OCTOBER SKY : ASSIGNMENT

Group 8 Sec C
Q3 : Homer Hickam is qualified to
become and entrepreneurial leader.
The Characteristics are:-
• Innovative:-
• The character brings out an innovative idea to build a rocket by gaining inspiration from the launch of sputnik.
• He truly believes in the idea that he can build a rocket in his basement and is ready to go to any length, even
study math's for it.
• He urges his team to make innovative changes to the design to make it better.
• Proactive-
• He is the most proactive one in the four-man team by first forming the team, persuading others towards his
goal, tackling challenges and motivating the team and gaining insights from as much sources as possible
• Risk taking:
• To achive his dream he tries various ideas, asks his fathers friend to weld the parts, taking the risk of going to
Quinten who is a geek and others warn him not to, going against his fathers will and taking extreme measures
such as selling steel from old railway tracks.
Q4 : Phase 1
• Importance of team leaders-
• team development- Homer asked the topper of the class,
Quentin to join his team; he was very good in Mathematics,
interested in rocket engineering
• Guidance for team leaders
• Building the team- deciding the expected outcome and having
clear goals and objectives- science fair with scholarship,
collaborated intensely despite facing challenges- Homer’s
father scolded them and insulted them in front of other coal
miners when the rocket had hit one of the mines, they shifted
their testing area to an open ground for experimenting;
needed iron and welding machine; their rocket failed multiple
times
• Trust was built as they were a group of friends. Their goals
were clear. Homer knew that he will never work in coalmines
like others in his hometown. They select Homer as the
representative for the science fair. Communication is
important element of effective leadership. When Homer went
to represent their idea at the project fair, the nozzle of the
rocket was stolen. He called his team members to come up
with a solution. The team of 4 were friends of each other and
stood strong as a team even when there were difficulties
(Newspaper article mentioned the happening of a forest fire
because of their rocket, Roy Lee’s stepfather Vernon beats
him after hearing this news, nozzle of the rocket gets stolen)
Phase 2
• Sharing The Vision
• Focus on larger organizational goals with thorough commitment from the team.
Team should carefully plan tteam.
• Instance from the Movie: CORE Objective: To defy the odds and not go into
Mining Profession (Doing something different)
• Personal Relationship amongst team members ( friends, classmates) lead to
alignment of vision ( Same Age Group, Similar Life goals, Similar Thinking)
• Establish Trust
• Personal Relationship amongst team members ( friends, classmates) lead to
alignment of vision ( Same Age Group, Similar Life goals, Similar Thinking)
• Excitement to try a different path and trust on one another by supporting in
hard times in struggles against family pressure.
• Phase 3:
• Communication Brevity: His interaction with the principle about the forest fire, he made
concise and brief statement!
• Listening etiquette: listened to his father's side without interrupting, then replied calmly.

• Phase 4: Tracking Performance

• Multiple Attempts
• Documentation of each Details like time taken, velocity, altitude
• Regular measuring of progress
• Hit and Trial: Team faced trouble in finding location and steeling metal bars in order to
conduct the experiments.
• Phase 5: Evaluation and Turnarounds
• Effective management of setbacks and failures
• Logical arguments to support their facts
• Expert advice in case of failures