Dr. Mae Jemison on pursuing the extraordinary
In an era of unprecedented change and volatility, incremental improvement isn’t enough. It’s innovative and bold thinking that will help organizations become true performance champions; and this is something Dr. Jemison specializes in.
Below are some of the key takeaways for leaders who want to build organizations that don’t just adapt to change – but exceed the pace of it.
Build around the purpose
Dr. Jemison’s core message was around knowing the why before you choose the how.
“If you don’t know why you’re doing it, then it’s really easy to be attracted to the next new shiny thing. So you need the purpose of why you’re doing it.”
This underlines the importance of aligning people and purpose. Instead of simply telling people what needs to be done, tie it back to the company mission and purpose. The more they understand it and are bought into it, the more your business can stay focused and achieve goals faster.
Purpose reduces noise – it becomes the lens through which people decide what deserves their attention, what to deprioritize, and how to measure success.
You can also break this down into smaller purposes for each initiative. Focus on which specific business outcome the initiative will move the needle on (e.g. reducing time-to-value, or improving eNPS), so stakeholders immediately know what they’re working towards.
Map capabilities, not technologies
Dr. Jemison’s 100 Year Starship project was born from an impossible question: how do you design a mission to reach another star – something that may take a hundred years and depend on technologies that don’t exist yet?
Her answer was simple: you don’t start by listing the tools. You start by mapping the capabilities you’ll need.
“Technology maps mean that you know what the technology is or you can describe it. What you need to do is to create capability maps. Here's what I need to be able to do.”
In practice, this means mapping out the business outcomes you’re trying to achieve first. For example, are you trying to increase the pace of decision-making, or perhaps make insights available to stakeholders in real time?
By focusing on capabilities, leaders unlock two key advantages:
- Strategic continuity – technology can evolve, but the purpose and capability remain steady.
- Cross-functional alignment – every team can see how their work contributes to the same mission, even if their tools differ.
Use AI to amplify talent
The buzz around AI throughout the conference was palpable. Dr. Jemison was equally excited about the possibilities, while also keen to remind people that ultimately, it is still people that drive companies and missions forward.
“WE imbue these tools them with these magical, mystical powers. These are tools designed by people to accomplish something. What’s designed with that tool depends on the people doing the design.”
There was also a reminder that for organizations racing to automate, ensuring people are upskilled for AI literacy rather than fear should be a key part of the plan. Every employee should understand how AI can maximize the abilities that only they have.
Build communication that works under mission constraints
In space, bandwidth is scarce. On earth, attention is.
In either case, there’s no room for noise, no tolerance for ambiguity, and no time for ego.
When Dr. Jemison described how astronauts speak to mission control, it was proof that clarity isn’t a soft skill – it’s a survival skill.
“Clear communications comes from knowing what it is you want to communicate, who you're talking to, who the audience is. Have they been there with you before? Have you practiced this? If not, then you need to actually say in plain words what you mean.”
That distinction – between shorthand for insiders and plain language for everyone else – is an essential part of both organizational and leadership comms. Not being able to do this can prove costly in terms of trust and momentum.
A practical tip is to separate comms into two lanes:
- Operational mode – concise, role-based shorthand for expert teams.
- Brief mode – plain-language updates with purpose, status, risk, next step.
Knowing which lane you’re in before communicating can go a long way to achieving the clarity you need.
Create conditions for bold ideas
Dr. Jemison’s experience leading diverse, high-stakes teams – from medical operations in Sierra Leone to collaborative missions in space – has taught her that ideas flourish when people feel safe to contribute, not when they feel pressured to compete.
When asked how organizations can help employees bring bold ideas forward, she offered radical suggestion: stop calling it “challenging the status quo.”
“Let's take ‘challenge’ off. The reason why is so much of the wording that we have these days is combative. When you say challenge, it feels like a duel. What happens if I lose the challenge? Instead let's say where people are able to look into themselves and come up with ideas that may not be commonplace, and people will take the time to look through them. “
For employee experience teams, a natural way to encourage innovation is by building in two-way feedback loops into the daily workflow. Some of the best ideas tend to come from employees that are at the coalface of the business. Always communicate what happened next, even if the idea wasn’t adopted. Visibility builds trust.
The mindset to move forward
Extraordinary outcomes don’t require heroics every day. They require purpose, clarity, and room to imagine – over and over. That’s how explorers, and fast-moving enterprises, move from incremental tweaks to meaningful leaps.
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