Define your vision and provide your team the skills they need to succeed — if this advice can work in space aboard the International Space Station, it can certainly work on any construction project, believes Colonel Chris Hadfield, Canada’s famous astronaut
“Constantly look at what you have to get done, what’s your overall goal that is available and build on the skills,” said Hadfield in his address to the 96th annual Canadian Construction Association conference in Panama. “Give your people as many skills as possible…it only improves your chances for success.”
Hadfield’s address spoke of what it took for him to not only achieve his personal goal of becoming an astronaut but also what it takes to bring a team together. During his four years of preparation leading up to his time in commanding the space station he worked exclusively with his team of United States and Russian astronauts to learn about everyone’s strengths and how they could potentially react in a crisis.
“How do you deal with fear? How do you deal with trepidation and worry, especially when the stakes are so high,” explained Hadfield.
“In our case, we did that by visualizing failure. We don’t visualize success…things always go wrong. So, visualize failure, what is the most powerful thing that’s going to fail and how do we stop that from happening, or how are we going to deal with it?”
During his time in command of the space station, a major leak in the ammonia loop of the massive space outpost occurred. Usually, a spacewalk takes weeks to prepare but NASA instructed Hadfield they would have to be ready the next day to do the repairs. Hadfield said, though it was a crucial repair which was needed so they would not have to abandon the station, his team was ready to execute and did thanks to preparation.
“We worked our way through that failure…we (NASA) had spent decades working our way through things that could go wrong,” he said. “We were ready to work. What that does mean is you will train for all sorts of things that you will never do but, at the same time, it allows you to be calm and composed.”
Building a vision and working toward it, explained Hadfield, allows you to give your people a goal and lets them “rise to the occasion and not knowing necessarily for sure all that will come with it as you drive in that direction.”
The rise of Hadfield’s notoriety during his space station mission was helped by his use of social media, in particular Twitter. His daily posts of what he would see as the station zipped along in space at eight kilometres a second were awe inspiring, not only because of the surreal visuals but because he shared his wonderment of the Earth too.
“A lot of people view social media, especially Twitter, incorrectly. People think of it as an advertising medium and use a megaphone. Twitter is a party line, it is a two-way conversation,” said Hadfield. “Twitter is invitational and it is a way to share an honest experience.”
Hadfield said the actual interesting parts of a business are what social media can excel at in its use. He mentioned the CCA’s Ecole Lakay rebuild project in Haiti as an example of a conversation tailored perfectly to be shared on social media.
The CCA auctioned off a Chris Hadfield guitar in the lead up to his conference address and raised $15,000 – all of the auction’s proceeds went to the Ecole Lakay build. Hadfield, after leading the conference delegates in singing Canada’s national anthem, then played some of David Bowie’s Major Tom on the guitar before his address.
Paul Charette of Bird Construction won the auction and, after a short chat with Hadfield on stage, he said that he and his wife would donate the guitar to a highschool in Oakville (since Hadfield went to highschool in Oakville) or a charity of the astronaut’s choice.
For more stories and videos from the CCA’s 96th annual conference in Panama, Follow @DCN_Canada on Twitter.
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