SHOOTING FOR THE MOON

In 1958, NASA had many very important goals like this one: “The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space.” It sounded like many of the goals you hear in #business today: “Become world class . . .” or “Lead the industry . . .” Although the leaders at NASA had ways to measure various aspects of this goal, they lacked the clarity of a defined finish line. They also lacked the results that the Soviet Union at the time was producing. 

So, what kind of results were these objectives driving for NASA? Russia went into space first with satellites and cosmonauts while the United States was still blowing up rockets on launch pads. 

But in 1961, President John F. Kennedy shook NASA to its foundations when he made the pronouncement “land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth before this decade is out.” Suddenly, NASA had a formidable new challenge, the war it would fight for the next ten years, and it was stated in exactly the way Wildly Important Goals should be stated: “X” is earthbound, “Y” is to the moon and back, and “when” is by December 31, 1969. 

Now, with its reputation at stake on the world stage, NASA had to determine the few key battles that would win that war. In the end, three critical battles were chosen: navigation, propulsion, and life support. 

President Kennedy’s speech also included another key aspect of Discipline 1—saying no to good ideas—when he acknowledged that were many other worthy objectives that the country would not pursue in order to achieve this goal. What do you think happened to accountability within NASA when the challenge of putting a man on the moon was publicly announced? It went through the roof. When accountability soared, what happened to morale and engagement? It, too, went through the roof. 

This is particularly clear when you know that the spacecraft they would use had only a tiny fraction of the computing power of the smartphone in your pocket today.

So, what is your team's Wildly Important Goal?