Contents
Many organizations have visions that cannot be measured. Kennedy’s moon goal was different. It named an action, a place and a deadline, and it explicitly included a safe return. It was precisely this precision that made it so effective – the Principle of the Objective at its best.
A lag that calls for an objective
Situation
In the spring of 1961, the Soviet Union is ahead in the space race. In 1957 it put the first satellite into Earth orbit, and on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit the Earth. A few days later, the U.S.-backed landing of Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs fails. Kennedy asks Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to determine in which field the United States could still overtake the Soviet Union in space.
Link to the principle
Kennedy does not start with an objective but with a question: Where can we win? An objective becomes decisive when it lies in a field where the outcome is still open. Another orbit of the Earth would only have confirmed that the Soviet Union was ahead.
The objective is put into words
Situation
In early May 1961, Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American in space, on a flight of about 15 minutes. On May 25, 1961, Kennedy addresses both houses of Congress. He declares: “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.” No space project of the period, he says, will be more impressive or more important, and none will be so difficult or expensive.
Link to the principle
The objective has everything the principle demands. It is clear: landing and return. It has a deadline: this decade. It is decisive: whoever reaches the moon first has won the race. And Kennedy does not hide what it will cost.
An objective that orders an organization
Situation
The space agency NASA aligns its work with it. The Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs create a sequence of intermediate steps: putting people into orbit, practicing docking maneuvers, building a rocket powerful enough for the flight to the moon. At times, about 400,000 people work on the project. On September 12, 1962, Kennedy reaffirms the objective before 40,000 listeners in the Rice University stadium in Houston.
Link to the principle
A big objective needs a clear order beneath it. Because the final objective is fixed, every sub-program can be checked for whether it leads to the moon. Whatever does not contribute is pushed down the list.
Holding on to the objective
Situation
Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas in November 1963. In January 1967, three astronauts die in a fire in the Apollo 1 capsule during a ground test. The program is halted, reviewed, changed and continued.
Link to the principle
An objective that many people carry survives even the death of the person who proclaimed it, as well as severe setbacks. The deadline keeps up the pressure without allowing safety to be sacrificed, because the safe return was part of the objective itself.
The objective is reached
Situation
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin land on the moon in the Apollo 11 lunar module, while Michael Collins orbits in the command module. Four days later, all three return safely to Earth. The objective has been met, a good five months before the deadline.
Link to the principle
In the end, it can be stated without discussion: objective reached. This unambiguity is the strength of the principle. But it also shows a limitation. After Apollo 11, there is no comparably clear follow-up objective, and crewed flights to the moon end in 1972.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- Ask first in which field you can still win.
- Name an action, a place and a deadline, not just a direction.
- Say openly what the objective will cost.
- Subordinate all sub-projects to the final objective.
- Think about the next objective before you reach this one.
Summary
In the spring of 1961, the United States was behind in the space race. John F. Kennedy looked for a field in which it could still win and set an objective that could hardly have been clearer: land a man on the moon and return him safely before the end of the decade. The objective ordered the work of hundreds of thousands, survived his death and the Apollo 1 disaster, and was achieved in July 1969. The moon goal shows what a clearly defined, decisive and attainable objective can achieve.
Sources
- John F. Kennedy: Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs, May 25, 1961 (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library).
- John M. Logsdon: John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2010.
