CSET project

MOVIE: “MISSION MANGAL”

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 PARMESHWA ANANTH

AGGARWAL PILLAI SIDDIQUI GANDHI R 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.

THE FIVE-STAGE MODEL

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 an
example all the team members leave early even they understood that the complexity of
the goal required them to stay extra. 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 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.
 Leadership in Team

A team leader is someone who is committed to motivating, directing, advising, and instructing a
group or team. Teams can use them as a resource to aid with projects, communication, and
frequent professional growth.

In the movie MISSION MANGAL, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)/Mangalyaan team is led
by Rakesh Dhawan (Akshay Kumar). In the beginning, when the launch of GSLV-F06 failed due
to miscalculation by the Project Director Tara Shinde (Vidya Balan), Rakesh Dhawan being the
team leader voluntarily took the responsibility for failure.
The Mangalyaan team comprises junior scientists: Eka Gandhi (Sonakshi Sinha) a propulsion
control expert, Neha Siddiqui (Kriti Kulhari) a spacecraft autonomy designer, who is constantly
facing rejection because of her intercommunal background after her divorce, Kritika Aggarwal
(Taapsee Pannu)- Navigation expert and devoted wife, Varsha Pillai (Nithya Menen) – the
satellite designer and payload expert, who is not able to conceive a child and faces mother-in-
law’s taunts, Parmeshwar Joshi (Sharman Joshi)- the payload expert, who relies more on a
religious priest and his advice and Ananth Iyengar (H.G. Dattatreya)- the structural engineer.
Due to tight budget constraints going to Mars seems impossible in the beginning. Due to the
upcoming India’s second moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, the MOM’s budget is cut by 50%.
Rakesh and Tara started working on the MOM project with so many obstacles and compromises.
Facing all these difficulties team members have been losing motivation and have low morale and
because of this team was slowing down. Tara and Rakesh realised the problem and to meet their
budget and schedule, she must make the team change their attitudes and motivate their dream
jobs into a reality. Tara got the idea of motivating the team members by reminding them of their
childhood passion for science, and they put their hard work and effort into resolving the issues
with the mission to make it happen. Varsha happens to be pregnant and soon delivers a child and
the team makes all the necessary arrangements at the office itself.
The MOM satellite is finally launched on the 5th of November 2013 on PSLV and is
successfully put into Earth’s orbit. Rakesh and his team celebrated the successful launch.
However, in the sixth orbit-raising manoeuvre and mission was pushed 6 days behind, and the
jets fail to launch but Tara kept the hope of the team high. Later the solar radiation increased the
speed of the damaged satellite covering up the 6-day gap. After 298 days of transit to Mars, the
MOM satellite finally reached Mars on 24 September 2014, making India the 4th country in the
world to do so.
The credit for this successful mission goes to the MOM team and the leadership of Rakesh
Dhawan without the team would not have been able to make this mission successful given so
many budget constraints and internal differences in the team.

Trust

The movie MISSION MANGAL has shown the underlying trust within the team. The movie starts
with the trust of Rakesh Dhawan’s trust on her junior scientist Tara Shinde and to trust her
reasoning of boiling oil to save the fuel. The trust that the character Chandresh Singh 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.

We saw how the team was not initially inclined towards the mission , as they have lesser hopes
that this mission could be succeeded , but we saw how eventually the trust builded in the end.
Trust takes time to build, but once there is trust, team can overcome all the hindrances and win
over.
In one of the scenes, we saw the character of Parmeshwar Naidu to have a believe towards the
god also, this again is the trust that he has towards the superior power and this trust is very
common for us to understand.

The relation of Varsha Gowda Pillai and Vivek Pillai also represents the trust of the wife on her
husband and her trust that her husband has her back, even when Vivek’s mother taunted
Varsha for not conceiving a baby. This relationship showed an underlying trust of husband and
wife.

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 an 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.
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
gravitational force 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 proper decision, India made the mission mangal successful.