Management & Leadership Lessons learnt from "Apollo 13"

When the Going Get's Tough, the Tough Gets Going.

Apollo 13?is a 1995 American space docudrama?film?directed by Ron Howard. The screenplay dramatizes the aborted 1970?Apollo 13?lunar mission and is an adaptation of the 1994 book? Lost Moon : The perilous voyage of Apollo 13.

Apollo 13 is one of the greatest death-defying adventures in history. The movie revolves around 3 astronauts who get stranded in space, and NASA's relentless efforts to bring them safely home. It shows how, through teamwork, ingenuity, and rational process, the NASA scientists solve a nearly impossible problem.? Three astronauts, mission commander Jim Lovell (Played by Tom Hanks), Fred Haise (played by Bill Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Played by Kevin Backon) together gives us the lessons of the "Successful Failure".

The key takeaways from the movie are :

1. Exemplary & Decisive Leadership?with a clear Vision.
2. Timely Communication & Course correction : Communicating early, frequently and with relevant details. (Most important for current COVID era).

1. Supreme Teamwork
2. Assess & Manage Risks constantly
3. Train constantly
4. Absolute Adaptability (Most important for current COVID era)
5. Prepare for the unexpected (Most important for current COVID era)
6. The Power of Professionalism
7. The Power of Strategic Thinking
8. Failure is not an option : Turn Failures into success (Most important for current COVID era)
9. Leader's ability to maintain calm & control in any critical situation inspires confidence amongst the teams.
10. Set a clear Objective & communicate them with clarity.
11. Leading & Supporting the team with Compassionate Leadership (Most important for current COVID era)
12. Leadership with Accountability
13. Remote Working & Collaboration (Most important for current COVID era)

Apollo 13 talks about staying agile during crisis. It is a story of resilience, ingenuity, courage and adaptability during extreme crisis situation. Although this real event took place more than 50 years (in 1970) ago there is still so much we can learn from this event. I recommend everyone to watch this movie.