Walt Disney once said, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” Yes, it is, both on a personal level and as a team.
One of the secrets of inspirational leadership is the ability to challenge teams to do more than they thought possible. This month’s restoration and re-opening of the Notre Dame cathedral is a good example.
You know the story by now—a fire ripped through the cathedral five years ago. The task of restoring the famous structure seemed daunting, nearly impossible. The monumental project would cost $740 million. But with the help of thousands of donors and workers, Notre Dame made a triumphant return as a symbol of French history and culture.
Here’s the twist: After studying the fire damage, few experts thought the cathedral could be restored and re-opened by the end of 2024.
As a leadership and communication coach, I ask the question, “How, then, did thousands of people find the motivation to do the impossible?”
Set Audacious Goals
The people who rebuilt Notre Dame were motivated by a bold vision and a cause bigger than themselves.
On the night of the fire, “with air still acrid with smoke,” French President Emmanuel Macron issued a challenge in the form of a promise. “We will rebuild Notre Dame. Because that’s what the French expect and because it is what our history deserves,” Macron said as he stood outside the ruins.
What Macron said next was entirely unexpected. He added, “I want this to be finished in five years.”
Five years? “Impossible,” according to most experts at the time who publicly said the deadline was absurd. Experts were jockeying for press coverage, not to support the initiative but to offer a list of reasons why it couldn’t be done.
But something unexpected happened almost immediately. Macron’s challenge and deadline sparked an “army of artisans” to rise to the challenge and put their skills to use for a cause that would outlive them.
First, donors inspired by the cause put their money behind the project. The restoration project attracted 340,000 donors in 150 countries. Then, the skilled artisans went to work. Two thousand architects, historians, and tradespeople worked on the ‘impossibly tight’ deadline to restore the national treasure.
When the re-opening of Notre Dame did beat expectations, Macron reminded people that the five-year effort was “a challenge that many considered insane.”
Inspire a Shared Vision
Perhaps Macron had studied the history of the Apollo space program. In 1961, John F. Kennedy proclaimed that America would land an astronaut on the moon…by the end of the decade. Remember, in 1961, NASA didn’t even have a rocket capable of propelling a spaceship to the moon, let the technology to land on the planet and return to Earth.
Like the press coverage after the Notre Dame fire, experts in 1961 took to the airwaves to provide the public with a long list of reasons why a moon landing was impossible. But the challenge, accompanied by a deadline, was enough to spark the collective imagination of thousands of others—scientists and engineers who took the challenge as an opportunity to use their skills in pursuit of a larger purpose.
In the same way, skilled artisans who rebuilt Notre Dame used Macron’s deadline as motivation.
Cultivate Passion and Purpose
In an interview for The New York Times, the head of construction for the restoration project said the tight deadline was part of the motivation. “The daunting goal served to unite about 250 companies and 2,000 workers and artisans from all over France who knew the world was watching, and drove them to give their all for the project of a lifetime.”
“We were struck by the emotion of carpenters bonding with their axes,” said another artisan who led a team of blacksmiths. The workers found motivation in a “rare opportunity to show their skills.” The leader of the company that handled most of the scaffolding added, “Everyone involved on the project, without exception, was passionate above all…It’s almost more of a mission than a construction project.”
As a leader, your job is to turn projects into missions. “Projects” don’t get teams of people excited to work together toward a common purpose. People are motivated by big visions and grand missions that seem nearly impossible to accomplish because they know that when the mission is completed, they’ll have been part of a team that accomplished what many thought impossible.
And yes, that’s kind of fun.