Shooting for the moon

I loved following some of the recent news and programmes to celebrate the 50^th 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…

www.base52.co.uk

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

‘Turn and face the strange’, as Bowie said.

I’ve lived through and played a small bit part in some big change programmes in my former life as a management accountant at a large food retailer.

Big consultancy firms were involved, large PowerPoint presentations, lots of jargon and buzzwords and backing from the Board. Some went better than others. Key aspects were engaging those affected and ultimately the whole business on why the changes were needed and communicating, communicating, communicating.

Some of the changes implemented like effective meetings, project management tools and process improvement became part of the DNA of the company and helped it stay ahead of the competition for a sustained period of time.

What about managing change in a smaller company - say with 10, 20 or 50 employees? Processes and ways of working tend to be more informal and centred around people and their likes and dislikes rather than a company style. Budgets are small and people (including the owner) are normally working at capacity so there is little time to consider and actively engage with change.

But sometimes change needs to happen.

Small businesses evolve and from time to time they reach a plateau. Perhaps they have become too dependant on the owner. Perhaps the owner is nearing retirement age and wants to move away from doing 50/60 hours weeks. Perhaps the business has become a bit stale and is not focussing on their customers.

Making a change can be difficult but it can transform a business if the owner and key employees commit to the change and focus intently on delivering it.

The same principles of communication and engagement are critical as with a larger organisation.

I strongly believe that an external facilitator of some kind is important if not essential. This could be the company’s external accountants or a business consultant of some description. Their key attributes should be that they are experienced in managing change and ideally with specific experience in the areas you are looking to transform.

Another essential component in my view is to have a programme manager or project manager whose responsibility is to oversee and facilitate the change. This would probably involve freeing up one of the team from their day job for a period of time to manage the change programme.

So you have a plan and the objectives you want to achieve. It’s worth bearing in mind Mike Tyson’s quote, ‘Everyone has a plan until they get a smack in the mouth’. You will probably get several smacks in the mouth to veer you off plan and will need to keep the objectives in mind and try to steer back on track.

With luck, effort and resilience the plan can be achieved and the business taken to a much better place.

Good luck if you decide to embark on your own change journey.

www.base52.co.uk