In 1961, John F Kennedy said these words – “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too”.

I believe Enablement is like the Moonshot. You first need to choose to take on a challenge, then you need to identify the right questions to ask, ask them of the right people, and then execute with discipline.

It’s said that one late night JFK was walking the hallways of the Kennedy Space Center when he ran into a janitor and asked him an important question “what do you do around here?”. The reply from the janitor is now famous. He said, “Mr. President, I'm helping put a man on the moon.” I quickly want to emphasize this simple answer. He said I’M helping to put a man on the moon.

Two things about that are important.

1. He took personal accountability for his role in a very big picture, and
2. He accepted that what he did, no matter how small, made a difference.

Enablement is about doing the small things well so that they can play a part in the bigger picture.

There are three key lessons to be learnt from the Moonshot that empower enablers: 1) Ordinary people matter, 2) Do the hard things, and 3) Have the courage to be curious. These lessons don’t give you the questions, but they help light way forward so you can get to them.

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