Watched Mission Mangal the other day. For those who haven’t watched or unable to relate to this Bollywood Blockbuster, here is a quick glimpse. Mangalyaan – A Mars Mission by India, was successfully launched in 2014 by #ISRO, the equivalent of #NASA in India. The movie is based on how this mission was successfully completed by the scientists of ISRO, the cost of which was less than Hollywood blockbuster.
I won’t go into the details of how they managed to do it in a span of 2 years, but would like to share some lessons that we can learn in terms of Leadership and Personal development.
Humble Leadership: Names of Project Director and Project leader are still not known to anyone. The only thing we know is that India created History. There were 400 scientists working on this project, for several months. None of them are being held as legends or stalwarts. They are now are back to do what they do best. Imagine the Values that this organization has inculcated in these people.
Simple thinking: The Ideas that this team came out with to reduce cost of the project and still manage to create the satellite launcher, were picked up from experiences that we often come across in our daily lives. We don’t have to undergo training’s or courses to innovate. Being Present in the Moment and being observant of what’s happening in our surroundings, is more than enough to come out with simple yet brilliant ideas.
A Compelling Purpose and Vision: Amazing how the leader, inspires the team when the chips are down and when they are almost giving up. All of us have a purpose of why we are doing what we are doing. If the leader can inspire by matching individual purpose to the organizations purpose and vision, what you create is nothing less than a miracle.
Last but not the least and this takes the cake.
Breaking our own ORBIT: An interesting scene, where the project director gives an example of how the satellite launcher can break Earths gravitational pull and go beyond that to enter the Mars Orbit. For this to happen, the launcher has to have enough fuel and push to break Earth’s orbit.
In today’s fast changing dynamic environment, how many of us are still revolving and working in our own Orbit?
How many of us are even thinking that there could be a completely different Orbit which is out there?
And if any one of us are thinking about this new orbit, how much fuel and push are we giving our selves by saving our energy to launch ourselves into that?
This I thought was the most powerful message that the movie gave us.
Reflect
Are you ready to push yourself into the new orbit (your real purpose and passion) or are you happy with revolving in your current position, till the fuel gets over?
