Robert Hargrove

A Race Against Time

Honda has taken a page from my book with a “Dream the Impossible” video series. The videos focus on setting big goals with impossible deadlines.

There are a handful of examples featured in these great videos, including what Honda engineers did when given the job of coming up with a hybrid car that ran on a fuel cell. They were given less than a year to do this, and used the time pressure as a friend vs. an enemy.

Another vignette features two thirty-something, rock stars of talent, film screen writers who were thrilled to get the job of the recent Star Trek remake. Upon taking the job, they received a poster in the mail to be widely distributed in movie theaters... “Star Trek, Fall 2009” (just a few months later). Instead of complaining to the Hollywood producers, they consciously used the incredible time pressure to fuel their creativity and effectiveness.

There are other interesting examples too of setting high goals and racing against time, including a race car team that had to be brought together in a hurry to win a big race, and a champion skate boarder who had to come up with a new trick, the 900, in the breath of time. The series is definitely worth checking out.