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Where Do You Want to Land?
Copyright © All rights reserved
By Debra Miller
Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc.

As Alice discovered when she landed in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”  Maybe the destination didn’t matter to Alice, but I suspect it matters to you and to the organization providing your paycheck.  As a leader, how well are you and your company doing to provide direction to your employees?  How well have you communicated your vision or value equation to your employees?  How many of them can articulate the value equation and relate it to their interaction with customers and suppliers?

The value of a compelling vision should not be discounted.  Employees will work each day in exchange for the amount of compensation you are paying them.  However, if you want to multiply exponentially the benefit of their work by creating enthusiasm for your objectives, you must be prepared to elevate their thinking to the highest level.  You must give them a goal to strive toward; a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves.

In 1961, the American space program was not the envy of the world.  In fact, several missed-steps had placed the United States considerably behind the Soviets.  The Soviets had served the first volley in what became the race into space when they launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957.  In response, the US created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  However, the US program had failed to make a significant showing when the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space and orbited the earth on April 12, 1961.  In contrast, the US space program had experienced a number of setbacks.  On November 21, 1960, the first of the highly touted Redstone rockets which were designed to bring parity to the race into space lifted only a few inches off the launch pad before the engines shut down.  On April 25, 1961, an Atlas rocket designed to orbit the earth had to be destroyed 43 seconds into flight when it failed to reach the appropriate horizontal trajectory.  The program was dragging as was the enthusiasm and morale of those working in it.  Then something happened that spurred the program to new heights of accomplishment.

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress regarding “Urgent National Needs.” In this speech, Kennedy offered a challenge for the fledging space program and for the country:

“I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”  With that simple sentence, Kennedy defined the direction of the space program for the decade and provided a clear, concise value equation for those working in it.  If there had been any doubt about the goal of the program or the timeline, all ambiguity was now removed.  Every scientist, every engineer, every technician and every civil servant working for NASA now knew what they were expected to do.

Yes, given the progress to date, the vision seemed impossible and Kennedy was prepared to address the skeptics.  “No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.” If that was the case, why attempt it?  He provided the answer to that question as well. “We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.”

Kennedy continued to communicate and reinforce the message.  In a speech sixteen months later at Rice University he once again addressed the reason why.  “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win . . . .”

And the rest, as they say, is history.  On July 20, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong did walk on the moon amid the cheers from living rooms all across America.  At that moment as they stared at the fuzzy images broadcast on their television, few Americans were thinking about the words which had brought the nation to that point in time.  However, without Kennedy’s words, his commitment, consistency, and support, the goal would not have been realized.

Why is the presence of a compelling vision essential to the success of any endeavor?  There are many reasons, but in essence the value is this:  employees must have a compass to guide their daily actions.  They must be able to measure the value of any action in terms of the progress it yields toward the ultimate goal.  Given the choice between two courses of action or between any two activities on a given day, a NASA engineer had only to ask the questions, “will action A or action B bring us closer to the moon?” or “will this activity lead us closer to the goal of a man on the moon by then end of the decade?” Any effort or expense which did not support the goal of a man on the moon by the end of the decade should be left behind in favor of one that would.     

Employees go through similar decision processes every day.  Do I work on implementing the lean manufacturing initiative or do I spend the day researching a new manufacturing process?  Do I focus my time on maintaining my existing customer accounts today or should I contact a prospective customer?  Do I work on the new inventory management program or solve that pesky problem with the email system?  How employees choose to spend their time could be a reflection of the job you have done as their leader in defining and communicating the value equation for the company. 

The value equation must be clear, concise and portable.  By portable I mean that every employee must be able to “take it with them”; commit it to memory and make it part of their habitual thought processes.  It can’t be something known and understood only by the senior most members of the leadership team.  If the presence of the vision is only felt inside the board room, you need to rethink your communication strategy. 

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will indeed take you there.  Just don’t complain about where you land.  But if you had in mind “moving forward with the full speed of freedom,” perhaps you should chart a new course by refining your value equation.

For more information about Ken Chapman and Associates’ Leadership Development Programs, contact Ken Chapman at 205.366.0265 or email Ken at kchapman@leaderscode.com.

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