The Martian is a fictional – though realistic – account of a NASA team’s attempt to rescue an astronaut wrongly left for dead on Mars. (It is a re-imagining of the true story that inspired the movie Apollo 13, which I highly recommend.) The Martian is filled with examples of cross-functional teams working to accomplish a task bigger than what any one person or role could do.
movie link here —-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isMhGcLAvfQ
Your job will be to watch and analyze it from a cross-functional team perspective. Turn in a page or two (~500 words) where you answer the following questions
First, using the readings from the other day, what is a cross functional team? Define it in a few sentences so you know what it is you are looking for. Make sure you try to explain why I would include this kind of group organization in a class on integrative thinking.
For each of the following character, tell me what they are paid to be concerned about. Whose perspective or what interests do they represent?
Teddy Sanders
Vincent Kapoor
Annie Montrose
Bruce Ng
Mitch Henderson
Rich Purnell
Make a list of as many different unavoidable tensions you can think of involving the different roles these people played, and describe the situation that forced their different interests to clash with each other. What was at stake in the conflict? (One example: when ‘remodeling’ the Mars Lander to make it ready to carry Mark off Mars, there was an unavoidable tension between the need to cut weight, which was a concern of engineer Bruce Ng, and a need to have safety features to keep Mark alive, which was a concern of personnel head Mitch Henderson and mission director Vincent Kapoor. At stake was Mark’s survival, since he would die if they didn’t cut enough weight to get the ship to the Aries, and he would die if the ride up was so violent that he was unprotected.)
Overall, what was the benefit of HAVING all of these roles and focuses locked together in a decision process?