324: Charles Fishman - How To Create A Culture Of Learning From Failure

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Full Show Notes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com

#324: Charles Fishman

Charles Fishman is the acclaimed author of One Giant Leap, A Curious Mind (with Brian Grazer), The Wal-Mart Effect, and The Big Thirst. He is a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb Award, the most prestigious prize in business journalism.

Notes: 

• Leaders who sustain excellence =
  • They insist on excellence. "The work needs to be as good as it can be."
  • Getting to the moon was the largest project in the history of civilization
  • Clarity of the mission - Everyone must know the goal
  • Must keep people motivated
  • Standards must be clear - And the reasoning behind each action (intentional)
• President Kennedy was frustrated with how the U.S. was doing versus the Russians in space.  He needed to make a bold statement.  When it was made, the administration felt there was a 50/50 shot that it could happen.
  • It was important to announce broad goal and the reason behind it
• "Take the stairs" - Think of it as a blessing. "I get to do this."
  • Not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
  • "A master stroke of leadership because it was a stretch goal, but it wasn't insanity."  It must be balanced.
• There are tapes of JFK talking scientific discovery where it was obvious he had little understanding of it.  -->  It's important to have people you have confidence in leading areas where you're lacking knowledge.
  • "If JFK wasn't assassinated, we may not have gone to the moon.  He was starting to get cold feet about the cost."
• The space program created a culture of learning from failure:
  • "Every single failure had to be investigated, understood, and resolved."
  • "No Random Failures" was the motto.
  • "Every failure is a gift." -- There were 14,000 recorded failures in testing.
• Collaboration -- How to keep so many people aligned?  There were 400,000 people from 20,000 companies working on the Apollo missions!
  • NASA's management style:
    • Clearly defined roles - What are your solutions to the problems?
    • Gave assignments and qualities that needed to be met
• NASA had a culture where they brought everyone together for in person meetings.  "Every minute of a mission would be walked through."
  • There was transparency and decisions got made.
  • Get people together in person and do something important.  This built camaraderie among the dispirit teams.
• Bill Tindall -- A mission planning genius on space navigation.  He was also gracious, self-effacing, and had a great sense of humor.
  • Bill respected what others had done, had respect for the mission.  He had the confidence to be calm.  A different person who used a different manner would have been a disaster working with the leaders at MIT.
  • People have to be persuaded to follow you.
• Both Gene Kranz and Bill Tindall were unafraid to hear input.  They were confident enough to find the right answer (wherever it came from).
• We are entering the most exciting time in space travel (Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos)