73 seconds. That’s how much time elapsed before the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff on January 28, 1986. The reality, however, is that this was a tragedy decades in the making. The lessons, and the risks, are just as applicable now as they were 40 years ago. The Shift During the Apollo missions in the 1960s and early ’70s, NASA’s posture toward risk was simple: we don’t launch until we can prove it’s safe to do so. Unless all systems were “Go,” the default was

What can two Super Bowl plays teach us about evaluating decisions?

"Go/No-Go" is a foolproof form of communicating clear directions. Until it isn't.

Previously, I shared lessons from the failed French attempt to build the Panama Canal. In this article: how the Americans nearly repeated those mistakes and what finally turned things around. President Theodore Roosevelt was enthusiastic about what a canal could do for America’s growth. "Make the dirt fly!" was his mantra, and he made sure everyone he appointed understood what was at stake. Unfortunately, his first Chief Engineer, John Wallace, took those words as literal mar

David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas isn't just history—it's a masterclass in what makes or breaks innovation. I've been astounded by the lessons that modern-day leaders can glean from his account of the creation of the Panama Canal, so I thought I'd share a few here. Let's start with the French attempt. In 1869, Ferdinand de Lesseps was an international hero, and for good reason. He had led the ten-year effort to achieve the impossible—to build the Suez Canal. With

Imagine running a growing company and competing fiercely with your biggest rival. An opportunity arises to buy a highly valuable piece of land. But there are two big obstacles: • First, the land straddles the border between Honduras and Guatemala, with two different people claiming ownership. • Second, your competitor is also desperate to buy it, deploying an army of lawyers to prove who really owns it. What would you do? That was the problem Samuel Zemurray faced as owner

Ed Roland, lead singer and songwriter for Collective Soul, recently shared two stories that reveal how working with constraints shaped his music career. And it turns out innovators in any field can learn from Ed’s approach. External Constraints   For eight years in the 1980s, Roland worked as a sound engineer at a small studio, while constantly writing his own songs. But when it came to recording them, he faced an age-old problem: no money. Back then, studios relied on expens

Let’s connect some dots, shall we? In Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty , there’s a tense scene set in December 2009 at Camp Chapman, a...

Imagine being at the tail end of a project in which you had invested over two years of your professional life. And now, imagine...

We’re excited to announce the newest member of Faster Glass! Kristy Teskey joins the team as an Innovation Catalyst, bringing a wealth of...