How to choose the best crew for a voyage of discovery

Explorers have been embarking on voyages of discovery for thousands of years. Driven by need, curiosity or a new technology, exploration has been mooted as a uniquely human trait. Yet the psychological burden of an expedition into the unknown, cramped living quarters and the monotony of routine duties en route each take their toll on morale. Expeditions don’t always end well – there are many examples of disaster - disappearances, deaths, murder and even cannibalism. But when successful, explorers return with knowledge that changes understanding of our world.

Now imagine planning such a journey – one that lasts 8.5 months, covers 140 million miles (one way) and costs $230 billion, as an estimate.. 

In early 2033, NASA is sending human beings to Mars with Russian, Chinese and private space agencies following them soon after. Putting together the best crew to perform effectively on this incredible journey is “mission critical.”

Beyond selecting for technical expertise, what can the study of other extreme expeditions teach us about choosing the best crew for a voyage of discovery like this?

Pay attention to the difference between formal and informal roles. “Leaders” and “followers” are familiar labels for two major group “statuses,” but there may be other important emergent or informal statuses that are not so easily identified. Anthropologist Professor Jeffrey C. Johnson has studied social roles in groups in extreme and isolated environments such as the Scott-Amundsen Antarctic Polar Research Station’s overwintering crews over three years. The research station is at 90 Degrees South and each crew was in each other’s exclusive company for 15 months at a time. Professor Johnson’s studies revealed, as well as formal roles of research scientist, technician or maintenance contractor, the emergence of informal roles such as buddies, storytellers, peacemakers and counsellors are necessary for bonding isolated teams together and ensuring they work smoothly. He found the same mixes worked in US, Russian, Polish, Chinese and Indian remote bases. ““These roles are informal, they emerge within the group. But the interesting thing is that if you have the right combination the group does very well. And if you don’t, the group does very badly,”

Meet leadership role expectations or get the blame. Leadership is the most intensively studied group behaviour generating many definitions and methods for identifying or evaluating leaders. One perspective is to consider a leader’s focus on the “instrumental/ accomplishment of goals” and “expressive/relation-motivated” leaders who emphasise cohesive social networks in a group. In most successful groups, these two leadership roles are integrated.   The isolated crews of the Antarctic Research station defined effective leadership as prior experience, articulation of goals, flexibility and interaction with others. Further data showed crews evaluated effective leadership as the ability of individuals assuming these roles to minimise group conflict, address problems such as abusive or otherwise disruptive crew members before they affected station morale, keep projects on schedule without overworking personnel, make calm and rational decisions during an emergency, be fair and impartial in conflicts and maintain a certain level of communication with other winter-over personnel through work related and social activities without becoming too “chummy.”  Leaders lacking these abilities were harshly criticised and blamed for low morale, group conflict and inability to successfully complete projects.

Make room for several expressive leaders In extreme settings, higher rates of social interaction limit gossip and slow the formation and maintenance of negative stereotypes which can potentially contribute to conflict and division within the crew. Research shows there’s a clear advantage in having several individuals in the role of an expressive leader organising social events and interactions since multiple individuals playing the role of expressive leader reduces psychological stresses due to isolation and confinement.

Beware competition for instrumental leadership. Among the 3 winter crews of Johnson’s study, the coherence of each crew varied as to whether a single group had formed without cliques or subgroups. For one winter, evidence of a conflict between the crew’s view of formal and informal instrumental leadership roles became evident. In other words, at the beginning of the winter, there was strong consensus that the station manager was both the formal and informal leader “getting things done around the station” but by the end of the winter, competition between the formal leader and two other crew members for informal instrumental leadership had emerged. It corresponded with a shift from a global (whole group) coherence to greater incidence of cliques with competition among several informal leaders negatively impacting crew performance and morale.  When polar explorer Roald Amundsen was selecting expedition members for his attempt at the South Pole he tested potential crew members’ stance toward authority to assess an individual’s potential competition for his role as instrumental leader. If someone in the course of the test questioned his authority, the individual was eliminated from consideration as a member of the crew. 

Reduce role collision. In the absence crew consensus about formal and informal roles, there is potential for “role collision,” a “type of conflict which may occur if two different individuals in a group perform roles which overlap." Ensuring role heterogeneity in crew selection can produce effective groups by simply reducing the potential for role collision. Varying the role characteristics of group members allows them to fit in and function well with each other. In the Amundsen example, by screening the role characteristics of possible expedition members, Amundsen minimised the potential for conflict due to role collision.

Celebrate charismatic and positive deviance.  Potentially more important than informal roles of storytellers or counsellors, is another informal role which manifests in the use of humour, pranks and joking behaviour - the "class clown", essential for coping with boredom brought about by prolonged periods of isolation, routine and social monotony. “When you’re living with others in a confined space for a long period of time, such as on a mission to Mars, tensions are likely to fray. It’s vital you have somebody who can help everyone get along, so they can do their jobs and get there and back safely" says Johnson. In Amundsen’s expedition this informal role was fulfilled by Adolf Lindstrom, the cook whose joie de vivre “rendered greater and more valuable services to the Norwegian polar expedition than any other man,” Amundsen noted. For expressive polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, the role might be said to have been filled by Irishman seaman, Tom Crean, known for his good humour and terrible –although reportedly loud singing voice.   Such individuals not only enhance morale, they provide an important communication function in that they are frequently allowed to express frustrations or dissatisfaction with disruptive individuals or undesirable conditions in a socially acceptable manner without causing additional stress or conflict. In Johnson’s Antarctic study the two winters which achieved the more coherent structures had at least two individuals whom other crew members recognised as filling this role, while the crew which became cliquey did not. Nevertheless just being funny won't be enough to get a seat to Mars.