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| The NASA team dealing with the Apollo 13 got each of these five building blocks in place, allowing it to react with Tactical Capacity of the highest order: | |
| 1)The team's mission changed from ¡§going up to the moon to collect rocks¡¨ to the one Burning IMPERATIVE of ¡§get these men home alive.¡¨ This was galvanizing enough (as a burning imperative must always be) to transcend all petty issues and focus everyone's efforts. 2)The team's MILESTONES were clear: turn the ship around, preserve enough energy to allow a re-entry, fix the carbon monoxide problem, survive the earth's atmosphere, etc. 3)The carbon-monoxide fix kept the astronauts alive temporarily, and was the EARLY WIN that made the team believe it could get the crew back to earth safely. It gave everyone confidence. 4)Everyone was working with the same end in mind. But they were working in different and essential ROLES. One group figured out how to turn the spaceship around. Another group fixed the oxygen problem. Another dealt with the reentry calculations. And the spare crew did whatever it took. They were all working together, without getting in each other's way. 5)The CULTURE had been strong. But everyone's words and actions reinforced the message that ¡§failure is not an option¡¨ throughout the rescue mission. |
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| Even though most new leaders do not jump into a situation as urgent as Apollo 13, in today's environment, almost all leadership transitions are ¡§hot landings¡¨ where they must hit the ground running to have a chance of succeeding. Very often they will need to fix something, fast. Sometimes they and their team may have to react that quickly to changing situations. Sometimes they will have more time to plan. Fortunately, this is the case in most on-boarding situations. They will have at least a few days to create an on-boarding plan ¡V if they get a head start. |
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| The 100-Day Action Plan Here are the steps in our onboarding process: |
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