Space Ambitions. We Are Capable of More!

How do you weigh a person where there is no weight? This seemingly simple question became a real challenge for space medicine. Or another riddle: before the return to Earth, doctors need a forecast—will the leg veins, weakened by months of weightlessness, be able to pump blood under Earth’s gravity, or will the cosmonaut lose consciousness trying to stand up?

Behind every breakthrough solution in space exploration stand people who dared to think outside the box. They created “artificial gravity”—they found ways to emulate Earth conditions where the laws of physics seem to make it impossible. And they did not wait for humanity to learn to control gravitational fields.

Working with these technologies, I often wonder: what allows some people to see solutions where others notice only obstacles? Why do some operate within established boundaries while others push the limits of the possible? In the language of space, each of us lives within the boundaries of our own reality—our own Universe. The edge of the Universe cannot be crossed, but the Universe itself is expanding, and its edge keeps moving further away. In the same way, we are able to expand our own Universe ourselves—as far as we want. I invite you to explore the nature of breakthrough achievements and to understand how each of us can expand our own Universe.

The lecture is built as storytelling: from a problem, through a story from my own practice or that of my colleagues, to analysis and a conclusion. A presentation with photos and video, dialogue with the audience, and at the end I answer questions.

The lecture “Space Ambitions. We Are Capable of More!” will be of interest to:

1. heads of companies and business units who set ambitious goals;
2. senior executives interested in developing innovative thinking in their teams;
3. HR directors and heads of training centers;
4. entrepreneurs and project managers ready for breakthrough decisions;
5. anyone seeking to expand the limits of their own capabilities.

1. A goal beyond the assignment is one a person can set only for themselves. That is why it cannot be demanded of a team—a team can only be led to it: by giving it an idea that each member will take as their own.
2. When each member of the team has taken the shared purpose as their own, the team goes all the way to the goal: people do far more than their job descriptions require.
3. Change arrives before clarity, and today everyone has to decide without the full picture. When data is lacking, what you can rely on is an understanding of how things work: the laws of the process, the purpose of the task, the state of the people.
4. The solution is often found beyond the familiar: outside stereotypes; in the experience of other industries; in an unconventional move where the direct route does not work.
5. A leader’s mood and behavior are transmitted to the team whether the leader wants it or not: they either hold people back or let them open up. That is why the emotional climate of a team has to be managed actively—not only through one’s own mood but through actions that sustain the right spirit. It begins with the ability to manage oneself.

EXAMPLES OF PUSHING PAST THE LIMITS OF THE POSSIBLE:

1. how breakthrough solutions are born in the space industry (“artificial gravity” on the ISS; the Apollo onboard computer);
2. what stops people short of a breakthrough: fear of mistakes, uncertainty, lack of motivation and of faith in the result (a piece of advice from Count Alexei Ignatiev’s book Fifty Years in the Ranks—about the moment when all seems lost);
3. what drives people forward: freedom from stereotypes and an honest answer to the question of whether you want to change anything.

THE FIRST CONDITION OF AN EXTRAORDINARY RESULT—GIVE THE TEAM AN IDEA THAT EACH MEMBER WILL TAKE AS THEIR OWN. Illustrated by examples from the memoirs of launch-complex designer Vladimir Barmin to the third flight (mine—Soyuz MS-20, the first Soyuz flight to the ISS with two space tourists on board):

1. why people work “the way no amount of money could make them work” (Barmin’s words about a great idea; a colleague in Houston—“what else is there to do?”; a cleaner at Korolev’s design bureau—“we build rockets”; people singing at Baikonur);
2. three questions to ask yourself that together make up a focus on results: do I know the goal of the larger team or system I belong to; does that goal resonate with me; am I ready to take responsibility and move the team toward the goal, even by a single step.

THE SECOND CONDITION—DECIDE WITHOUT WAITING FOR FULL CLARITY. Clarity used to be something you could wait for: an instruction, a rule, the experience of predecessors held good for decades, and the ability to make decisions under pressure and without the full picture was required of only a few professions—an intelligence officer, a politician, a commander in battle. Today change arrives before clarity and affects an ever larger part of society, so this ability is becoming necessary for everyone:

1. how change is accelerating (14 billion years since the beginning of the Universe, three technological leaps in the last 250 years, and a fourth one—now);
2. a decision when there is no data, but the state of the spacecraft can be worked out from indirect signs (the descent on my first flight: the displays went blank, and the reference point was the horizon line in the window);
3. a decision when nobody knows the answer and the unknown is accepted as a working assumption (Korolev’s note “The Moon is solid,” written when there was no data on the lunar soil);
4. a decision when there is no way to find out what is happening, and your partner’s condition becomes the reference point (my third spacewalk: “hold my legs”);
5. what the three decisions have in common: each rested on an understanding of the essence—the dynamics of the descent; the most probable structure of celestial bodies and the designers’ task; the partner’s condition.

THE THIRD CONDITION—LOOK FOR SOLUTIONS BEYOND THE FAMILIAR:

1. everyone has their own boundary of the real: the same decision to become a cosmonaut is a plan for one person and a joke for another (a schoolteacher and a plan drawn up in ten seconds; the flying club at 14—“come back when you’re 15”; the medical board at the regional draft office—“120 over 80” written in my own hand; the company sergeant major—“when you fly to Mars, bring back some apples”);
2. looking at other industries and at other people’s experience (training in the caves of Sardinia—devised by the Europeans, it seemed absurd at first);
3. an unconventional move where the direct route does not work (an air leak on the ISS was found by watching tea leaves drift; a request to the head of Roscosmos, presented as a birthday gift for the commander—and a flight on the fast rendezvous profile).

THE FOURTH CONDITION—MANAGE THE EMOTIONAL CLIMATE IN THE TEAM. A shared idea is not enough: people need to feel that in their team they are respected and that others are ready to come to their aid:

1. we convey more without words than with them, and the leader’s mood becomes the team’s mood, so managing the climate begins with your own state (the cave training and a change of roles: “Commander, keep smiling”);
2. how films shared in turn bring people from different countries together—and how easy it is to hurt someone without meaning to (movie night at the end of the working week on the ISS: The Hitman’s Bodyguard, the Russian film Going Vertical and the American film Miracle).

WHERE AN EXTRAORDINARY RESULT BEGINS:

1. it all begins with the right question: “what do I need to do for this?” rather than “do you seriously think you can?” (Oskar Hartmann—a world record after forty; a return to the decision made at 14);
2. will artificial intelligence replace humans: the qualities that futurists name as the condition for staying competitive alongside AI coincide with the qualities of a cosmonaut—teamwork, openness to learning, a creative approach, readiness for stress, critical thinking (the Apollo onboard computer—give AI the same 50 years).

1. learn the four conditions of an extraordinary result, tested in space programs;
2. see, using the example of the third flight (mine—Soyuz MS-20), how a goal beyond the assignment becomes shared by the whole team;
3. get three questions for testing your focus on results;
4. gain a new perspective on your own limits—and on who sets them;
5. hear real stories of overcoming the impossible—from Korolev’s note “The Moon is solid” to a spacewalk.

60–120 minutes, including Q&A.