Latest Book Review: Mission Ready, by Lindy Elkins-Tanton

Anyone who's worked closely with me over the years will know I'm a bit of a nerd for all things aerospace. I'm especially keen on all things NASA, so when Mission Ready by Lindy Elkins-Tanton popped up in my inbox on a McKinsey top reads thread, of course I had no choice but to buy it!

And oh my, was it worth it!

You can tell how good I think a book is by how quickly I start telling people about it. Well, I didn't just start telling people about this book, I bought physical copies and started sending them round people in my network.

Packed full of insight about Mission Psyche, which Elkins-Tanton led, it's a practical guide to how to build a team that can perform under pressure.

While most teams don't deal with the same pressures NASA does, there's so much in this book that is relatable.

A huge part of this book, and possibly the reason I liked it so much, comes down to communication. Be it finding the balance between pragmatism and optimism (wins and actions, she calls it) or dealing with the bad apples that seem to enjoy nothing more than spreading toxicity through a team, how we communicate on a team is a foundation stone for the performance of a team.

In Elkins-Tanton's world, this means setting a team up so each individual on the team can:

➡️ Speak clearly, calmly and on topic

➡️ Recognise problems and take action

➡️ Stay persistent in the face of adversity

➡️ Create quality in all that's done

➡️ Think critically about things — become an expert thinker, as she puts it

Notice how she talks about individuals on the team over generalising about the team itself. This is intentional. As she says in the opening section of the book,

"We might talk about team loyalty and team cohesion, or team conflict or miscommunication, but in the end, every action that seems to be about a whole team is actually happening on the level of one person to another."

And it's for this reason that she devotes so much attention to relationship building. Build "dyads", as she calls it.

Performance is dependent on effective communication among people. It's dependent on the relationships that sit at the core of the team. And it's dependent on the culture that brings out the very best ways of working together in a team.

As she references in the closing section of the book:

"The importance of human-to-human connection is greater than ever. Change begins on the scale of one human to another. It’s on this scale, human to human, that we have the greatest ability to achieve our goals, invent what should be, and build the world we want to live in."

For Elkins-Tanton, it's about respect.

Self respect, respect for each other and respect for the mission.

The greatest teams, it turns out, are made up of people who know how to think for themselves, build great relationships and are given the right level of autonomy to make decisions and get on with things.

How often can we say that our teams and the people on them achieve that?