A new NASA study called the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) is examining the behavior of astronauts on mock space missions in order to better understand the value of their interpersonal relationships.
The relationships between crew members can be vital to a space mission's success or failure. Unlike a typical work environment, employees can't go home and take a break after a stressful day or a clash with a colleague. They need to function and perform highly together under extreme conditions, like months or even years of isolation and confinement in a spacecraft.
So far, the study has found that certain behavioral and personality traits, like a good sense of humor, do better in space. On the other hand, individuals who are overly detail-oriented can be challenging. Ultimately, the study drives home the importance of building a team that is aligned when it comes to personality and core values – which is applicable to any type of organization this side of the universe.
While your corporate team likely isn't in space together for months or years at a time, there are several methods you can use to test personality compatibility and core value alignment on both current and potential employees. Here are three:
Core values are the connecting thread to everything a company does. In fact, a study by Reward Gateway found that 89% of employers say that employees who understand their business' mission are critical to its success. However, only 32% of those surveyed employees feel completely informed about the values of their organization – problematic, indeed.
The HERA study itself beautifully exemplifies how NASA abides by their core values: by doing their part to research the effects of long-term space exploration on mental health and what factors come into play for both the astronaut and the crew to have positive interpersonal relationships and a high-performing team dynamic hit all their core value nails on the head.
For those of us working down here on earth, one of the best ways to ensure your employees are aligned is to hire a team that abides by the same core values. Then, your team is riding the same wavelength for everything from the way they approach challenges to the types of things they prioritize at work.
One way that Outback recruits like-minded candidates is by using Topgrading. Topgrading is a corporate hiring tactic in which candidates undergo a detailed 12-step process that includes extensive interviews, research into job history, and more. The interview questions in this methodology are not just about professional skills: they are about the person's character and fit into your company. After the interview process, candidates are then classified as either "A, B, or C Players." For clarity: an A Player is best of the best. The B Player, a notch below the A, may lack the potential to be a high performer. And, finally, a C Player is typically classified as an underperformer.
Topgrading can help create a team that is on the same page when it comes to the critical things that matter to your company, like core values and culture.
Here are five Topgrading steps you can easily integrate into your hiring process:
You've most likely worked with a few "A Players" before, so dive into your professional network pool and take advantage of your connections to find great potential candidates.
Conducting interviews over the phone can help narrow down your scope of potential candidates. Weed out the ones who don’t meet your criteria and invite the strong candidates to move onto the next step.
This next interview directly examines the candidate’s qualifications. Each question asked should be geared toward a specific requirement of the job.
Here, the interviewer asks more in-depth questions about the candidate’s education, previous jobs, and goals in order to get to know the recruit better. It also rounds up all the information found out about the candidate in the previous steps to ensure its validity.
In Topgrading, the candidate is responsible for setting up their own reference checks. This helps to prove to employers who the high performers are, since a top candidate typically doesn't leave jobs on bad terms.
Check out our guide, The HR Guide to Recruitment, for more hiring tactics and tips that can help build an aligned team.
When your employees are engaged, they work better. In fact, a study from Gallup found that engaged employees produce more profitable results for their workplace. Plus, research from Globoforce highlights the fact that having good relationships with your colleagues is also vital to quality of life here on earth – just as HERA emphasizes the great importance of having positive relationships with fellow crew members in outer space.
Some ways that you can help your team get more connected and build better relationships with each other is to participate in engagement-focused programs. At Outback, we offer a wide variety of team building activities and professional development programs:
NASA’s HERA study emphasizes the importance of having crew members that possess certain personality traits that do well in extreme, high pressure situations. They tested this by studying individuals – aged 25 to 55, who have a science degree and are good candidates to be future astronauts – on 45-day long mock missions.
Another way to make sure that your team is aligned, especially in terms of behavior? Have them take a personality test.
D.I.S.C. is a great behavioral self-assessment tool that can identify an individual's strengths and weaknesses, particularly in a team dynamic. This test, based on research done by Dr. William Moulton Marston, can help highlight personality traits as it relates to D.I.S.C.’s four quadrants:
The test results place the employee somewhere within the quadrants to determine which trait most accurately represents them. As a result, D.I.S.C. assessments can help you see how aligned and compatible your team is, and, in turn, improve their interpersonal relationships.
So, what are some ways that you can implement D.I.S.C. into your team? Whether you're curious to see where your current team lands or you would like to slowly introduce the method into your hiring process, here are a couple of ways you can use D.I.S.C.:
At Outback, we use D.I.S.C. to understand different personality types and how to best to interact and work with them. Once you've received the results of the D.I.S.C. assessment, you can learn how to better work with certain personalities by having your leadership team take specific training programs.
For more support on how to get your team aligned, just get in touch with one of our Employee Engagement Consultants to find a solution that fits the unique needs of your corporate group.