Overview

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.

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"NASA veteran Eugene F. Kranz is best known as leader of the ""Tiger Team"" flight controllers who returned the damaged Apollo 13 spaceship safely back to Earth on April 17, 1970. He was portrayed by Ed Harris in the 1995 movie Apollo 13. Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, Kranz holds a BS in aeronautical engineering from Parks College of Saint Louis University and served in the US Air Force as a fighter pilot and a flight test engineer before joining NASA in 1960. He assumed flight director duties for the Project Gemini and Apollo missions, including leading the controller team for America's first lunar landing during Apollo 11 in 1969. In 1983, Kranz assumed NASA director of mission operations overseeing a workforce of over 5,000. After serving in Mission Control for over 100 launches and effectively overseeing the complete arc of US manned space missions, Kranz retired in 1994 turning to motivational speaking and writing. His book on the early manned space program, Failure Is Not an Option, was a New York Times bestseller and adapted as a 2004 History Channel documentary on Mission Control. Kranz received numerous awards, including the National Space Trophy, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and he is enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame. His alma mater, Central Catholic in Toledo, displays his NASA Ambassador of Exploration Award alongside other personal NASA mementos. In 2021, the city of Toledo honored its native son when it renamed its airport in honor of Kranz. A Texan for over five decades, Mr. Kranz and his wife Marta are the proud parents of six children. Danny Campbell is an Earphones Award-winning narrator and an actor who has appeared in CBS' The Guardian, the films A Pool, a Fool, and a Duel and Greater Than Gravity, and in over twenty-five commercials. He is a company member of the Independent Shakespeare Company in Los Angeles and is an adjunct faculty member at Santa Monica College."

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