Definition
The ability to withstand changing demands over a long period of time.
Experiential Training & Workshop
Lead & Perform with Limited Resources
An experiential training on sustainable resilience for leaders. On Mars, what stays hidden in everyday work becomes measurable: how quickly your own reserves run down and how a team uses its resources wisely.
6challenges in the Mars mission
1Oxymeter per person, measuring in real time
0breaks scheduled. The need for breaks is reflected on, not prescribed.
3levels: individual, team, organisation
The future of work
Why now?
The world of work is changing radically and ever faster. What we have learned quickly becomes outdated; constant high pressure and uncertainty are the result. You could say: every day, we are colonising a new planet of work.
55 %
of leaders are exhausted
Heike Bruch117 · 153
e-mails and Teams messages per working day
Microsoft Work Trend Index 202547 sec.
attention span on screen
Gloria Mark→ What this means for leadership tasks, taking people development as an example:
“You hold the same feedback conversation calmly at 9 a.m. and irritably at 6 p.m. after six meetings. The task is the same, the price has gone up.”
O₂Bottom line: We need room to breathe!
Sustainable resilience
“Lead & Perform with Limited Resources” only works with sustainable resilience
Important addition
Workload is not the only problem: unnecessary energy drains and a lack of recovery are part of it too.
Our core message
In the long run, don’t grit your teeth: take on tasks according to strength and capacity, step back consciously and plan in recovery.
The guiding question of the programme
What is our Oxymeter display in everyday leadership? On Mars, the Oxymeter makes your reserves visible. In everyday work, nobody sees their colleagues’ reserves, often not even their own. So it is about assessing them correctly and asking about them.
The formula for sustainable resilience
Draft · work in progressSR = E × (L₁ + L₂ + … + L₆) × C
- E
- Own energy reserves: handling your own resources mindfully and smartly (lever 0, individual)
- L₁ … L₆
- The six team levers, from psychological safety to prioritising and pacing
- C
- Corporate culture: what leaders role-model, recognise and measure in their area of influence (level 3)
Why multiply and not add? If one factor is zero, everything is zero: with an empty battery, even the best team levers won’t help. Within the team, on the other hand, the levers add up and can compensate for each other. The duration of the strain is deliberately part of every factor: if recovery is missing for too long, your own reserves fall. If the team does not prioritise and plans no breaks, the team levers fall. And if the organisation is all pressure, with no moments to recharge at a strategic level, the culture falls too.
Mars as a laboratory
Why Mars?
A mission is long, the unexpected happens, and resources are constantly scarce. You only have what you bring with you. Mars is everyday work in its most extreme form.
- “Uber Eats doesn’t deliver to Mars.”
- “Failure is not an option.” But would a mission be a success if all the samples were recovered and one astronaut fell by the wayside?
Measured, not just felt
We simulate the strain with the Oxymeter, a real-time device that measures each person’s oxygen reserves based on their pulse. The tasks confront every team member with unfamiliar mental and physical challenges. All technical devices and all challenges are our own developments.
Mission flow
Experience, reflect, take away
Experience first, then theory. The team levers stay deliberately hidden until after the mission, so that nobody goes into the challenges primed.
- Phase 1
Briefing & Outfitting
Mission story, teams and Mission Controllers, mission log with two observation tasks, putting on the Oxymeter. Phones stay in the envelope.
Plenary - Phase 2
Mission on Mars
Up to six challenges in teams, deliberately without breaks and without an assigned leader. Who takes charge emerges on its own.
In teams - Phase 3
Hot debrief
Straight afterwards, while everything is fresh: one word per person, celebrating team performance, noting what we will do differently next time.
In teams - Phase 4
Cold debrief
Reflecting with some distance: personal Oxymeter report (felt vs. measured), then lever by lever with a bridge to everyday work.
Plenary - Phase 5
Re-entry
Re-entry is considered the most dangerous phase of any mission. Everyone fills in their “My heat shield” page: how do I notice that my reserves are dropping, and what do I do then?
Transfer
Per challenge
Briefing→
Pre-action journaling→
Execution with Oxymeter→
After-action journaling
The mission
Six challenges on the Red Planet
After the crash of the return probe, the rover’s samples lie scattered. The teams must recover them before the weather worsens. Every challenge brings time pressure, scarce resources and the Oxymeter into play.
Challenge 1Landing the Craft
Challenge 2Weathering the Solar Storm
Challenge 3Cracking the Code
Challenge 4Operating the Robot
Challenge 5Crossing the Ravine
Challenge 6Careful with the Sample
Our own technology: Oxymeter, landing simulation, programmable robot with camera, sensor sample. All developed in-house.
Key take-aways
Three levels, six levers
The levels build on each other: if you know your own resources, you can perceive those of your team and shape a culture in your area of responsibility that fosters resilience.
Level 1
Individual
Handling your own resources mindfully and smartly
0
Knowing and protecting your own reserves
Level 2
Team
The team as backup: nobody has to carry everything when strain is visible and tasks can flow.
1
Psychological safety as the foundation for performance
2
Resource-saving conflict management
3
Resource-oriented team management
4
Resource-saving decision making
5
Clear communication and structured problem solving
6
Prioritising and pacing
Level 3
Organisation
My contribution to a culture that fosters resilience in my own area of influence
a
Being a role model
b
Recognising and measuring
c
High pressure vs. high energy
d
Outlook: the teal organisation
Booking options
Three formats, one mission
On one or more days, Mission on Mars combines experience, technology and methodology into a learning journey with a lasting result.
Mission workshop
approx. 4 hours · up to 25 people in 4 teams, one Mission Controller per team
- Briefing with battery check and mission story
- Mars mission with up to 6 challenges
- Hot debrief in teams
- Cold debrief after lunch with personal Oxymeter report
- Re-entry with the “My heat shield” page
After the Mars mission, we explain your own reserves (lever 0) and four team levers: psychological safety, resource-oriented team management, structured problem solving and clear communication, and context-based decision making
Mission package
up to 14 people in 2 teams
Like the ½-day workshop on the left, plus:
- Mars mission with up to 6 challenges
- Compact debriefing: felt vs. measured, team debriefing, bridge to everyday work
- Hand-out with the six team levers
- Mission bag and personal mission report
Three take-aways: My resources are limited. Step back consciously instead of gritting your teeth. The team is my backup. To make sure of this, we explore all 6 levers in depth with a bridge to everyday work.
Complete workshop package
up to 14 people in 2 teams
Like the 1-day workshop, plus:
- 0.5-day intro workshop: why sustainable resilience, the individual level, why Mars
- 1-day Mars mission with up to 8 challenges and additional tasks, incl. debriefing
- 1-day follow-up workshop: all 6 levers with mechanisms to anchor them in everyday work, emergent leadership, feedback, peer consulting, action planning
- Mission bag and personal mission report
- Recap with the team after 6 weeks (remote)
Flow and learnings as in the MISSION PACKAGE; in addition, the 6 levers are tried out in everyday situations: peer consulting, peer coaching, feedback. The mission logbook guides you through all days and forms the basis for action planning and recap.
Every organisation is different. We adapt format, duration and focus to your situation. We will be happy to prepare an offer on request.
Discuss a format
Mission graduates
Who it is for
For leaders and decision-makers from different areas, especially in middle management with team responsibility. Mission on Mars also works as a shared team experience.
Mixed teams have an advantage: old role patterns are missing. This makes visible who positions themselves how, and who takes the lead without being asked.
What participants train
- Recognising their own resilience and that of individual team members
- Staying effective as a team, even under constant strain and changing conditions
- Setting clear priorities and making sound decisions
In your luggage
What stays with you
Mission logObservations, journaling and insights from every challenge
Oxymeter reportYour own curve: felt vs. measured
Heat shield pagePersonal transfer plan for everyday work
Hand-outAll content, with questions as a bridge to everyday work
Clear take-aways for everyday workPersonal tools for long-term resilience, successfully tested in the workshop
References
On a mission with
PlaceholderPhoto or video of the mission to follow
Nestlé
Half-day mission workshop as part of an international leadership programme: 25 leaders in four teams, four Mission Controllers.
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German Red Cross
[add short description: format, target group, number of participants]
Mission Control
Two trainers, one mission
Mission on Mars combines the knowledge and enthusiasm of two experienced trainers: methodically designed trainings with more than 10,000 participants and more than 1,000 successful experiential projects.
Elena Keilmann
Leadership coach and strategy consultant
20 years of strategy consulting and expertise in designing and delivering leadership and organisational trainings
“Psychological safety creates the space. Curiosity opens up new perspectives. Courage turns insights into lasting change.”
- Around 20 years of management consulting experience at McKinsey & Co., PwC and as an independent consultant
- Certified in “Extraordinary Leader”, a strengths-based approach to developing leadership, and in “Coaching for Leadership” (accredited by EMCC and ICF)
- Works with middle management and executives in mid-sized companies and multinational corporations in Europe, the Middle East and India
- Focus areas: problem solving and storytelling, situational leadership, psychological safety
Richard Loch
Creative coach and digital change specialist
30 years of developing new technical solutions and experiences. Business coach and software trainer
“Reward responsibility, build trust and inspire courage. Change is a constant, not a programme.”
- More than 30 years of marketing communications for leading brand manufacturers
- As owner of Scottish Lake Creative Consultants: tailor-made experiences, innovative solutions and international media productions
- Entrepreneur and interim manager who knows the pressure of numbers and change from his own experience
- Consultant, inventor and motivator: he develops the mission’s experiences and devices, drawing on more than 1,100 projects
Contact
See you on Mars!
Book MISSION ON MARS for your leaders or your team through either KEILMANN TRAININGS or SCOTTISH LAKE. Together with you, we will discuss goals, group size and the format that suits you.
Elena Keilmann · KEILMANN TRAININGS
Richard Loch · Scottish Lake e.K.
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