I recently spent a day at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory with a rocket scientist named John.
Over the last 39yrs, John and his team have developed the rovers which explored Mars and have sent 44 crafts into space to study the galaxy, some of which are more than 3 billion miles away.
In fact, all of the images we have of the solar system have come from the work of John’s team.
Most recently his team launched “Sphere X” which seeks to map all the known galaxies in the universe; a 10,000yr mission…
How’s your resume compare!? J
Here are 8 leadership lessons I learned from a day spent picking the brain of one of the world’s leading minds:
- The Hard Skills are the Easy Skills
When asked about the biggest challenge NASA faces in accomplishing their work, John didn’t hesitate:
“The skills behind creating a craft to land on a planet millions of miles away is the easy part. The hard part is it’s dealing with people and getting a shared commitment and vision to make the mission work.”
All problems are people problems.
The #1 thing holding your company back isn’t talent, it’s not the external problems your company is facing, it’s working more effectively with the people within it.
- You Make the Possible, Possible
NASA doesn’t turn the impossible into possible—it reveals what was possible all along. Now, they’re building a boat to sail the oceans of Saturn’s biggest moon.
John said “we have no idea how to do that, but we’ll look where we are now and think about all the possible ways we might reach that future.”
What might you and your team be capable of if you believed your mission was to make the possible, possible?
- Lead Beyond the Present
John invests 50% of his time working on current projects & 50% thinking about future ones. His job as a leader is to elevate above his day to day and CREATE the space needed to think 5-10-50-100yrs the future.
He understands his team is counting on him to create the space necessary in his week to solve the problems and asking the questions no one else is thinking about.
If you’re a leader, space is not a luxury, it’s your responsibility.
- Track Your “Fields of View”
NASA is constantly working with complex systems, fast moving data, and high-stakes environments.
If they don’t ask what they might be missing or not seeing, their mission might be compromised by an asteroid or some other gravitational impact that they forgot to account for. And it’s the same in your business.
You know what you can see, but how often are you stepping back and asking “what aren’t we seeing that if not accounted for, could cost us?”
- Fail on the Ground Before You Launch
One of NASA’s objectives is to fail as many times as possible while something is on the ground before they launch it into space. This relationship with failure encourages higher levels of innovation and a stronger end result when a new project is finished.
What if you & your team embraced failure as a PATH,
not a problem & kept failing until you got it right?
- Define Your “Degrees of Success”
Before starting a new project, John and his team define what success looks like at 3 levels:
- Threshold (minimum level of success)
- Baseline (the ideal success scenario)
- Beyond (highest level of what success looks like)
NASA sees success in degrees not absolutes.
How might your current definition of success
be holding you back from experiencing higher levels of it?
- Make Room for “Trajectory Correction Maneuvers”
Sometimes NASA’s initial coordinates or estimations of gravitational forces are off. Other times they aren’t able to account for unpredictable situations their rockets may encounter while traveling through space.
Knowing this, they construct rockets with the ability to shift their trajectory while in flight.
In leadership, you must be willing to course correct when something isn’t going according to plan. That takes a great deal of humility, especially when it was your idea.
- Innovation Doesn’t Follow Your Plan
If I asked you how space exploration has benefited your everyday life, you’d probably assume very little. However, NASA’s work in space has led to countless unexpected side effects that impact everyday life:
- GPS and satellite technology
- Digital Imaging (JPEGs, camera phones, CT scans)
- Memory foam & shock absorption
- Water purification & air filtration
- Artificial limbs & medical advances
- Fire-resistant materials
- Better baby formula
- Scratch-resistant lenses & UV protection
- Global communication
- Athletic wear & running shoes
Innovation doesn’t typically come from sitting down and trying to innovate, it often comes from unintended insights gained from attempting to solve a different problem.
