There is a huge trove of interviews archived, called the Apollo Oral History Project at the JSC. You can read (or listen) to many if not most of the heavy hitters of the time period.
These guys literally wrote the book on spaceflight operations. One of the characteristics that Gene Krantz and other flight directors talk about - and Webb, I think, was the architect of this, was how important a clear chain of command and responsibilities was.
They set up a system where, the Flight Director on duty had the final say. The end. Keep in mind, there are eleventy gazillion people who might have an opinion on what needs to be done (or not done) in the heat of the moment. But they quickly learned that over-ruling people - pulling rank, as it were, was a prescription for chaos, if not outright failure.
They also established a system of “flight rules” though exhaustive testing and training and practice procedures, and had all the discussion and consensus and debate beforehand. THEN, they set out to never break those mission flight rules in real life.
The wisdom of that particular technique, is based on a keen sense of human factors or dynamics. Because the tendency ordinarily is what some have termed “the paralysis of analysis”. You get a bunch of eggheads and engineers and scientists together in a room, they will argue and discuss in perpetuity. But in a crisis, during spaceflight, a decision has to be made, within a certain timeframe.
They gave very young people extraordinary duties and responsibilities - and held them accountable. It’s my understanding, you did not want to get on Mr. Webb’s bad side. He was famous for firing people right on the spot.
Typically he would troubleshoot people, by asking a question he already knew the answer to. If you didn’t know the answer, but tried blowing smoke up his ass with word salad - GONE, DRT. He was looking for “I don’t know.” That is an acceptable answer, the only answer, in fact, if that’s the case.
Compare and contrast how a government entity staffs and operates when it really wants to accomplish a task. Bullshit artists, water walkers, etc., need not apply. It would have been challenging, but I bet it was the best job in the world at one time to be involved with that, even indirectly. All the stars lined up for that operation, and they drew in a lot of really outstanding individuals.
Very nice summary. I would add that Charles Murray’s book “Apollo” does a good job providing insight into how the operations and missions were put together and managed.