How SpaceX Makes Sure Things Get Done

SpaceX has emerged in the past few years as a uniquely disruptive company in an area that has, until now, been reserved for governments. Here are some interesting facts about their meteoric rise. What makes them good at getting hard or seemingly impossible things done?

Making Sure Things Get Done Requires a Culture of Accountability Driven From a Vision that Inspires

Lead With a Vision

As with everything, things start at the top. Elon Musk leads with a vision that he is able to effectively communicate to gain his people’s hearts and minds. Once this daunting task is accomplished, driving a culture of accountability gets easier.
The bottom line is that the leader of an organization is key to either enabling or hindering the development of a high-performance organization (HPO).

Develop a Foundation to Support the Vision

A Foundation Framework needs to be developed and put in place to drive accountability all the way, but without the leadership and vision, this effort would be futile.
A Foundation Framework Is Necessary to Support a Culture of Accountabiilty in the Workplace 

Make it Fun

Finding inspiration and commitment definitely get easier when you are part of a team following a leader with seemingly crazy goals, like:

• Populating Mars
• Making electric cars a reality
• Reducing the cost of reaching the space station by 90%
• Getting solar panels into every household
• Developing a train-like transportation system (hyperloop) that is faster than airplanes traveling at 800mph without leaving the ground

These are goals that are definitely out there (some may say crazy) but they are easy to get behind because they seek a better future for humankind as a whole. These are goals that are literally trying to change the world for the better, so employees are eager to help in the creation of a HPO.

Be Fearless

It is a well know fact that both Tesla and SpaceX have been within hours from failing. Elon Musk has been steadfast in his commitment to pursue what he believes in. And he gets teams to follow him, believe in him, and commit to getting things done.
When he found it impossible to get investors to invest in SpaceX, he just funded it with his own money going against everybody’s advice. When he had seen that no other company had succeeded in the development of an electric car market, he kept going until he developed the battery technology that now powers Tesla cars and that changed the industry forever. This fearlessness has created multiple productive, profitable, and notable companies.

The Final Component – Accountability

Without the added layer of accountability, Elon Musk’s vision would have fallen flat. Vision coupled with accountability is what makes sure that things get done. Implementing a software solution like CommandHound enables the creation of a culture of accountability in the workplace. CommandHound achieves this accountability by tracking milestone completion performance at the individual and team levels and tying it back to compensation or reward systems.

Would you like to learn more about how CommandHound drives accountability?