Coordinate and act
CAPCOM — one voice to the crew
One voice talks to the team under pressure
Route all communication to a team under pressure through one person, so they get a clean channel instead of conflicting inputs.
Borrowed from NASA Mission Control, where one person, the capsule communicator, spoke to the astronauts for the whole team. Read the original source.
Changes a rule or role · Minutes to start · Anyone on the team can start it
Try this first
Name one person that all communication to the team goes through.
Use it when
A team under pressure is getting conflicting inputs from many directions.
Skip it when
It suits high-load or critical operations. In everyday work, funneling everything through one person is a bottleneck for nothing.
How to introduce it
When a team is under load or running a critical operation, send everything to them through one designated person. Mission Control ran every message to the astronauts through a single voice to keep the channel clean. It prevents the cross-talk of several people all trying to direct a team at once.
How to show up
Name the single point of contact and hold everyone else to it, including the senior and the impatient. The discipline is stopping the well-meaning extra voices.
How long it takes
No setup beyond naming the role for the operation.
What makes it hard
People want to talk directly, seniors most of all, so holding the channel takes some authority. The designated voice can also overload, so resource the role and share it when the operation runs long.
What it looks like when it's working
The team gets clear consistent direction through one channel. Several people directing at once, with messages conflicting, means the channel is not holding.
How long until it sticks
A couple of operations before the single-channel discipline holds under pressure.
How you know it stuck
The team routes communication to anyone under load through one voice.
The idea behind it
A team under pressure cannot absorb many voices. Conflicting inputs create confusion exactly when clarity matters most.
Where it comes from
NASA Mission Control. A single point of contact into a team under load, to cut cross-talk and confusion. All communication to the astronauts flowed through a single person, to keep the channel clean.