Apollo 13: The Four Stages Of Group Development
Monique Hernandez
Group Dynamics
Apollo 13
“Houston, we have three heroes”
Once a group is formed, it continues to grow and develop over time. According to Bruce Tuckman, there are four stages of group development; forming, storming, norming, and performing. To give an example of each stage, the film Apollo 13 is a great example. Any group who puts to use these four stages will accomplish a lot more than one man. At the start of the film the group is training and preparing for their launch to walk on the moon. Forming is a period characterized by anxiety and uncertainty about belonging to the group. One important obstacle that occurred was that one of the group members Ken Mattingly had been exposed to German measles, he had no immunity
to the disease, but NASA did not want to chance him falling ill during any critical phases of the flight. Jack Swigert was originally part of the backup crew for the mission. He was assigned just three days before the mission to replace Ken Mattingly due to the measles issue, all that training, preparing for the launch and time together to bring in a bachelor who was a rookie, which did not sit well at all with the other members, not knowing if he would be able to do things properly with his inexperience. Certain with all this energy around I’m sure there was a lot of doubt, anxiety, and uncertainty going around about belonging to the group.
Storming is the next stage in the group development stages. Storming is the competition, individuality, and conflict emerges as group members try to satisfy their individual needs. An example of storming would be the replacement of Ken Mattingly. It brought a lot of competition between them, because Ken felt he had more knowledge and experience and was more qualified than Jack.
To find the norming stage in this film was without difficulty. Norming is characterized by attempts to resolve earlier conflicts, often by negotiating clear guidelines for the group. When they launched into space everything went perfectly smooth. Then Jack stired the oxygen tanks and something went wrong, so Jim and Haise scramble to help fix the problem. Once they figure out what needs to be done, the group gathers all materials to follow the procedures, to drop the CO2 gas that’s poisoning them. Houston and the astronauts had amazing norming techniques that helped them negotiate how to get back home.
The performing stage is the most crucial, which is the cooperation and productive work where all the hallmarks are for this stage. This is the most important part in the film, this is where they had to realize that they were not going to be able to walk on the moon and abort their mission. The mission now was to get back home alive. The group members back home made a filter out of remaining parts of the ship to drop the CO2. Putting all their differences aside this is where it all comes down to working as a real group. Listening to Houston and his instructions procedure by procedure they were able to make the filter, exactly as Houston described.
The character I chose to analyze is Tom Hanks (Jim Lovell). I believe one of the character’s categories is individual goals. Jim, in the film, was very determined to land on the moon and be able to step foot on it. That is one of his dreams. He also had group/team goals; his biggest desire was to go to the moon. He couldn’t have done all he could do without the help of his team members. Even though he didn’t fulfill his dream he was darn near it. He couldn’t have done it alone.
Without communication and working together they would have never made it back home. It was leadership, as much as knowledge, wisdom, skill and courage that made up the human backbone of how the Apollo 13 astronauts were saved from a certain death in the cold vacuum of space.
Group Dynamics
Apollo 13
“Houston, we have three heroes”
Once a group is formed, it continues to grow and develop over time. According to Bruce Tuckman, there are four stages of group development; forming, storming, norming, and performing. To give an example of each stage, the film Apollo 13 is a great example. Any group who puts to use these four stages will accomplish a lot more than one man. At the start of the film the group is training and preparing for their launch to walk on the moon. Forming is a period characterized by anxiety and uncertainty about belonging to the group. One important obstacle that occurred was that one of the group members Ken Mattingly had been exposed to German measles, he had no immunity
to the disease, but NASA did not want to chance him falling ill during any critical phases of the flight. Jack Swigert was originally part of the backup crew for the mission. He was assigned just three days before the mission to replace Ken Mattingly due to the measles issue, all that training, preparing for the launch and time together to bring in a bachelor who was a rookie, which did not sit well at all with the other members, not knowing if he would be able to do things properly with his inexperience. Certain with all this energy around I’m sure there was a lot of doubt, anxiety, and uncertainty going around about belonging to the group.
Storming is the next stage in the group development stages. Storming is the competition, individuality, and conflict emerges as group members try to satisfy their individual needs. An example of storming would be the replacement of Ken Mattingly. It brought a lot of competition between them, because Ken felt he had more knowledge and experience and was more qualified than Jack.
To find the norming stage in this film was without difficulty. Norming is characterized by attempts to resolve earlier conflicts, often by negotiating clear guidelines for the group. When they launched into space everything went perfectly smooth. Then Jack stired the oxygen tanks and something went wrong, so Jim and Haise scramble to help fix the problem. Once they figure out what needs to be done, the group gathers all materials to follow the procedures, to drop the CO2 gas that’s poisoning them. Houston and the astronauts had amazing norming techniques that helped them negotiate how to get back home.
The performing stage is the most crucial, which is the cooperation and productive work where all the hallmarks are for this stage. This is the most important part in the film, this is where they had to realize that they were not going to be able to walk on the moon and abort their mission. The mission now was to get back home alive. The group members back home made a filter out of remaining parts of the ship to drop the CO2. Putting all their differences aside this is where it all comes down to working as a real group. Listening to Houston and his instructions procedure by procedure they were able to make the filter, exactly as Houston described.
The character I chose to analyze is Tom Hanks (Jim Lovell). I believe one of the character’s categories is individual goals. Jim, in the film, was very determined to land on the moon and be able to step foot on it. That is one of his dreams. He also had group/team goals; his biggest desire was to go to the moon. He couldn’t have done all he could do without the help of his team members. Even though he didn’t fulfill his dream he was darn near it. He couldn’t have done it alone.
Without communication and working together they would have never made it back home. It was leadership, as much as knowledge, wisdom, skill and courage that made up the human backbone of how the Apollo 13 astronauts were saved from a certain death in the cold vacuum of space.