Is it wrong to have a man-crush on an 86 year old dude? Well, if loving Gene Kranz is wrong, then I guess I don’t want to be right.
Gene Kranz is an American legend, though I’d bet there is a good chance you don’t know who he is. Kranz is associated with the quote, “Failure is not an option” made famous in the movie Apollo 13. This is a noble motto and one that I have utter on more than one occasion to teams facing difficult times. Yet he didn’t actually utter that now famous phrase.
“Failure is not an option” was the tagline for the movie Apollo 13 which chronicled the work of Kranz, astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Sweigert and Fred Haise along with all of Mission Control during that failed trip to the moon in April of 1970. That now famous declaration became the title of Gene Kranz’s book which I believe is the best single history book on our Space Race with the Russians, Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond.
It was just recently that I found out Kranz did not utter that phrase; a phrase that I have attributed to him 100+ times over the years. “Failure is not an option” is only part of the mystique that is Gene Kranz. But another phrase that he did say is equally as good in my opinion, and something that I have been thinking about a lot lately.
The BBC is in the middle of their second chapter of the podcast 13 Minutes To The Moon. Chapter one, which gave the podcast its name was about the final 13 minutes of Apollo 11’s trip to the lunar surface in 1969. Chapter two dives deep into the mission dubbed NASA’s most successful failure, Apollo 13.
BBC producers have gained access to people and resources associated with these missions to tell a very familiar story in a much different way, and it is as riveting listening today as I imagine it was as it happened 50 years ago. During a critical moment of the Apollo 13 mission, chaos filled Mission Control as the scientists and engineers realize they had only minutes to act to save the crew. Kranz’s voice booms through actual recordings from Mission Control used to help narrate the podcast. He instructs his team, “Solve the problem, but don’t make it worse by guessing.”
What a moment of clarity during a hectic situation for this leader to impart on his team.
With all that was swirling around Kranz’s team, he was able to give them clear guidance and I think something they could easily grasp during an unthinkable situation filled with tension and stress. Solving the problem, that was clearly the objective. Not guessing brought about parameters for solving the problem. As every second passed by, there were thousands of what if scenarios that they could get caught up trying to chase. But bysticking to facts and what they knew, the scope of the work became clearly defined.
As leaders, we need to make sure we are providing guidance to help the team with clarity, so they know their objective and the expected scope of the work they are to perform. The team has to perform within those guidelines, which they thankfully did just over 50 years ago.
The words he spoke were incredibly important, but so was the way he spoke them. Hollywood tends to over dramatize things, and a simple transcript of the Mission Control conversations does not give us any indication about his tone.
Kranz is hardcore military, with his signature buzz cut and Air Force background. Yet one of the characteristics of Kranz throughout the years was the confidence and trust he put in his team. His team, made up of largely 20 something ‘kids’ that for many was their first job out of college. His statement to solve the problem and not guess has a tone of confidence for his team while also being very nurturing.
While he was very nurturing, that is not to say that Kranz couldn’t also be tough. That might be one of the toughest things for a manager, especially one with limited experiences. Finding the balance between nurturing and toughness / accountability.
At the Kentucky Derby, the field of horses actually pass in front of the grandstands twice during the race. At the start, you’ll watch a skillful jockey position his horse to save energy and get comfortable as they pass by the grandstands for the first time. This, by its nature is a very nurturing approach. As the race progresses along the back stretch, you’ll see the jockey start to coax more out of his ride as they head into the turns. As the reach the main straight away and push for the finish, it is then that you’ll see the jockey use his whip to help spur on performance at this critical point as they race to the end.
The jockey has coached his horse, placing it in the best position to win the race at the end. Going to the whip for the end is his or her attempt to maximize the effort and results. The entire trip around the track is an illustration of coaching and accountability. Like a jockey that starts with the whip too early, a manager that yells at his staff too frequently rarely gets the maximum output. The balance is off, and the output is less than ideal. If you go to the whip too early, it quickly turns into you just beating the horse with no motivational value. And the same is true with yelling at your employees.
Kranz was a master at this balance. Years before Neil Armstrong successfully stepped foot on the moon, NASA was faced with the biggest disaster of the space race, Apollo 1. In January 1967, Mission Control and the nation mourned the loss of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee as their space craft engulfed in fire during a test on the launch pad. Kranz’s speech to engineers and scientists at Mission Control, dubbed “The Kranz Dictum” is a moving speech, mournful yet motivating.
Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it. We were too gung ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, "Dammit, stop!" I don't know what Thompson's committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause! We were not ready! We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did.
From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: "Tough" and "Competent". Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. 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. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.
That speech makes me want to crash through brick walls to find success for my project. Being “Tough and Competent” as a team member or a leader is a key to success for spaceflight, sales or whatever your endeavor. Tough on yourself and peers means staying accountable for your actions and the actions of your team. Competent means staying true to the facts and the pursuit of all the facts necessary to complete the task. It also means diving down into the details to make sure every detail is completed and completed correctly.
During trying times, people look for leadership. There is an overload of stress in people’s lives right now as we fight through this pandemic and the fear it has created. Then on top of that, many people around the world are facing unprecedented financial issues because of a sudden loss of income which has resulted from our world economy shutting down. As leaders, as human beings it is our time to help people start to solve their problems / our problems even in the midst of the physical and financial chaos. Be tough, be competent, solve the challenges faced and bring the ship safely home.
In any crisis, true leadership rises up. Throughout history, individuals and examples of true leadership during difficult times are plentiful. Now is our time to shine. Now is your time.
Rise up and shine on.
