Issue No. 409 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a change of pace for your summer reading: an extraordinary DVD documentary to inspire you about your BHAG. Enjoy! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and check out this page for recent book reviews, including Jim Collins’ 29-pager on momentum, Turning the Flywheel.
Summer Reading List #2:
In the Shadow of the Moon (DVD)
Where were you on July 20, 1969? If you’re 50 or older, you were alive when the Apollo 11 spaceflight landed the first two people on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969.
If your learning style is more listener than reader, you’ll appreciate this issue’s recommendation. This documentary is perfect for a staff retreat, a staff training day, a department Hoopla! Bucket event, or even a Friday night at the movies family celebration at home. Enjoy, learn and be inspired! (Note: I recommended this back in 2010—but it’s time to highlight this gem again. See you at the 50th anniversary party next month!)
BHAG Documentary
Perhaps the best example of a BHAG (the term, “Big Hairy Audacious Goal,” was popularized by Jim Collins) is President John F. Kennedy’s famous address to the U.S. Congress on May 25, 1961. He inspired the nation with these words, “First, I believe that 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.”
Kennedy didn’t live to see that audacious dream realized, but on July 20, 1969, the whole world watched as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. Since then “put a man on the moon by 1970” has inspired thousands of leaders to put a short-term target on the wall—and, in bold faith, blast off. For faith-based organizations, I prefer the term “Big Holy Audacious Goal.”
So I was energized once again with that profound BHAG while at a client’s senior leaders retreat in the Colorado mountains in 2010. One evening, we sat mesmerized by the stunning DVD, In the Shadow of the Moon, Ron Howard’s documentary of the 12 American astronauts who walked on the moon between 1968 and 1972.
This extraordinary 100-minute film has teachable moments in almost every one of my 20 management buckets. The Results Bucket: check. The Strategy Bucket: bull’s-eye. The Systems Bucket: 15 astronauts owned 15 segments of the mission. The Crisis Bucket: “Houston, we have a problem.”
The film is absolutely rich in memorable moments in the Team Bucket. Then there’s the People Bucket with often hilarious and poignant illustrations of the four social styles, including analyticals (Armstrong) and expressives (James Lovell). This massive, visionary expedition would have failed miserably without monumental achievements in the Delegation Bucket. There’s a lot more.
Besides the exquisite cinematography and the dramatic explosions (they had lots of failures enroute to the BHAG), the insights shared by the aging and straight-talking astronauts (it was filmed in 2007) were remarkable, often funny and frequently breath-taking.
Download or order from Amazon:
• Amazon Prime (free): In the Shadow of the Moon
• DVD: In the Shadow of the Moon
P.S. If you missed my review of The Four Gifts of the King: A Novel, by R. Scott Rodin, click here.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) What were the risks for President Kennedy of “going public” to the whole world with such a daring BHAG?
2) Do we have an equally daring Big Holy Audacious Goal (a measurable target on the wall three to 10 years out)—that inspires our staff, board, donors and volunteers?
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Hire Healthy People
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook
One of the big ideas in the Culture Bucket, Chapter 8, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to hire for attitude, not aptitude.
• Max De Pree: “The corporation can never be something we are not.”
• John Maxwell on servant leadership: “The secure are into towels, and the insecure are into titles.”
• Miles McPherson: “One way to get a healthy culture is to hire healthy people.”
• Laurie Sudbrink: “The softer characteristics of GRIT—generosity, respect, integrity and truth—create a healthy toughness and perseverance in leadership that involves the team rather than leaving them in the dust.”
For another staff movie event, screen the 1949 classic, Twelve O’Clock High, featuring Gregory Peck—and then discuss the two leadership styles in the film. And note the difference between quantity (number of bombing raids) and quality (the one strategic target). Read my review here.
For more resources from the Culture Bucket, including a link to Max De Pree’s book, Leadership Is an Art, click here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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