A Roadmap to Employee Empowerment
Adversity. Change. Career advancement challenges. Attrition. All are common themes within the realm of public service throughout recent history. The book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly and the Academy Award-nominated film of the same name, provide an excellent illustration of one such response to these challenges, as well as the importance of innovation and empowerment in federal service. This dramatized true story follows three African-American women working for NASA during the infancy of the American space program in the 1960s. Sexism and racism are common barriers throughout and represent cultural and societal obstacles, many of which still exist today, that must be overcome. The way the three protagonists respond to these challenges illuminate many of our current challenges.
Innovative Action
Our heroes each face obstacles: Katherine Johnson, the math whiz whose calculations ultimately help John Glenn, must walk over half a mile to the only “colored restroom.” Dorothy Vaughan is an acting supervisor, filling the shoes of a long vacant position — without the title or pay. Mary Jackson aspires to be NASA’s first African-american female engineer, but her ambition is thwarted by antiquated racial and gender laws.
These three women respond to their situations by demonstrating innovative leadership in action. Katherine adeptly recognizes the leadership style and characteristics of her boss and ensures her actions and contributions align with his priorities and demonstrate value to the team. Dorothy, rather than bemoan the fact that NASA’s new supercomputer will put her out of a job, commits herself to learning more about it, and in so doing, makes herself indispensable as one of the only people at NASA capable of understanding and operating the machine. Rather than keep this knowledge to herself, she teaches all the women in her department to use it, thus guaranteeing their continued employment as well. Meanwhile, Mary challenges the segregationist and racist laws of the pre-civil rights era south and, by thinking like those in power, appeals to their interests as well as her own, and wins the right to attend the classes she needs to become a NASA engineer. The three characters empower themselves and their agency to greater personal and professional heights. The real-life success of these pioneering women demonstrates the validity of the innovation model developed by the National Park Service’s Innovative Leadership Network.
Based upon the results of a statistical regression analysis of Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey scores across government, ILN posits an increase in innovation will lead to a corresponding increase in employee empowerment. Increases in empowerment correlate highly with an increase in workplace satisfaction and higher workplace satisfaction scores lead to increased mission accomplishment. Therefore, if we want to accomplish our mission and make the National Park Service a truly great place to work, we must foster innovation among all employees.
Individual tenacity alone, while admirable and necessary, were not enough for the women of NASA. Their agency culture assisted them every step of the way; which brings us to the key takeaway from the film.
The Power of Superordinate Goals
The real beauty of Hidden Figures lies in its illustration of the power of superordinate goals to unite people across racial, gender, and demographic lines. Superordinate goals are tasks “complex enough to require the cooperation of two or more people or groups to achieve, and generally result in rewards to both groups.” The power of superordinate goals to unify disparate individuals and groups was illustrated in the landmark 1954 study Status in Experimentally Produced Groups by Muzafer Sherif, better known as The Robbers Cave Experiment. In this now infamous study, two groups of young campers were brought together in a controlled social experiment. The two groups were kept separate, intentionally creating in-groups (us) and out-groups (them). The two groups were then introduced to one another in a competitive context. Rivalries were stoked, eventually escalating into open hostility and conflict between the two groups. Experimenters next tried to undo these effects through a series of bonding and team-building exercises. Their early efforts repeatedly failed until they stumbled upon a superordinate goal. The experimenters turned off the water supply to the camp and positioned large rocks in front of the valve. Moving the rocks required the combined efforts of both groups of campers. This simple, yet critical task broke through the strong in-group tendencies, and unified them around this shared goal of mutual benefit — having water to drink. By the time camp ended, one group of campers even offered to buy the others a round of milkshakes.
Sherif’s work demonstrates that superordinate goals serve as a powerful tool for defusing tension in times of conflict. In the opening scene of Hidden Figures, the three protagonists’ car has broken down on the side of the road. The women are soon confronted by a police officer. Brusk and confrontational, clearly meant to embody the prejudice of the era, his tone quickly changes when he learns the three women work for NASA. Lamenting the Soviet Union’s head start in the space race, he looks up at the sky and exclaims “Sputniks! They’re probably watching us right now…” He then offers the women an escort to work. Beating the Soviets in the Cold War is a superordinate goal. Their success means his success.
Al Harris (a fictional character created for the movie and played by Kevin Costner) wanted to get the job done. He is enraged by the fact that Katherine disappears for 45 minutes at a time during critical periods of work; until he learns why. She has to run over a half-mile to use the only “colored restroom” on the Langley campus. So he takes a crowbar to the restroom sign, knocking it down and pronouncing: “At NASA, we all pee the same color.” He recognizes that a 45-minute round trip to the bathroom means less time doing the critical work needed to accomplish their mission. Later, he states: “We all get there together, or we don’t get there at all.” — a concise definition of a superordinate goal.
The superordinate goal for NASA in the 1960s was to get into space, and then to reach the moon. This galvanized and united not only employees at NASA, but an entire nation. Generations collectively held their breath waiting for word from the likes of Freedom 7, Friendship 7, Apollo 11, and Apollo 13. The white men piloting these spacecraft received all the accolades and parades, but it was the herculean efforts of thousands, largely unnoticed at the time, that enabled their success. Without the vital behind-the-scenes work, none of it would have been possible.
Putting it Into Practice
The challenge in many workplaces is that superordinate goals are often surprisingly elusive and difficult to identify. In roles that are technical and specialized, as are many within public service, colleagues may work for years without knowing what their coworkers are working on and how their efforts might impact or interact with one’s own work. If employees view those in another division or workgroup as “them” rather than “us”, then — to borrow a phrase — Houston, we have a problem.
Recent studies further support the effectiveness of superordinate goals. John Dovidio and colleagues (2003) found one of the most critical aspects of superordinate goals is their ability to create a sense of shared identity. Thus, cooperative relationships between groups, such as those we see in Hidden Figures, reduce bias by not only ameliorating out-group threat, but also by establishing a more inclusive, superordinate group identity.
True innovation means recognizing the importance of diversity. Diversity of perspective, experience, gender, race, national origin, economic status; each bring a crucial element to the table and are critical factors in the creativity and innovation so vital in our modern era. We must be intentional in empowering our employees. We must work to knock down barriers that prevent employees from getting the job done. Above all, we must embrace true diversity in the pursuit of the ultimate superordinate goal; the stewardship of our natural and cultural treasures, and the ecosystems that comprise our National Parks, and — by extension — our world.
