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NASA's World Class Systems
How one of the highest performing teams in the world thinks about the design of their performance systems
Alex Ayin
04 Aug • Read Time: 7 minutes
✍️ Coming up in today’s edition:
One quick win: Commander’s intent > micromanagement
One proven system: NASA’s approach to system design
One million-dollar question: The most effective way to lead
1. HOW NOT TO MANAGE YOUR TEAM
People hate to be told what to do.
I’ve never worked with an employee who appreciated being micromanaged.
It makes people feel less important as every detail is spelt out.
It is impossible to create instructions for every single situation.
It doesn’t scale as there isn’t enough time in the day to micromanage multiple employees.
Micromanagement is also one of the top 3 reasons employees quit their jobs.
Instead of micromanagement, try using “commander’s intent.”
This was born from the battlefield as it would have been very inefficient for a field commander to return to the general every time for new instructions.
Rather than adopting this approach, the generals explained the strategy to the field commander and why particular hills were important to capture.
This meant that the commander could use the knowledge of the overall goal and any new intelligence during the battle, to react in a way that supported the original intent.
Humans are predisposed to look for behavioural causes.
So next time you delegate a task, give them the reason why it must be done.
In the 1970s, a Harvard psychologist (Ellen Langer) conducted a famous experiment to test “commander’s intent.”
In the study, they asked students who were waiting in line to use the copy machine, if they could move to the front of the queue.
The results?
Straightforward request with no reasoning = 60% success rate
Adding a reason why to the request = 95% success rate
The technique worked even if the reason was a poor one e.g. “because I have copies to make” or “because I’m late for class.”
The more your people understand the purpose behind your actions, the better they will be able to respond appropriately to changes when they happen.
Always give people a reason why.
2. NASA’S APPROACH TO BUILDING SYSTEMS
The more complex a system is and the longer it operates, the more likely it is to suffer a major failure.
Humans have an innate tendency to attempt to improve a system by doing “something” - it feels wrong to do nothing.
Sometimes the best way to improve a system is to stop doing so much.
Scientists call this “Null Hypothesis” when they examine what would happen if you did nothing or assumed the situation was an accident or error.
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all
Many corporate policies are rooted in “Intervention Bias” - the tendency to “fix” a situation when something bad happens by installing additional layers of limitations, reporting and auditing.
Actively trying not to do too much takes guts.
It’s often unpopular to do nothing, even when that decision is the right one.
A good example is the “pricing bubbles” which are often caused by government intervention in certain markets.
When the reality sets in and the bubble “pops”, like it did in the housing market in 2008 and the dot com companies in the 2000s, it’s politically unpopular for the government to do nothing.
Even though doing something is what caused the crash in the first place.
The government usually acts causing another bigger bubble a few years later.
Overreacting to normal accidents is counterproductive as it makes the systems more tightly coupled.
Think of an orchestra - one conductor and many instrumentalists.
If one violin hits the wrong note, the quality of the performance will be affected. but the mistake won’t necessarily cascade to the rest of the orchestra.
Your goal should be to make your systems less interdependent by removing dependencies and not adding steps after each mistake/failure.
NASA’s response to the 2003 “Columbia” space shuttle tragedy is a great example of how to react to system failure in your organisation 👇
The carbon-fibre heat shields designed to protect the shuttle as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere failed, and the shuttle disintegrated.
NASA focused on how to prevent the issue in the future without adding even more processes to the system as a reaction.
This meant that when the space shuttle “Discovery” suffered similar damage to its heat shields on takeoff a few years later, NASA engineers were prepared and the crew landed safely.
There are many positive things to be said for systems, but expecting zero failures is unrealistic.
Doing something is not always the best course of action.
Consider the option of doing nothing instead.
3. DO YOU LEAD BY INFLUENCE OR FORCE?
All human relationships are based on power.
There’s nothing wrong with seeking to increase your power.
The more power you have, the more you can accomplish but like the famous saying goes - with great power, comes great responsibility.
Like it or not, everyone relies on power to get things done - but it can be used for good or ill.
In reality it is the ability to influence the actions of other people.
And there are two fundamental ways that we can use power:
Influence - the ability to encourage someone else to want what you suggest.
—> Encouraging an employee to “go the extra mile” out of a sense of loyalty or craftsmanship.
Force - the ability to push someone else to do what you command.
—> Forcing an employee to work over the weekend by threatening to fire them if they refuse.
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. Nearly all men and women can stand adversity, but if you want to test their character, give them power.
Most people resist being forced to do something against their will or better judgement so relying on force is a poor long term strategy.
Influence is much more sustainable.
The best way to increase your influence is to build a reputation both inside and outside of work that is respected by the people you lead.
MY FAVOURITE FINDS 🔗
For your performance:
For your team:
For your health:
Thanks!
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