Today, 55 years ago Neil Armstrong and the crew from Apollo 11 returned from the moon and splashed safely into the Pacific Ocean.

This moment represented a peak achievement in human progress. It required unprecedented advancements in science, engineering, and technology.

It also symbolised what humanity can achieve through ambition, ingenuity, and collaboration.

8 years earlier Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union became the 1st man in space.

For America this was a massive wake-up call. The Soviets were winning the race. America had fallen behind, and President J.F. Kennedy was looking for a grand project that would prove US leadership.

And so, on 25 May 1961, one of the most famous goals in the annals of leadership was declared. “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.”

Kennedy’s ‘man on the moon’ goal was an act of sheer brilliance. It unified the scientific community. It forced people to set aside differences and focused all of America’s resources and brainpower on a single outcome.

In his excellent book Collaboration, How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity and Reap Big Results, Morten T. Hansen explains the 4 criteria for a compelling unifying goal.

Hansen explains that “a unifying goal only has power if all relevant groups need to pull together to make it a reality.”

The moon landing required the co-ordination of some 400 000 people. If one activity faltered the whole endeavor would be weakened. The space suits were a good example. These involved over 500 people working together over several years to make them safe for use in extreme heat and cold.

Many corporate goals I see do not create a common fate. Instead, they cause people to spread limited resources across many activities. Thus, making none of them possible.

As Hansen points out, “the greatest benefit of a common fate goal is that it elevates people’s aspirations to something bigger than parochial goals.”

Kennedy was under pressure to express his ‘man on the moon goal’ differently.

His advisors wanted him to say that the US should ‘become preeminent in space.’ Wisely he rejected this. Words like these and others (premier, superior, optimise, leading, foremost, etc.) are fuzzy, open to interpretation and hard to measure.

Corporate goals carry far too much clutter. They allow room to hedge and hide and they offer a way out if success is not achieved.

Simplicity means stripping all of this away.

It means stating the goal in a way that is memorable, concrete, and free of abstraction. Everyone in the organisation should be able to get it, know what it means and how it will be measured.

Imagine if you’d been working on the ‘man on the moon’ project. How would that have felt? How motivated and driven would you have been? How willing would you have been to put in the focus and dedication over the long haul?

How creative, innovative and resourceful would you have been inspired to be? If someone had asked you the all too familiar question; “So what do you do?” How would you have answered?

As Hansen explains “powerful unifying goals stir passion, and they inspire. They appeal to people’s hearts and not only their minds.”

Do your corporate goals meet this standard? My experience is that very few do.

This was the ultimate brilliance of ‘the man on the moon’ goal.

It shifted the focus to winning on the outside while collaborating on the inside. It allowed two normally mutually exclusive things to happen simultaneously – competition and teamwork.

Kennedy knew that for a goal of this size to be achieved people had to set aside their personal agendas. They had to direct all their energy to working together on the common cause, never confusing or forgetting who the real competitor was.

So many corporate leaders get this wrong. They stoke competition between employees in the hope that this will motivate people. It might do in the short term, but the risks are high.

Leaders must be highly vigilant and intolerant. Internal competition should at best be lighthearted and fun and never be allowed to morph into something much more damaging and destructive.

So, what about your goals in your organisation? Do they meet the test?

The leaders we work with want to unlock their organisation’s full potential.

They want to unleash creativity and innovation, foster teamwork, and attract top talent to help them do so.

If you do too … reviewing your corporate goals is a very good way to start.