Here’s a neat 5-point recipe for combining the right mix of personalities to create a successful team.

The theory is that psychological team roles are largely a product of people’s personalities, and that you can mix and match depending on what’s most suited to any given team function.

Add the following personalities and stir:

• Results-oriented
• Relationship-focused
• Process and rule followers
• Innovative and disruptive thinkers
• Pragmatic

As Suzanne Bell, who is working on the Mars project for NASA, put it:

“…We assume that astronauts are intelligent, that they’re experts in their technical areas, and that they have at least some teamwork skills. What’s tricky is how well individuals combine.”