Have you seen the Apollo 13 movie? In case you’re not familiar with it, it’s not the sequel to Apollos 1-12. It’s a nail-biting movie that tells the true story of the unfortunate and near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission to the moon. At the risk of ruining it for you, the Apollo 13 crew never made it to the moon. Instead, they nearly died when an explosion on board made it virtually impossible for them to return safely to Earth.
For the Apollo 13 crew, as well as ground support personnel, this was the epitome of a high pressure situation.
And to successfully overcome this high-pressure situation, to solve the myriad of seemingly insurmountable problems, they had to improvise. They had to come up with creative ideas, under severe time constraints (the oxygen in the spacecraft was rapidly running out) and with the lives of three astronauts at stake.
I know … sometimes it feels that way in your workplace too, doesn’t it?
At times like this, you need what the Apollo 13 crew and support personnel needed: ideas. And when everything is at stake, it doesn’t really matter where the ideas come from.
But some leaders don’t seem to understand this.
Some leaders, when faced with a high pressure situation, exclude everyone else or, at best, listen to only a small, select group of people at or near their hierarchical level.
And that is a mistake.
Because the truth is that a good idea can come from anyone, at any level. If the idea of Joe, the custodian of the third shift, is the one that saves the astronauts, isn’t that what really matters?
But too often, as leaders, we let our egos get in the way. We believe that only we can solve the problem and that getting credit for the solution is more important than the solution itself. And that’s the kind of thinking that will kill astronauts on your world.
Harry Truman once said something interesting:
“It’s amazing what you can accomplish … if you don’t care who gets the credit.”
In a high pressure situation, ideas (and options) can be your best friends. So why would you want to limit them?
Once when I was producing my comedy TV show Almost Live !, a guest canceled at the last minute. Okay, no astronauts were going to die … but it was still a very pressure situation for me. The entire cast and crew contributed ideas, including my lowest paid writer. His suggestion was that maybe he could fill up the time on the show, if we could get some liquid nitrogen.
By the way, the name of my lowest paid writer was Bill Nye.
And that night, he became Bill Nye, the scientist.
You never know where the great ideas will come from … or from whom. No matter what is at stake in your world, be it the lives of three astronauts or seven minutes of dead air on a comedy show, solicit as many ideas from as many people as you can … and then choose the best option.
