Moon or People?

“The Week” is a useful digest of old news. Although you’ve likely read it all before, it pulls together different viewpoints and commentary on the issues that prevailed in the previous seven days. Its 2 May 2020 issue picked up on a very interesting article from John Thornhill in the Financial Times.

John refers back to Richard Nelson’s seminal 1977 essay, “The Moon and The Ghetto”. I’ve not read it - like so much learning it is behind a paywall, and the book version is about 25 quid and won’t arrive until July. But I think I get the gist. He asks why is it easier to get a couple of blokes to stand on the moon, than it is to solve inner city deprivation? It seems more pertinent than ever, because following a successful and spectacular launch yesterday, Bob and Doug are on their way to the International Space Station thanks to a brand new commercial rocket system.

The question as to why this is easier than dealing with mass deprivation is a very good one by any stretch. From what I can pick up, its because the former doesn’t threaten established interests. Moon shots are new, sexy and shiny. We can go up there and have a poke around. Maybe we can do the same thing on Mars in due course. It might be useful for when we’ve finally screwed Earth completely and have to move out, though I can’t see Mars actually being any more habitable than a wrecked ball of dust 93 million miles from the sun, to be honest.

But what if we put all that brainpower, all that money, talent and energy into ‘solving’ the ghettos? A few years ago, Kevin McCloud, the presenter of ‘Grand Designs’ made a 2 part documentary on the slums of Mumbai. It was incredible. In among the most vivid deprivation, and unsanitary conditions was a thriving metropolis. The kids were educated, cottage industry thrived and the vast majority of faces that looked out of the screen at you were smiling. People had ambition - the articulate 14 year old girl that acted as his translator and guide wanted to become a flight attendant - and you believed her! I remember watching the programmes and thinking these people deserved better. Rather than firing rockets into space, could the Indian Government (yes, they have a space programme!) not rebuild the slums a few miles down the road, with toilets and clean running water?

Is it because it would give these good people a voice?

The problem with technological advance is that it mostly leaves a significant proportion of the world behind. At the soft end, it is those of us who wait twelve years before finally retiring their Macbook Pro because it can’t even do online transactions (mea culpa). At the other extreme, it is whole communities that are disadvantaged at every level because money that could be spent on improving their lives is spaffed on continuing to push bold frontiers to places that nobody really needs to go if we are brutally honest. Space ships are an awesome diversion to the real problems facing our fellow humans. Every time I see one of those drone shots of somewhere like Aleppo, my heart sinks. The place is properly f*cked - along with the lives of every human being therein. Notwithstanding the catastrophe that was allowed to unfold and ended up with the place in that state, how can we ever hope to improve situations like that if we continue to divert billions away from humanity?

It may be that it suits governments to keep people ostensibly oppressed. But when you watch that programme of Kevin McCloud’s you can’t help but think how many more innovators and game changers live within the confines imposed upon them. Thornhill also picks up on the view of Patrick McCray, a history Professor at the University of California;

“we need open-minded dialogue and a sequential, experimental approach to hard problems”.

He’s right. And the frustrating thing is that we have proved we know how to do the hard stuff! We’ve put men on the moon, and invented rocket ships that can land on their tail just like in the Flash Gordon films! It is just that we choose not to do other, perhaps more meaningful hard stuff, for not entirely clear reasons.

Within your own organisation, how does this translate? Are there places you know full well that a torch needs shining, but you elect not to? How does that choice - because it is a choice - reconcile against your personal and workplace values? For years, I have seen things that would transform people’s working lives or even just things that would offer a little more comfort to them, ignored in pursuit of ‘improvement’. We know we can do them, because when a global pandemic or other emergency comes along, these things are fixed within weeks, if not days. (see https://www.kbotraining.com/blog/nimrod ) We do this in our personal lives too - simple procrastination often being the cause. So how can we deal with this?

Rather than hang around waiting for something that will give us that metaphorical boot up the backside, we need to be brutally honest with ourselves - individually or corporately, and list the things that we know need attention . Then, we need to be even more brutally honest, and record why we aren’t dealing with them! I’ve been in sessions like this in the past, where we’ve tried to manage this internally. I’m sure I’ve not been the only one in the group thinking that we’ve just forced a position here to suit the ‘think’ of the C-suite!

This is where engaging with an external executive coach can pay proper dividends. They come to the party with no baggage, no agenda, no loyalty, and definitely no ladder-climbing ambition that might stymie them. Expert in facilitation, they will give you - as an individual or as a team, time to stop and think. They won’t judge, but they will challenge, especially in respect of why? It can be an uncomfortable place to be, but for all the right reasons.

So in the aftermath of another space shot, have a look at your own landscape. Are you just choosing to do the sexy stuff, whilst the equally hard to do but not as palatable is allowed to fester? And why is that the case? Can you rationally account for it against a decision model?

Sometimes, doing the right thing, is the hard thing. Whether that should be a hard choice, is down to your values.

Derek Flint Cert.Ed., MCIPR