It was the most colossal failure in scientific history—a mirror flaw smaller than the width of a human hair made the $1.7 billion telescope essentially useless. The Hubble Space Telescope, intended to repair NASA’s reputation after the Challenger explosion, was instead an international embarrassment. The NASA director responsible for the telescope’s construction, Dr. Charles J. Pellerin, received an even greater shock when the failure review board reported that a leadership shortfall caused the technical error. After living through the painful aftermath of the Hubble mirror flaw and then mounting the mission that successfully repaired the telescope in space, he began a 15 year inquiry into enhancing leadership effectiveness and team performance described in his new book, HOW NASA BUILDS TEAMS: Mission Critical Soft Skills for Scientists, Engineers and Project Teams (Wiley, July 2009).

Pellerin discovered something amazing as he designed the “4-D System.” Technical errors are prevented by managing a team’s social contexts, i.e., their cultural norms and behaviors, which powerfully drive results up or down and have been generally ignored rather than managed—until now! The book is written in a plain style with firsthand “behind the curtain” stories from his work with NASA.

Pellerin examines how to manage the major drivers of social contexts including:

•  Characterizing innate personalities and assessing combined suitability for their required tasks;

• Diagramming team cultures and comparing them to task and customers’ culture;

• Measuring project teams’ mindsets and validating coherence across the stakeholder community;

• Managing attitudes by understanding expression of emotions and thoughts;

• Mastering eight behaviors that powerfully define social contexts; and

• Using the “Context Shifting Worksheet” to create contexts favorable to getting results.
   

HOW NASA BUILDS TEAMS provides quantitative data demonstrating the effectiveness of these processes from nearly 200 NASA teams and 1000 NASA team members. These teams launch the Space Shuttle, send probes to other planets, study the universe, measure Earth’s climate, and prepare to send humans to the Moon and Mars. Commercial teams in aerospace, accounting, and financial management industries have also used these processes to enhance success.

HOW NASA BUILDS TEAMS provides quick, on-line behavioral assessments to monitor your teams’ progress at www.4-DSystems.com. This requires only a fraction of the time and resources of traditional teambuilding methods.

“Charlie Pellerin is a NASA legend. As Director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division, he initiated one of the agency’s most complex missions, the repair of the faulty optics with which the Hubble Space Telescope had been launched into space. The book is full of practical advice based on this and a wealth of other examples. Anyone setting out on a project requiring the teamwork of a talented group of professionals will find Pellerin’s eloquent book an indispensible guide.”
- Martin Harwit, former director, National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC

 "Dr. Pellerin knows how NASA works, from long experience with the organization. What he has learned about how NASA puts together teams to attain out-of-this-world goals can help you and your organization achieve your own goals. This is a book well worth studying."
—Dr. Michael D. Griffin, Head of NASA, 2005-2009

"As a NASA program manager, I saw our teams make quantum leaps in improvement using Pellerin's 4-D system. Later, as a senior NASA leader, I witnessed an organization-wide transformation as the 4-D team-building system took root in our culture. I can endorse this book in the strongest possible terms, but what matters more is the experience of thousands of engineers and scientists whose careers and lives have been positively affected by 4-D."
—Rex D. Geveden, former chief engineer, NASA

"This book is an extraordinary guide to building effective teams to solve technical problems. The insights, based on years of experience in building teams for NASA, reveal a deep understanding of how technical people interact and can be motivated to work more effectively. Any organization where success requires a motivated technical staff will benefit from this book."
—Dr. Len Fisk, Head of Space Science, NASA, 1985-1992

"Great projects demand great leadership. The 4-D process in this book has tools, attitudes, and habits that will help make you a great project leader. It's really for any group that is tackling a challenging project, not just for NASA or space projects. I strongly endorse this volume. I believe the reader will find it entertaining as well as a wonderful approach to forging a more successful management team. When I developed and ran GPS, I wish it had been available to me."
—Brad Parkinson, chief architect of the Global Positioning System (GPS); Professor Emeritus, Astronautics, Stanford University

"By teaching us how to understand our customer's mind-set and then to authentically shape our team's offering in response, Pellerin helped us win three major competitive proposals worth $9 billion. His 4-D approach helps team members achieve superior results-and in the process, live richer and more compassionate lives."
—Greg Davidson, Northrop Grumman Space Technology

"This book has become an integral part of my life. It provides a framework for improving not only your professional life but your personal life as well."
—John Morton, Vice President, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation



Charles J. Pellerin was NASA’s Director of Astrophysics where he oversaw $750 million in contracts per year, launched a dozen satellites, and formed the team that successfully repaired the Hubble Space Telescope. He is the recipient of two NASA “Outstanding Leadership Medals,” NASA’s highest honor, the “Distinguished Service Medal,” and the American Astronautical Society’s’ highest honor, the “Space Flight Award.” He also served as a professor at the University of Colorado, where he taught the highly-popular course Twenty-first Century Leadership to undergraduates, MBAs and executives. Pellerin is the founder and president of 4-D Systems, based in Boulder, Colorado.