What’s the critical difference between success and failure in spaceflight projects? In this incredibly demanding and unforgiving business the surprising, counterintuitive reality is that success hinges on how we think about the work—the mindset we bring to our decisions—and the human behaviors that shape how we do the work.
Principles of Success in Spaceflight explores the profound impact of human behavior on spaceflight projects through the lens of NASA’s history. We examine behaviors that invite success or tempt failure, discover the root causes of NASA’s three catastrophic human spaceflight accidents, and learn to pay attention to the stories we tell ourselves about the work, ourselves, and each other.
Proven ingredients of success
We examine more than a dozen success ingredients and behaviors that enabled NASA’s Apollo program to reach the Moon, including:
- Reducing risk at the design stage
- Superb leaders and the culture they create
- A systems approach to managing complexity
- Realistic assessment of risk vs. gain
- What-if thinking
- Learning from mistakes and remembering the lessons
A recipe for failure
We spotlight behaviors that led very smart, well-meaning people down the slippery slope to catastrophic failure, including:
- Hubris
- Groupthink
- False perception of risk
- Negative tribal behaviors (“us-vs.-them” thinking)
- The “reality distortion field” created by cost, schedule, and political pressure
Lessons of tragedy and recovery, too soon forgotten
Detailed case studies reveal the flawed mindsets and other behavioral elements that became the root causes of NASA’s three major human spaceflight accidents: The spacecraft fire that took the lives of the Apollo 1 crew during a practice countdown in 1967, the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger during launch in 1986, and the disintegration of the shuttle Columbia during reentry in 2003.
We see how each of these tragedies opened a window of cold, hard clarity that led to critical changes in mindset and behavior, enabling recovery from disaster. But we also witness how quickly that window of clarity closes, and how shockingly easy it is to lose hard-won lessons and return to old, failure-inviting habits. Only a few years after Challenger, NASA was already forgetting what it had learned from that accident, paving the way for the Columbia tragedy and underscoring the critical need to not just learn from the past, but remember the lessons.
The course includes several opportunities for discussion and a chance to explore how the lessons of the past can be applied to today’s programs.
Learning objectives
- Understand the human behaviors that invite success or failure in spaceflight projects
- Understand the mindsets and behaviors that led to the Apollo 1 fire, the Challenger and Columbia accidents
- Apply the human behavior lessons of NASA’s history to your own work
- Develop an awareness of the behaviors at work in your own organization, with the goal of promoting success behaviors and mitigating failure behaviors
- Recognize the critical importance of helping to create a learning organization that remembers the lessons of past mistakes
Acclaimed by spaceflight professionals
Andrew Chaikin has presented Principles of Success in Spaceflight to approximately 2,000 spaceflight professionals at NASA and the Missile Defense Agency (Department of Defense), with overwhelmingly positive responses.
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COURSE DETAILS
WHO
All spaceflight professionals, at any career stage.
Students are also welcome.
DURATION
8 hours
Can also be presented in two half-day sessions of 4 hours each
COST
$795 per person
Discounts available for multiple course presentations
FORMAT
While in-person sessions are desirable, classes can be conducted virtually, or with a mix of in-person and virtual attendees. To facilitate discussion, class size is limited to 30 people.