Mission Mangal - An exemplar of 'effective' Project Management in a VUCA environment
#projectmanagement
Mission Mangal is a movie that is loosely based on the life of scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation who contributed to the Mars Orbiter Mission, India's first interplanetary expedition. One can draw the insight from this movie that like any business project, space projects are also a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product. It requires applying specific knowledge, skills and tools to specific activities in order to meet project requirements. Nevertheless, the only difference between a business project and a space project is that the stakes are too high in a space project.
Space projects are also limited by budgets, schedules and resources. However,the budgets run in hundreds of crores, schedules are planned for the next couple of years which may get extended to another couple of years and thousands of people work on the project. In other words, the team grows old with the project. Experts from various disciplines are brought together to work on the project. The macro and micro economic environment also have their share of compounding uncertainty.
Consequently, the expectations of stakeholder are also very high. The project is publicly acknowledged as soon as the it kicks-off as it is funded by taxpayer's money. In an era where mankind is still in the nascent stages of space exploration, successful space projects are a matter of immense pride for a nation. Plus, there will also be stakeholders who do not wish the project to be a success for various reasons. There is a possibility that the project is de-prioritized for the next couple of years. And God forbid, what if after putting a colossal amount of man-hours over a couple of years, on the D-day, the rocket does not launch at all ? The loss is far worse than losing in the stock market. Amidst all this volatility-uncertainty-complexity-ambiguity (VUCA), the success of a project is determined by how efficiently and effectively it is executed.
In Mission Mangal, the protagonists Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan overcome the VUCA environment by being resilient and managing the stakeholders impeccably. Be it keeping the team motivated or impressing the Director of ISRO or keeping the opponent at bay, they did it all. In my opinion, they exhibited the following skills throughout the movie;
1. Communication
They were very persuasive in their communication with the Director of ISRO throughout the movie. For example, they gave a live demonstration of cooking puris to explain their concept of how a PSLV rocket can be used to launch into Mar's orbit.
2. Leadership
Akshay Kumar & Vidya Balan mentored the team whenever they were stuck.
Every time the Director of ISRO came with a proposal to close or post-pone the project, Akshay Kumar could negotiate with him to keep the project alive.
4. Risk management skills
The 7 days back-up saved them when it started raining all of a sudden on the launch day. Well, there was some luck factor too. All of a sudden, it stopped raining on the 7th day.
5. Time management skills
To keep the project on track, they motivated the team to work overtime and not consider it as a 9 to 5 job.
To control costs, some parts of the rocket were made out of waste plastic. Innovative methods were used to reduce fuel consumption.
7. Team Building
People from different backgrounds and having varying space mission experiences were made to work together. In spite of not getting the subject matter experts originally asked for, they continued to work with the team and created a culture where everybody wanted to put in their best and also take care of each other. One of the team members got an accommodation at another team member's home. A pregnant team member's needs were taken care of and the rocket was named M.O.M after her. When one team member faced music, another helped him cope up.
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