Friday 25 February 2011

End of an era

So, it's goodbye to the Space Shuttle Discovery – now it's undertaken it's final mission – and goodbye to the NASA shuttle program, with only two more trips left before it's shut down for good. To be replaced by and astronaut Robot and a contract supply deliver company from L.A.

I was one of the millions of kids to be inspired by the ambition of that program and to dream about all the adventures that their missions represented. Although it didn't take me long to realise I was never going to be an Astronaut – I hope that I take a little of their sense of adventure to work with me everyday. 

The shuttle program was not about individual heroes, but the collective effort of a group of people who know where they are going (literally and metaphorically) and who did everything they could to get there. And it's that vision and sense of shared purpose (however small your share) that helps keep a disparate group of people moving in roughly the same direction. 

Being clear about where your organisation is going and why it does what it does will help in attracting and retaining the talent you want, it will differentiate you from your competition and it will give you the confidence to have a point of view and to be a thought leader. 

Then you can insert your own 'take-off' metaphor here, without me needing to sound cheesy. 


Posted via email from rosstimms's posterous

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