Business Development and Management in Times of Change

I recently re-watched (for like the 20th time) the Ron Howard movie Apollo 13 from 1995, staring Ed Harris, Tom Hanks, and Gary Sinise among others.??Apart from it being a well written, directed, and filmed movie, I am continually impressed by the characters, their determination, and unwillingness to accept failure.

There are two scenes in the movie that continue to inspire me 25+ years later.??I’ve used them in conversations with colleagues and where I have opportunities for coaching – and honestly for myself when the seed of doubt starts gripping on the corners of my conscious mind.

The first scene occurs just after the initial explosion. It became clear with the “bangs and shimmy’s” it was not due to instrumentation as the different system team leads were reporting in on what was broken or not responding.?Controlled chaos ensued as the various engineers were trying to grasp what went wrong.?Ed Harris’s character Gene Kranz took control of quieting of the room saying, "Can we review our status here, Sy," says Krantz, "let's look at these things from a... from a standpoint of status. What have we got on that spacecraft that's good?" He was able to redirect them to start working the problem.?On what they could affect.

?In normal day-to-day business, it can be easy – or even be laser focused on the things are aren’t going well, pulling back on productivity.?In times of change or downturns in the economy, it can have a detrimental effect on individual or team success.

Case in point – As a child, I vividly remember a plane that crashed in route to the Portland International Airport.?United Airlines flight 173 experienced an “instrumentation issue” that captured all the flight crew’s focus.??They couldn’t confirm that the nose gear was successfully deployed.?While working with ground crew, they were laser focused on the nose gear issue.??No one was paying attention to other pending issues – such as fuel level.??The plane ran out of gas which forced them to crash-land in a residential area.?Fortunately, of the two houses it did hit, one was vacant, and the other’s owners were out to dinner.??Sadly, 10 people on the plane were killed.??One was sitting right in front of a classmate of mine.??Pretty close to home.

While normal business decision making activity rarely results in fatalities, you can take your eye off what is really important to the business with distractions that you may not be able to affect.

The second scene took place in the LEM.?There was a bit of downtime as they were preparing for final approach back to earth and talking through next steps.?Definitely a time of high stress. ?This is what I like to call the “coulda, shoulda, woulda’s”. An argument ensued on the o2 tanks and what the tank readings looked like before the explosion.?Time for Tom Hanks to jump in to refocus the team, “we’re not going to bounce off the walls for 10 minutes just to end up back here with the same problems”. ?While emotional, it was the wake-up call they needed to refocus their efforts on what they could affect to get home alive.

Positive teamwork can generally go pretty well during good times, but when it hits the fan – a missed deadline, a client that was underserved, or a commitment you had to senior management – the knee jerk reaction could be to throw your coworkers under the bus.?During team meetings on the subject of coming together for mutual success, I have been known to quote President Kennedy’s 1962’s speech on our commitment to go to the moon, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”.??

My challenge to my teammates when they have been let down and a co-worker didn’t perform at their best??Choose to do the things that are hard and have their back.?It’s what you’d hope for if the situation was reversed. Consistently practiced, team success thrives. ?

Over the past few years, and for the next year or two, one thing is certain - we will continue with an uncertain economy that can affect our success. ?In times of change we have a choice on how we respond to or manage each situation. ?Regardless if you lead a team, or are an individual contributor. You can choose to get distracted by the things that are not going well or acknowledge the challenge with the attitude “this is what I can do”.

During my career, I’ve seen colleagues, coworkers, and friends on both sides of the equation.?One thing I’ve never heard from those who always seem to find success???“If it weren’t for…”

My dad used to say there is a big difference between the phrases “I wonder if I can” and “I wonder how I can”.?If you are asking IF, the seed of doubt have already started creeping in.?If you are asking HOW, you are already working the problem.