Problems + Co-operation = Success

I watched the film Apollo 13 for the first time on Saturday.  Right at the end of the film – Jim Lovell played by Tom Hanks says: “The problem happened two years before I was selected to fly as captain on the mission.”.  This started me thinking about problems, which have their roots in the past, to which we had no input, but which somehow impact us now.  Sometimes we're expected to do something about them and if we don’t know the beginnings it can be difficult to resolve.   We could even make matters worse.  

This doesn’t mean we can’t be part of the solution.  In the film those on the ground were tenacious in testing the theoretical answers, and developing understanding of what did and didn’t work, whilst each person in the space craft waited for instructions so they could play their part, and the real solution be implemented.   Although neither the captain nor the crew were the root of the original problem, and didn’t have the knowledge of how to get out of it, they realised that survival meant co-operating with colleagues who did.   They threw hissy fits, fought with and blamed one another and sunk into self-absorption (as we would too in the same circumstances), but had they remained in that state the overall result would have been negative.   

                                                          

Although Apollo 13’s original mission – to fly to the moon – failed, it was successful in the fact that a live crew came back to earth.  Individuals involved in solving the problem, were thought worthy of further responsibility and promotion.   Willingness to be part of the solution rather than another aspect of the problem can stand a person in good stead.