Tough and Competent

Leadership and Team Chemistry

By: Eugene F. Kranz

Narrated by: Danny Campbell

Tough and Competent documents the leadership and teamwork principles which emerged from an organization of novice, part-time engineers in NASA Mercury Control. By July 1969, when faced with the stress of the Apollo 11 mission to land Americans on the moon, they had matured into a group of hardened individuals empowered to make the split-second decisions to land with only seventeen seconds of fuel remaining. What had changed? Team chemistry, IT!, is the unifying soul of operations that emerged from the leadership, working, and social environment to achieve organizational excellence. Mission Control could address quickly the risks and complexity of spaceflight operations. The intangible element, IT!, elevates performance to where the impossible becomes commonplace.

IT! was born in a bare-bones warehouse floor work environment, where learning by doing developed the materials for flight. Controllers spanned diverse backgrounds: Philco tech reps, farm boys, Native Americans, and junior college grads who became self-made engineers. A free exchange of knowledge developed expertise among colleagues. Everyone brought unique viewpoints and skills which coalesced into IT! In relaying his long tenure at NASA, Kranz narrates the development of IT! His views on lessons learned through decades of Mission Control are valuable for any innovation-based organization.

©2023 Eugene F. Kranz (P)2024 Tantor

Great leadership

I had never consider if I knew how to Build it!
It is what brings people together

Insightful remarks on leadership team building

I have seen Gene Kranz speak at several appearances, and he always has something insightful and interesting to impart based on his vast work history with NASA. He is a NASA legend. I really enjoyed his last book Failure is not an Option. I found it very interesting to learn what NASA was like from his perspective during the early shuttle program, and during Challenger since most books about Challenger focus on the technical details and upper NASA management and not how it effected the troops in the trenches who made the system work. A lot of what is in this book, and the lessons learned and team building principles can be employed by us in our jobs as well. My whole team read this book.

Leadership

I lived through Mercury, Gemini and Apollo and experienced the ups and downs of the space program. Gene Kranz was a leader and team builder for the space program. His dedication with his face set like a flint to the success of Mission Control was a strong you ration to build on. This book is enlightening, informative and inspiring. If you want to be a leader this man will give you the roadmap, resobsinility and the extreme commitment to excellence to put you on the path; your level of commitment will be your success or failure.