appl.nasa.gov

ASK Magazine • Volume Ten

J ANUARY 2003

INTERVIEW

Alex McCool

Academy Sharing Knowledge

The NASA source for project management
On projects requiring that people exhibit 

resourcefulness and innovation,

they need to be given not only the responsibility 

but also authority to spread their wings.

—Allan Frandsen, from his “Learning the ABCs (of Project Management)” (p 12)
appl.nasa.gov

Table of Contents

ASK 10 January 2003

STORIES

6 So This Is Knowledge Sharing

At the heart of the problem was the review itself. We had tried to cram too much 

information into only three days BY SUSAN MOTIL

10 Dressing Down

I was the one taking the notes and so it fell on me to be the one to capture 

everything that was said BY HARVEY SCHABES

15 A Little Goes a Long Way

I made observations as we began to work together; one of them was that no attention had been

given to the control room where we worked BY KIMBERLY R. JENKINS

17 Thanksgiving Hocus Pocus

First order of business: Help the client survive the shock. Nobody on our team said anything

about “we told you so” BY CHRISTIAN ZAZZALI

SPECIAL FEATURE: REFLECTIONS

12 Learning the ABCs (of Project Management)

Of course, a good project manager always knows, at least in general terms,

what is supposed to happen next BY ALLAN FRANDSEN

FEATURES

21 The Project Management Tool Kit

A good sense of humor rarely seems to be one of the deciding factors in choosing someone 

to be a project manager BY W. SCOTT CAMERON

24 I Hate Reviews!

I think there are a host of donut-eaters and coffee-drinkers out there 

that are professional reviewers BY TERRY LITTLE

PRACTICES

30 Pragmatic Leadership Advice from Donald Rumsfeld

Rumsfeld’s management philosophy is unique and direct, and the best part is 

he’s written it down BY DOUGLAS R. TEANY

INTERVIEW

26 ASK Talks with Alex McCool

From Redstone in the ’50s to SkyLab in the ’90s, NASA pioneer 

Alex McCool talks about mentoring, methods, and motivation

IN THIS ISSUE • 3

Who Do You ASK?

BY TODD POST

CONTRIBUTORS • 4

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK • 5

My Son’s Requirements

BY DR. EDWARD HOFFMAN

LOOP • 33

Book Reviews

REVIEW BOARD • 35

LETTER FROM THE 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF • 36

Communicating By 

Walking Around

BY DR. ALEXANDER LAUFER

ON THE COVER The tower of the 

Zero Gravity Facility at Glenn 

Research Center drops 460 feet AL LUKAS
2 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

WELCOME TO THE ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT

Leadership (APPL) and ASK Magazine. APPL is a

research-based organization that serves NASA program

and project managers, as well as project teams, at every

level of development. In 1997, APPL was created from an

earlier program to underscore the importance that

NASA places on project management and project teams

through a wide variety of products and services,

including knowledge sharing, classroom and online

courses, career development guidance, performance

support, university partnerships, and advanced

technology tools.

ASK Magazine grew out of our Knowledge Sharing

Initiative. The stories that appear in ASK are written by

the ‘best of the best’ project managers, primarily from

NASA, but also from other government agencies and

industry. These stories contain genuine nuggets of

knowledge and wisdom that are transferable across

projects. Who better than a project manager to help

another project manager address a critical issue on a

project? Big projects, small projects—they’re all here in ASK.

I hope you enjoy this edition of ASK and will

become a regular reader of what I think is one of our

most exciting publications about project management.

Dr. Edward J. Hoffman

Director, Academy of Program and 

Project Leadership

APPL DIRECTOR AND MANAGING EDITOR 

Dr. Edward Hoffman 

ehoffman@hq.nasa.gov 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Dr. Alexander Laufer 

allaufer@askmagazine.org

www.edutechltd.com/NASA/Laufer/index.htm 

EDITOR

Todd Post

tpost@edutechltd.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Jody Lannen Brady

jbrady@edutechltd.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

W. Scott Cameron 

Terry Little 

KNOWLEDGE SHARING MANAGER 

Denise Lee

dlee@edutechltd.com 

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Michael Derocher

mderocher@edutechltd.com 

DESIGN

Hirshorn Zuckerman Design Group, Inc.

www.hzdg.com 

SENIOR PRINTING SPECIALIST

Dave Dixon

ddixon@hq.nasa.gov 

Please direct all inquiries about ASK Magazine editorial

policy to Todd Post, EduTech Ltd., 8455 Colesville Rd.,

Suite 930, Silver Spring, MD 20910, (301) 585-1030; or

email to tpost@edutechltd.com.

STAFF
GLENN RESEARCH CENTER PROJECT MANAGER SUSAN

Motil’s story, “So This is Knowledge Sharing,” emerged

out of a phone conversation she had with Marty Davis

of Goddard Space Flight Center after reading his story in

ASK 4 about tailoring reviews. Motil, who was working

on a microscope experiment scheduled to fly on the

International Space Station, was preparing for a preliminary design review when she ran into the Davis story.

I met Sue on a visit I made to Glenn. When I heard how

she’d read the story and then called Marty and how he

helped her, I asked her to write about it. Fortune shined

on me that day. She agreed.

When we started publishing ASK two years ago, we

envisioned our readers, largely project managers,

learning things from these stories and giving them a try

on their own projects. Not surprisingly, some of our

enterprising readers have sought out the authors to

pursue a story further. We know this has been

happening, and in this issue we bring you a story by Sue

Motil that describes one such case.

When Sue picked up the phone and called Marty,

she might not have realized that she was tapping

someone with 40+ years of experience at NASA. Marty

is truly one of the NASA “gray beards,” although the

earring he wears he says is no ruse to convince us

otherwise. We were delighted when Marty agreed to tell

his story. That Sue was able to use ASK to learn from

Marty is a great example of knowledge sharing in action,

and it’s an important thing to share with our readers

who’ve wanted to know the impact of ASK. This

knowledge sharing business isn’t just academic. Sue

estimates what she learned from Marty saved her

approximately $500,000 on the project. In future issues,

we plan to publish other stories about knowledge

sharing, and we’d love to hear from you if you’ve learned

something in ASK that you’ve applied on your projects.

Like Marty Davis, Alex McCool, the subject of our

Interview this issue, has over 40 years of experience with

NASA. Let me tell you, few interviews I’ve done for ASK

have been as enjoyable for me as this one with Alex. It

was wonderful sitting in Alex’s office at Marshall Space

Flight Center and listening to stories stretching the

breadth of his career. How often do you get to learn from

someone who has personally worked with Werner von

Braun? Alex’s warmth and generosity are truly as

plentiful as his knowledge. We have only mined a

fraction of it here, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy hearing what

he has to say about leading projects and teams.

There are other fine examples of knowledge sharing

and knowledge shared this issue, but at the risk of doing

anything more than whetting your appetite for what’s

inside, I trust you’ll take my word and plunge in at your

own speed. Enjoy the issue, and keep in touch. •

Who Do You ASK?

When we started publishing ASK two years ago, we 

envisioned our readers, largely project managers, learning things

from these stories and giving them a try on their own projects

IN THIS ISSUE Todd Post

ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 3
CONTRIBUTORS

4 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

W. SCOTT CAMERON is Capital Systems Manager for the Food &

Beverage Global Business Unit of Procter &

Gamble. He has been managing capital projects

and mentoring other capital management practitioners for the past 20 years at Procter & Gamble

within its Beauty Care, Health Care, Food &

Beverage and Fabric & Home Care Businesses.

ALLAN FRANDSEN retired from NASA after a 36-year career,

most of it at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in

Pasadena, California, working on space science

programs. His last assignment was as Science

Payload Manager for the Advanced Composition

Explorer mission. During the 1980s he spent

four years at the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters,

where he managed a number of successful programs.

DR. EDWARD HOFFMAN is Director of the NASA Academy of

Program and Project Leadership. He is responsible for the development of program and

project leaders and teams within NASA. Dr.

Hoffman develops training curricula,

consulting services, research projects and

special studies in program and project management. You can

contact him at ehoffman@hq.nasa.gov.

KIMBERLY R. JENKINS began working for NASA at the

Kennedy Space Center in 1982 as a Summer

Intern. Most of her career with NASA, she has

worked in the Payload Processing organizations at KSC, where she served as an experiment test engineer, integration engineer and

the electrical systems lead for the Utilization Program of the

International Space Station.

DR. ALEXANDER LAUFER is the Editor-in-Chief of ASK

Magazine and a member of the Advisory Board

of the NASA Academy of Program and Project

Leadership. He is also a visiting scholar in the

Civil Engineering Department at the

University of Maryland at College Park and

Dean of Civil and Environmental Engineering at TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology. You may contact him at

allaufer@askmagazine.org.

TERRY LITTLE is currently the Director of the Kinetic Energy

Boost Office of the Missile Defense Agency.

Before that he was the head of the Air Force’s

Center for Acquisition Excellence. He is one

of the Air Force’s most seasoned program

managers. He entered the Air Force in 1967

and served on active duty until 1975. In 1997 he was promoted

to the grade of SES.

SUSAN MOTIL has been at NASA Glenn Research Center for

13 years, with 9 years in Project Management.

Her management experience has primarily

been with flight experiments under the

Microgravity Science Division at Glenn. She is

currently working on the Critical Viscosity

Xenon 2 experiment, scheduled to fly in January 2003, and the

Light Microscopy Module, an International Space Station payload.

TODD POST is editor of ASK Magazine and works for EduTech

Ltd. in Silver Spring, Maryland. He has written

about ASK for KM Review and Knowledge

Management Magazine. Contact Todd at

tpost@edutechltd.com, and tell him what you

think about this issue of ASK.

HARVEY SCHABES is currently assigned to the Systems

Management Office at the Glenn Research

Center. He started his career with NASA in

Icing Research, and since then has served in

numerous organizations in support of the

Space Station Program.

DOUGLAS R. TEANY is an independent consultant working out

of Indianapolis, Indiana. Before launching his

own practice, he served as manager of the

Program Management Office for Abbott

Laboratories’ Pharmaceutical Products

Division. Prior to joining Abbott Laboratories,

Teany worked as a management consultant for Praxis

Management International, a firm specializing in large-scale

program and project management.

CHRISTIAN ZAZZALI is a project manager with HITT

Corporate Interiors, where he has worked

since 1999. He has worked on numerous

renovations and build-out projects for a

variety of corporate, hi-tech and retail clients.

He has received Associated Builders &

Contractor’s “Excellence in Construction” award.
GIVING A TALK IS ALWAYS A CHALLENGE FOR ME.

RECENTLY, I was reminded of this when I needed to

prepare some brief comments in honor of my son

Daniel’s upcoming Bar Mitzvah. My wife, Dianne,

had been active in most of the other aspects of the

preparations, and we agreed that I would tackle the

talk. The time was getting close, and I

was feeling anxious. Despite nearly

twenty years experience speaking in

public, I am still amazed at the amount

of time I spend going over what to say,

even when I know what I want to say.

After a while I decided to rely on my

NASA project experience. That is, I

decided to ask the customer. I asked

Daniel what he wanted from my talk. Specifically, I

asked what his requirements were for a successful

speech. He surprised me by responding without hesitation. “Dad,” he said, “first of all, be brief; second, don’t

humiliate me; and third, don’t make mom cry.”

As I thought about Daniel’s requirements, they

also provided me with some simple yet powerful

messages of learning.

Be brief ~ It is all too easy to get lost in the

message. Project requirement documents mimic the

tendency for overload in their attempt to capture the

details. Why are we doing the project? You need to be

able to briefly and quickly answer this question and

communicate to the larger team. For this project, I

needed to be clear about what I wanted to get across

and avoid the surrounding fluff. I recalled a speech

delivered by Winston Churchill at a university graduation. He said to the graduates, “Never give up, never

give up, never give up.” Then he sat down to

thunderous applause. Churchill could certainly get to

the point of a talk. (For other lessons in leadership, just

read Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address—again, the power

of focused communication.)

Don’t humiliate me ~ This made me think of my

tendency to occasionally use humor to liven up a

presentation. In retrospect, I realized there have been

times where my humor may have been

at the expense of another. In the book

Lives of Moral Leadership by Robert Coles,

a true leader is one who is concerned

about relationships with people from a

stand of integrity and respect for the

person. Okay, I told myself, don’t go for

an easy laugh that makes Daniel want to

jump into a hole.

Don’t make mom cry ~ I have thought much

about this one. I have always valued the importance of

bringing screaming passion to any assignment or task.

In context, there are times where passion and a will to

win can become excessive and blur the basic goals and

outcomes desired. Wanting to demonstrate too much

emotion can make others uncomfortable, like being

around an over exuberant salesperson, or the discomfort that comes from watching an Academy Award

recipient just go on and on. Fairly quickly the message

gets lost and people start searching for an exit. Be clear

about the goal, but don’t get excessive. Trust the

process. I certainly understood where Daniel was

coming from. Too much emotional connection and

Mom will cry.

When I asked Daniel for his criteria for a successful

talk, I was hoping for an idea about the presentation. As

it turned out, I learned several lessons about leadership

and about myself. Asking the customer opened up a path

of possibilities. •

My Son’s Requirements

Despite nearly twenty years experience speaking

in public, I am still amazed at the amount of time

I spend going over what to say

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK Dr. Edward Hoffman

ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 5

Be clear about 

the goal, but don’t 

get excessive.

Trust the process.
S

6 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP
The Concept Review had not gone well, and my entire team was in the dumps.

It took months for them to stop feeling lousy about their work and

themselves. Not exactly a fun place to be in for me, the project manager, as

we headed into the next review.

At the heart of the problem was the review itself. We had tried to cram

too much information into only three days. The review panel was inundated

with so much information that by the end of the process, anyone—no matter

how well they understood the project—would be cross-eyed. Detailed followup questions during the presentation pushed the review into overtime, and

no one ever had the opportunity to talk with the expert engineers about the

particulars of the project.

I told my supervisor that I would like to have some control over how the

next review was done. She was supportive. She saw how poorly the Concept

Review had gone, and the impact it had on the team’s morale. We all wanted

to make our Preliminary Design Review better for everybody, both project

team and reviewers.

ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 7

OPPOSITE The Russian-built

Zarya nears the Space Shuttle

Endeavour during the carefully

choreographed dance before

their rendezvous.

Sothis is knowledge sharing

bySusan Motil
ASKing the right person for help

A couple of weeks later, my supervisor came to me and

said, "Read this article and let me know what you think."

It was a story in ASK Magazine about reviews by Marty

Davis, a project manager at Goddard Space Flight

Center. I read the article and thought I could apply his

concepts to my project, so I gave him a call to get more

information and to discuss my ideas with him.

I got hold of Marty in his office and told him what

had happened with our review. “Well, you don’t want

that,” he said, laughing. I pitched some ideas, and he

listened and told me what he had done to improve the

reviews on his project. He affirmed my own feeling

that the project manager has to be involved in the

selection of the review board. This doesn’t mean that

the panel is going to be less independent, or that

you’re trying to hide a problem. It means that you’re

looking for particular expertise. He encouraged me to

be forceful. "This can best be handled by presenting

the benefits to making this change," Marty told me.

And so that is what I did.

Taking charge

Following Marty’s lead, I asked for input before assembling the new review board. I called around, and I got

wonderful support from management. My supervisor

began looking around for potential reviewers, as did my

program manager.

My program manager identified the person who

ended up being chair of the review board. I called and

spoke with him to find out if he was interested in

working on the board. He had more than 25 years of

experience with hardware similar to my project. He

understood what it took to take a flight project from

concept to design and through development. I told him

how much this would mean to our team to have him as

the chair, and he said he would be delighted.

I went back to my division chief and said, "Here’s

the charge to the review panel. This is what they are

going to review, and here are the reviewers." He looked

at my review plan and was pleased with the results. I

wanted a panel with handpicked expertise and management approval, and that’s what I got.

Taking another page out of Marty Davis’s playbook,

I decided to be flexible and try to think of new ways to

streamline things. I didn’t plan to do things exactly like

Marty had. His project was orders of magnitude larger

than mine. Mine was a microscope, and his an entire

satellite. What I liked about his approach, and what I

thought I could adapt to my own project, was what he

did at the system level. He kept the system level review

focused on the higher order issues. If the review panel

had subsystem questions, sure they could ask them,

but if the questions started to get too detailed, then

Marty stepped in and said, "Let’s have a one-on-one

about this tomorrow." 

I tailored my review similarly in that I had two sets

of reviews, one for each subsystem, and then one for

the system. It was amazing how well it worked. At the

subsystem level, I blocked out two weeks of time and

tried to keep it as informal as possible. It was formal

from the standpoint that there was an attendance

sheet, a written report, and a presentation at the system

level, but it was informal once the reviewers got into

the room. They would come in and sit around a table

and have a dialogue with the engineers. The engineers

could show the reviewers hardware, show them test

data, and the reviewers could ask anything they

wanted. At the system level, the reviewers stayed

focused during the presentation, and had the

subsystem review reports as additional data. The

second day was reserved for reviewers to discuss

detailed questions with the technical experts.

Reviewing the reviews 

I firmly believe that a review should be beneficial for

both the panel and, more importantly, the project. A

crucially important aspect of the project life cycle is the

independent evaluation of a project’s readiness to

proceed to the next phase. Reviews should be looked

upon as an opportunity, not a dreadful experience.

Having the right reviewers on the panel is

important, but I can’t emphasize enough the importance of one-on-one communication. It was Marty’s

experience that Requests for Action (RFAs) are often

written because of a basic misunderstanding on the

part of the reviewer. One-on-one communication can

reduce that risk. If we can get reviewers to understand

our position and if they still disagree with our

8 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

I firmly believe that a review should 

be beneficial for both the panel and,

“

more importantly, the project. ”
approach, then fine, write the RFA, but first let both

parties come to an understanding of the issues.

Additionally, if there is an issue, reviewers’ recommendations can be discussed and understood by the project

team at the time of the review.

Addressing an inappropriate RFA is a waste of

my time, a waste of the engineer’s time, and a waste

of the reviewer’s time. The review board did write

RFAs, but many others were not written because of

the one-on-one sessions with the technical people on

the project. With every comment that the review

panel made, they gave us valuable suggestions. The

whole board, by the way, recommended that we go

forward with the design.

We spent a significant amount of time and effort

dealing with the RFAs from the first review. The second

review, by comparison, was much more streamlined

and effective.

I estimate that the first review cost the project

$700,000. The second review about $200,000. Reviews

are expensive and time consuming—but they should

also be beneficial. If you can refine the process and tailor

it to best serve your system, your project will reap

benefits. Saving half a million dollars, after all, is hardly

something to shrug off. •

LESSONS

• People within large organizations have probably

already dealt with problems similar to the problems that

you face; you can save time and money by taking

advantage of that experience and knowledge.

• Knowledge sharing by mentors can empower less

experienced managers who would otherwise not

challenge the status quo.

• Reviews should encourage joint problem solving

rather than just reporting. To accomplish this, ensure

that the review process is viewed as feedback from

independent and supportive experts.

QUESTION

The review process has two objectives: control for external

stakeholders and internal sponsors; and learning by

providing real-time feedback to the team. How can you share

this learning with the rest of your organization and not

intrude on the intimacy that exists between the reviewers and

the project team?

ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 9

Saving half a million dollars is “

hardly something to shrug off.”

Astronaut Mae Jemison is shown here in 1992 using a

microscope onboard the Space Station.

Knowledge sharing goes orbital: The U.S.-built Unity module

and the Russian-built Zarya were joined during a December

1998 shuttle mission.
IT WAS EARLY IN MY CAREER AT NASA, and I was a relatively junior

engineer. I hadn’t interfaced much with teams from NASA centers

other than my own, Lewis, or what is now called the Glenn Research

Center. I was part of a team working on the development of the

architectural control documents (ACDs) for Space Station, and we

had to do quite a bit of work with the Marshall Space Flight Center.

There were several contentious issues between the Lewis delegation

and the Marshall delegation on how these documents should be

developed. There was a lot of “do it my way; no, do it my way.”

At one long and intense meeting, we reached some small

agreements that needed to be documented. I was taking the notes

and so it fell on me to capture everything that was said. As the

meeting ground on, some people from Marshall worried that their

points of view wouldn’t be documented accurately. They started to

by Harvey Schabes wonder out loud, “Is Harvey going to get it right?”

10 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP
ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 11

“Trust me, I will get it right,” I said, and so it became

a running joke. Every time the Marshall group worried

out loud about being quoted accurately, I had

to look them in the eye and say, “Trust

me.” Probably the last word anyone said at

that meeting was, “Well, I guess we will

have to trust Harvey then.”

“Don’t worry, he’ll get it right,” the other

people on the Lewis team reassured them.

After the meeting I went back to my office

to try to pull it all together and to honor the

“trust me” promises I had made.

At the next meeting with the same contingent from Marshall, the head of their delegation,

the project manager, started things off by saying,

“In honor of Harvey’s trustworthiness, we want to

present him with this small token of our appreciation.” She stood up and held up an oversized tee

shirt with “Trust Me” printed on the front. I wore

the tee shirt for the rest of the day, which got quite

a laugh, and I would like to think the Marshall-Lewis

relationship took a turn for the better.

I have to give a lot of credit to that project manager

for bringing in the tee shirt. In the heat of difficult and

sometimes painful negotiations, a little bit of comedy can

go a long way towards saying, “let’s see if we can’t

remember that we’re all on this project together.” I think,

as a result, we did trust each other a little more. It also

gave me confidence in my ability to deal with other

organizations, and that was something I certainly needed

as time went on.

A different time, a different style 

A couple of years later, I was again working on Space

Station ACDs. I put together a proposal that some

people liked and some people didn’t. During a series

of meetings, I remember at times feeling as though I

was the only one on my side of the table. There was

one senior manager who felt that I was sticking my

nose in places it didn’t belong. He liked the status quo

and made no secret of his distaste for what I was

trying to do.

Still a relatively junior engineer at the time, I

began to question my own convictions about what I

was proposing. Did I have what it takes to see this

through to the end? This all came to a head one

night when I was checking into a hotel in the

Washington, D.C., area for a meeting at NASA

Headquarters. Lo and behold the senior manager

with whom I had

clashed was checking

into the same hotel at

the same time. I am a

person of relatively

small stature, i.e.

short. This person was easily a foot taller, or at least

he seemed to be a foot taller, and easily a hundred

pounds heavier. He heard my name at the check-in

counter, and he turned to me and, huffing and

puffing, or at least that’s my memory of it, put his

hand on my shoulder and said, “You’re that guy

messing around with the ACDs.”

“Hello,” I said, meekly. “Yes, that’s me.” I think I was

expecting him to put his hand on my head and squash

me down into the floor. We chatted for a half-minute

maybe, and then we each went our separate ways.

A couple of weeks later, we had the meeting where

I was going to roll out my plan to a group of senior

managers. I worried that this guy was going to be sitting

around the table and, since he hadn’t succeeded in

crushing me the last time we met, he was going to lose

no time in getting to it now.

The night before the meeting I recalled the “Trust

Me” tee shirt, and how we were able to defuse tensions

with a little bit of humor. Next morning, just hours

before the meeting, I went out and got a red tee shirt

with bold black letters on the front that said, “Yeah, I’m

the guy messing around with the ACDs.” Before

showing my first slide, I held up this tee shirt in front of

all the senior managers. Everyone laughed and for me it

created a comfort zone to get into my presentation and

speak with confidence.

Whenever I do public speaking, I always aim to

make people smile. I’ve always found it easy to crack

jokes and be funny. I never imagined it would pay off so

importantly in my professional life. •

LESSONS

• Smiles and laughter reduce stress. They also renew

energy and trust in ourselves and others.

• A characteristic of any good project manager is his or

her willingness to challenge the conventional way of

doing things. Use whatever tools you have available,

including a sense of humor.

QUESTION

Do you have examples of how you learned from experience,

especially examples that challenged the status quo?
12 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

Tranquility is probably an

overstatement, but in running

a project, I have always tried

to anticipate problems 

and take appropriate action

to head them off

SPECIAL FEATURE: REFLECTIONS
ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 13

BY ALLAN FRANDSEN

TO LEAD A PROJECT EFFECTIVELY, ONE HAS TO ESTABLISH AND

maintain the flexibility to take appropriate actions when needed.

Overconstrained situations should be avoided. To get on top of

matters and stay there, a manager needs to anticipate what it will

take to successfully complete the job. Physical and financial

resources, personnel, and management structure are all important

considerations. Carving out the necessary turf up front can make a

world of difference to the project’s outcome. After the “what,”

“where,” and “when” of a project are nailed down, the next

question is “how” to do the job.

When I first interviewed for the job of Science Payload Manager

on the Advanced Composition (ACE) Explorer mission, Dr.

Edward Stone (ACE Principal Investigator) asked, “Al, give me an

idea of your management style.”

It was a question I had not considered before. I thought about

it for a few seconds and then answered, “Well, the first descriptive

term that comes to mind is the word ‘tranquility’.”

Learning the ABCs 

(of Project Management)
14 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

That seemed to startle him. So I added, “I guess

what I mean is, that if the situation is tranquil and the

project is running smoothly, then I've anticipated all the

problems and taken necessary actions to head them off.”

He then asked: “Have you ever reached this state?”

“No,” I admitted, “but I strive for it.” That seemed to

satisfy him because I got the job.

Tranquility is probably an overstatement, but in

running a project, I have always tried to anticipate

problems and take appropriate action to head them off.

I once told Dr. Stone that if I had to write down the

ABCs of project management, “A” would signify

Anticipation. But it is not just a planning activity

that needs to take place at the

beginning. It is an ongoing thought

process that reviews plans over

various time intervals. A manager

needs to work all the time to avoid

losing control of events and

operating only in the reactive mode.

Putting out forest fires, being under

the gun or behind the 8-ball—these

are expressions we are all familiar

with. To avoid being in one of these

situations, there needs to be a

frequent assessment of the current

status, and reflective thinking about

what could happen next. Of course

a good project manager already

knows, at least in general terms,

what is supposed to happen next. But all too often it

doesn’t happen that way. So what are the alternatives?

Are there sensible work-arounds? What can I do now to

lay the groundwork or facilitate matters should

something go wrong? These and other questions make

up the ongoing process of anticipation. And because it is

an ongoing process, the “A” in the ABCs of project

management could just as well stand for Anticipate,

Anticipate, Anticipate,....

One of the important activities at the start of any

project is identifying and recruiting the staff necessary to

do the job. One should always try to sign up the best,

mutually compatible talent available. In this process, and

until charisma transplants become available, it helps if

the manager is inherently excited about the project.

Exuding enthusiasm can become contagious, and it goes

a long way toward recruiting the best people. With the

right team in place, the manager’s job is likely to have

fewer day-to-day problems, as well as being less stressful

than it otherwise would have been. Hence, it is well

worth the effort up front to carve out the time, and

generate the enthusiasm, to Build a Good Team, the “B”

in the ABCs of project management.

Once a project is up and running, a manager needs

to establish and monitor channels of information flow.

The manager needs to foster communications between

and among participants. You cetainly don’t want to hear

of a problem being excused by such statements as “I

didn’t know I was supposed to . . .,” or “I didn’t know

that what he was doing was incompatible with . . .,”

etc. And of course there are always peers as well as

upper management who need to be apprised of what is

going on. In the absence of sufficient information, they could well

form a wrong opinion of the

current state of affairs. Or worse

yet, undertake counter-productive

actions based on invalid conclusions. A busy manager doesn’t

need any counter-productive

“help” by well-intended colleagues.

So the best defense is a good

offense. Take the time to communicate upwards, downwards, and

sideways. Communicating is the

“C” in the ABCs of project

management.

Now there is also an “s” at the

end of the ABCs of project

management. Does that have any significance? Well I

would say that despite your best laid plans and

ongoing attention to the job, the situation can turn to

manure in a hurry if a personnel matter arises. So

Sustaining this prized team you have recruited has to

be an important part of a manager’s job as well.

Sustaining the team includes recognizing their accomplishments, and arranging the job so they find it satisfying. Conversely, a heavy handed management style

can be the death knell to a team member’s feeling of

personal responsibility for success. On projects

requiring that people exhibit resourcefulness and

innovation, they need to be given not only the responsibility but also authority to spread their wings.

Constructive criticism may be called for at times. But

that is different from punishment. For research &

development in particular, ongoing attention needs to

be paid to supporting the team. Sustain the Team

concludes the ABCs of project management. •

Of course 

a good 

project 

manager 

already knows,

at least in 

general terms,

what is supposed

to happen next.

A

L
ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 15

A Little Goes a

LONG

by Kimberly R. Jenkins 

WAY

TO ME, LEADING A TEAM MEANT PROVIDING THEM WITH

what they needed. I didn’t want to come into the

group demanding this is what we’re going to do and

this is how we’re going to do it. I wanted them to

know that I was really interested in what they thought

needed to be done.

I was fortunate to have had a lead that used this

approach. She led by serving her team, and I admired

her for that. I remember thinking: This is somebody I

can enjoy working for. As I worked my way up to

being a lead, I recalled the good qualities of the

managers who I respected. I tried to develop my own

style around what I learned from them.

We were a team of five engineers responsible for

the command and data systems used during experiment integration and testing of Spacelab payloads.

For the most part, we performed component level

testing for the experiments, the first phase of testing

for Spacelab Program payloads. In the beginning, the

members of my team didn’t know what to think of

me, but as time went by they realized that I was

sincere. A relationship based on trust developed.

As the new team lead, I came in from

outside the group. Rather than just

assuming that I knew what was

needed, I decided to ask them.

Who should know better, right? 
16 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

I made several observations as we worked together

more, but the most obvious one to me was the simple

fact that no attention had been paid to the control room

where we worked. The systems we used at that time were

large mainframe computers with magnetic tape devices,

which made the control room very noisy and did

nothing for the décor. I’m talking ancient looking.

Picture this: bare walls, drab paint, and not one shuttle

or payload photo in sight.

I know I may be making a big deal out of this, but

when you’re sitting at a console all day supporting a

test, your environment does start to weigh on your

mind. We worked twelve-hour days for weeks at a time.

The only time we took a break was to go to the

bathroom or grab lunch or a snack. Those were long

grueling days for all of us. We were shut away in a

depressing room, and no one had done anything to

improve it.

I’m not sure why things were this way. Perhaps,

the engineers on my team were simply oblivious to

the appearance of their surroundings. They worked

quite well together, and they didn’t have any

problems among themselves. But it became obvious

to me that they were “out of sight, out of mind.” The

group was overshadowed by another group of

engineers who seemed to get more of management’s

attention. I don’t think this was done intentionally; it

just happened.

I also learned of other difficulties they’d had before

I joined them. The previous lead was also a female, and

apparently she felt it necessary to project a tough

exterior. It didn’t sound as though she had ever

expressed her appreciation for the work they had done,

so when I came in I think that they were skeptical. To

their credit, when I brought up the idea of improving the

look of the control room, everyone immediately pitched

in by sharing ideas about what we could do. Before you

knew it, the remodeling had begun.

We had a door installed to separate the mainframe

computers from the consoles. When we sat at the

consoles, the room was now quiet. We had carpet put

down which also helped suppress the noise. It was

much easier for us to communicate with each other

and with the rest of the test team. We had the walls

covered with gray and blue carpet paneling. We had

graphics create commemoratives of each mission, and

we hung them on the walls. The guys teased me

because I posted inspirational sayings around the

room, as well, and I gave them buttons that said,

“You’re the best!” or “You did a great job today!”

I know this may sound corny, but those little things,

done with sincerity, showed them that I cared about

them and wanted to make our environment a better

place for us to work.

We started using the control room as our office and

often brought work there to complete. We supported

several missions at a time so while things were running

smoothly with the systems during one test, we could

review procedures or documents in preparation for

upcoming tests. The control room became our home

away from home.

Since then, we’ve all moved on to other projects,

but every now and then we run into each other and the

bond that we have is still strong. This experience

reminds me that we often overlook the simple things.

Every good manager wants to do well by the people

working on a project. One way to achieve this is simple:

Pay attention to the environment in which your

employees work. People warn you not to get mired in

the details; they say you might miss the big picture. But

sometimes it’s the details that give you a better view of

what the big picture is all about. •

LESSONS

• Leaders lead by serving their people.

• Encourage people to define and create their own

workspace. Small details are important.

QUESTION

Can you think of a time when something in your workspace

prevented you from doing your best work? A time when a change

to your environment made things easier?

...when I came in I think 

that they were skeptical.

Sometimes it’s the details that give you 

a better view of what the big picture is all about.
ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 17

THE CLIENT WAS TAKING A HUGE RISK OPENING A NEW

by Christian STORE IN WASHINGTON, D.C. ONE OF THE MOST Zazzali

SUCCESSFUL RETAIL MAIL ORDER BUSINESSES IN THE

U.S. HAD CONTRACTED WITH MY COMPANY TO BUILD

THE FIRST FLAGSHIP STORE OUTSIDE OF NEW

ENGLAND. IT WAS RISKY—NOT ONLY BECAUSE OF THE

CONSTRUCTION OF A STORE, BUT DUE TO THE MASSIVE

AMOUNT OF MERCHANDISE BEING MOVED AND THE

GRAND-SCALE RELOCATION OF EMPLOYEES.

hoThanksgivingcus p cus
18 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

First order of business, help the client

SURVIVE THE SHO
ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 19

THE CLIENT HAD A HANDFUL OF OUTLET STORES AROUND I told him this: “Mr. CEO, we are going to fix this.

the country in malls, but this new store was going to be We are going to make this right, and we will worry about

something entirely different, with unusual features like a how it happened later. If it turns out it was something

waterfall, a trout pond and a “heavy weather” room to we did, don’t worry about it, we will fix it all the way to

verify the seam stitching on all Gore Tex products. And the end. If it turns out it was something somebody else

these were only the cosmetic considerations. The more did, then we will work with you and figure out what

expensive and time consuming work involved reengi- went wrong and make it right.” First order of business,

neering the space structurally, environmentally and help the client survive the shock. Done. That was

more importantly for fire safety. My client was into this enough for then.

thing for millions.

I was managing the construction project, and I Before the roof came down

thought my biggest challenge was simply finishing the The odds of what happened were remote, said the

work in time for start of the holiday shopping season. project engineer. Three things had to happen simultaneThe store opened three weeks before Thanksgiving. ously. The air conditioning system was not drained yet,

Everything looked great. Business picked up steadily as it was really cold out, and the fire alarm went off for a

the serious spending season approached. Then, two days long time. No alarm, no problem. System drained, no

before Thanksgiving, disaster struck. problem. Just cold outside, not a problem. But the three

The fire protection system was designed to prevent of them together, that’s a big problem.

smoke and fire from reaching the merchandise. If a fire Even if the chances were small, there was still a

alarm went off anywhere in the building, the system chance, and that’s exactly what I had said months

went into a massive pressurization mode. Dampers earlier when we hashed out the engineer’s plans in a

would open and the system would pump in hundreds of conference call. If the engineer says the system is fine

cubic feet of air from outside into the store, pressurizing and the client is inclined to believe the engineer, all I

every square foot, preventing fire or smoke from can do is go on record with my professional opinion.

spreading into the store. That night an unknown event The client was using an engineer from Seattle who, I

tripped the alarm—and it sounded for six hours. The air felt, did not understand what an East Coast transitional

conditioning system was still operational as the outside climate is like. What that means is we can have freezing

air temperatures had been warm all month. That night, cold days in September and scorching hot days in

however, temperatures plummeted to 20 degrees. With October. As the project manager for the general

an alarm sounding in a building complex that covers contractor, I went on record as saying, “We feel the

many millions of square feet, no one paid attention to system is not the best one for this area. There is a

the cold air flowing into the space. Pipes froze and burst. potential for a disaster to occur.”

Hundreds of gallons of water came down through the Some people will say I should have been more

drywall, soaking merchandise, the carpet and the forceful in stating my position. Should I sit in a conferhardwood racks. This state of the art system, which had ence and tell the engineer that something he designed

been designed to protect, was now responsible for stinks? The client had used this engineer on other

unthinkable damage. projects. We, the general contractor, had no relationThe CEO himself came down from New England. ship with this client, or with the engineer. I may have

Not looking yet to blame anyone—yet!—all he wanted to had more control over what happened on the project

know was one thing: what was going to be done to get than anyone else—but, ironically, I was lowest on the

the store open for the day after Thanksgiving? food chain.

OCK
20 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

Thanksgiving Day...and counting was not responsible. He recognizes that he could have

Nobody on our team said anything about “we told you been mistaken, but he stands by his decision that it was

so.” We didn’t even consider bringing it up. We knew a good system, it was designed for the area and what

that taking the high road at that point would serve us happened was a one-in-a-million chance. It happened,

well in the weeks to come when we sat down to discuss but so do asteroids fall out of the sky. I just privately

what happened, but for now our next order of business rolled my eyes.

was to get to work. You could be the among greatest project managers

We immediately restored one of the three HVAC in world, but if you have an attitude and you give the

systems so we could at least have some heat. Once the client heartburn, unnecessary heartburn, you’re not

heat was working we could start drying things out. We going to do more work with him. If you have a disaster

mobilized all available manpower, including project like this one, and you manage to make everybody feel

managers from other projects and at one point we had good and believe that you are going to take care of them,

a Vice President operating a wet/dry vacuum. There then everybody looks back on it and says, “You know

were some 100 people doing whatever they could. The what, this is a good project team; we work well together,

day before Thanksgiving we were cutting out drywall, so let’s do another one.” •

as fast as we could, everywhere we could. We brought

in 400 sheets of dry wall, taped it all up, kept going, and LESSONS

had the painters working right behind. All that was just • Emotional intelligence is critical for effective project

to make it look good for the day after Thanksgiving, leadership, especially during a crisis.

because it all had to come down again. Eventually, we • A crisis demands immediate attention. Set aside

had to go in there and get the duct work out. The ducts blame, and get down to work. Worrying about accountwere wet and a bacterial fungus was going to start ability at this point is a counterproductive distraction.

growing. The only way we could change the duct work Remember, people are recognized for how they perform

was to tear the ceilings back out. in a crisis.

It came down to the wire, but when we were done • Improvisation and responsiveness are critical for

it looked presentable. None of the customers knew meeting a blitz schedule.

what happened. The client was ecstatic. And guess

what? He exceeded sales goals on the order of 200%. QUESTION

Lines at every register. He just could not believe how Recall two crisis situations. In one your leader panicked, while in

busy the store was. the other one he/she remained calm. Do you remember how their

My company could have come out of this thing reaction impacted the team’s effectiveness?

looking bad. Instead the client loves us. We continue to 

do work with him, and he’s said to us, “That HVAC

design stunk. You were right. Next time, please tell us

what we need.”

The engineer, still to this day, feels that somehow he

I W , but, ir oject than an

AIN E FOyo

T O AS LOWES N TH O

ne—

D CH

onically

I may have had more control over what happened on the pr
ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 21

byW. Scott Cameron

As I talk to people 

either pursuing a career 

in project management,

or broadening their

assignment to include 

project management,

I encourage them 

to consider 

what tools they need 

to be successful.

The

PROJECT MANAGER’S

Tool Kit

THIEN-KIM PHAM
22 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

PROJECT MANAGERS ARE RARELY DESCRIBED AS BEING

funny. Moreover, a good sense of humor rarely seems to

be one of the deciding factors in choosing someone to be

a project manager, or something that pops up as a major

discussion point at an annual performance review.

Perhaps this is because people think you aren’t serious

about your work if you laugh. I disagree with this assessment, but that’s not really my point. As I talk to people

either pursuing a career in project management, or

broadening their assignment to include project management, I encourage them to consider what tools they need

to be successful. I suggest that they consider any

strength they have to be part of their Project

Management (PM) Tool Kit, and being funny could be

one of the tools they need.

On one project earlier in my career, my being

considered funny by my boss was the main reason I was

asked to be the project manager of a unique project, or

as some called it, an “opportunity.”

The scope of the work entailed:

• Produce a 15-20 minute video presentation, which

would take a “biting, irreverent, humorous” look at

all facets of our organization

• Insure we met our budget constraints

• Complete the project within 5 weeks

• Use any resources available 

The project sponsor indicated this presentation was

going to be shown to all the company’s executives just

prior to a closing speech by our chief executive officer at

an upcoming meeting. I would introduce it.

The challenge seemed to me to be how to approach

this task. The answer was fairly straightforward when 

conventional tools There are

all project managers

must learntowield...
ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 23

I looked inside my PM Tool Kit and chose the “tools”

I felt I needed to execute this project:

• Proposal writing with defined success criteria

• Cost management

• Schedule preparation

• Staffing plan

• Risk reduction plan

• Sense of humor

I wrote a proposal reiterating what I had heard the

sponsor state as his requirements, and began defining

the scope of the presentation. I also hired a contractor to

assist in writing and producing the video. Since the

schedule’s end point was set, the main schedule activity

was scheduling intermediate reviews.

I reviewed the proposal with the sponsor and

obtained his agreement. At that point, I set out to

execute the project. This is when I encountered my first

obstacle. No one else within the company wanted to

work on this project with me. In fact, most people told

me I was crazy to take on such an assignment. They

indicated that if I were successful, however, they would

be more than happy to say they had helped. I felt like I

was living the children’s story of the Little Red Hen:

Everyone declined to help make the bread but everyone

was willing to eat it. My reaction was one of amazement

and the stark realization that this project would be

executed with only the contractor and me. I would see if

being funny was really a moniker I deserved.

I now finalized the project’s two success criteria:

• The sponsor laughed when he saw the video

• I still had a job at the end of the project

My risk reduction plan called for early testing to

allow sufficient time for refining my humor and

changing the course of action, if required. We prepared

drafts of 15-20 “skits” and reviewed them with the

sponsor. He liked a few of the concepts but felt they were

not “biting” enough. I also indicated I was not getting

much “biting” inspiration from the people I had

discussed the project with so far. He then personally

asked two of the more outspoken members of his leadership team to offer their thoughts about potential

concepts. We took their input and prepared another 

10-15 draft “skits.” The next review resulted in a green

light to move forward and produce the video.

The moment of truth came the day before the event

when we reviewed the final production. He laughed,

I still had a job, and then I laughed. Project accomplished. Success criteria met. By evaluating, deciding on,

and using specific tools in my PM Tool Kit, which I have

collected throughout my career, I was able to tackle what

I considered a very high-risk project and meet my/its

success criteria.

Humor was an important tool on this project. The

use of it on this project showed how important it is to use

the right tools. The important thing to remember is everything the project manager has at his/her disposal belongs

in their tool kit. If they don’t have the necessary tool, they

need to either borrow one or go buy a new tool. There are

conventional tools all project managers must learn to

wield (proposal writing, cost estimating, schedule

planning, etc.) as well as specialized tools like a sense of

humor. If we know how to use them adroitly, we can

consistently bring these to bear on our projects and be

successful no matter what the project criteria or scope. • 

as well as specialized tools

like a sense 

of humor.
24 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

I hate reviews!

Make sure the right people are there

Take care to avoid those people who come to reviews regardless of how little they

have to contribute or how little they have to do with the project. I think there are

out there a host of donut-eaters and coffee-drinkers that are professional

reviewers. It’s like a big social occasion for them. They get to offer a snide

comment here, add a little humor there, extend the breaks and, for sure, make 

In our business we have all kinds of reviews: financial

reviews, strategy reviews, technical reviews, test reviews,

design reviews, baseline reviews, etc., etc. I hate them all—

every last one. It’s not because they aren’t necessary, but

because of how we do them. None is more often bollixedup than those that involve the government and contractors.

Here are some ways to avoid the most common pitfalls

that I find specifically in these kinds of reviews.

by Terry Little
ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 25

certain everyone understands how clever they are. Long

ago I learned that the first thing for me to do at a review is

to ask each government person who they are and why

they are here. If I don’t get a satisfactory answer, out that

person goes before we ever start. Sometimes I do have

someone give me an OK answer, but I find out during the

review that the person is just being disruptive. Out. I know

that sounds harsh, but the truth is I

usually only have to do it once and

the word gets out that reviews on my

programs are serious, intense and

not for the curious bystander.

Being adversarial is not 

what it’s all about 

The purpose of reviews is to

exchange information freely, openly

and completely. It is a dialogue among team members—

members who share a common goal. It cannot be an

“us-versus-them,” or else the information flow will

cease. Nothing cuts off communication faster than

having an environment where people feel defensive or

threatened. I think of government-contractor reviews as

peer reviews. To emphasize the team nature of reviews, I

make it a practice that government people give roughly

half the presentations in any review. I also do not allow

any government-only caucuses. These create suspicion

and encourage “behind-the-back” assertions. In my

reviews anything worth saying is said in open forum.

This is not the time for big surprises

I have been dismayed by how many formal reviews I have

attended where government people actually working on

the project are surprised by what they are hearing from

the contractor. This should never be. Formal reviews are

for people outside the project, not for those working on

it. People working on the project should be getting

continuous, real-time information from their counterparts as the project progresses. If they are depending on

formal reviews to get their information, then they are not

doing their jobs. Formal reviews should be old news to

the people actually working the project.

Separate the real issues from apparent ones 

I wonder how many reviews fit the pattern of “nothing

came out of the review but the people who went in.”

Reviews should be action oriented. Where issues arise,

someone needs to be accountable for resolving them.

Part of that accountability stems from meeting a deadline.

The project manager should decide what issues or

concerns merit follow-up. Just because someone has an

unanswered question or a concern, it doesn’t necessarily

follow that there needs to be an action item. There are a

lot of “nervous Nellies” out there who want everything

tidy and complete. In this business they will often be

disappointed. The project manager must weigh the criticality of the issue or question against the cost of

resolving it. At times, we have to accept some risk and

move forward, leaving time and events to resolve certain

issues or questions.

Boring does not make for a good review

Nothing is worse than reviews that are too long and

too boring. I frequently see excessive detail that most

of the people present don’t care about or need to

know. This is the project manager’s fault. Every

agenda item in a review and every view graph on that

topic should be of interest to and comprehensible by

80% of those in attendance. The way I accomplish

this is to discuss beforehand the purpose of the

review with my contractor counterpart and to

carefully review the agenda to see that it fulfills the

purpose. I also go over with my counterpart the

attendee list to make sure that what’s presented is

what the attendees are looking for. My view is that a

formal review should not last more than a day.

Anything beyond that tends to get into weeds. One

can better communicate weed-like detail in an

informal setting to a small group, where there is an

opportunity for back-and-forth discussion without

disrupting others and where time is not lost by

preparing some formal presentation.

REVIEWS ARE A NECESSARY EVIL. THEY CAN BE VERY PAINFUL,

but they don’t have to be. It just takes a little planning,

some courage and an abiding belief that there are better

approaches than just letting them happen like they

always have. •

Nothing cuts off communication faster

than having an environment where

people feel defensive or threatened. 
AS A CHARTER MEMBER AT MARSHALL, MCCOOL WAS

instrumental in the design of the propulsion systems for

the Saturn launch vehicles that propelled Apollo to the

Moon and directed project engineering for Skylab, the

first space science laboratory. Alex McCool’s 48-year

career includes exceptional contributions to the

vehicles that launched America into orbit and carried

human beings to the moon. Presently, he is the manager

of the Space Shuttle Projects Office at Marshall. Among

his many honors he recently received the National

Space Club’s 2002 Astronautics Engineer Award. The

award recognizes those who have made outstanding

contributions in engineering management to the

national space program.

Many people at Marshall say you are the best mentor

they’ve known. What does mentoring mean to you?

I love being around people, particularly young people. I

love helping them, mentoring them, and I love to see

them do a good job no matter what it is. You give them

a job and they will stub their toe, and that’s all right. I

want them to learn, but I try to guide them and help

them to learn, grow and develop. It makes my day when

they do a good job and get recognition, or by just seeing

how they have developed over the years.

If you had to pass on one thing to a young project

manager, someone who thinks it would be great to be as

active and productive for as long as you have, what would

that be? 

Live a balanced life. What I mean by balanced life is the

three “F’s”: Faith, Family, and Friends. What I’ve found is

that you have to do it by action; you can’t just say it,

you’ve got to live that way.

26 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

INTERVIEW 

Alex McCool

Alex McCool began his career in 1954 at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville,

Alabama, working on the design of the Redstone and Jupiter rockets. In 1960,

he joined NASA to continue working with Dr. Wernher von Braun, Marshall

Space Flight Center’s first director and a leader in America’s race to space
Do you recall a time in your career when you had to rely

on the three F’s to help you through some difficulty?

Oh, absolutely. No question. I was there for

Challenger. I saw Challenger. I was not involved in that

launch. I had gone down the day before. The Launch

Director, Gene Thomas, was a very good friend. His

spiritual life got him through that, and it taught me

something too. He and I got very close.

What did you learn from that? 

Well, you’ll have to allow me to digress here for a

moment. Around that same time, my wife had a

malignant ovarian tumor, you see, and she had to take

chemotherapy. The whole thing just really wiped me out

for a period. My spiritual life, my faith, helped me

through that and I think knowing Gene Thomas and all

he was going through, we got to sharing between us, and

we got real close spiritually. Finally, Gene prior to the

launch of Challenger knew each of the crew and had

spent time with them before their flight. He has been

one of my heroes and inspired me.

Weren’t you involved in a post-Challenger project to

investigate the accident?

Yes, that’s right. I worked closely with the Navy on

recovery at KSC. We were looking for our hardware—

and they wanted somebody who was familiar with

propulsion. I took a group down there with me, and I

guess I was the leader of that group. I remember getting

the phone call at 7 o’clock on a Sunday morning. "Hey,

we believe we found something." So I called Kennedy

[Space Center] and said, "Can you get us out to the

ship?" The Navy had a big salvage ship, probably a

hundred miles away. So we got out there on a Coast

Guard Cutter and we were told it was going to be rough

seas, and sure enough it was. Let me tell you I was

scared. They put life jackets and slickers on us. So we get

over there to this big ship, and sure enough there was a

piece of it where it had burned through. We got back to

land about 1:30 in the morning at Port Canaveral, and I

said, “Well, we are going to have to get out there the first

thing in the morning, six or seven o’clock, because the

NASA brass will want to see what we found out.” Sure

ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 27
enough they were waiting on us, all the NASA leadership, and that was just the beginning. We had taken

photographs and measurements and were able to

describe it. They directed us to radio the salvage ship and

had them bring the piece to the port.

Was there anything special you had to do to prepare the

team emotionally for a project like that?

Well, the big thing was, we had the attitude that this was

a job we had to go do. In the early days after the accident,

we didn’t know what had caused the explosion, so ours

was a mission to try and understand what happened. That

gave us a sense of purpose and was a powerful motivator.

How do you approach trying to solve a problem like

finding out what caused a catastrophic failure? 

It’s a little bit like detective work. You ask, “What are

the things that could have caused this?” You put them

all down and you try to work them off. Could it be

this? Could it be that? Could it be just a lack of this?

Did something go wrong with the equipment? So it is

a lot of detective work. To me, it is fascinating. We use

what is called a “fault tree,” which is a disciplined

methodical approach.

Is there a difference in your preparations to try to figure

out what went wrong with something as opposed to trying

to build something?

It’s still primarily about getting the right team of people,

getting the right skills to help you. I’m just the leader and

I’ve got to have them to help me because I can’t do it

alone. I’m just the coach, in other words, and I want to

pick the good people with certain talents to compliment

my background and make it work in the different areas.

So you try to organize around people and get out of their

way, because they know it better than you do.

What is your role after you’ve brought the team together? 

It’s a matter of organizing and providing the leadership

and the vision. Where are we going? First, though, it

starts with people—finding the right people, putting the

right team together and making sure they are motivated.

How do you continue to keep people motivated through

the life of the project?

What’s important is to recognize when somebody does a

good job. And don’t wait, do it first thing.

Reinforcement, that helps team building—and that’s

leadership when you do that—whether it’s a pat on the

back, whether it’s a note, whether it’s handing them a

check or just saying the words, “Thank you.” It’s very

important to show that kind of positive reinforcement,

because they build on that. Young people need that

recognition, it’s very important. And I think if you don’t

get anything else out of this discussion, make sure you

print this: “Leaders need to be sensitive to recognition of

their key people who have really performed.” It’s very

important. So that’s positive reinforcement. There can

be the other thing called negative reinforcement, and

you have to be very careful how you deal with that.

What do you mean by “careful”?

Well, I mean you just need to be careful. You may have

to do it because somebody messed up, but it is how

you do it, how you approach it. Let me give you an

example. We have a guy in the factory, and he says, “I

know I messed up.” He confesses that he made a

mistake, recognizing he may be fired. You would like to

make a case that this is not acceptable, but do you fire

him? That sends a very dangerous message to the

other guys. Integrity is not valued. See what I’m

saying? You don’t want them to mess up, but you also

28 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

INTERVIEW CONTINUED
ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 29

want them to come forward. You want them to be

honest. I learned that one by the way from von Braun.

Now he was very charismatic. An interesting person,

too, one of the most interesting persons I’ve known.

The guy had a balanced life, and I come back to what

I said originally about balance. He would go scuba

diving, big game hunting up in Canada and he did a lot

of things with his family. But the thing I was saying is,

we had this guy who didn’t hook up some wires like he

should have, and he confessed to that. I remember

how von Braun bought him a bottle of booze. He did

that to reward him for being honest—and he helped

him to drink it too! Think about it, do you really want

to punish the person for doing the right thing by

coming forward. Why dampen his spirit? That makes

him less motivated to succeed. We are talking about

integrity and honesty.

I’m curious about what motivates you. You’re 78 now.

You could have retired many years ago. You spoke about

what a downer that period was when your wife had

cancer and then the Challenger accident. Did you ever

consider retirement then, or have you since? 

When I was around 55, one evening I got home and I

guess I was feeling glum. I said, “I wonder if it is time for

me to hang it up?” I’m talking to my wife, and I never

forgot this, I said, “What do you think?” She said, “Let

me ask you this question? Are you happy in your job?”

Boy, she didn’t crack a smile or say anything, and so I

looked her in the eye and I said, “Yeah.” And she said,

“You need to stay right where you are, then.”

Would she say the same thing today? 

Oh yes, absolutely! Until this day she says, “You keep

working.” Because she knows I love it. Life should be

fun; we should have our work as a passion and try to

make a difference in everything we do. •
FRPRAOM THE DIRECT CTICES by Douglas R. OR’S DESK Dr. Edward Hoffman Teany

PRAGMATIC LEADERSHIP ADVICE

FROM DONALD RUMSFELD

30 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP
ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 31

WHEN PRESIDENT GERALD FORD APPOINTED DONALD

Rumsfeld as his Secretary of Defense in 1975, Rumsfeld

became the youngest defense secretary in U.S. history.

Today, as defense secretary for President George W.

Bush, Rumsfeld is the most senior appointee to hold that

post. Between political assignments, he became an expert

at turning around troubled corporations. His work at

G.D. Searle—now a subsidiary of Pharmacia—earned

him awards as an outstanding chief executive officer in

the pharmaceutical industry.

Rumsfeld's management philosophy is unique and

direct, and the best part is he’s written it down. While

serving in the Ford administration, Rumsfeld wrote a

white paper titled Rumsfeld’s Rules. These rules were

written as guiding principles for White House staff. First

published in 1980, the rules were revised and expanded

in 2001 to include broader insights on management,

work and leadership. They reflect more than 40 years of

Rumsfeld’s wisdom and experience. A while back, I

received a copy of the updated rules. After several

months, I picked it up and started reading. I couldn’t

believe how applicable Rumsfeld’s Rules are to project

management and leadership.

RUMSFELD’S RULE #50: Don't be a bottleneck. If the

matter is not a decision for the President or you,

delegate it. Force responsibility down and out. Find

problems areas, add structure and delegate. The

pressure is to do the reverse. Resist it.

Application for the project manager—High-performance work teams are comprised of competent,

empowered individuals who have a solid understanding

of roles, responsibilities and structure. When team

members participate in the decision-making process,

they gain a broader understanding of how their work

affects others. This understanding enables individuals

to make sound decisions within defined boundaries.

Project managers should continually assess their

decision-making style, use a participative approach and

delegate decisions whenever possible. Consider defining

roles and responsibilities to include accountabilities.

Each individual's accountabilities will set decisionmaking boundaries.

RUMSFELD’S RULE #94: Reserve the right to get into

anything and exercise it. Make your deputies and

staff realize that although many responsibilities are

delegated, no one should be surprised when the

Secretary engages an issue.

Application for the project manager—Effective application of Rule #50 will create faster, more efficient work.

Unfortunately, the faster work is done, the more opportunity there will be for mistakes and issues. When issues

arise, the project manager should lean towards action. If

you have an opportunity to do something about an

issue, take appropriate actions immediately. Pick up the

phone—don’t wait for the next scheduled meeting. Roles

and responsibilities are delegated on projects; leadership

is not.

RUMSFELD’S RULE #57: Control your time. If you’re

working off your in-box, you’re working off the

priorities of others. Be sure the staff is working on

what you move to them from the President, or the

President will be reacting, not leading.

Application for the project manager—For project

managers, the top priority should be setting and

communicating direction. Regularly communicate team

priorities, linking priorities to the specific work of

individual team members. A manager should determine

how frequently communications should occur and what

method (e.g., email, meeting) works best for the team.

Whatever the frequency and method, be explicit about

who is to complete what by when. A disciplined

approach to this process will enable the project manager

to proactively remove obstacles that may interfere with

achieving project objectives.

RUMSFELD’S RULE #38: If you are lost—“climb,

conserve, and confess.” (U.S. Navy Flight Manual).

Application for the project manager—Project

managers must learn that it is completely acceptable to

say, “I don't know.” Once they become comfortable with

this, they typically find themselves saying these words

quite often. Many issues require time, patience and

perception. It is easy for project teams to develop a

narrow focus, one that is directed towards work activities, deliverables and milestones. This makes it difficult

to step back and gain the perspective needed to make

sound decisions. When you feel lost, pull out of day-to-
32 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

day project tasks, slow work if necessary and seek advice.

Collect feedback from colleagues and subject matter

experts. The downstream work required to undo bad

decisions ranges from 10 to 100 times the cost of doing

it right the first time.

RUMSFELD’S RULE #48: Don’t allow people to be

excluded from a meeting or denied an opportunity to

express their views because their views differ from the

President’s, the person who calls the meeting, or your

views. The staff system must have integrity and discipline.

Application for the project manager—Project

managers must be responsible for applying discipline to

the participative decision-making process. Not every

decision requires consensus, but every decision requires

a strong sense of ownership. People support what they

own. Individuals with differing viewpoints should be

included, not excluded. Engaging the right people on the

right topics is key to project success.

RUMSFELD’SRULES #34 & 35: Know that the amount

of criticism you receive may correlate somewhat to

the amount of publicity you receive. And, if you are

not criticized, you may not be doing much.

Application for the project manager—Complex

projects often draw the spotlight because they affect

many people. Any time that happens, criticism follows.

When leading a project, you quickly make allies and

enemies. Effective leaders keep their emotions in check,

even when those around them do not. Anger and

frustration should be expected. It is how these emotions

are managed that is important. Aristotle once remarked,

“Anyone can get angry, that is easy. But to be angry with

the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for

the right purpose and in the right way—that is not so

easy.” Don’t allow criticism to derail project progress.

Instead, maintain composure, remain focused on

achieving project goals and learn to recognize and

manage the emotions of critical stakeholders.

RUMSFELD’S RULE #58: Look for what’s missing.

Many advisors can tell a President how to improve

what’s proposed or what’s gone amiss. Few are able to

see what isn’t there.

Application for the project manager—Leading

projects requires you to think outside the box...to think

differently and to revisit questions and problems. In How

to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Gelb notes that da

Vinci’s creativity was due, in part, to his ability to reframe

difficult questions. Reframing questions—approaching

the question in different ways, from different angles—

will dramatically increase your ability to identify unique

solutions. As a project manager, think about questions

from your sponsor’s perspective, your team’s perspective, the controller’s or accountant’s perspective and

your client’s perspective; think beyond the project to the

process and quality implications. Make it a habit to

consider, think and rethink potential solutions to

difficult project questions, taking the time to look for

what may be missing.

RUMSFELD’S RULE #14: Amidst all the clutter,

beyond all the obstacles, aside from all the static, are

the goals set? Put your head down, do the best job

possible, let the flak pass, and work towards those

goals.

Application for the project manager—All projects

should begin and end with a focus on goals, a clear

definition of what it means to be “done” with the initiative. This completion criterion should become “true

north” for the team. It is the project manager’s responsibility to establish and maintain that focus. During

planning, define project goals as a team. During

execution, continually revisit those goals. Team members

often operate on different assumptions without realizing

it. Failure to focus on goals will lead to a disconnect

between what a project should be doing and what it is

actually doing.

THE PROJECT MANAGER MUST THINK LIKE A MANAGER AND

act as mentor and coach. As anyone who has tried will

tell you, that is not a simple role. Drawing on Rumsfeld’s

experience and counsel can help leaders achieve focus

and results. Keep these rules handy, review them often,

and don’t be afraid to exercise Rule 38. •

Curious about the rest of Donald Rumsfeld’s rules? Read them

all in his new book, Rumsfeld’s Rules, published by Simon

& Schuster.

PRACTICES CONTINUED
Tempered Radicals: 

How People Use Difference 

to Inspire Change at Work

Debra E. Meyerson

(2001) Harvard Business School Press

Reviewed by Dr. Michelle Collins

DEBRA MEYERSON DRAWS ON HER EXPERIENCE WITH THREE

companies as she reviews organizational culture and

norms to identify how changes occur and who causes

those changes. It may surprise you to see who pushes for

change and to see how visible are their actions. In every

organization, Meyerson tells us, a number of individuals

rely on their unique perspectives to act on opportunities

that arise and initiate small changes.

For “radicals” who don’t want to leave NASA but

would like to make changes, this book may help you

learn how to “temper” your actions to an effective level.

For the majority of employees, you may discover that

you’re already doing more to effect change than you

realized. Or, if you currently feel powerless to alter situations you encounter, you’ll learn effective techniques

that won’t put you at risk.

Though I would have preferred to see more

technical, organizational, and managerial issues

addressed, Meyerson does speak to issues likely to be

important in many work environments. If you are considered a minority of any sort (i.e., single father, woman,

Asian-American, etc.), you will find useful advice on

handling issues specific to your minority concerns.

Although the author provides some interesting

“stories” to develop her points, the book plods through

the material. I think the same information could have

been conveyed in half the pages. But when I attempted

to skip ahead, I found that later points referred back to

“stories” in previous chapters. You’ll have to read the

entire book to get the most from it.

Dr. Collins is a member of the ASK Review Board. See her bio

with the rest of the Review Board on p.35.

The Attention Economy: 

Understanding the New Currency of Business

Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck

(2001) Boston: Harvard Business School Press

Reviewed by Dr. Gerald Mulenburg

THIS IS A FRIGHTENING BOOK.

Thomas Davenport and John Beck

assert that our most pressing

problem today is not a lack of

resources, but a lack of attention.

To pay attention to the demands

of business and society, the

authors assert, is to attend to

those needs, to take care of them.

They impose a causal chain of awareness-attentionaction: No attention means no action.

When we want to accomplish something, it’s not

just finding time to be better managers—we must understand where and how we focus our attention on a

project. Davenport and Beck begin by comparing

attention to time; both are non-renewable resources that

others seek from us. In our information age, the authors

conclude, “Telecommunication bandwidth is not a

problem, but human bandwidth is . . . a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

Not simply a philosophical discussion, Attention

Economy offers much to practicing managers. An

“Attention Scape” enables readers to evaluate their

use of attention by charting the quantity and

direction of attention. It’s an easy and effective way to

consider whether you are focusing on what you

believe to be important, or spending much of your

attention elsewhere. The authors include a table of

common attention imbalances and ways to bring

them back into balance.

As both producers and consumers of attention, we

are pulled by the demands of others for our attention at

the same time that we seek their attention. This can lead

to Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) in organizations

LOOP

ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 33

Book Reviews
34 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

just as it does in individuals. But there is no Ritalin for In thinking about attention scarcity and managing

organizations to take (yet, anyway). And what are the projects, working long hours often becomes a way of

consequences of this ADD? “Info-stress,” say the life. But Davenport and Beck contend that “the most

authors. With not enough attention to go around, or important function of attention isn’t taking information

going to the wrong topics, problems crop up and then in, but screening it out.” How often do we allocate our

don’t get solved effectively. This quickly leads to medioc- scarce attention resources on things that others should

rity, with slipped schedules, reduced content and higher be spending their attention on? Or spend it on things

costs—and leads to outright project failure in a worst- that are easy or fun or urgent, rather than important?

case scenario. As the authors state, “It’s unlikely that any project can

Davenport and Beck identify several attention get the concerted, long-term attention it needs if

critical business domains: electronic commerce, project everyone is so busy responding to incoming e-mails and

and process management, organizational leadership, flashing voice mail lights.” As project managers, our

strategy and information and knowledge management. primary asset to manage is our attention, but have any

The book helps to put attention in perspective from of us ever created a project attention schedule with the

both an historical and an anthropological point of view, essential activities, events, milestones, critical path, etc?

and the authors provide an attention hierarchy that I don’t think so.

follows Maslow’s classic needs hierarchy (survival, safety, This book isn’t an on-the-edge-of-your-seat

love, esteem, actualization). thriller, but it is well written and smartly formatted, with

This book synthesizes what several other books useful tips and tidbits. If nothing else, The Attention

(Simplicity, Out of Control, Relax: It’s Only Uncertainty) have Economy provides insight on the demands that others

also expressed: The demands on our time are constant place on our attention, and suggests ways to deflect

and relentless. At work, the number of emails, voice- those demands while appropriately placing our own

mails, snail-mails, meetings, and interruptions continue demands on others. •

to rise. At home, it is similar—with web sites, email

spam, answering machine messages and junk mail. And Dr. Mulenburg is also a member of the ASK Review Board.

even when trying to relax, the increasing minutes-per- See his bio with the rest of the Review Board on p.35.

hour of radio and television commercials fills our

leisure time with messages demanding (and often

getting) our attention.

To see what happened at the 

August 2002 APPL Masters Forum 

of Project Managers in Washington, D.C.,

please go to the ASK website at

http://appl.nasa.gov/knowledge/ask_home.htm

and click on the link for the 

Conference Report.

CONFERENCE REPORT

LOOP CONTINUED
JOHN BRUNSON is currently working in the Systems management Office at the Marshall Space Flight

Center. His career in the space industry began

in 1980 as a technician working on the first

Space Shuttle.

DR. MICHELLE COLLINS works in the Spaceport Engineering

& Technology Research Group at Kennedy

Space Center. She has over 20 years experience

in aerospace spanning engineering, R&D and

project management. She is on the Florida

Tech Engineering Accreditation Board, the

National Fire Protection Association’s Technical Committee for

Halon Alternatives and the United Nations Environmental

Programme Halon Technical Options Committee.

HECTOR DELGADO is Division Chief of Process Tools and

Techniques in the Safety, Health and

Independent Assessment Directorate at the

Kennedy Space Center. In 1995, Hector served

as Senior Technical Staff to the NASA Chief

Engineer at NASA Headquarters in

Washington, D.C. He has received many honors and awards

including the Exceptional Service medal, Silver Snoopy Award

and various Achievement Awards.

DR. OWEN GADEKEN is a Professor of Engineering

Management at the Defense Acquisition

University where he has taught Department of

Defense program and project managers for

over 20 years. He retired last year from the Air

Force Reserve as a Colonel and senior reservist

at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Owen is also a

member of the Advisory Board of the NASA Academy of

Program and Project Leadership and is a frequent speaker at

project management conferences and symposia.

DR. MICHAEL HECHT is project manager and a co-investigator

for the Mars Environmental Compatibility

Assessment (MECA). He has been with NASA

since 1982 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

(JPL). In his previous assignment with NASA’s

New Millennium Program, he was instrumental in defining the “microlander” that was adopted as

NASA’s New Millennium Program Deep Space 2.

JODY ZALL KUSEK is a Senior Evaluation Officer at the World

Bank. She is currently involved in supporting

the efforts of seven governments to move to a

focus of performance-based management. She

has spent many years in the area of public

sector reform, serving the Vice President of the

United States, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and the U.S.

Secretary of Energy in the areas of Strategic Planning and

Performance Management.

DONALD MARGOLIES was Project Manager for the Advanced

Composition Explorer (ACE) mission, launched

in 1997 and still operating successfully. He

received the NASA Medal for Outstanding

Leadership for his work on ACE and a NASA

Exceptional Service Medal for the Active

Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE) mission.

DR. GERALD MULENBURG is the Manager of the Aeronautics

and Spaceflight Hardware Development

Division at the NASA Ames Research Center

in California. He has project management

experience in airborne, spaceflight and ground

research projects with the Air Force, industry

and NASA. He also served as Executive Director of the

California Math Science Task Force and as Assistant Director of

the Lawrence Hall of Science.

JOAN SALUTE is the Associate Director of Aerospace at Ames

Research Center. She has managed many

NASA projects including those involving flight

testing of thermal protection materials,

commercial technology, commercial applications of remote sensing and remote sensing

science projects. Joan has been at Ames for 20 years, and was

recently awarded the Sloan Fellowship to attend Stanford

Graduate School of Business in the fall of 2002.

CHARLIE STEGEMOELLER was selected in 1997 as Manager of

the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Human Space

Life Sciences Programs Office. He is responsible for the programmatic and tactical implementation of the lead center assignments for

Space Medicine, Biomedical Research and

Countermeasures and Advanced Human Support Technology.

He began his career at NASA in 1985 with JSC Comptroller’s

Office as a technical program analyst.

HARVEY SCHABES is currently assigned to the Systems

Management Office at the Glenn Research

Center. He started his career with NASA in

icing research, and since then has served in

numerous organizations in support of the

Space Station Program.

HUGH WOODWARD served as the Chairman of the Project

Management Institute (PMI) for consecutive

terms in 2000 and 2001. He was elected to the

Board of Directors in 1996, and before being

elected as the Chair, served terms as vice chair

and in several other key leadership roles. He is

a program manager for Global Business Services with the

Procter & Gamble Company.

REVIEW BOARD

ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 35
HE CONSIDERS THE FOLLOWING TO BE GOOD REASONS:

confirming understanding, articulating a complex issue,

recording for future reference and covering (in some

cases) his butt. Nor does he spend much time reading

written reports. He believes that verbal communication

is more effective than written. Lance claims that information gathering is the basis for all his other managerial

work, which is the reason he chooses to spend so much

of his time doing it.

He holds weekly two-hour status meetings with

his team, composed of discipline leaders and major

vendors’ representatives. At these meetings, items being

tracked week-to-week are monitored and new

concerns are raised. The information exchange is not

merely a show-and-tell; Lance wants to get the

problems out in the open. He does not want to hear

only good news. In fact, he says there would be no need

for his job if there were only good things to report.

Lance fosters an environment where there is no penalty

for saying you are behind schedule or beyond budget.

While it is safe to report trouble, it is unforgivable to

withhold bad news.

Lance talks, at least weekly, to all major stakeholders, primarily on the telephone, but sometimes faceto-face. He does not simply transmit and receive

information. Rather, he actively pushes and pulls information. He keeps these people informed of the project

status, persuades them to support his team’s decisions,

negotiates for resources and finds out which of the

company’s other activities may affect his project. Lance

also maintains an open-door policy, and he backs this up

by being available every morning before 8:30. No

appointments are scheduled then.

But Lance believes that he cannot just wait for

information to come to him. He moves about and

exchanges information with the 60 engineers working

on his project. After doing some homework on the

technical aspects of each one’s work, Lance gets on their

playing fields by knowing something about their areas of

expertise. This way, he can stop in on them and chat

about their day-to-day work with credibility, obtain a

true picture of how the project is going and at the same

time let each individual feel that he or she is important

because the project leader knows what he or she is

doing. The fact that he spends at least a half hour daily

talking with the engineers is outstanding, but even more

so is that he listens. In his office hangs a poster that says,

“Listen. Let others talk.” Clearly, he believes it.

Beyond collecting and sharing information, Lance’s

communication style has two crucial byproducts. First, it

motivates people. By talking and listening to the

engineers on a one-to-one basis, Lance is able to

enhance their commitment, loyalty, and esprit de corps.

Second, it allows him a natural and subtle but timely

influence on project activities. This informal, communicating-by-walking-around style is probably the most

effective control system. •

Communicating By Walking Around

Lance, a successful project manager of large 

engineering projects, writes only if he has good reason

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Dr. Alexander Laufer

36 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP

MARTIN HOOPS