How NASA Builds Teams: Mission Critical Soft Skills for Scientists, Engineers, and Project Teams

PART II

USING 4-D ASSESSMENTS AND REPRESENTATIVE RESULTS FROM NASA

 

 

 

The two upcoming chapters are about the team and individual assessments and the NASA results they largely caused. Chapter 4 describes our online Team Development Assessments and the analogous Individual Development Assessments. Together, they are our most effective long-term team context management tools. (The Context Shifting Worksheet, or CSW, is our most effective ad-hoc, situational tool.) The description includes why we believe they are so effective, the logic that they are built on, and sample data products.

Chapter 5 summarizes NASA participation and results. I show the progress for NASA teams starting in each of five quintiles. Next, I present evidence for systemic performance improvement across NASA. Teams’ first assessment scores systematically rise each year. These are teams with no prior encounter with 4-D Systems. I estimate a return on investment for these NASA teams comparing annual costs with 4-D with first assessment score improvements.