The Moon Shot Effect

Putting a human being on the moon was a long shot — that worked! On a mountain in Galilee, Jesus gives his disciples a similar glimpse of the moonshot goal of his mission — a mission to redeem the world! 

“If they can put a man on the moon …”

When Neil Armstrong hopped off the ladder of the lunar module Eagle and put the first footprint on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969, the world became a very different place.

From that point on, generations of people would point to that event as the pinnacle of human achievement and subsequently wonder why everything isn’t easier by comparison.

If we can put a man on the moon, for example, then why can’t we cure cancer? End world hunger? Find a shirt that stays on Matthew McConaughey?

All are worthy, if not apparently impossible, goals, but we have to remember that every “moonshot” goal, as we now know them, began with a dream.

In their book The Moonshot Effect: Disrupting Business as Usual, Lisa Goldman and Kate Purmal define a moonshot goal as a big idea project that harnesses human aspirations. It’s a turn away from business as usual, and involves —

• new processes,
• audacious...