Focus Areas 

The leadership and team dynamics session will present the essential skills needed to effectively lead NASA’s teams, fostering collaboration and driving results. Over the course of the week, participants will explore topics such as emotional intelligence, decision-making, conflict resolution, and strategic thinking. A core focus is on understanding team dynamics, recognizing individual strengths, and leveraging those strengths to create a cohesive and motivated team. Through interactive exercises and group activities, participants will learn how to motivate team members without micromanaging them and acquire strategic planning techniques to meet NASA requirements. By the end of the week, participants will have a toolkit of strategies to enhance team performance.    

The strategic thinking and decision-making session will present techniques to analyze complex situations, anticipate challenges, and make informed, forward-thinking decisions. Over the course of the week, participants will learn how to quantify and deconstruct complex decision-making into manageable components to make faster, clearer, and streamlined decisions, while developing a repeatable decision criterion. Through a series of case studies and lessons learned participants will learn to identify key drivers of success, weigh risks, and recognize opportunities that align with long-term organizational goals. The program emphasizes critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving.  

The cost, budgeting, and earned value management (EVM) session will present NASA’s approach to managing project finances effectively, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and that projects remain on time and on budget. This session focuses on NASA fundamentals to avoid common scheduling and cost estimation pitfalls. A component of the session is earned value management, a performance measurement methodology that integrates scope, schedule, and cost data to assess project performance and forecast future outcomes. Through a combination of case studies and lessons learned, participants will explore how to apply EVM principles to analyze project progress, identify discrepancies between planned and actual performance, and take corrective actions when needed.     

The contracting and procurement session focuses on how to effectively manage the acquisition of goods and services, ensuring compliance, cost-effectiveness, and value. During the week, participants will learn to work effectively with customers, contractors and subcontractors to accomplish key NASA organizational objectives. Through exercises and mentoring, participants will explore key concepts in procurement strategy, competitive bidding, contract law, and risk management, learning how to navigate the complexities of vendor selection, performance evaluation, and contract enforcement within NASA’s framework.    

The technical integration and risk management session explores the complexities of integrating complex technologies into NASA missions while identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential risks that can impact project success. This session introduces systems engineering processes, NASA lifecycle phases, key technical reviews, and systems engineering management techniques. The week also focuses on risk management, including planning and performing risk-handling activities across the life of the product or project. This includes developing a strategy for risk management and mitigation, learning how to identify risks through risk assessments, and preparing risk mitigation strategies. By the end of the week, participants will be prepared to monitor project risks and execute contingency action plans when applicable thresholds have been triggered.   

The stakeholder management session presents the tools to help NASA's technical workforce navigate the hierarchical relationships and interests of stakeholders, from internal leadership to external vendors. This week focuses on how to identify a project’s or program’s diverse array of stakeholders, both within and outside NASA, and understand their unique expectations and requirements. Through exercises, discussion and mentoring activities, participants will learn the importance of stakeholders in project execution, and how to involve stakeholders with effective communication and consensus building. The session will present strategies for successful negotiation.  By the end of the week, participants will understand the tools to manage diverse stakeholders effectively for smoother project execution and long-term success.