Conflict and Culture on a Voyage to Mars

A fictional voyage to Mars offers valuable lessons about resolving conflicts across differences.

I recently watched Away, a beautiful miniseries about a near future journey to Mars. It was a suspenseful adventure drama, and, an inspiring model of effective Intercultural collaboration and successful conflict management.

Survival depends on understanding and working together

In this Mars scenario, 5 astronauts: two women, one from U.S. and one from China, and 3 men, from Russia, Ghana/Great Britain, and India respectively, must live and work together in a small spaceship for three years. They are all brilliant and highly accomplished astronauts. They clash over culture, politics, and how to handle emergencies, but come to appreciate each other deeply. They successfully face many dangerous problems that none of them can resolve alone. They would not have survived without working together and contributing their particular skills and experience, both professional and life wisdom.

So what are the key takeaways around conflict and communication?

• We need each other. No one can survive or flourish alone.
• Because of this interdependence, we have to listen and learn to appreciate each others’ strengths, even when we don’t agree.
• Lying and withholding creates mistrust while compassion, honesty, and vulnerability create bonds of trust.
• We are more alike than different. Our human needs, our grief and sorrows, our joy, our curiosity and drive transcend particular cultures, prejudices, nationalism.

Spoiler Alert Don’t read this final paragraph if you don’t want to know the final scene of the miniseries! 

The astronauts do finally make it to Mars. The various governments have agreed the Chinese woman will land first and be photographed alone. But she recognizes, as the Russian astronaut tells her, “There are no borders. There is no Motherland.” So, she makes a different choice.The iconic photo broadcast all over the world is not of one Chinese astronaut with a reflective screen on the front of the helmet, so you can’t even see if it is a man or a woman, but all five of them together, faces visible, smiling exuberantly at their extraordinary shared accomplishment on behalf of the whole world.

Lorraine Segal has helped over 2000 leaders and others in organizations and corporations communicate more clearly, transform conflicts, and let go of resentments. The goal: to create a more harmonious and productive workplace.  Through her business, Conflict Remedy, Lorraine creates customized training and coaching programs for non-profit organizations, corporations, and government agencies and Sonoma State University. She was recently named one of the top 15 coaches in Santa Rosa by Influence Digest. She is a contributing author to the book, Stand Up, Speak Out Against Workplace Bullying. Her latest project, a memoir called: Angels and Earthworms, an unexpected journey to love, joy, and miracles, is about her transformation from miserable self-doubt to self-acceptance, true love, spiritual awareness, and right livelihood. Find out more about the memoir here. Contact Lorraine through ConflictRemedy to request a free consultation for you and your organization or to sign up for her conflict remedy newsletter and blog.