CSET project Group -4

SECTION-D

MOVIE: “MISSION MANGAL”

SUBMITTED TO:
PROF. AMIT GUPTA
SUBMITTED BY:
NAME ROLL
SHIVAM SINHA MBA/08/232
ALISHA BASU MBA/08/190
ISHU YADAV MBA/08/201
NAVNEET RAJ MBA/08/190
RAVI KANT SHARMA MBA/08/190
USHEKWAR SHUBHAM RAKESH MBA/08/242
INTRODUCTION

The movie is about an ordinary team, formed after failure of GSLV-F06 due to miscalculation by project
manager, that ends up making India and ISRO proud by becoming the first to successfully complete
‘Mission Mars’ in a single attempt. The team was formed majorly of young and less experienced people
(ironically, none in ISRO had experience of designing a Mars orbiter), with an exception of an elderly man
who was in the last years of his retirement. Everyone expected the team and mission to be a complete failure
with its tight budget of just 400 crores (which was just half of that demanded by the project) and less
experienced team members. However, when the goals of individuals get aligned with the group goal, and we
have a strong team structure, even a team of ordinary people can achieve extraordinary goal.

GRPI MODEL OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT

GOALS:

Right through the forming stage, the goal of the team was clearly established. Although individuals had their
own reasons (like Kritika, the navigation expert wanted to serve the nation but Eka, propulsion control
expert wanted to prove her worth as an ISRO scientist), but their individual goals aligned with the team goal.
Further, the goal was SMART:

SPECIFIC: Design a light weight satellite to carry 850 kg fuel and launch it successfully through PSLV
rocket out in space, breaking through Earth’s orbit and insert it into Mars’ orbit.

MEASURABLE: Progress at each step was closely measured by checking the feasibility of the idea.

ACHIEVABLE: The mission appeared too challenging for the team, which was why the team failed to
align themselves with the goal at first, however, a little motivation and trust in each other’s capability helped
the team members realize their true potential to make the goal achievable.

RELEVANT: Mission Mars was the only way to get glisten the tarnished reputation of ISRO after a failed
GSLV program which costed millions and also get insights about Mars.

TIME BOUND: The goal had a deadline of just 24 months, because that will be the only time when Mars
will be nearest to Earth and the rocket must be launched within a buffer time of 9 days after 24 months.

This is how a team goal should also be defined in the real world. A SMART goal helps team members
accept, connect and commit to the common objectives to realize the mission.

ROLES:

In business settings, as well as in the ISRO mission, the roles of the team members were described by the
authority, responsibility and tasks the team members carried out.

It is important to note that here both Rakesh Dhawan and Tara Shinde were an integral part of leadership
structure. They had the following characteristics:
1. Confident work ethic and integrity.
2. Ability to delegate and motivate: While Dhawan dealt aggressively with the higher authority like
Bhosle and the criticism of Rupert to sanction the fund, Tara was like his right hand in convincing
the authorities.
3. Organizational skills: Dhawan coached the team members and addressed their weaknesses, while
Tara was the one to motivate the team by reminding them why they all became a scientist in the first
place.
 4. Clear verbal and non-verbal communication skills.

The hierarchy and functional roles at ISRO as described in the movie are as follows:

SHRIKANT
BHOSLE
ISRO DIRECTOR

RAKESH DHAWAN RURERT DESAI

MISSION MARS DIRECTOR NASA EXPERT

TARA SHINDE
PROJECT DIRECTOR

KRITIKA VARSHA NEHA EKA PARMESHWAR ANANTH

AGGARWAL PILLAI SIDDIQUI GANDHI JOSHI IYENGAR
NAVIGATION SPACECRAFT PROPULSION
EXPERT SATELLITE AUTONOMY CONTROL PAYLOAD STRUCTURAL
ENGINEER DESIGNER AND EXPERT EXPERT ENGINEER
PAYLOAD

PROCESSES

Since ISRO is a reputed government organization, they were clearly defined processes and trust in the process
by team members. Although, there was storming within the team as well as with top management with regards
to fund allocation, overall, the level of conflict would be called optimum as it led to cost efficient and
innovative ideas popping out of team members.

Each of the processes like communication, decision making and conflict management were gracefully
handled like an efficient team.
INTERACTIONS:

There was a great interpersonal chemistry among team members. Dhawan being the team leader took the fall
of Tara’s mistake, who kept her commitment to his Mission Mars and subsequently joined him and worked
day and night, which showed her personal integrity. By attending to little things like renting his flat to
Neha, Ananth resolved her problem of working late nights. Dhawan was clear with what he expected from
team and apologized sincerely when the team was facing an existential crisis due to lack of funds.

TUCKMAN’S MODEL OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT

The Five-Stage Model depicts that a group is formed by passing through five stages:
• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Adjourning

Although all the groups do not pass through all five stages but in this movie the team formation of Mars
Orbital Mission clearly followed these five phases. In this movie the mission is totally dependent on the
teamwork and team co-ordination with a strong leader guiding them through.

• FORMING
This is the first stage of team development, where different members of the team are introduced with
each other. At this stage the team is unsure about the goal, the purpose of the team, and the team do
not trust the leader fully and vice versa. In this movie while forming the team it was clear that there
was lack of understanding and trust towards the goal of the team. All the team member showed distrust
towards each other and also about the capability they have as an individual.

• STORMING
 In this stage the members of the team accept the existence of the team but try to uphold the individual
characteristics more. In the movie after the formation of the team, the team members were more
attentive to their individual problems and individual goals. For example, all the team members left
early even they understood that the complexity of the goal required them to stay extra hours. Eka
Gandhi was not committed to the mission rather she wanted to get rid of it. Not only that, but she also
tried to get into NASA as she did not trust the team or the mission. Similarly other members were
prioritizing their personal benefits more than the benefit of the team. At this stage the true leader
emerges out. Though as per the hierarchy Rakesh Dhawan was the leader of the team, but he proved
his position as the team lead by uniting all the members together and attaching them to a common goal.

• NORMING
In this phase the team member resolves their internal conflicts and start working cohesively. The sense
of team identity is established. Team starts believing the process and start acting towards the goal
unitedly. In the movie as well when Tara made them recall the true motivation of becoming a scientist,
all the team members were united by the thought that they always wanted to become extraordinary.
This individual goal helped them to understand each other, and the team members started showing
empathy towards their co-member. Eka Gandhi and Ananth Iyengar came forward to help Neha
Siddqui. Also, the whole team were more than delighted to help Neha Agarwal with her situation as
she was expecting her first child during the mission.

• PERFORMING
In this fourth stage, the team starts working well and a significant amount of task gets completed. The
structure of the team is fully accepted and functional. In the movie at this stage the team was working
hard to deliver the output within time and quality. They were discussing among themselves about any
challenges they faced and came up with solution together. The individual member was more dedicated
towards the goal of the team rather than focusing on their personal interest. Eka Gandhi changed her
desire to go to NASA and was determined to stay with the team and contribute to the mission with her
full potential.

• ADJOURNING
In this stage after performing the task and delivering the output the team prepares for its disbandment.
The critical task is over and high task performance is not a top priority of the team. The top priority in
this stage is to wrap up things. In this movie this stage is not clearly visible. As the movie ends with
success of the team and does not focus on the after-success stage.
 CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN TEAM

A team leader is someone who is committed to motivating, directing, advising, and instructing a group or
team. However, conflict resolution is one of the key characteristics of team leader and even team members
should also be equally supportive of harmony in a team.

Also, some amount of conflict in teams is productive and an indicator of ideal team. As, we see in the movie,
Dhawan lashed out at Eka for saying that it was impossible to reach at Mars with only 850 kg fuel. It was not
to humiliate her, but to instigate her to challenge her abilities and come up with a solution for the issue at
hand. When the resolution focus of the team is equity rather than equality, there is satisfaction and high
performance in the team. A team member is satisfied when he is given these three assurances:

1. Accepted: A team member should be accepted in a team. Even in the Mission Mangal team, all the
novice team members and an aged man was heartily accepted by Tara and Dhawan for who they are
as a person and their aspirations.

2. Valued: Everyone on the team were equally valued and were free to raise their voice. As we saw
Varsha raised her concerns about lack of medical facilities and wanted to take maternity leave, but
after Dhawan told her that she was an asset and they would like to have her support in the project, she
decided to stay.

3. Influence: As we see Tara and Dhawan had a managerial influence on the team. Even the lowest level
team members enjoyed influence of their ideas on team members and their capabilities.
 TRUST

The movie clearly explains the virtues of trust in a team. Considering trust as a personal relationship, there
are 3 aspects involved:
1. 2 asymmetrical roles of a trustor and a trustee- We see that Rakesh Dhawan got an immense trust
in Tara. Dhawan’s trust on her junior scientist Tara Shinde and even her reasoning of using residual
heat of boiling oil to save the fuel was uniue. The trust that the character Shrikant Bhosle showed
towards the idea and the motive behind that was also appreciated. The movie proceeds with
scenes where different problem aroused, be it lack of motivation to work in MISSION MARS
DEPARTMENT or some personal problem, but the trust that Rakesh Dhawan and Tara Shinde
showed towards the skills of the employees was commendable and it eventually acted as the
motivational factor for their team.

2. Risk associated with trusting others: Dhawan trusted Tara a lot, but it resulted in the failure of
GSLV launch. Tara was also disheartened by her mistake so much that she decided to end her
career and resign from the job initially. But her guilt and creative mind poked her again and again to
come up with a solution for the hurdles in the way ahead. We also saw how the team was not
initially inclined towards the mission , as they had lesser hopes that this mission could be a success ,
but we saw how eventually the trust builded in the end despite the 0.99 probability of the mission
failure as predicted by Rupert, a NASA fanatic. Trust takes time to build, but once there is trust,
team can overcome all the hindrances and win over. All we can conclude that there should be a
tolerance limit attached to how much we can trust an individual and act according considering the
stakes level involved in the project.

3. Reciprocity of the trust relationship: Dhawan trusted Tara a lot and listened to her ideas even
though it sounded absurd a lot, like the ‘puri’ making example given by her. Tara also showed the
same respect to his opinions and never lost hope in his ability to convince the authorities to grant
the project the required support.
The movie also showed how a project that started with the vision of Tara Shinde became a reality with the
trust and hard work of the scientists. The project did face initial negative feedback as they thought that
Tara was mixing Home Science with the Aeronautical Science. But the self-trust that Tara showed towards
her skill and her idea, made her strong and to believe that she can do that impossible mission.

So, we can see how trust on the members of the team can have an impact on their performance. Showing
trust towards your teammates not only enhance their but also make it possible to achieve impossible
goals. Trust the word might seem a bit overused but the impact of this also very much impactful.
The movie is the true example of how a team have worked with trust on each other and achieved a given
project.

MAPPING TEAMWORK

1. ENERGY: how team members contribute to a team as a whole

The team energy was sufficiently high after the norming stage. The individual goals were aligned with
the team goal and everyone was motivated to make India the first country in the world to reach on
Mars in it’s first attempt and that too with a miniscule budget. This should be the case in real teams
also, where people love their work and contribute their best.

2. ENGAGEMENT: how team members communicate with one another

The communication among team members was highly interactive. As depicted in the movie, the team
members worked in a big hall having little to no partition, which made each of them highly
approachable to one another. Also, they all freely shared their personal problems that are hindering
their performance and others also stepped up to the occasion to solve their problems. As for example
Iyenger rented his flat to Neha so that she can do overtiming and Dhawan arranged for medical
facilities at work for Varsh, the would be mother.

3. EXPLORATION: how teams communicate with one another

ISRO is the pride of India and it employs 1000s of employees, Majority of them were involved in the
project in some way or other. The interaction and trust among them was immense. As we see, the ISRO
scientists were confident that Indian navy will certainly be successful in reaching Pacific ocean on
time to establish connection with the satellite after the launch. Even the members of Mission Mangal
were vocal in asking for the project materials and equipments that was initially allotted to the
Chandrayaan 2 team after the postponement of their mission.
It’s important that teams also communicate and work cooperatively with each other to make
organisation successful.
DECISION MAKING

At the start of the movie, there was a failure due to a fuel injector error. Rakesh (protagonist) took full
responsibility for that failure and congratulated his colleague on their failure. After a long discussion after
the first failure, the committee member decided to bring Mr. Rupert Desai on board, having a career in
NASA for 23 years. Mr. Rupert Desai suggested that they should follow the NASA procedure and skip
“make in India” stuff. Listening to this Rakesh made a decision that they should believe in “make in India,
Create in India”. Later, Rakesh was transferred to the MARS department project, which seems impossible at
that point in time.

Later in the movie, one day after listening to the Indian jugaad of Tara, Rakesh and Tara made a decision that
PSLV will be useful for launching the rocket into the earth’s orbit and will use its residual heat to beat gravity.
Listening to all the debates between Rakesh and Rupert, the Director of ISRO decided to take on Rakesh’s
plan and gave approval for the MARS mission. Due to internal doubt, Rakesh was given a team of non-
experienced candidates but he just went on with them and made the mission possible in the given time.

The Director of ISRO, after the failure of china’s MARS project, decided to turn the budget towards the Indian
MARS project where still the possibility of success was very low. With a very low probability, the team
decided to take over the project with 400 crores INR. During the space mission, every team member decided
to make new technologies and Rakesh carefully took the decision of what to take forward.

Together with team support and making proper decision, India made the mission mangal successfull.