Catholic · Emmaus course
Failure Is Not an Option: Leadership, Decision-Making & Virtue Under Pressure
Leadership is what your character does when control runs out.
An asynchronous, six-lesson formation course that uses six scenes from the film Apollo 13 (1995) — set beside the real April 1970 mission — as a case study in how good decisions get made and good character is revealed when everything is on the line.
NBCC CE · 3 clock hours
- Length
- 3 hrs
- Lessons
- 8
- Level
- Beginner
- Version
- Catholic
- Price
- Free
Help me decide well when there’s no clean option.
About this course
Three days in April 1970, a crippled spacecraft, and a room full of people who refused to lose the crew. In six short scenes from Apollo 13 — set beside the real mission — this course studies how good decisions actually get made when the stakes are total and the clock is running.
Each lesson reads one crisis moment through two lenses: Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive on leadership and decision-making, and the Catholic tradition of virtue — prudence, fortitude, justice, and hope. You’ll follow the arc every leader and helper knows: see the reality, decide under uncertainty, set the one priority that matters, improvise within real limits, turn the plan into action, and endure what you cannot control.
Along the way you’ll learn something most people get wrong — including what Gene Kranz actually told his team instead of the famous movie line. Two Further Reading paths in every lesson, one psychological and one spiritual, carry the material into your own formation and practice.
Built for counselors, pastoral workers, and leaders. 3.0 NBCC clock hours (pending approval). Fully online and self-paced.
Who this course is for
Licensed counselors (CE seekers)
For licensed counselors who are tired of forgettable compliance modules.
CE hours that form you, not just fill a box.
Pastoral / ministry leaders
For counselors, ministry leaders, and administrators who carry weight and freeze or flail under it.
Grace under pressure — deciding well when souls are at stake.
Catholic professionals / formation
Primary job: grow in virtue.
Drucker meets Aquinas at 200,000 miles up.
General leadership / lay audience
Primary job: lead better.
The most famous rescue in history, as a decision-making masterclass.
Common questions
- Is a movie serious enough for CE?
- Every lesson is anchored in Drucker and peer-reviewed DMU scholarship, and distinguishes the film from the documented history. The film is the doorway, not the substance.
- Will this actually count?
- 3.0 NBCC clock hours (state clearly once ACEP # is confirmed); certificate on completion.
- I’m not Catholic / not religious.
- The leadership and decision-making spine (Drucker, prudence, fortitude) stands on its own; the spiritual Further Reading is offered as depth, not requirement.
- I don’t have time.
- Six short, self-paced lessons; ~30 minutes each. Start and stop anywhere.
From the course syllabus
Three days in April 1970, a crippled spacecraft, and a room full of people who refused to lose the crew. In six short scenes from Apollo 13 — set beside the real mission — this course studies how good decisions actually get made when the stakes are total and the clock is running.
Each lesson reads one crisis moment through two lenses: Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive on leadership and decision-making, and the Catholic tradition of virtue — prudence, fortitude, justice, and hope. You’ll follow the arc every leader and helper knows: see the reality, decide under uncertainty, set the one priority that matters, improvise within real limits, turn the plan into action, and endure what you cannot control.
Along the way you’ll learn something most people get wrong — including what Gene Kranz actually told his team instead of the famous movie line. Two Further Reading paths in every lesson, one psychological and one spiritual, carry the material into your own formation and practice.
Curriculum
-
Module 1
Failure Is Not an Option — Leadership, Decision-Making & Virtue Under Pressure
- 1.Plot-Apollo 13
- 2.Lesson 1: Facing Reality
- 3.Lesson 2: Deciding Under Uncertainty
- 4.Lesson 3: Priorities and Resolve
- 5.Lesson 4: Working with Constraints
- 6.Lesson 5: Turning Decisions into Actions
- 7.Lesson 6: Courage and Hope
- 8.Post-Test
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