Page 107 - The Power to Change Anything

96 INFLUENCER

and attention to detail. Yet in the January meeting, Lund
behaved in a way that begs understanding. Days earlier Lund’s
engineering staff had warned him that no one knew how
O-rings would perform at very low temperatures. The previous
lowest launch temperature had been 54 degrees Fahrenheit.
Expectations were for a 26-degree launch. If the O-rings failed,
the consequences could be disastrous.
Now Lund is sitting in a launch meeting. NASA is asking
for hard data showing that O-rings would fail at the low tem-
perature. Lund has to make a decision. As he’s trying to decide
what to say—what stand to take—his supervisor says to him,
“Take off your engineering hat and put on your management
hat.” And that did it. Suddenly the moment transformed into
management decision making. No longer was it about protect-
ing lives. With a modest verbal shift, Lund’s feelings about what
he needed to do changed. Unproven O-ring risks were just a
management uncertainty—of which there are many. Saving
lives was no longer the top priority. Lund assented to the
launch. The rest is history.
Robert Lund moved from torturing over moral issues to
managing uncertainty as he buried himself in the details of the
risk analysis. When Lund needed to be at his best with his most
moral behavior, he was at his worst. And we all do it. When
facing the harsh demands of the moment, instead of acting on
our values and principles, we react to our emotions by short-
ening our vision and focusing on detail. We act against our own
values in a way that we ourselves would otherwise abhor. If only
we could step away from the moment and take a look at the
big picture.
So, here is the challenge influencers must master. They
must help individuals see their choices as moral quests or as per-
sonally defining moments, and they must keep this perspective
despite distractions and emotional stress.
To learn how to link people’s actions to their values—in gra-
cious and effective ways—we return to our reliable guide, Dr.