Harnessing the power of real team building 12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Cheryl Hall

The interview pitch was irresistible: Meet the guy who turned the biggest screw-up in the history of science into a team-building system that's second to none. Charlie Pellerin did not disappoint.

The 65-year-old former director of astrophysics for NASA led the team that built the hobbled Hubble Space Telescope and then redeemed himself by leading the mission to fix it.

"I became curious about something we never talked about at NASA: how a leadership failure could have trumped the hard work of literally thousands of the best technical minds in the world," Pellerin said during a recent visit to Dallas.

It set him on a new course of research.

Now the founder of 4-D Systems Inc. in Boulder, Colo., teaches NASA employees and tech types around the globe how to transform underperforming groups into highly productive collaborative teams.

He was here last week to spread the gospel with folks at Texas Instruments Inc. and Raytheon Co. and to give a speech to a local technology group.

Pellerin has found that the softer skills of playing nice in the laboratory are alien to many of the brightest minds in our universe. So he developed a system called 4-D – for what he feels are the four most important dimensions of teamwork.

He presents touchy-feely HR concepts by using scientific analogies and performance graphs so that high-tech minds can grasp them. He has measurement tools so that team members can see results.

He offers a free online 15-minute diagnostic test at www.4-DSystems.com to identify eight troublesome behaviors – such as failure to show appreciation. Follow his Pavlovian modification processes, and he says a lagging group can increase performance 5 percent every six months.

"Appreciation has to be shown habitually, authentically, proportionately, specifically and promptly," he says. "Everyone on the team learns the rationale of why this is important. They learn what good looks like."

Rave reviews

Frankly, his promises sound too easy to be true. But Pellerin has impressive endorsers, including the former head of NASA and the chief architect of the Global Positioning System.

Current space agency officials are prohibited from giving commercial endorsements, but in the last eight years, 700 NASA project management and engineering teams have taken advantage of the agency's training contract with Pellerin.

"Charlie's teachings are universal," says Martin Harwit, former director of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. "People are not the product of cookie cutters. Charlie teaches us not only to recognize and respect inherent differences but to build on them to form stronger teams able to tackle the most demanding problems."

You can read Pellerin's $40 book, How NASA Builds Teams, or hire one of his NASA-certified coaches to fine-tune your approach. An initial assessment and several coaching sessions cost about $2,000.

But the laid-back Pellerin swears this isn't about bringing in $5 million in annual revenue but rather about helping America prepare for societal changes that threaten our fundamental lifestyles if we don't become more productive.

"Consider what it would be like for Dallas-Fort Worth if you could increase productivity of all its project teams by 10 percent per year with negligible effort," Pellerin says. "How important would that be in dealing with the coming changes in our society?"

You might think Pellerin, as the son of an Air Force pilot, became an astrophysicist because he liked spaceships. But his career choice was an act of patriotism. Pellerin wanted to use his math and science acumen to thwart Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's Cold War threat of "We will bury you!"

"I'm serious when I say I'm quite the ordinary person," Pellerin says. "But I find ways to connect to purpose. I got that from being at NASA during Apollo. All of us there had a mindset that we never lost: 'We're going to the moon. Get out of the way.' "

Pellerin had visions of the president pinning a medal on him in the White House Rose Garden after the Hubble Space Telescope was finished.

His NASA team had achieved the near impossible with an instrument that could focus on a target the size of a quarter from 200 miles away and maintain contact regardless of movement.

When Hubble launched in 1990, Pellerin wasn't particularly worried about the slightly fuzzy images initially being transmitted, so he went off on vacation to Japan. He thought his boss was playing a stupid joke when he told Pellerin that a flawed mirror – the easiest piece of this monumentally intricate puzzle – had rendered the $1.7 billion telescope useless.

The fiasco was officially blamed on failed leadership, and Pellerin was leader of the team.

NASA bosses ordered him to keep clear of the repair mission, but he was intent on making things right. So he redeployed (i.e., confiscated) $60 million of his division's $750 million budget to start an unauthorized mission.

"What I did at a certain level was illegal," he says. "This was no minor infraction."

All was forgiven as his repair strategy took hold. And when Hubble was ultimately fixed in 1993, Pellerin finally got his medal – NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal.

"It's interesting how you can break something and then get rewarded for fixing it," says Pellerin, who had left NASA a couple of months before to teach leadership at the University of Colorado's business school in Boulder.

In early 2003, Pellerin assembled a team of 15 former NASA project managers to implement a major contract with the space agency. They were gathered at Pellerin's home in Boulder discussing strategy on the morning that space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on live television.

"After a while, I turned off the TV and said, 'We alone may be the most potent people to prevent such accidents in the future. Let's get to work.' "

John Wiley & Sons Inc. published his book on NASA team building in July 2009 and has translated it into five foreign languages.

It's red hot in China.

Measuring change

Dallas executive coach Susan Shapiro became a 4-D disciple and certified NASA coach last year. "I've used 4-D in non-NASA areas, including a bank in town. By testing the team, they become aware of the problems. Then they reinforce each other to change. HR loves this because you can measure the difference."

Bill Townsend deployed Pellerin's system as deputy director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He also implemented it at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, where the process helped boost profit in his division 40 percent.

"In both cases, there were some serious cultural differences amongst the involved organizations," Townsend says. "But Charlie came in and worked his magic, and things improved dramatically."

"You would think that all it takes to build successful project teams is to get a bunch of sharp, well-motivated, self-starting, creative people together," Townsend says.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't happen that way. You need people who can work together without feeling threatened by equally creative people, people who can work together with people who think differently than themselves, and people who can work together without feeling the need to withhold information to maintain a position of power within the team."

That's the power of Pellerin's system, Townsend says.

Lead or Fail - Guest Blog Post by Scott Span, MSOD

Leadership isn’t what it used to be. That is not to say that being a leader was or is ever easy, or that previous fundamentals should be tossed aside. However, in tough times, remaining a great leader can be even harder. So what makes a successful leader in turbulent times? First and foremost, the ability to adapt your leadership style to changing environmental influences is key to being a successful leader.

Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup says that in the new normal, old ways of doing business won't work anymore. “The men and women who will conquer this new world will be the ones who best understand their constituencies' state of mind.” By state of mind, Clifton is referring to new revelations being uncovered by behavioral economists -- starting with the discovery that human decision making is more emotional than rational.  As a leader, Clifton shares a similar mindset to many behavioral scientists and organizational development practitioners.  His view is that one of the most fundamental states of mind that leaders need to understand is the needs and desires of their employees: “…their will to work, their will to live, their will to revolt, their will to follow you. Another element of state of mind is emotional affect: how much stress your constituency feels about money, about trying to get to work, about their relationship with their boss.”

Clifton believes that to be a successful leader you have to firmly understand states of mind. In his view, everything important, everything human comes down to states of mind. The leader who is the best at understanding, relating to and communicating states of mind will be the one who wins.

As an organizational development practitioner and behavioral scientist, I share Clifton’s views; understanding and exhibiting certain human behaviors help to shape great leaders and great organizations.

Some behaviors of great leaders:

• Transparency – People can usually tell when “something is up,” so before the rumors begin flying and productivity is impacted, leadership should inform employees. When making strategic decisions, determining organizational changes or facing issues that impact employees, successful leaders need to be transparent with their workforce about how these matters arose, their thought process for dealing with them, and how their solutions may directly impact those they lead.

• Communication – Being in a leadership position can sometimes be a solitary role. Often leaders make decisions in a vacuum and rely on managers or supervisors to communicate important information downward. Successful leaders lead through two-way communication. Much of it is nonverbal. For instance, when leaders "set the example," that communicates to their people that they would not ask them to perform anything that they would not be willing to do themselves, this only helps to make leaders appear more human to employees. Particularly in turbulent times, people value direct interaction and communication from leaders. This not only helps to show that leaders are remaining committed to the people in organization, but also offers an opportunity for them to step out of the “tower” and build relationships with employees.   

• Trust – Trust is a fundamental behavior for any relationship, both personal and professional. According to a study by the Hay Group, a global management consultancy, there are 75 key components of employee satisfaction (Lamb & McKee, 2009). They found that: Trust and confidence in top leadership was the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in an organization. Trust must be earned. Leaders can earn employee trust by helping employees understand the company's overall business strategy, informing them how they contribute to achieving key business objectives and sharing information with employees on both how the company is doing and how an employee's own division is doing relative to organizational objectives. It is much easier for employees to trust a leader that shows an interest in them.

• Compassion – The basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service to the organization; compassion for employees and both their professional and personal situations.  His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama says, “I call compassion  the global staple…for all people in every endeavor.” In employees' eyes, what leadership does effects the organization's objectives and their well-being. When a person is deciding if they respect a leader, they don’t think about attributes, rather they observe what leaders do. Observations can often tell an employee if a leader is an honorable and trusted person or a self-serving person, one who misuses authority to look good and get promoted. Self-serving leaders are not as effective because their employees only obey them, not follow them. When leaders show compassion and understanding for employees and their situations, it becomes much easier for them to notice that their leaders are in fact interested and concerned, and not as self serving as possibly thought.  

• Self Awareness – Successful leaders have a heightened level of self awareness, they have an understanding of themselves, their behaviors and actions, and how those behaviors and actions are interpreted by, and directly impact, employees. A good example of leadership self awareness is exhibited in the U.S. Army's leadership philosophy, be, know, do. Be proficient and competent, know yourself and your strengths and weaknesses, and do take responsibility and lead by example. Always be open to further growth and learning. Professional coaching  is also a great well to help further develop leader self awareness.

A colleague shared a speech with me given last year by Marillyn Hewson President, Systems Integration-Owego, Lockheed Martin Corporation on leadership in turbulent times. To Marillyn, leadership is a set of personal behaviors that set the course and create an environment that energizes people to achieve a goal. Marillyn says “…it’s easy to be a leader when everything is going great. The challenge is how you act when things go wrong. In times of great change… or tremendous challenge… that’s when the leadership fundamentals matter most.” Most competitive and sustainable organizations have great leaders. Are you one?

Author Bio:

Scott Span, MSOD, is President of Tolero Solutions, an Organizational Development and Change Management consultancy. Tolero Solutions specializes in developing people and organizations to be more responsive, focused and effective to facilitate sustainable growth. Scott successfully delivers organizational improvement solutions to staff teams, individuals and organizations in multiple areas including change management, culture change, leadership development & coaching, engagement, retention, performance and sustainability. He is an author on various topics of organizational development including cross generational communication, generational alignment, and Gen Y in the workplace and the creator of the Gen Y Recruitment and Retention Lifecycle ™. His results have not only helped achieve desired goals, but have also increased personal growth and development, leading to a more efficient and effective work environment.  He may be reached at scott.span@tolerosolutions.com.

This week I was struck by an incredibly gifted writer and survivor of depression.

Julie Hersh spoke at Legacy Books in Plano TX,  and I went on a friend’s suggestion that I hear her after reading the book by the same name. http://www.struckbyliving.org/content/  Julie had so much wisdom to share for everyone,  even if you or your loved ones are not suffering from depression.  Some facts: More people aged 18-35 die from suicide than HIV/Aids, yet we fail to educate our teens about mental health. Her book is powerful and I highly recommend it.  At the book signing, Julie gave great suggestions on building a strong support network and learning what you need as an individual need to be healthy, both physically and mentally. Everyone is different and need to find the best solutions for themselves.

As an executive  coach, I help people get new perspectives on their issues. Many folks get so wrapped up in their work and home issues, that they can’t see any way out. Taking on a new perspective can really help. Julie suggested reaching out and cultivating friends who are 20 years older than yourself. They will bring wisdom and perspective to you which your own group of friends simply cannot. Maybe that is why kids suddenly feel their uncles and aunts are “cool”, and when you reach middle age, you see your parents and their struggles with a new appreciation. Time and space do help.

So, learn about mental health for yourself, and your loved ones sake. Also, gain new perspectives to solve difficult problems.