“The truth is more important than the facts.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
It may not be a very well know quote by Frank Lloyd Wright, but it is one that has had a profound impact on me in my project management career. You see, facts can simply be symptoms of a larger problem. Capture all the facts you can and you can theorize on a resolution all you want. You may think you know the answer but it may not always be so.
Take the following scenario for instance. I’m paraphrasing on a story I read years ago, but it get’s the point across I’m trying to make.
A plant manager notices a janitor mopping water from the same spot on the floor every day for about a week. One afternoon, the manager asks the janitor where the water is coming from. The janitor points overhead at a pipe that is leaking.
The plant manager assigns a welder to mend the leaking pipe. The weld immediately resolved the problem. However, about a week later the leak persisted. The problem was not solved based solely on the fact that the pipe was leaking.
“Please, dear God, don’t let me fuck up.”
Alan Shepard
A quote that we all may have said to ourselves more than once but never spoke it. I find this citation compelling for several reasons. First, why it was said; second, when it was said; third, who said it. I will start from there.
Late in the 50’s, NASA recruited over 100 test pilots for the manned space program. After several months of grueling training, seven members were chosen for the original Mercury space program. Alan B. Shepard Jr. was one of these men and responsible for this unforgettable quote. The original quote he said to himself was “Don’t Fuck Up, Shepard…”. It was modified for the movie “The Right Stuff” and later became known to aviators as Shepard’s Prayer.
Shepard cited these words shortly before taking off in America’s first manned space flight while strapped into a Redstone rocket full of ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen (basically a giant bomb). I can only imagine what he must have felt like before takeoff. This short flight will take him to an altitude of 116 miles and he would have to endure 11.5 g-forces on re-entry. This is enough to kill most men if sustained for more than a few seconds. Unlike Sputnik which was totally automated, Shepard actually had flight controls to adjust pitch and yaw during takeoff as well as re-entry.
