Happy Tuesday!

It’s quite a world we live in. We can look around us and see wonderful and amazing things, as well as things to be concerned or worried about – perhaps in the same moment or view.

Some will see only one – the wonder or the worry – and ignore the other, allowing their worldview and attitude to be influenced in that direction. Some will see that both can be true at the same time – that things can be amazing and cause anxiety too.

I propose that a “both/and” view of seemingly opposite realities is the most effective and productive for us as humans and leaders. This seems an important perspective in our world today.

It is also a piece of the conversation we will have during my webinar on February 13th at 3:30 pm ET, titled Navigating Uncertainty: Mastering Flexible Leadership in a Changing World. I said “we” and a “conversation”, but both of those words imply you will be there. I hope that is true. Your registration is free – get it here.

I also wanted to let you know about a new feature we are testing on our blog starting this week. Once on the blog, you can click on the “questions about this article” button to “speak with” an AI agent about the article. This agent will help you better understand and apply the ideas in the article, based on your questions.

We hope you will try it – and share your feedback on its usefulness.

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Make it a great day and remember… even if you are having a tough day, or things are going wonderfully…

You are Remarkable!

Kevin 😊

How Do You Respond to Failure?

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Last Thursday, a SpaceX Starship rocket launched. 8 ½ minutes later, one of the booster engines experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” before part of the rocket successfully returned to the launch pad.

By any measure, you would think an explosion of part of a rocket would be a bad day, right?

Here’s the text from the official tweet from SpaceX:

Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn, Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability.

Yes, this is a PR statement, but the powerful line is this:

… With a test like this, success comes from what we learn…

Is this how you would respond to a (really) bad day?

More pointedly, if this is how a leader, team or organization responds, what does it say about the culture (and future) of that team/organization?

I would say – at least in this way – that the culture is strong, and the future looks bright.

Intellectually, we all “know” that mistakes are learning opportunities. We’ve told our kids and others similar things. It’s possible that is all SpaceX is doing with their tweet.

But if they mean it, and act on it, will people (and SpaceX) be better off for it?

For sure.

For a bit more assurance that the organization doesn’t see failure as final or a massive problem, consider the tweet from SpaceX founder Elon Musk. He shared a short video of the flaming pieces of the booster cascading through the sky with these words:

Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed. 

Spend a few minutes today thinking about how you respond to failure, both personally and as a leader, and ask yourself if your response is the most helpful one.

The Mechanical View of Organizations is Incomplete

As organizations grew larger than small groups of people who likely knew each other well, they began to be viewed as mechanical systems. And that made sense – given that those large organizations were military and later manufacturing in nature. It is this mechanical view of organizations that gave us specific job descriptions, organizational charts, and specialized work. These are things we take for granted and sometimes get maligned.

But what other option is there?

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