Charlie Pellerin's "How NASA Builds Teams"

I was recently working on a Learning Tool for the Assessment Dashboard that we provide free to 4-D Network Providers. (We have chosen to replace the term “Network Members” with “Network Providers.”) I found a number of technical changes that I then asked Robert to make. While he was implementing the changes, I turned my attention to cleaning up the “help” tabs that appear when you hover over items. I wrote an explanation for the “team roll-up” that claimed its purpose was the production of integrated team assessment reports. When Skip edited my work, he changed every instance of “assessment” to “activity.” I thought he had lost his mind.

It turns out that I had misunderstood the limited utility of this aggravating term from the beginning! It became increasingly clear that we had too much emphasis on developing software (Robert and Brian) and on the database (Skip and Rita). I had permitted this effort to go forward with too little attention to the user experience. During the ensuing conversations with Skip and Robert, I directed a complete redesign of the Assessment Dashboard to make it much more “user friendly.” (See March 9 blog) After verification that we could migrate the current database into a new simpler structure, which eliminated the “team roll-up,” development of the new dashboard would proceed with priority.

We agreed on the following requirements:

1. The new dashboard had to be sufficiently simple and intuitive that it neither required a user manual nor help “pop-ups.”

2. It would eliminate the annoying “Team Roll-up” as its usefulness is near negligible. It would lead users through a systematic procedure that was easy to follow. Users would enter three items sequentially:

a. The client’s name;

b. The organization’s name (see below);

c. The team’s name.

3. The current database would retain client names, and migrate team names into organizations as appropriate.

4. The new software build would proceed in two phases. Phase 1 would build a basic capability, with augmentations in Phase 2.

5. The “User Interface” would contain no icons unless their English language meanings accompanied them.

6. We would replace the two “classes” of dashboards with a single dashboard for all. If coaches or CPMs want to share use of a dashboard, they can provide their id and password to others.

7. For multiple users in a given organization, we supply multiple dashboards. Thus, each can assure clients that they protect their sensitive assessment data from the eyes of others.

8. Notwithstanding the need for coaches and CPMs to segregate and guard client data, we see a need for an integrating financial system. Coaches and CPMs that work within a company, or in relationship with an overarching partner, need to manage and report activity that causes 4-D billings. We are building an integrated financial system that tracks and displays all delivered assessment reports, all 4-D invoices, and all payments received by 4-D. This will have a separate ID and password for access to this dashboard. Thus, a central management agency can see all financial transactions for people working under their auspices. (If you are negotiating contracts with others, you might want to include access to their assessment financial data in the agreement.)

I believe that this is a major step forward in making 4-D assessment management easier for all or you. We expect to have the new system operational within few weeks. Please let us know how it works for you.

Warmest regards,

Charlie Pellerin, author of How NASA Builds Teams (Wiley, 2009)

Posted in 4-D Systems, Hubble Space Telescope, Leadership | Tagged 4-dsystems, Charlie Pellerin, context, How NASA Builds Teams, Managing Social Risk, NASAteambuildilng.com, Risk Mitigation, Teambuilding | Leave a comment

4-D Network Provider Submissions

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Charlie Pellerin

Good morning Charlie,

I wanted to share my excitement with you. My husband, Joe, is a manager at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. Rocketdyne make the Space Shuttle Main Engine and other rocket engines and the company is going through tough times and low morale due to the uncertainty of the space program and the ending of the shuttle program. Therefore, Joe knew that he had to help the company and employees.

After hearing so much about 4D, he started reading your book, which is always by my nightstand, and went on-line to learn more about it. He decided that 4-D was the right tool for them, but now had to convince his upper managers of that….Well last week, he did, and his team is starting their TDA on-line! He also bought some of the books to share with the team….

Thought I would share with you the good news!

Hope you are doing well Charlie, and until we meet again, may you and your wife always be safe!

Happy travels to you,

Thuy

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Sales in Taiwan-based China Times Publishing Company passed through 3,500 books! www.readingtimes.com.tw. Anne reported that the Chinese title translates as follows:

NASA employing surgery (DH0198): Build your dream team

Management and leadership, Charles ‧ Pellerin / a, China Times, Publication Date: 2010/04/26

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My name is Cynthia DeVita-Cochrane and I am a PhD candidate in organizational psychology. I serve as the director of organizational consulting for The Westwind Group, Inc., which specializes in providing a wide range of solutions to the nuclear energy industry. I have 17 years of experience in organizational consulting. I read Charlie Pellerin’s book just after it came out and have found a myriad of uses for the principles within my own company and during engagements with our clients. I would like to have a more formal relationship with your organization in order to be able to offer the 4-D Systems assessments and training to our clientele. I believe it is the most applicable and accessible means of team improvement available today. I already have a username and password for 4-D Systems. My additional contact information is below. I look forward to hearing from you!

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I was at Charlie’s presentation at RMOSA last week at CU. I did a write up on my blog. I thought you would be interested in seeing it. I expect several hundred hits over the four days that this will be the lead item on my blog, which is addressed to the photonics industry.

Sincerely,

Jay Liebowitz

Hi Charlie,

My write up of your talk was the lead item on my blog from Thursday evening till this afternoon. I had almost 900 hits during that time. I have had other items that have been in the 700 and 800 range, but this is the highest I have had so far. Granted, my traffic has been growing, but, to date, this is my largest.

I hope you saw some traffic from this as well.

Sincerely,

Jay

http://www.gan-or.com/1/post/2011/02/lessons-from-charlie-the-man-who-launched-and-fixed-hubble-telescope.html

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Hello European trainers and senior Erickson Coaches,

Thank you for doing the Individual Development Assessments for Erickson and NASA 4 D systems. Thanks to Charlie Pellerin’s team for organizing a special case scenario for you to get this done more quickly than usual. Many will be able to get it done and that will upgrade the meeting and the understanding of the processes.

Who is attending so far?

We are receiving 4 Erickson trainers from Turkey, including Zerrin Baser, Janet Soyak, and two others .

Silvia Viola from Portugual,

Halka Balakova, from Czech Republic

Krisztina Wighardt from France

Peter Stefanyi, from Slovakia

Tanja Oleschewski, from Germany

Marcel Hubenthal, from Berlin

Magda Geic from Poland

Jan Georg Kristiensen from Norway

Anna Lebedeva from Russia

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Hi, my name is Paula Weir and I’m an independent consultant facilitator based in Dublin, Ireland.

Researching a programme for a client recently, I had the good fortune to read Charles Pellerin’s book How NASA Builds Teams. And I love the system. Now I’m exploring whether I should jump right in there and start introducing clients to the 4-D system.

Can you tell me how many people you have registered with you from Ireland and/or the UK?

Many thanks

Paula Weir

Executive Coaching, Facilitation and Learning, Leadership Development

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Hello Charlie, Skip and Anne,

Glad to inform you that Stanley Black & Decker is now a 4-D client. Their marketing team for Australia & NZ would take the 4-D assessments through Kernox, and handle the workshop in-house. TDA should happen in the first week of April. Currently the team comprises 12 members including the leader. Two or three more team members are expected to join in the next few weeks.

Sandeep Nambiar, who manages HR for Australia & NZ regions, would lead the workshop. I have requested him to buy HNBT. I would support him remotely from here to prepare and deliver the workshop. This arrangement is made since they have a tight budget.

I plan to meet a number of prospective clients in Delhi and satellite cities (Gurgaon, Noida) in the next week. I would be there from March 7th to 14th. I’d also meet HNBT publisher and distributors in India (Wiley India and Times Book Group.)

Thank you all for your patient support and valuable help. I really appreciate every bit of it.

Warm regards,

JJ (India)

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Hi Charlie, Hi Skip,

Got your letter at the end of our 3-day 4D meeting, which was a roaring success. You now have many more very skilled coaching partners, who have been practicing the IDAs, the TDAs and the other tools of the 4D system. You will meet and hear from them and we will send you specifics shortly as we put together a working plan.

Thank you for the first whack at getting this all aligned. I will send it out to our team and we will sort out our next steps.

Step by step…

Thank you so much for what you have created!

Warm regards,

Marilyn

Marilyn W. Atkinson PhD,

President, Erickson Coaching International,

Expert Performance Coaching,

Charlie Pellerin, How NASA Builds Teams

Posted in 4-D Systems, Leadership, Risk Management | Tagged 4-dsystems, Charlie Pellerin, How NASA Builds Teams, Managing Social Risk, NASAteambuildilng.com | Leave a comment

4-D Network Provider Communication – Assessment Dashboard Simplification

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Charlie Pellerin

I wrote in a recent blog about how societies (and organizations) tend to increase complexity when they have excess energy. Our small company, “4-D Systems,” is unfortunately no exception. I watch vigilantly for complexity-creep and remove this cancer as I find it. I now admit that an important complexity increase in our Assessment Dashboard slipped past me completely.

We provide Assessment Dashboards to 4-D Network Providers so they can manage their Team and Individual Development Assessments. The dashboards use a hierarchy to organize team assessments. Here is an overview of the initial setup.

- Your first entry is your “Client” – the entity that you ultimately bill for your services.

- Your next is a client’s “Organization” – there are several choices available to you.

o If you are assessing a project, enter the project name.

o If you are assessing a line (e.g. “functional”) organization, you can enter either the name of the team you are working with, e.g. the Software Development Branch, or the higher-level organization, e.g. the Engineering Division.

o Suppose you put the branch name in the example above as both the organization and team and changed your mind later. This is not a problem. You can edit the organization name and insert additional teams as you choose.

Now, I return to the topic that introduced this blog. The complexity that I belatedly discovered we then removed was the “Team Roll-up.” This device made the Dashboard complex and vexing, both for software coders and users. For years, I believed the intended purpose was rapid generation of summary assessment reports for team leaders. I recently learned that its only purpose was the preparation of participant summaries that our Client Program Managers (CPMs) rarely, if ever, used. It will vanish from our Assessment Dashboards within a few weeks. With this removed, everything is easier.

- Now, the third step to set up your dashboard is simply entering the names of the teams you want to asses, then managing the assessment process.

o If you are assessing a project with a single team enter the same name for the team that you entered above for “organization.”

o If you are assessing a project with a multiple teams enter each of the team’s names.

o If you are assessing an organization, set it up similarly.

o What do you do if your client’s situation changes? Constant reorganizations are common. This is no problem as everything is movable and editable.

If you are interested in becoming a 4-D Network Provider and having your own (free) Assessment Dashboard, go to NASAteambuilding.com and join us.

Warmest regards,

Charlie Pellerin, author of How NASA Builds Teams (Wiley, 2009)

Posted in 4-D Systems, Leadership, Project Management | Tagged 4-dsystems, Charlie Pellerin, How NASA Builds Teams | Leave a comment

Is NASA Team Benchmarking Valid for Commercial Teams?

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Charlie Pellerin

This is an important inquiry. Our 15-minute, on-line, Team Development Assessments (TDAs) benchmark team’s performance against a database of 300 (mostly) NASA first team assessments.

First, why do we only use 300 teams when we have more than twice that many in our database? We stopped updating the benchmarking database when we discovered that we were increasing the performance of teams we had not previously worked with. We have quantitative evidence of something every leader talks about but seldom achieves – systemic culture change. See How NASA Builds Teams (Wiley, 2009) page 49.

When recent commercial teams benchmarked in the bottom quintile, their first reaction was to rationalize the result with the Red Story-line, “NASA teams are better.” I had personally managed Team Developed Assessments (TDAs) for the last 15 years and did not believe that this was the case. When I heard this again a few weeks ago, we decided to perform an analysis.

4-D Systems analysts Skip Borst and Rita Goodson used the following processes. They began by organizing the 126 commercial team first assessments into a histogram. These teams came from many industries, including a bakery, a French nuclear plant and a financial services firm. Skip and Rita then calculated the location (in percent) of the four boundaries between the five quintiles. This methodology wrings the maximum amount of information from the data.

Next, they compared the location of these four boundaries with those in the 300 NASA team benchmark. The boundaries all aligned within one percent! The 300 team database is a good and fair benchmark for commercial teams.

Warm regards,

Charlie Pellerin

Posted in 4-D Systems, Business success, Leadership, Profitability, Risk Management | Tagged 4-dsystems, Charlie Pellerin, How NASA Builds Teams, Managing Social Risk, Team Benchmarking, team development, Teambuilding | Leave a comment

Societal Complexity and Collapse

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Charlie Pellerin

I only occasionally encounter a very new way of looking at something that interests me. As any who read my blog regularly know, I am interested in macroeconomics. I study this as an investor, and to learn what I can l about the future of our society. More specifically, I am trying to motivate you to take some simple steps to help you and your families manage the inevitable transition as the end of cheap oil arrives.

I consider this work as an extension of the humanism in my book How NASA Builds Teams and my work with technical teams.

If you have never thought about the human labor equivalent of gasoline, imagine this thought experiment from Chris Martenson. Put a gallon of gasoline in your car and driving it until it stops. Then, hire someone for $12 per hour to restore it to the starting point. If we assume they can push the car at one mile-per-hour, you would pay them $3600 for a gallon of gas that you bought for say, $3.60!

Now, perform the calculation for a full tank of gas say, 30 gallons. You have the human labor equivalent of twice the US median family income in your car!

Many people confuse the end of oil with the end of oil we can afford to burn. 100 years ago, we required the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil to acquire 100 barrels. Recently, depending on the source we need 20 barrels of oil to acquire 100 barrels. Oil is becoming ever scarcer and the quality is steadily diminishing. One day, we will need one barrel to acquire one barrel and we will stop using oil. If you do not believe that peak cheap oil is here, I recommend that you listen to the Financial Sense podcasts. Moreover, Erik Townsend had an excellent video. Nothing I have said so far is news to readers of my blog.

The new finding is the role of excess energy in enhancing the complexity of societies. Repeatedly, societies gradually use up the energy and “collapse.” The term “collapse” in this context does not mean what you might think. “Collapse” means rapid simplification. Rapid simplification will result in a dramatic reduction in our standard of living. Note that the U.S., as the greatest per capita user of cheap oil, will inevitably experience a more significant lowering of standard of living. Moreover, the current huge overlay of debt limits our capital to take mitigating steps.

My first exposure to this idea was in a podcast with an Italian systems management expert, Ugo Bardi in a February 18, Financial Sense podcast.

The podcast mentioned Dr. Joseph Tainter. I Googled his name and found a YouTube video by Dr. Tainter. I recommend that you watch it! He explains this phenomenon more eloquently than I can.

Reflect on our society’s response to 9/11. How much more complex has boarding an aircraft become? How much more complex has the screening equipment become? How many new Federal agencies and employees are we now sustaining? What are the costs of all these new complexities and how will we pay them?

With great regard,

Charlie Pellerin

Posted in 4-D Systems, Macro-economics, Risk Management, US Economy, World Economy, You Tube | Tagged 4-dsystems, Charlie Pellerin, context, How NASA Builds Teams, Managing Social Risk, Risk Mitigation, Teambuilding | Leave a comment

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