On January 27, 1967, three astronauts entered the Apollo 1 command module on Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral to go through a series of tests in preparation for their upcoming space flight. Without warning, a fire erupted in the cabin and within 17 seconds all three astronauts were killed in the intense heat and toxic fumes. Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee perished, and many at the time believed the space program died with them.

Due to the public and political outcry following the fire, the national objective to beat the Soviets in reaching the moon with a manned space flight was very nearly scrapped and defunded. The space program did manage to barely survive and move ahead, but with the caveat of a lot of congressional and public scrutiny. Because of the shaky position of confidence in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), it was very important to the agency to project competence, teamwork and steady leadership during the next several missions. Since Apollo 2 through 6 were either canceled or unmanned, Apollo 7 was to be the first manned mission since the fire.

NASA was seeking to improve its public image, and the decision was made to publicly broadcast all communications between the Apollo 7 crew and Houston Mission Control to promote transparency.

On mission day seven, astronaut Walt Cunningham made a critical comment over the open line “I’d just like to go on record here as saying that people that dream up procedures like this after you lift off have somehow or another been dropping the ball for the last three years. . . It looks kind of Mickey Mouse.” The next day his crewmate Wally Schirra said “I wish you would find out the idiot’s name who thought up this test . . . I want to talk to him personally when I get back down.” Being public in the display of their negative attitudes became contagious among the astronauts for the rest of the mission. Rocket Men, p. 82.

These exchanges were noticed by the press who asked about them at a NASA press conference during the mission. One reporter asked, “You’re either doing a bad job down here, or they’re a bunch of malcontents. Which is it?” Although the mission was nearly perfect in achieving its goals, the decision was quickly made by NASA administration that those three astronauts would never again fly for NASA. They also made certain that the astronauts assigned to the very important Apollo 8 mission would portray optimistic professionalism.

One of my CEO mentors, John Quinlivan, welcomed me to my first COO job at his hospital several years ago by giving me a 15-page treatise on his leadership philosophy and expectations as well as some valuable intelligence on mission critical priorities. On page one of the document, he stressed the following priority: “You and I have a responsibility to enjoy what we do and to create an environment in which others who work here can enjoy their jobs also. This starts with an attitude of optimism. . . Sometimes this takes an effort but is vitally important and, over time, will be reflected among our staff.” John consistently modeled this behavior, and I quickly realized how motivational it was for me to give maximum effort to model it as well and to achieve our priorities with the help of motivated directors and staff.

That hospital had rarely made its profit budget over the last 15 years, which is an incredibly long downward slide. The hospital had relocated about a year before my arrival to a new hospital campus about 15 miles from the original campus. The legacy hospital was an old, run-down physical plant located in an area oversaturated with far superior medical facilities. More importantly, the hospital’s previous leadership had a reputation for negativity and defeatism. In an effort to change the trajectory of the hospital, the owner company committed to the significant investment of the replacement hospital and to bringing in new leadership. The hospital’s financial and reputation fortunes changed significantly for the better over the next few years.

Unfortunately, I only worked at that hospital for about 18 months because there was an ownership change and I decided to take another position within my company rather than stay. At a reception that was given prior to my departure one of the senior leaders at the hospital came to me and said the following. “Greg, I remember when you first arrived here and I asked you if you thought we would make our financial budget this year for the first time in a while and you said emphatically, ‘Yes we will.’” She then told me that she could tell by the look in my eyes and the conviction in my voice that she could also believe in a better future. The achievements of the team there over the next few years were incredible because they were a team of believers rather than a team of doubters, thanks to John’s leadership.

Optimism should not be interpreted as taking a Pollyanna view of life that essentially puts on a happy face in every situation with excessive and blind optimism. Productive optimism recognizes obstacles but interprets those obstacles in a way that pushes for action to reduce or eliminate them.

We can all think of instances in our careers in which an optimistic attitude of a leader in challenging times inspired teams to find a way out. We may also remember situations when the absence of optimism hampered the ability to succeed. As my former boss noted, sometimes modeling a sense of optimism is hard, but it may be the difference between success and failure.

Reference:

Robert Kurson, Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon, (Random House, New York), 82-83.