Apollo 13 A Leadership Movie ULDP Lesson Plan

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Apollo 13 A Leadership MovieULDP Lesson Plan
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Notes to the InstructorNot a Slide for the
Presentation

• Recommend all hands watch the movie first
• This PowerPoint will address the competencies of
• Technical Proficiency Team Building
• Effective Communications Problem Solving
• Vision Development Conflict Management
• Creativity Innovation
• Each competency will have its own slide that will
  present bullets to generate a discussion you will
  facilitate. Tie the challenges the Apollo
  Mission to the challenges your unit faces and
  discuss methods to overcome those challenges
• Sum up the discussion with a review of key points
  brought up during the session

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Apollo 13 A Leadership MovieULDP Lesson Plan
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Apollo 13 A Successful Failure

• Setting the Scene
• NASA's worst nightmare turned into one of the
  space agency's most heroic moments in 1970, when
  the Apollo 13 crew was forced to hobble home in a
  disabled capsule after an explosion seriously
  damaged the moon-bound spacecraft. The Apollo 13
  crew and Houston-based mission controllers raced
  against time and heavy odds to return the damaged
  spacecraft safely to Earth from a distance of
  205,500 miles. --Jeff Shannon

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Discussion Points
During this session well discuss the challenges
the Apollo 13 Team had to overcome to ensure the
3 astronauts were returned safely home. Well
look at the Apollo crew and mission control and
discuss their actions and compare them to the
Coast Guards leadership competencies.

• Leading Self
• Technical Proficiency
• Leading Others
• Teambuilding
• Effective Communication

• Leading Performance Change
• Vision Development
• Conflict Management
• Decision Making Problem Solving
• Creativity Innovation

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Technical Proficiency

• Coast Guard leaders technical knowledge, skills
  and expertise allow them to effectively organize
  and prioritize tasks and use resources
  efficiently. Always aware of how their actions
  contribute to overall organizational success,
  leaders demonstrate technical and functional
  proficiency. They maintain credibility with
  others on technical matters and keep current on
  technological advances in professional areas.
  Successful leaders work to initiate actions and
  competently maintain systems in their area of
  responsibility.

• Once the accident happened how did Gene Krantz
  rely on the skills and expertise of his people?
• How did Lovell work to initiate actions in the
  Space craft? Was he able to balance that with
  his technical responsibilities in the craft? How
  did he do it?
• What steps does your unit take to maintain
  Technical Proficiency?

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Teambuilding

• Leaders recognize and contribute to group
  processes encourage and facilitate cooperation,
  pride, trust and group identity and build
  commitment, team spirit, and strong
  relationships. Coast Guard leaders inspire,
  guide and create an environment that motivates
  others toward goal accomplishment consider and
  respond to others needs, feelings, and
  capabilities and adjust their approach to suit
  various individuals and situations. Coast Guard
  leaders have a historical perspective of
  leadership theory that they continually develop
  through personal experience and study of
  contemporary leadership issues. They work with
  subordinates to develop their leadership
  knowledge and skills. Coast Guard leaders adapt
  leadership styles to a variety of situations and
  personify high standards of honesty, integrity,
  trust, openness, and respect for others by
  applying these values and styles to daily
  behavior.

• How did Lovell contribute to the group process
  when Mattingly wanted to practice the docking
  procedure again after 3 hrs of practice?
• When Krantz had the team in the classroom how did
  he establish the goal and then how did he go
  about motivating others to achieve the goal of
  returning the space craft safely to earth?
• Did Lovell make the right call when faced with
  the challenge of forcing Mattingly to stay behind
  because of the fear of measles?
• How does a leader successfully build a strong
  team, but then separate him or herself from the
  Team to make a critical decision?
• Hows your Team doing?

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Effective Communications

• Coast Guard leaders communicate effectively in
  both formal and informal settings. Good
  listeners, they reinforce the message they convey
  with supportive mannerisms. Leaders express
  facts and ideas succinctly and logically,
  facilitate an open exchange of ideas, ask for
  feedback routinely, and communicate face-to-face
  whenever possible. Competent coaches,
  supervisors, followers, performance counselors,
  interviewers, and negotiators, leaders know how
  to approach many situations to achieve
  organizational goals.

• Even as everything is breaking loose in Mission
  Control, Gene Krantz asks his team to Work the
  Problem. He then listened to the experts report
  in on their areas of the mission. How did his
  effective comms set the stage for a successful
  recovery?
• Krantz stated Failure is not an option and
  Lovell told his crew I intend to go home. By
  clearly stating their ideas and vision how did it
  direct the teams towards mission accomplishment?
• Whose the best communicator youve ever worked
  with? What made them excel?

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Vision Development Implementation

• Leaders are able to envision a preferred future
  for their units and functions, setting this
  picture in the context of the Coast Guards
  overall vision, missions, strategy and driving
  forces. Concerned with long-term success,
  leaders establish and communicate organizational
  objectives and monitor progress toward
  objectives initiate action and provide
  structure and systems to achieve goals. Leaders
  create a shared vision of the organization
  promote wide ownership manage and champion
  organizational change and engineer changes in
  processes and structure to improve organizational
  goal accomplishment.

• JFKs Vision "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 Earth.
• How does a stated vision focus the unit and bring
  the crew together?
• Lovell states Columbus, Lindberg, and
  Armstrong it is not a miracle for man to walk on
  the moon, we just decided to go.
• Whats the vision at your unit? Has everyone
  decided to go? What can your unit do to get
  everyone on board?

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Conflict Management

• Coast Guard leaders facilitate open communication
  of controversial issues while maintaining
  relationships and teamwork. They effectively use
  collaboration as a style of managing contention
  confront conflict positively and constructively
  to minimize impact to self, others and the
  organization and reduce conflict and build
  relationships and teams by specifying clear
  goals, roles and processes.

• How did Lovell deal with stress and conflict in
  the LEM?
• How did the CO2 challenge help the crew to
  overcome the conflict they were experiencing?
• Is there more or less conflict when people are
  busy and focused or when there is less to do and
  folks have time on their hands? Why?
• How did Krantz and Lovell go about alleviating
  conflict between the crew and the Medical team?

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Decision Making Problem Solving

• Leaders identify and analyze problems use facts,
  input from others, and sound reasoning to reach
  conclusions explore various alternative
  solutions distinguish between relevant and
  irrelevant information perceive the impact and
  implications of decisions and commit to action,
  even in uncertain situations, to accomplish
  organizational goals. They evaluate risk levels,
  create risk control alternatives, and implement
  risk controls. Successful leaders are able to
  isolate high-importance issues, analyze pertinent
  information, involve others in decisions that
  affect them, generate promising solutions, and
  consistently render judgments with lasting,
  positive impact.

• How did the Team live the CG Competency of
  Decision Making and Problem Solving in working
  the Power problem to conclusion?
• Right after the explosion Krantzs asks Mission
  Control What do we have on the Space Craft
  thats good?
• Why did he ask this question?
• How did it aid in making the correct decision to
  shut down the fuel cells?
• Does everyone at your unit ensure that the
  Decision Makers have all the available and
  correct information? Why or Why not?

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Creativity and Innovation

• Leaders develop new insights into situations and
  apply innovative solutions to make unit and
  functional improvements. Leaders create a work
  environment that encourages creative thinking and
  innovation. They take reasonable risks, and learn
  from the inevitable mistakes that accompany
  prudent risk-takingand they apply this same
  thinking to those who work for them, encouraging
  innovation and helping their people apply the
  lessons learned. Leaders design and implement
  new or cutting-edge programs and processes.

• Weve discussed a lot of positive leadership
  qualities during this session. How did Gene
  Krantz create an environment with his Mission
  Control team to ensure they were able to figure
  out how to solve the CO2 problem with a Square
  Peg in a Round Hole!
• Lovell states at the end of the movie Thousands
  of people worked to bring the 3 of us back home.
  How did creativity and innovation make the
  Successful Failure a reality?
• How does your unit build on Lessons Learned?

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Summary

• What was the best leadership trait exhibited in
  the movie?
• What was the best followership trait exhibited
  in the movie?
• What will you take away from the movie and
  discussion to make your unit a better place to
  work?
• Final thoughts .