Apollo 13

The Power of Responsible Leadership in a Crisis.:  As a leader, if you have the best people, and good procedures, then your role is to let them act, and give them the resources and support they need.

The Power of Professionalism.  The crew of the mission, and the people that supported them, had been selected on the basis of character and ability. They had been well trained. As Ron Howard, director of the film Apollo 13, once pointed out to Jim Lovell , it was hard to hear a problem when listening to the original tapes from the time of the initial explosion. The response to immense problems was calm and measured - in both the spacecraft and in Mission Control.  It was focused on making revised plans, and working those plans. In fact throughout the crisis, there was little doubt and little fear. The NASA team believed it could save the astronauts, and worked carefully to that goal.

The Power of Preparation, Rehearsal and Testing: Although the Apollo 13 was an extreme incident, NASA’s careful preparation paid off.  Although the Apollo 13 was an extreme incident, NASA’s careful preparation paid off. They had rehearsed using the lunar module to control the full “stack” on Apollo 9. NASA's detailed, existing procedures proved to be highly adaptable to the new set of problems. The wiring on the Command and Service Module was made to an extraordinarily high standard – a reaction to the tragedy of the Apollo 1 fire. That meant that the dampness inside the hibernating spacecraft did not create issues when it was brought back to life for re-entry. 

Prioritize and Communicate: Immediately after the explosion, the crew hadn't realized what had happened. Lovell even said that he had attributed the sound of the blast to a practical joke by Haise, only to realize by the look on Haise's face that something far more serious was going on.

Initially the crew thought a meteor had struck the spacecraft. Flight directors on the ground at first believed the issue to be an electrical...