EVENT: How Did NASA's $1.7 Billion Screw Up Deliver their Most Effective Team Building Results?

Dr. Charlie Pellerin, NASA’s Director for Astrophysics led the team that built the Hubble Space Telescope.   Learn how your leadership abilities can be improved as a technical manager, engineering manager, PM or Program manager. EVENT:  Management Luncheon September 10, 2010 11:00 AM to 1:15 PM Location: Hyatt Regency North Dallas - Richardson 701 E. Campbell Road Richardson TX 75081 Price: Member Non-Member   $35.00 $40.00   Online registration open until 9/9/2010, please CLICK HERE. Listen in to Federal News Radio 1500 AM's Interview with Dr. Charlie Pellerin: Building Teams with NASA: It's Not Rocket Science
About the Program: Dr. Charlie Pellerin, NASA's Director for Astrophysics led the team that built the Hubble Space Telescope. Shortly after its 1990 launch, NASA's crown jewel, intended to mend NASA's tarnished image from the Challenger explosion, was a $1.7 billion piece of orbiting junk. Just when it seemed things could not get worse, the Hubble Failure Review Board reported that a "leadership failure" was the root cause of the flawed mirror. After mounting the successful space repair of the telescope, Charlie received a second Outstanding Leadership Medal (1 of only 50 individuals to ever receive such recognition, including astronauts). Charlie then began 15 years of research and experimentation with leadership and teamwork developmental processes. The result was the development of the "4-D System" http://www.4-dsystems.com/Default.aspx to improve team performance and leadership effectiveness. Over the past eight years, over 700 NASA project, management, and engineering teams have voluntarily used this system. Space projects have reliable processes for managing technical and programmatic risk Unfortunately, until recently at NASA, projects ignored the more dangerous form of risk, the risk of flawed "team social contexts." Charlie will share stories, ideas and examples on how you can enhance team performance and leadership effectiveness based on his experiences and research. Charlie believes that his life accomplishments are not due to any special abilities. Rather, he lives a life connected to purpose and now is 100% committed to improving people's lives at work and at home. As an additional bonus, each attendee will receive a free copy of his ($39.95) book, How NASA Builds Teams (Wiley, 2009) now published in 6 languages. About the Speaker Charlie received Goddard Space Flight Center’s highest patent related award for inventing a “Two-axis Fluxgate Magnetometer. The design, published in IEEE Transactions, then flew on missions to the planets. He earned a PhD in Astrophysics publishing in Solar Physics and the Astrophysical Journal. Catholic University awarded him their Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement in Science.   After the Harvard Business School’s “Program for Management Development,” NASA appointed Charlie Director, Astrophysics. He led this program for a decade launching 12 satellites. Charlie invented the Great Observatories Program garnering over $8B for space astrophysics. NASA awarded him an Outstanding Leadership Medal and the American Astronautical Society gave him their highest award, the Space Flight Award.   In 1990, Charlie launched the Hubble Space Telescope with a flawed mirror. He then mounted the space repair mission that fixed the telescope. Hubble is now in its 20th year of operations. NASA awarded him a second Outstanding Leadership Medal, an honor bestowed on less than 50 people (including astronauts) in NASA’s History.   Charlie then developed NASA’s post-cold-war strategy, and NASA awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, given “when the contribution is so extraordinary that other forms of recognition would be inadequate.”   In 1993, he joined the University of Colorado’s (CU) Business School as a professor of Leadership. He taught leadership to undergraduates, MBAs, and executives.  His classes had the highest ratings in the college, consistently “A+.”   Charlie then founded “4-D Systems” with sales of about $5 Million / year. His coaches won the International Coach Federation’s 2007 Prism Award for “enhanced excellence and business achievement . . .  with documented return on investment.”   How NASA Builds Teams is in English, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, and Bulgarian.