How to Create a High Performing Team: Mission Mangal

My wife asked me to join her for Mission Mangal. I told her that I already have too many missions in my life, I am not in a stage to join another mission.

She laughed out loud. She said Mission Mangal is a movie. I am insisting you to join because my friends want to read your analysis on the movie. So I went for it. I was awestruck. The movie is about a team who sent a satellite to Mars against all odds and made India part of the ‘Elite Space Club’.

The movie is, in itself, a phenomenal statement on leadership. You don’t need an interpreter to derive leadership lessons here. Apart from Leadership, Mission Mangal subtly depicts a method of creating a high performing team.

Here are the key aspects from Mission Mangal on creating a high performing team.

1. Possibilities – Perseverance – Preparation

Impossible has at least one possible in it. This is the philosophy of the movie. Going to Mars is impossible when you don’t have a rocket power that can take you there. Vidya Balan was able to see possibilities, gauge how that could be done.

Passion to make possibilities a reality is perseverance. When Vidya Balan first made that pitch to Akshay Kumar, he mocked her. Vidya made sure that her argument is heard and understood. She did not give up. Then Akshay believed in what she was saying. It was because of their perseverance that India could reach Mars.

Preparation is an underrated leadership quality. When ISRO accepted their proposal and agreed to launch a mission for mars, the Director asked for the resources they needed. Vidya had done the preparation. She knew what she needed to launch the mission.

2. Concept of Joint Leadership

High performing teams do not always rely on one leader. Human beings often go through emotional fluctuations. Someone else needs to take the charge, and bring the other one back at such times.

When Akshay Kumar was dejected, Vidya Balan was full of possibilities and convinced him that Mission Mars in not impossible. When the project was on the verge of being shelved, Vidya was thinking of resigning, but Akshay Kumar created possibilities and kept the project alive.

3. Competence not Gender, Experience

They say men are from Mars. This movie showed how women got them there. Vidya asked for an experienced team. Since no one believed in the project, they were assigned rookie scientists. Most of them were women. All the excuses associated with not inducting women into a workforce like maternity, early going, family problems were proved wrong.

Vidya was herself in doubt that the entire team was young, and had no experience. Akshay told that experience is a myth. No one in ISRO has the experience of going to Mars. So they are as good as anyone else.

Your belief in your team makes it successful.

4. Drive by Common Personal Vision

There was a vision of the project, which was challenging. Yet, people in the team were leading their own lives and taking it as a job.

Vidya figured out the common personal vision. Then she aligned the common personal vision with the vision of Mission Mangal. Movie showcased the broad method of conducting visioning exercise. Suddenly there was a drastic improvement in the way of working, as people found an intrinsic personal stake to work for.

Teams are driven by a common personal vision not the vision written on the wall.

5. Out of the Box Thinking

This one is my personal favorite because I believe that social life drives the way of working in organizations. I myself keep deriving lessons from real life stories, and apply those lessons to the corporate way of working. There were numerous such examples displayed by each team member. They took inspiration from simple things like Puri, switching on and off, Plastic, Sailing, Reusing leftover food and extrapolated them to solve problems and send a satellite to Mars.

Summary

After I finished writing, my wife told me that I had not been writing on movies for a while. She kept looking for possibilities and waited for a movie like Mission Mangal. Her perseverance made me take time out for movie. The moment I agreed, she was prepared with the logistics and tickets. It is because of our joint leadership, that we were able to watch the movie.

She gave me confidence that I can write well, despite not having written for a while. She kept me driven by my personal vision. At the end, she told me that she won a $100 bet with her brother that I will write about Mission Mangal despite my current engagements. She thought out-of-the-box when she said that her friends want to read my article, luring me into writing about this.

You know, Men are from Mars.

This is the Author's personal point of view and is not influenced by any person or organization. Image credit to #MissionMangal