Who Would You Take With You to Mars?

Travel to Mars is probably within our grasp, if we're clever. In one scenario, we prepare the way with robotic missions that establish a constellation of GPS and communications satellites; deliver supplies, power plants, ground vehicles, landers, and return vehicles; find resources for mining fuel, oxygen, and water; and construct smelters, launch facilities and habitat. By the time people arrive much of the work is already done.

Still, making the trip would mean years of isolation and confinement, when perhaps the most daunting challenge would be maintaining functional relationships among the astronauts. We might want to put the explorers into an extended sleep state, not so much to save on life support, but to reduce the likelihood of interpersonal disasters.

Choosing the right combination of personalities would be a key to success. We're beginning to make significant advances in our understanding of personality, but assembling high-performance teams — and maintaining their functionality in stressful conditions — is another matter. We know a lot less about that.

The technology of interpersonal relations might not yet be up to this challenge. Certainly, if we look around at our project teams, we can find few that could tolerate a trip to Mars. Would yours make the cut?

Since a high-stress project can often feel like a trip to the moon, if not Mars, it's helpful to know what the experts look for in members of such teams. We all can exhibit these traits when we want to, in both polarities. Which polarity is best? It depends on the situation.

Here are some of the dimensions to consider.

Flexible/Resolute

Openness to new ideas, approaches, and experiences makes it possible for teams to transcend the capabilities of any of their members.

Determination to stand by your beliefs can protect your team from groupthink or trips to Abilene. See "Trips to Abilene," Point Lookout for November 27, 2002, and "Appreciate Differences," Point Lookout for March 14, 2001, for more.

Agreeable/Independent

A high-stress project
can feel like a trip
to the moon,
if not Mars

Volunteerism, yielding in conflict, empathy for others, and frankness about yourself, help your team get through the rough patches.

Loyalty in opposition, and a willingness to raise objections, ensures that your team faces its doubts and the hard realities before it commits to a course of action.

Conscientious/Unprincipled

Reliability, organization, a results orientation, and a drive to completion help the team stay focused on the mission.

A willingness to deviate from cherished principles if circumstances demand it can help the team deal with extreme situations, especially emergencies. See "Managing Technical Emergency Teams," and "Declaring Condition Red," Point Lookout for August 22, 2001, for more.

Sociable/Solitary

An outgoing, charming manner lifts spirits and both provides and supports leadership, especially when the team celebrates or faces challenges.

When confronting difficult, complex problems, comfort with quiet and with solitude can produce novel first-of-a-kind solutions.

Although many of us prefer one particular pattern of response, choosing the approach that best meets the team's needs in a given situation is the real challenge. If you want to make it to Mars, look for people who can tolerate and celebrate differences in others.  Top    Next Issue

The article you've been reading is an archived issue of Point Lookout, my weekly newsletter. I've been publishing it since January, 2001, free to all subscribers, over the Web, and via RSS. You can help keep it free by donating either as an individual or as an organization. You'll receive in return my sincere thanks — and the comfort of knowing that you've helped to propagate insights and perspectives that can help make our workplaces a little more human-friendly. More

For more on human factors in spaceflight, see M. Ephimia Morphew, Psychological and Human Factors in Long Duration Spaceflight McGill Journal of Medicine 6: 74-80, 2001. Available at www.medicine.mcgill.ca/mjm/v06n01/v06p074/v06p074.pdf. For more on models of personality, see, for example, www.personalityresearch.org

Your comments are welcome

About Point Lookout

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.

Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.

Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.

Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.

Related articles

More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:

Food for Thought

Most companies have employee cafeterias, with the usual not-much-better-than-high-school food service. By upgrading — and subsidizing — food service, these companies can reduce turnover and improve productivity dramatically.

Trips to Abilene

When a group decides to take an action that nobody agrees with, but which no one is willing to question, we say that they're taking a trip to Abilene. Here are some tips for noticing and preventing trips to Abilene.

Intentionally Unintentional Learning

Intentional learning is learning we undertake by choice, usually with specific goals. When we're open to learning not only from those goals, but also from whatever we happen upon, what we learn can have far greater impact.

The Retrospective Funding Problem

If your organization regularly conducts project retrospectives, you're among the very fortunate. Many organizations don't. But even among those that do, retrospectives are often underfunded, conducted by amateurs, or too short. Often, key people "couldn't make it." We can do better than this. What's stopping us?

How We Waste Time: I

Time is the one workplace resource that's evenly distributed. Everyone gets exactly the same share, but some use it more wisely than others. Here's Part I of a little catalog of ways we waste time.

See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness and Project Management for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming April 1: Incompetence: Traps and Snares

Sometimes people judge as incompetent colleagues who are unprepared to carry out their responsibilities. Some of these "incompetents" are trapped or ensnared in incompetence, unable to acquire the ability to do their jobs. Available here and by RSS on April 1.

And on April 8: Intentionally Misreporting Status: I

When we report the status of the work we do, we sometimes confront the temptation to embellish the good news or soften the bad news. How can we best deal with these obstacles to reporting status with integrity? Available here and by RSS on April 8.

Coaching services

I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrenmhXARWRMUvVyOdHlner@ChacxgDmtwOKrxnripPCoCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.

Get the ebook!

Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:

• Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
• Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
• Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
• Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
• Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
• Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )

Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info

Public seminars

The Power Affect: How We Express Our Personal Power

Many people who possess real organizational power have a characteristic demeanor. It's the way they project their presence. I call this the power affect. Some people — call them power pretenders — adopt the power affect well before they attain significant organizational power. Unfortunately for their colleagues, and for their organizations, power pretenders can attain organizational power out of proportion to their merit or abilities. Understanding the power affect is therefore important for anyone who aims to attain power, or anyone who works with power pretenders. Read more about this program.

• A recording of a program presented June 29, 2017, Monthly Webinar, sponsored by Technobility Webinar Series. PMI members can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.