s vision inspired, motivated and mobilised a
whole country. Powerful stuff
Belief
Landing on the moon seemed like an impossible challenge. A
striking thing listening to the reminiscences of those involved is that they ‘believed’
they could make it happen. Some of this was possibly down to the confidence of
youth. The average age of mission controllers was 27! ‘They didn’t know what
they didn’t know’. There were huge setbacks and barriers along the way but belief
that they would eventually be successful helped to carry them through.
Commitment
One of the podcasts I listened to about the Apollo programme
described how committed people were to making it a success. Unpaid overtime was
the norm. At peak times people worked all hours to get things done and overcome
hurdles. Unpaid working on that scale is not realistic or ethical for
businesses but commitment in terms of a desire to get things done and work
towards a common goal is a priceless commodity
Teamwork
There are numerous examples of incredible teamwork on the
Apollo programme. At its peak 400,000 people were employed directly or
indirectly on Apollo 11. What a fantastic job of coordination and teamwork to
bring all this together to focus on the end goal. The teamwork between
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins in space and the support team in mission control, Houston was tangible and
each team praises the other in almost every interview.
Adaptability
The Apollo team were always adaptable. If their plan A didn’t
work there was plan B and if there wasn’t a plan B they would make one on the
fly. The most striking example was with Apollo 13 where the Command Module failed
and the lunar module was adapted to become the astronauts’ place of safety and their
refuge to travel back to earth. How many businesses have a plan B or rise to
the challenge if plan A doesn’t work?
Excellence
The best thrived in Apollo’s challenging and competitive
environment. Nothing but excellence was tolerated in terms of attitude,
commitment, quality of work, decision-making and so on. Timescales were so
tight to achieve JFK’s goal that the best engineering graduates were recruited
without interview. They were thrown into a work role almost immediately and
either ‘sank or swam’. I’m not advocating this as a recruitment or a management
method for businesses but the focus on excellence is the key thing. There was
no room for passengers or people making up the numbers. You either ‘got with
the programme’ or fell by the wayside.
Landing on the moon is clearly different from running a
small business. The similarity is that it's about a group of people working
towards a shared goal.
If the moon mission was possible in 7 years from vision to success
what can be achieved in business with vision, belief, commitment, teamwork,
adaptability and a focus on excellence?
Shoot for the moon as they say…
