1) Overcome obstacles - So many times people get discouraged after a setback and never get back on their feet. When the astronauts knew that they could not reach the moon, did they throw their hands up in the air in despair?
2) Communication - The team in Houston had to work together and communicate amongst themselves to resolve the problems faced by the astronauts. The ultimate demonstration of great communication was when Houston and Apollo 13 communicated well with each other to deliver the products. So many offshore projects fail despite being on planet Earth shows how important good communication is.
3) Ingenuity - Making do with what the astronauts brought to fix the carbon dioxide poisoning shows ingenuity. So many times, people lament about not being able to deliver because of lack of resources, lack of manpower etc etc.
4) Teamwork - The team in Houston brought together the finest mind to bring solutions to the table. Not forgetting that they needed a great team on Apollo 13 to deliver it. How many companies fail because of a lack of good team
5) Working well under stress - What could be more stressful than working under a tight deadline, where you know that when the deadline is over, people will literally be dead
6) Inspiring leader - Someone was commenting something to the effect that this is a tragedy for NASA, when the leader commented "On the contrary, this has been our finest hour". How many companies have leaders who cannot inspire their followers and failed?
7) Faith that it will ultimately work out - Ultimately, there is only so much we can do and rely on faith. Most notably, the re-entry of the rocket
Faith in yourself and your team - To achieve the common objective, they have to have faith in everyone in the team. This really helped them through the periods when they kept having setbacks
8) Perseverance - They faced problems after problems, yet everyone peservered on. How many people have that kind of perserverance?
9) Working towards a common goal - They all worked as a team towards the common goal of bringing the astronauts back alive. How many projects fail because people were more interested in their own agendas and have different goals from the companies
10) Ability to change their "business plan" - Though the original plan was to get to the moon, ultimately their business plan had to change to "saving the lives of the astronauts". Though this wasn't really a choice for them, but to businesses, it does demonstrate that you might need to change your business plan if it is necessary for your survival.
11) No finger pointing - Not once during the crisis did anyone said "It wasn't my fault, it was his". This is something which is common in corporate world.
Actually this part
"Faith in yourself and your team - To achieve the common objective, they have to have faith in everyone in the team. This really helped them through the periods when they kept having setbacks"
was to be a bullet point in itself, making it the 13th :)
Comments
Apollo 13 - Great story on the following
1) Overcome obstacles - So many times people get discouraged after a setback and never get back on their feet. When the astronauts knew that they could not reach the moon, did they throw their hands up in the air in despair?
2) Communication - The team in Houston had to work together and communicate amongst themselves to resolve the problems faced by the astronauts. The ultimate demonstration of great communication was when Houston and Apollo 13 communicated well with each other to deliver the products. So many offshore projects fail despite being on planet Earth shows how important good communication is.
3) Ingenuity - Making do with what the astronauts brought to fix the carbon dioxide poisoning shows ingenuity. So many times, people lament about not being able to deliver because of lack of resources, lack of manpower etc etc.
4) Teamwork - The team in Houston brought together the finest mind to bring solutions to the table. Not forgetting that they needed a great team on Apollo 13 to deliver it. How many companies fail because of a lack of good team
5) Working well under stress - What could be more stressful than working under a tight deadline, where you know that when the deadline is over, people will literally be dead
6) Inspiring leader - Someone was commenting something to the effect that this is a tragedy for NASA, when the leader commented "On the contrary, this has been our finest hour". How many companies have leaders who cannot inspire their followers and failed?
7) Faith that it will ultimately work out - Ultimately, there is only so much we can do and rely on faith. Most notably, the re-entry of the rocket
Faith in yourself and your team - To achieve the common objective, they have to have faith in everyone in the team. This really helped them through the periods when they kept having setbacks
8) Perseverance - They faced problems after problems, yet everyone peservered on. How many people have that kind of perserverance?
9) Working towards a common goal - They all worked as a team towards the common goal of bringing the astronauts back alive. How many projects fail because people were more interested in their own agendas and have different goals from the companies
10) Ability to change their "business plan" - Though the original plan was to get to the moon, ultimately their business plan had to change to "saving the lives of the astronauts". Though this wasn't really a choice for them, but to businesses, it does demonstrate that you might need to change your business plan if it is necessary for your survival.
11) No finger pointing - Not once during the crisis did anyone said "It wasn't my fault, it was his". This is something which is common in corporate world.
12) It is based on real life. Nuff said
What was your 13th bullet point?
Actually this part "Faith in yourself and your team - To achieve the common objective, they have to have faith in everyone in the team. This really helped them through the periods when they kept having setbacks" was to be a bullet point in itself, making it the 13th :)
HN, we have a problem