On 13th October 2024, SpaceX team did something remarkable. They launched their starship rocket and then allowed its booster to drop into the Earth’s atmosphere and caught it with their giant mechanical arms at the launch pad. This is something that has never been done (or even attempted before).
There are a few lessons to be learnt for all of us as leaders from this exercise.
Lesson 1: Challenging Assumptions and Beliefs
When Elon Musk started SpaceX and decided to develop a re-usable rockets, it was never even considered by the teams before him. It was believed to be impossible, until it wasn’t.
The team delivered a re-usable rocket by challenging the prevalent thinking, industry assumptions and the underlying belief systems AND looking at first principles to explore and experiment with what is possible.
Once this was done, it was but a natural step to move towards improving this process by catching the boosting rocket, which makes the process even better.
The deeper the belief being challenged through first principles thinking, the bigger the impact. And once someone does accomplish what was once considered impossible (like a 4 Min mile), it is surprising how everyone else is able to achieve the same with similar or better results.
Lesson 2: The Scale of Our Thinking Determines the Scale of our Success
One of the most common mistakes that we do as leaders is to settle. We settle too soon and for too less. We play safe. We scale our ambitions based on what people around us think is possible. Our goals are linear in nature.
While there might be safety in settling, we are missing out on all the potential growth (for ourselves, our organisations and the people we lead) and the lessons that going for an ambitious goal can give us.
Being ambitious in the scale of our thinking can teach us humility, for we will fail at it sometimes. Being ambitious in the scale of our thinking can show us our capabilities, for we will surprise ourselves. Being ambitious in the scale of our thinking can stretch us for we will learn a lot of skills along the way.
Being ambitious in the scale of our thinking can teach us how to be resilient, for we will face a lot of challenges. Being ambitious in the scale of our thinking can separate those who can step up from everyone else, for we will face difficulties.
Lesson 3: Importance of Hiring the right people on our team
Achievement of this scale and magnitude is not possible unless a few very important things come together – a leader with the vision and chutzpah to go for ambitious goals, a team that has the capability to question assumptions and deliver on the goals and a leader’s complete trust on the team that they can deliver on the ambition.
In order to have that kind of belief and trust on the team, as a leader we need to pick the right people for the right job. WE need people with the right mix of technical expertise, the ability to think in first principles and an unwavering confidence in their own ability.
We need people who can truly complement each other by not only by their individual contributions but also by enhancing the overall capability of the team. Finding these people and getting them to a place where they trust and push each other to be their best version requires a leader who is intentional about creating this culture.
Conclusion
In conclusion, all I would like to say is – Congratulations Team SpaceX for this fabulous achievement. May you and your team go on and do many more impossible things in your future. May all of us learn our lessons from this and become Leaders worth following.
