Apollo 13 Essay Example for Free

Apollo 13 Essay For those not old enough to have lived through it, a story of shooting for a landing on the moon, suffering an explosion on the spacecraft on the way to the moon, not landing on the moon, and then narrowly making it home to Earth is the story of Apollo 13. When facing issues, conflicts, and the attainment of goals, having the resources of a fully functional manager and team are irreplaceable. A manager that has clear goals and strategies in place is more likely to succeed even when faced with the greatest types of adversity. Every employee of NASA should know about the tragic event of Apollo 13. The background of the team began with the completion between the U. S. and Russia and their space exploration programs. What started out as a routine trip to the moon and back soon became one of the biggest crises NASA had ever experienced. From understanding the plight of the spacecraft, to knowing what needed to be done, to creating a CO2 converter out of materials only available on the spacecraft, the flight is a clear lesson on how to manage a team in a crisis. In many projects, it always comes back to a stressful situation, where quick decisions must be made which have a major impact on the achievement of the task at hand. Many managers often ask for advice on how to handle such situations in order to be a good leader and achieve maximum results. In order to be an effective manager and to be able to influence other and exercise high degrees of control, some rules should be followed. I will give a few examples of how Gene Kranz managed to promote teamwork and to achieve the best possible solutions despite unprecedented problems, lack or resources and time pressure. One must remain optimistic and believe in themselves and the team to achieve a set goal. Without personal convictions managers will not be able to motivate the team to developed new solutions, continue to working and foster collaboration. Gene demonstrated principled management and a leadership in demanding the best from his team while respecting their efforts no matter the outcome. One great thing about Gene’s management was that is set a standard of excellence. With statements like â€Å"I don’t care about what anything was meant to do, I care about what it can do. This set in motion self-management by various supporting teams. This shows us important lessons that we can apply to other environments. Make sure to clearly identify roles and responsibilities of each and every team member. Communication is also a key in managing a team effectively. In the movie one of the team members unplugs his TV and takes his phone off the hook which cost everyone value time and inpu t in solving this crisis. Managers should make sure they can get in touch with employees. Create a policy if you must. An over authoritarian style of management with a top down principal is sometimes inappropriate. Managers often give instructions, tasks and fiat without asking the employee for their opinion. In contrast managers with a cooperative democratic style of management involve employees in decision making. Decisions are taken after detailed discussion in working groups. Information should be forwarded to a great extent through all communication channels. Gene Kranz was drawing at the board and listened to his team and their suggestions. And they all discussed the suggestions together. Without this democratic management style of Gene Kranz, the team would not have been as successful. Another issue is to work the problem correctly. Defining the problem is the hardest part of problem solving. As a manager it is important to define and communicate the problems which must be solved. Otherwise, no team will be able to find suitable solutions. Gene Kranz identified all the problems and formed special teams to address them. He made it clear to the teams which objects could be used. Only the objects that were available to the astronauts could be used. He wasted no time in complaining about what objects were not available or missing to solve the problem. He was action oriented and emphasized problem solving. It is also important to be a visible manager or leader. A good manager shoulders responsibility and conveys to all team members that they will work through the problem. Another trait of an effective manager is respect for others. Too often in today’s corporate environment, we don’t respect the judgment of those actually doing the work. Moreover, a crisis is not a time for accusations. The primary objective should be to handle the situation together and make the best of it. Gene Kranz did not ask at any time after the explosion, how such an explosion could have happened. Neither the astronauts nor Mission Control would have benefitted from the discussion of guilt, creative problem solving was much more important. In spite of all the negative talk, Gene told them failure was not an option, and they did not fail. Building trust must be combined with effective communication. Its benefit was evident in the film through the obstacles the team overcame. As a team grows together through strong management, their level of trust to achieve a collective goal, individuality becomes less important and the team’s objective is placed in the forefront. Action orientation becomes second nature, and feedback is open and honest. Combined, these improve the overall success and functionality of the manager, employee relationship. Finally, nobody wants to experience crisis such as the one in Apollo 13, however there will always be unpredictable problems and managers will have to challenge the situations. An effective manager should place themselves in Gene Kranz’s place for internalizing his way of leading a team. In addition, difficult situations that happen in the past should be analyzed for developing suggestions for managers to learn how to act in prospective situations. Every crisis is unique and demands an individual solution but for learning how to find the best solution, act right as a manager and motivate your team. Being successful and solving problems in a creative way is just but one aspect of being an effective manager and leader for your team.

The Cold War 1980’s-1990’s Essay -- World History

Upon hearing the mention of â€Å"The Cold War† most people begin to imagine and think of a time focused on political and military tensions between two main powers, the United States of the Western world and The Soviet Union of the Communist world. The context of the Cold War has traditionally been seen this way, as a nontraditional war without any engagement of battle, as a nuclear arms race between to profoundly different political and economic ideologies. Though being accurate this view of the Cold War is not complete. The Cold War was not just a nonviolent war between the United States and the Soviet Union but one affecting the entire planet in different fashions and on multiple plains. It is for these reasons that while events during the 1980’s-1990’s seemingly led to the conventional end of conflict, they ironically only facilitated the existence and continuance of the Cold War even until today. Probably one of the most recognized events of the 1980’s is the collapse of communism but first it is important to look at events that leading up to this collapse to provide a better context of events post collapse. One very significant period of time was the mid 1980’s when it seemed all eyes were on Africa in its entirety. The release of the song â€Å"We are the World† in 1985, the â€Å"Break the Chains† campaign of 1987, and the focus on the influential figure, Desmond Tutu, during 1986 are all examples of how the United States and other countries were focused on providing aid to africa. In her book, Enlightened Aid: U.S. Development as Foreign Policy in Ethiopia, Amanda McVety explains this aid and how United Sates foreign aid was a cold war project, â€Å"It offered a Cold War weapon that was not a weapon and promised peace through peaceful me... ... 8.4 (2006): 29-56. Print. McVety, Amanda Kay. Enlightened Aid: U.S. Development as Foreign Aid Policy in Ethiopia. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. Print. "Suppression of Communism Act, No. 44 of 1950 Approved in Parliament | South African History Online." South African History Online. Web. 03 May 2012. no-44-1950-approved-parliament>. Totten, Samuel, and Rifiki Ubaldo. We Cannot Forget. ; Interviews with Survivors of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. Rutgers UP, 2011. Print. "TED KENNEDY’S AFRICAN LEGACY." Africa Is a Country. Web. 03 May 2012. . Ye, Weili, and Xiaodong Ma. Growing up in the People's Republic: Conversations between Two Daughters of China's Revolution. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print.

Good and Bad Stress

As is the case with most people, a stigma is carried with the perception that asking for help is a sign of weakness. So much so is this fact that people have taken their own lives, before doing so. This is a universal problem that, to date has no solution. The prevalence of this problem is so severe education has been enforced almost to a mandatory level. Organizations have made suicide prevention training as such a part of the Job now that it almost seems routine.As with soldiers that are expected to operate in high stress environments, so are officers and the risk of the pressure becoming too much is always there. An Organization known as SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education) has dedicated its mission to prevention and education, as we now know that one of the biggest defenses we have to this horrible problem is an educational offense. Knowledge is power. We need stress. Our bodies endure stress everyday and a certain amount of stress is healthy.It is once we endure more tha n we can perceptively handle that the risk of suicide becomes prevalent. Most individuals in high stress professions excel under certain stressful situations, yet another reason that it takes a certain type of person to be able to handle the demands of police work, but every person is different and their body reaction to stress may be more severe. It is here that we see a stigma arise, in that an individual sees a counterpart that handles certain situations differently and perceptively better than they themselves creating a feeling of inadequacy.It is because of perception that so many lives are lost due to this not so silent killer. Page 3 of 4 No singular definition can be used to pinpoint a definition for stress, but we are certain that â€Å"good† stress is known to be helpful. It's the bad stuff that we have to look out for. In the past, law enforcement suicides often were ruled accidental deaths, and they are still underreported, Dandies says. â€Å"Most of us agree th at the statistics are probably much higher than we actually know, because of the shame factor. † (http://Saturday's. Saturdays. Com)If those in need of help would look past the stigma of weakness associated with getting help would we see a decrease in these senseless losses? Of course! â€Å"†These folks are taught to suppress their emotions and soldier forward,† says Elizabeth Dandies, a psychologist who works with California police agencies in the aftermath of suicides. â€Å"It's very difficult for them to admit they need help. † And I agree. I myself served five years as an Army PM and had to sit through countless hours of Suicide Prevention Training and memorizing a mantra using an acronym ACE.Ask your buddy Care for your buddy Escort you buddy Did I encounter individuals that could've benefited from counseling and refused to go?

Social Media Whats so Good About It - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 879 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2019/04/10 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Social Media Essay Did you like this example? Social media and carbon monoxide share a similarity between each other; they are both silent killers. Social media wears a mask; she is two-faced. With the mask on, we view her as a pleasant way of exchanging photographs, opinions, and videos with the people that we follow and interact with. But, when the mask is taken off and her true self is revealed, we are able to see who she truly is. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Social Media: Whats so Good About It" essay for you Create order Social media is able to cause serious harm to both men and women all around the world by destroying peoples self-worth, mental and physical well-being, and happiness overall. Although females tend to be affected by social media more frequently, the male race still faces the horrible causes of social applications such as Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. Last year, a research was conducted in England to find out how social media is affecting the lives of children and teenagers. The study found that out of approximately 9,000 young people, 7.9% of young boys are likely to have emotional disorders due to social media usage (John 2018). The emotional disorders in this study mainly consisted of anxiety and depression. Though this percentage may seem low to some people, any percentage should be considered unfathomable. Due to the fact that social media is all about posting your best moments, many girls will upload pictures of themselves in scandalous outfits at different types of events. This in turn makes boys and young men create a standard of what a girl should look like. The problem with this standard is that they are able to degrade other girls just becaus e they do not look like the image in their heads. For example, if a girl realizes that a boy does not like her solely because of what she looks like, said girl could develop physical issues that could even lead to fatal outcomes. Women have dealt with body image issues for essentially all of history. In Jennifer Worleys argument piece on female beauty, she referenced Hawthornes 1864 short story The Birthmark, which depicts a husband indirectly murdering his wife because she had a birthmark, a physical imperfection on her face (Worley). Though the world has seen improvements in regard to husbands not forcing their wives into facial surgery, there are still a copious amount of problems surrounding social media and female body issues. As previously stated, there is the predicament of males lowering females self-esteems due to the standards men created in their minds. There is also the fact that girls and women are constantly comparing themselves to one another. As an unfortunately frequent social media user, I often find myself scrolling through pictures of girls that I follow and think Why dont I look like her? At one point in time, every girl has felt as though she is not tall enough, skinny enough, beautiful enough, etc. because of the way social media is so deeply rooted in everyones lives. As the pressure of being outwardly perfect increases, the chances with women of having eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia are bound to increase as well. Along with physical disorders, mental disorders follow closely behind, which is an issue that is extremely prevalent in todays society. The amount of attention that mental health is receiving is at its peak throughout the course of history and time. Even celebrities and politicians are speaking out on their social media accounts about how vital it is to make sure mental health is at the top of everyones priority list. But, the one thing that celebrities and politicians are missing is that social media itself is one of the main causes of mental disorders. In the 2017 United Kingdom study on social media and adolescents, the report found that young women are three times as likely to have emotional disorders as boys of the same age group (John 2018). The study also reported that girls and young women between 17 and 19 have rates of emotional disorder more than twice that of any of the other demographic groups studied (John 2018). In order for females to delay from having mental health issues, they need to feel loved, appreciated, and accepted on social media platforms. There is also the argument that social media is genuinely helping females and males with their mental and physical well-being. Applications such as Facebook and Twitter are able to be a resource for people, specifically women, who are struggling with inner and outer health issues. The main reason as to why social media is potentially able to help rather than hinder people is because these platforms [allow] access to material relating to a large body of people (Shepherd et al. 2). The material viewed on these platforms are also free of charge, so people that are struggling with their issues do not have to pay to see a psychiatrist or health physician. Beside all of the helpful qualities that social media possess, it is still important to be cognizant of the fact that it is causing problems in our world today. Let this be a wake up call to people all over the world. We need to start accepting one other more, and genuinely care for people who are in need of help. We need to uplift each other, rather than point out each others flaws. We need to love unconditionally.