Contents
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy stands before the US Congress and names a goal: before the decade is out, a man is to land on the Moon and return safely to Earth. On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 lands. Between those two dates lie eight years and the work of more people than live in a large city. An example of the Team Principle of Necessity.
A Goal No One Could Reach Alone
Situation
Kennedy’s words describe a task for which, in 1961, there is no rocket, no spacecraft and no lunar lander. Everything has to be developed first. In 1973 the cost is reported to Congress as 25.4 billion US dollars; in 2020 prices, that is roughly 257 billion dollars.
Connection to the team principle
The Team Principle of Necessity begins by asking about the task. Here the answer is clear-cut. No engineer, no company and no agency can accomplish this task alone. The team is not a matter of style; it is the only way.
400,000 People, 20,000 Companies and Universities
Situation
At its peak, more than 400,000 people work on Apollo, spread across some 20,000 industrial firms and universities. One breakdown for the mid-1960s lists 33,200 NASA employees and 377,000 at contractors. The work is divided up: North American Aviation builds the command and service module, Grumman the lunar module, and MIT’s Instrumentation Laboratory develops the guidance system. At the top are, among others, NASA Administrator James Webb, George Mueller in charge of management, program director Samuel Phillips and, at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Wernher von Braun, whose Nazi past is well known and part of the picture.
Connection to the team principle
The second part of the principle reads: the bigger the task, the more a team pays off. On Apollo, for every NASA employee there are more than ten people working outside the agency. The task is so big that it does not even fit inside one organization. Team researcher J. Richard Hackman names a “real team” as the first condition for effective teams: a task that genuinely requires working together, rather than a group that is a team in name only. Apollo meets this condition on the largest scale imaginable.
The Seamstresses of Dover
Situation
The A7-L spacesuits do not come from a defense contractor. They are sewn at the International Latex Corporation in Dover, Delaware, a company with ties to the lingerie maker Playtex. Seamstresses make every suit by hand. A deviation of just 1/32 of an inch – less than a millimeter – could render a suit useless.
Connection to the team principle
A task bigger than any one person calls for skills nobody had on their list beforehand. Rocket science alone does not put a human being on the Moon. It also takes someone who can place a seam to within a fraction of a millimeter. In a truly big task there are no unimportant contributions, only unknown ones.
January 27, 1967: Apollo 1
Situation
During a ground test of Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967, a fire breaks out in the cabin. Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee are killed. The program goes on. In December 1968, Apollo 8 orbits the Moon.
Connection to the team principle
Big tasks come at a price, and a big team does not make them safe. That is part of the honest version of the principle. A team pays off when the task demands it – it is no guarantee. Anyone who commits many people to a task bears responsibility for every one of them.
Twelve on the Moon
Situation
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 lands; the mission ends on July 24. By 1972 there are six successful landings. Twelve astronauts walk on the Moon. The program brings 842 pounds of lunar rock – about 380 kilograms – back to Earth before it ends in 1972.
Connection to the team principle
Twelve names appear in the history books; more than 400,000 people stand behind them. The ratio shows how easily we mistake a team achievement for the achievement of individuals. Anyone who takes the principle seriously looks past the photo with the flag.
Key takeaways
Key Lessons
- Measure the task first, then the team. Ask: what exactly can one person not manage alone here – the volume, the skills or the need to do things at the same time?
- Look for the skills your task needs outside your own organization, too. Apollo would never have flown with NASA staff alone.
- Ask yourself who the “seamstress” is in your project: the person whose work hardly anyone sees, yet on whom everything depends. Tell them so.
- When you report on successes, name the many behind the few.
- Accept the responsibility that comes with a big team. The more people are involved in a task, the more carefully you have to handle risk.
Summary
In 1961 John F. Kennedy names a goal for which no hardware yet exists. Eight years later, human beings land on the Moon. What makes it possible is more than 400,000 people in some 20,000 companies and universities – engineers, managers and seamstresses. The Apollo program shows the Team Principle of Necessity more clearly than almost any other undertaking: a team pays off only when the task is bigger than any one person – and the bigger the task, the more it pays off.