Virtuoso project teams: Beyond high performance, a case study of the teaming success of the Motorola satellite Communications System Iridium® program

Abstract

High performance teaming has always been the gold standard for project management in general and new product or new system generation in particular. Within the realm of high performance, however, there are special factors that must come together in both temporal aspects and technical content to be truly accomplished. These project teams may be referred to as virtuoso teams. As an illustration of the principles of high functioning teaming, it is helpful to look back at one of the systems projects of the last century considered to be a hallmark of technical success and examine, from a behavioral perspective, what principles illustrate this “best of the best” teaming genre. The Motorola IRIDIUM® Satellite Communications System is one such project. Through published memoirs, case studies and retrospective articles, recent publications, personal notes and documentation, and unpublished project artifacts, aspects of the project team are examined to illustrate some of the theoretical principles of high performance teaming. Preface The logistics of launching 72 satellites in 12 months and 12 days through 22 successful launches on three different types of rockets in three countries (US – Vandenberg AFB, Russia – Baikonur, and China – Taiyuan) were, for a cellular telecommunications system designer, almost mind-boggling. To do what had not been done before required project team innovation, creativity and some measure of bravado. Motorola’s manager for satellite manufacturing had to deal with extremely short cycle times and doing what others considered impossible as a matter of course: “He challenged the launch team to develop test processes and equipment that would allow them to place test equipment into the overhead compartment of commercial aircraft. As for the complexity of the launch site, he recalled saying, ‘It’s like a rock concert. There is a lot of money at stake, a lot of technology involved, a high penalty of failure and you have a very tight timeframe in which to operate. You arrive at 10 o’clock at night on Thursday, your show is on Friday, and you have to be somewhere else on Saturday.’ The launch team took [his] idea and sent a team to observe and document the processes that were used by The Rolling Stones [during an actual concert tour]. They came back with clever ways to streamline the logistics of their launch processes, contributing to setting records that may never be broken.” [20, p. 132].