Leadership Moments from NASA: Achieving the Impossible
by Dr. Dave Williams and Elizabeth Howell. Only with true leadership could NASA thrive in the face of certainly immense challenges, budget cuts, the loss of public interest and fatal accidents. Look no further than how NASA’s leadership proved over and over how they could reengineer their organizational mission and thrive.
Dr. Dave Williams is an astronaut, pilot, ER doctor, scientist, and CEO. Dave has flown in space twice and is the former Director of Space & Life Sciences at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. In addition, he has received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the Langley Research Center Superior Accomplishment Award.
Elizabeth Howell, PhD teaches at Algonquin College and in addition, at the Professional Development Institute at The University of Ottawa.
Accordingly, Leadership Moments from NASA dives into the leadership culture of this internationally famous organization. In addition, they examine the leadership styles and insights of NASA senior executives spanning five decades of human spaceflight result in lessons learned from critical moments.
Certainly the most unique aspect in this book is the entire world watched NASA birth and initial projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo culminating in landing on the moon and returning astronauts safely to earth.
Talk about global competition. Lessons from Sputnik truly changed America overnight. Honestly, overnight due to the impact of the cold war era. Their goal of racing to the moon is just extraordinary. NASA’s space mission is as much a story of leadership and teamwork as it is a story of exploration and discovery.
Apollo 1 tragedy
Gene Kranz, now famous as the lead flight director during Apollo 13, responded to the Apollo 1 fire by calling a meeting of his staff in mission control three days after the accident. Not mincing words, Kranz stated “We were too ‘gung-ho’ about the schedule and we blocked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we.” Kranz knew NASA mission and culture well. He was as an aerospace engineer and former fighter pilot. His leadership advice:
From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: tough and competent,” he said, looking each team member in the eye. “Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities…Competent means we will never take anything for granted…mission control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write Tough and Competent on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room, these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White and Chaffee.
pgs. 14-15.
Houston, Tranquility Base, the Eagle has landed
In contrast, within two years of the Apollo 1 tragedy NASA was prepared to land a man on the moon. This was just the first of many amazing accomplishments by NASA. Easily the most famous of them all. However, the management lessons on landing are just as applicable today:
Armstrong noticed the LM was proceeding to an automated landing inside a crater, which wasn’t a great idea since they couldn’t see the ground where they would be touching down. He took control and began steering. Hovering above the rocky terrain, running low on fuel, he searched for a safe landing spot. “Thirty seconds” Aldrin said, while reading out altimeter markings from his side of the cockpit.
There was silence as Eagle settled onto the lunar surface in the Ocean of Tranquility at 4:17:39 p.m. EDT on July 20, 1969. Between the computer alarms, the need to manually overfly the targeted landing site to find a more suitable location and the fact they landed with 20 seconds of fuel remaining, Duke’s comment, “You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again.
pgs. 163-164.
Prove your leadership
The book digs deep into the major accidents in NASA history and looks to the leaders and leadership style that was implemented. The technical description of the events are complicated and difficult to comprehend for the layman, but I think the authors did a good job of breaking down the technical aspects so that the reader can accurately absorb the information. In addition, interviews with numerous astronauts and mission control managers provide deeper insights.
In addition, the people involved in these historic moments are really special and the book does an excellent job of look at those leaders and what they did to get NASA through challenging times. The book jumps back an forth in time some and while it made some sense from a storytelling standpoint, the key players and where they are in their careers is hard to keep up with. Time is spent talking about mentorship and lead positions changing hands, but when the book jumps out of linear progression, a difficulty arises about who in these leadership roles at the moment being discussed.
How can you think like NASA?
What does it take to think like NASA? For this purpose, I would highly recommend Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol. Dave and Elizabeth write powerful lessons on leadership addressing NASA’s birth and longevity. Amazing success and heartbreaking failures defined NASA for generations. Besides, this book is honestly, cover to cover an amazing read. Make no mistake, there are certainly hard lessons on leadership. NASA proves at its core that leadership, teamwork, and a corporate culture will define success.
In conclusion, this book allows readers to learn, perhaps for the first time how NASA accepted amazing challenges, recovered from tragedy and achieved what was thought to be impossible. Why wouldn’t every organizational leader not want to read this book?