Things I learned about leadership from outer space

Origninally published as "Continuous improvement and zero guesswork" on SmartCompany (https://www.smartcompany.com.au/business-advice/strategy/lessons-resilience-space-sector/)

A failure in the space sector can cost millions of dollars.

It can also cost lives.

So the space sector must bake the elements of success into everything it does, creating daring missions from a sturdy foundation of processes and technologies developed with incredible attention to detail and the resilience to bounce back from failure.

In my work to unlock the power of data for businesses, time and again I see the emphasis placed on simply bolting on technology as a silver bullet solution.

The success of the space sector proves that workplace culture and processes are the keys to success, and it has three ways of doing it I think we can learn from. 

1.  A culture of continuous improvement

In the early days of space exploration at NASA, scores of rockets blew up on the launch pad with alarming regularity.

But every failure was picked apart in ruthless detail so that changes could be made.

Instead of designing a new rocket, space capsule or computer after each failure, the teams at NASA were empowered to confront problems openly and without penalty.

This happened because, from the beginning, NASA fostered a culture of continuous improvement so that nothing was left to chance and that encouraged resilience.

Successful entrepreneurs and businesses aren’t afraid of problems; they lean into them.

So look carefully at the ways your company handles problems, and gauge whether your response to them is as encouraging as the space sector.

2.  Processes that can be quickly improved

Leading on from this culture of improvement, space agencies worldwide have developed work processes or workflows that actively embrace improvement.

Instead of rigid rules, space sector processes allow engineers and astronauts to ‘work the problem’ and make adjustments as needed.

A great example of this in action is the work by Elon Musk’s SpaceX to create reusable rockets that can take a payload into space then return to earth and land at a recovery site.

While the early rockets launched successfully, landing them was troublesome with repeated, and explosive, failures time after time.

But SpaceX has the resilience to bounce back from these failures and keep going - even the recent explosion of its Starship SN8 rocket is seen as a setback to learn from, not a catastrophe.

3.  Unbounded enterprise from data

There is no guesswork in the space sector.

Everything is quantified, measured and observed. But this data is not gathered for its own sake.

Space agencies such as NASA take the data, collate it, and then use it to create processes and technologies that workers can follow and use.

They are empowered by data, freeing them to pursue what I like to call ‘unbounded enterprise’ — where anything is possible because data, backed by a culture of continuous improvement, is used as a super-tool to create effective solutions.

Successful companies embrace the use of data to push what’s possible to the limit, within a culture of improvement and open processes that leaves nothing to chance.

In effect, this creates processes that improve themselves. 

Reaching for the stars with data

Space agencies worldwide pursue their lofty goals with the confidence that comes from knowing they have done everything to ensure they soar.

This never-ending search for information produces the best possible culture that produces the best possible results, from the nuts and bolts holding the space capsules together to the algorithms calculating trajectories.

To those of us who are more earthbound, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our businesses to an extreme test of resilience.

But we can overcome this by taking the opportunity to think deeply about how to improve our processes, embracing data-driven solutions that will help create a culture of improvement.

From this wide-open stance, we can create processes that allow real and effective change, taking the best of the space sector and applying it to our own missions.

Because, for space exploration, failure is not an option. And neither should it be for any other business or field of entrepreneurship.