Attending
PMIWDC, I met former Astronaut and inductee into the International Hall of Fame, Colonel Mike Mullane. He is an author of "
Riding Rockets", and "
Do your Ears Pop in Space". He is an excellent keynote speaker with a terrific mastery of his topic. Col. Mullane's highly inspiring and educational presentation was worthy of the standing ovation that he received at the end. Col. Mullane is clearly an accomplished deutrolearner (student and teacher within the same body), and explains the traits necessary to use these talents within ourselves to reach the stars
His web site:
http://www.mikemullane.com/
Col. Mullane shares the responsibility and duty of all team members must have to contribute to project success, regardless of position. He further discussed a phenomenon called
“Normalization of Deviance”, the prime contributing factor toward Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters and how his first act within a member of any team is to assure that his team knows what Normalization of Deviance is.
Normalization of Deviance is what happens when established standards are subverted incrementally over time, by routinely rewarding shortcuts from an established norm, without consequence, until the point of complete and catastrophic failure. To demonstrate his point, he provided the detailed insight of an astronaut and engineer to explain the failures that caused the Challenger and Columbia tragedies. Colonel Mullane further described how “Normalization of Deviance leads to Predictable Surprises”, that the surprise is not a matter of if it is going to happen, but when, without regard to the consequence.
He stressed the importance of maintaining one’s presence within a team, distinguishing the difference between team members who are team players, and those who are passengers. He amplified this point by by describing a flight where as a REO (TopGun “Goose” position) and his choice to be come a team passenger by remaining silent when his pilot called Bingo Fuel (point of safe return to base) and desired to continue to the next objective. Even as a rookie pilot, Col. Mullane knew this was a really bad idea, however he let his pilot’s longevity and experience influence his choice to be a passenger and not a functioning member of the team. The consequence of this decision was a short landing where the pilot and REO ejected and the plane crashed in pieces on the runway.
Col. Mullane’s presentation of his work within NASA is highly gripping from his mixture of layered transition PowerPoint slides intermixed with NASA footage. He mixed autobiographical elements that demonstrated how we all have the capability to strive for the stars and how destiny was not the primary driver toward him becoming an astronaut. On this point he offered many self-deprecating examples from his high school yearbook where he showed what destiny had to work with. My favorite: the only autograph on the last page read, “You missed Korea, I hope you make Vietnam!”
Saul Rosenberg PMP
created this social network on Ning. 
