At this time when all of us stand beside ISRO for success of Chandrayaan 2, I had the opportunity to watch ‘Mission Mangal’ throwing up lessons from the lives of scientists and their pursuit to explore the unexplored and conquer the unconquered.
“Gettin’ good players is easy. Gettin’ ’em to play together is the hard part.”
- Casey Stengel
‘Mission Mangal’ is a rousing story of an ordinary team accomplishing an extraordinary feat by asphyxiating challenges on-course through continuous innovation, grit and determination. The story exhibits the power of a team and the right attitude towards the goal as an underlying factor behind the success of any mission. Alongside entertainment with humour, the story serves as a leader’s handbook in building high performing teams.
Below is my take on some of the key lessons:
1. Leader’s take responsibility for the failure
The movie begins with the failure of the GSLV mission. Rakesh Dhawan (Akshay Kumar) takes the outright responsibility of the failure even though Tara (Vidya Balan) repeatedly admits that it was her ignorance which led to the failure. Dhawan displays the true spirit of a leader - ‘Success belongs to the team and failure is yours’.
2. Failures are temporary, leaders bounce back stronger than ever
After the failure of GSLV, Dhawan is moved to a different and seemingly impossible Mars mission. Disappointed momentarily, Dhawan quickly gets back into his real self. As leaders, you will encounter failures but your ability to bounce back will determine the accomplishments you can make in the long run. No leaders can rise without failure, watch out if you are not failing, probably you are not picking up challenges beyond your proven potential.
3. You don’t need the most experienced team but an aligned high performing team
If you have got a team which has all the experiences required to perform the task at hand, you are not heading towards achieving big. As a leader your dearest responsibility is to align the team at hand and convert them into high performing group. The turning point of the Mission’s success was when Tara reignited the passion of the scientist in each team member leading to a change in their attitude from ‘9 to 5 job’ approach to ‘My mission, my passion’.
4. Continuous innovation and problem-solving is the key
The movie showcases many examples of simple and practical ideas inspired by cooking, sailing, waste management etc espoused for appropriate challenges. As long as teams are focused on the final objective, innovations galore. Those who don’t experiment can’t be called scientists; those who don’t solve problems can’t be called leaders.
5. Back your Team and Team-mates
Varsha Pillai (Nithya Menen) was proposed to be given full support during pregnancy and childcare alongside the freedom to select if she wanted to be a part of the mission. Similarly, Neha Siddiqui (Kirti Kulhari) was offered accommodation by colleague Ananth Iyer (HG Dattatreya). Your team is about individuals coming together, there would always be one or the other challenges faced by your team members. If we can nourish an environment of mutual and organizational support, people would go beyond the call of duty to ensure the success of the mission.
6. Your present is as precious as your future
Eka Gandhi (Sonakshi Sinha) the propulsion control expert, was able to contribute only when she left aside distractions of change in role or job application to NASA. The lesson is to plan for the future but live in the present or you may not realize the true potential of the opportunity at hand.
7. Looks or past records can be deceptive
Plus-sized Varsha Pillai turned out as an expert lightweight satellite designer and the senior-most team member Ananth Iyer came up with modern-day innovation to create the composite material for satellite using plastic waste, aluminium and other items. Leaders get the best out of their teammates irrespective of their looks, background and past glory propelling them way ahead of their own aspirations.
8. Push people to make them think alternatively
Eka Gandhi got stuck and was unable to create a trajectory path within allocated fuel and timeframe until pushed for outcomes by Dhawan. Though the alignment and motivation serves most of the situations, it may sometimes be required to push people out of their comfort zone to ignite alternative thinking.
9. Leaders back leaders who believe in themselves and dream big
Dhawan’s statement “Karenge sir, pata nahi kaise par karengey, karna hi padega (We will do it, sir, don’t know how but we will do it, we will have to do it)” displayed his resolve towards the mission inspiring initially skeptical ISRO Chairman (Vikram Gokhale) to agree and extend greater resources towards Mars mission. When you believe in yourself and back your functional plan with high resolve and passion to achieve, other leaders start believing in you and often start co-dreaming.
Wishing you an exciting Leadership journey, keep learning, keep inspiring and keep empowering….
…….
Mission Mangal is based upon the real event of ISRO’s (India Space Research Organisation) successful mission to Mars 2013-14 making it the only Asian country to reach Mars and First Nation globally to achieve the feat in the first attempt. Only Russia (Roscomos), USA (NASA) and Europe (ESA) had sent successful missions to Mars before India (ISRO).
Credits : Mission Mangal Team, Blog Editing by Murtaza Ali Khan @apotofvestiges
