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Innovation the NASA Way: Harnessing the Power of Your Organization for Breakthrough Success
Launch your business to new heights with out-of-this world innovation For over half a century, NASA has delivered a continuous stream of innovative accomplishments that have inspired the world. Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, the space shuttle pioneering reusable space planes, Mars rovers exploring the red planet--the list goes on. We read the stories and watch the footage, and as impossible as these achievements seem, NASA makes them look easy.
The most innovative organization in history, NASA holds an otherworldly mystique for those of us who look on in awe. But behind every one of NASA's amazing innovations lie carefully managed operations, just like any other organization.
Innovation the NASA Way provides practical, proven lessons that will help you envision the future of your organization with clarity, meet every challenge with tenacity, and manage innovation with groundbreaking creativity.
NASA insider Rod Pyle has used the agency's unique methods for driving innovation to train leaders from eBay, the Federal Reserve, Michelin tires, Conoco/Phillips, and many other Fortune 100 and 500 companies. now, for the first time, NASA's cutting-edge strategies for nurturing and fostering innovation are revealed.
Innovation the NASA Way takes you on a tour through the programs that pushed the envelope on the agency's leadership and managerial capacity. It describes the seemingly impossible tasks NASA personnel faced, explains how each challenge was met with forward-looking management methods, and describes the extraordinary innovations that resulted.
Learn how NASA built the Lunar Module, the first true spaceship; created the Saturn V's F-1 rocket motor, the most powerful ever built; and how it creates partnerships with the new players in space-private entrepreneurs. These are just a few of the projects covered in the book.
Space exploration may be NASA's mission, but its innovative leadership practices are founded on solid, down-to-earth methods anyone can apply, anywhere.
PRAISE FOR INNOVATION THE NASA WAY:
Pyle insightfully and skillfully draws out the methods and strategies naSa has employed to achieve its lofty goals. It innovates so far outside the box that the box disappears. Pyle suggests its touchstones are boldness, daring, and passion, and he suggests you can bring those traits into your business. -- DON CAMBOU, executive Producer of History Channel's Modern Marvels
Pyle highlights NASA's key innovation lessons and leaves you with amazing stories you'll want to remember and use in your organization. -- STEVEN FENTRESS, Planetarium Director at Rochester Museum & Science Center
From building rocket engines to exploring Mars and beyond, Rod Pyle has written a very readable and eminently practical volume that documents the challenges, solutions, and lessons learned from NASA's storied history. To read it is to be inspired to recreate in today's challenging world NASA's daring, boldness and passion. -- STEVEN J. DICK, Former NASA Chief historian
Fuel your inspiration with this fascinating book explaining the key lessons of NASA's innovation and exploration of space. Pyle's meaingful insights will improve your business. -- LUKAS VIGLIETTI, President, Swissapollo, Swiss Space Association
The most innovative organization in history, NASA holds an otherworldly mystique for those of us who look on in awe. But behind every one of NASA's amazing innovations lie carefully managed operations, just like any other organization.
Innovation the NASA Way provides practical, proven lessons that will help you envision the future of your organization with clarity, meet every challenge with tenacity, and manage innovation with groundbreaking creativity.
NASA insider Rod Pyle has used the agency's unique methods for driving innovation to train leaders from eBay, the Federal Reserve, Michelin tires, Conoco/Phillips, and many other Fortune 100 and 500 companies. now, for the first time, NASA's cutting-edge strategies for nurturing and fostering innovation are revealed.
Innovation the NASA Way takes you on a tour through the programs that pushed the envelope on the agency's leadership and managerial capacity. It describes the seemingly impossible tasks NASA personnel faced, explains how each challenge was met with forward-looking management methods, and describes the extraordinary innovations that resulted.
Learn how NASA built the Lunar Module, the first true spaceship; created the Saturn V's F-1 rocket motor, the most powerful ever built; and how it creates partnerships with the new players in space-private entrepreneurs. These are just a few of the projects covered in the book.
Space exploration may be NASA's mission, but its innovative leadership practices are founded on solid, down-to-earth methods anyone can apply, anywhere.
PRAISE FOR INNOVATION THE NASA WAY:
Pyle insightfully and skillfully draws out the methods and strategies naSa has employed to achieve its lofty goals. It innovates so far outside the box that the box disappears. Pyle suggests its touchstones are boldness, daring, and passion, and he suggests you can bring those traits into your business. -- DON CAMBOU, executive Producer of History Channel's Modern Marvels
Pyle highlights NASA's key innovation lessons and leaves you with amazing stories you'll want to remember and use in your organization. -- STEVEN FENTRESS, Planetarium Director at Rochester Museum & Science Center
From building rocket engines to exploring Mars and beyond, Rod Pyle has written a very readable and eminently practical volume that documents the challenges, solutions, and lessons learned from NASA's storied history. To read it is to be inspired to recreate in today's challenging world NASA's daring, boldness and passion. -- STEVEN J. DICK, Former NASA Chief historian
Fuel your inspiration with this fascinating book explaining the key lessons of NASA's innovation and exploration of space. Pyle's meaingful insights will improve your business. -- LUKAS VIGLIETTI, President, Swissapollo, Swiss Space Association
278 pages, Hardcover
First published March 25, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 5, 2014
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.25 of 5
Rod Pyle's Innovation the NASA Way is a very successful book on two levels.
First, this is a very nice summary of NASA's history, hitting the highlights (Gemini, Apollo, Voyager, Skylab, ISS, Space Shuttle, etc) -- the successes -- and touching briefly on the catastrophic failures. You could certainly write volumes on any one of the NASA projects, but Pyle manages to capture the essence and the innovation of NASA's existence.
Second, the book does precisely what it sets out to do -- point out the innovation of one of the most necessarily creative organizations in existence. Often born out of necessity, NASA's innovation comes from the fact that time and again, they set out to do things that not only had never been done before, but had to prepare for things that they couldn't possibly know might be problems. As Pyle points out, this is precisely why he chose to use NASA to illustrate innovation.
Pyle very nicely poses questions or challenges throughout each chapter, and follows these up with 'solutions' using NASA's history to illustrate his points.
We've probably all heard the over-used phrase "think outside the box" but NASA is the perfect example of this, and in many ways this book is a salute to that tired phrase. Innovation = thinking outside the box.
Something that I found very interesting, though it was not necessarily an intentional point to the book. Money, and the lack of it, can change the course of innovation.
At the beginning of NASA's existence and popularity, money was rather plentiful. Pyle notes that NASA's budget was almost 5% of the national budget (as opposed to the .5% today). At this time, when NASA had a Presidential directive to be the first to the moon, innovation came from a great deal of dreaming and planning and trial and error. When something failed, it was examined, corrected, and attempted again. There was money for this and in many ways it led to a very productive and positive beginning of the space program (with the exception of the horrific results of Apollo 1). At this time, innovation was a result more of preparing for the unknown (would the module actually be able to leave the moon and meet up with the orbiting ship?) and the known (thrusters would only be able to get a limited amount of weight out of Earth's gravity). As the U.S. government lost interest in the space program, innovation was often a result of monetary constraints. NASA might still want to push the boundaries and attempt the unknown, but now they are asked to do more with less. Both reasons for innovation, however, often lead to unusual (some might say unorthodox) solutions.
Having worked in the not-for-profit sector for decades, I can greatly appreciate the need for innovation, and can empathize with the need to be creative or innovative and to do more with less. However, Pyle makes one statement that does not sit well with me. At one point, Pyle's "challenge" is: " Preserving a mission that has gone well beyond all expectations of achievements ... and budgets." His solution is: " Trim required personnel, equipment, and "mission footprint" to a bare minimum, and use only the time and personnel that are absolutely necessary to accomplish the task at hand."
While NASA may have had their 'fat' days and the luxury of indulging a large number of people to work on projects, this is very rarely the case in the private sector. I can speak from experience in the non-profit world, that there is already not enough money to hire the people who are necessary. Every year of preparing budgets I have heard the same mantra "trim the fat" and yet there isn't any fat. What happens is that more and more people are reduced and upper management points and says "See...you didn't need those people" not realizing that it has made a dedicated few over-worked for no additional compensation. Who decides what is "absolutely necessary" and what is the criteria? Innovation due to lack of funds is understandable. Innovation as a substitution for funding may show a lack of responsibility and can be dangerous.
I am definitely impressed with Rod Pyle's ability to give us a history of NASA and to point out how innovative the organization has been, challenging companies to think like NASA and come up with new solutions to their challenges. In many ways, I think the book can be summed up in Pyle's own words ... a quote which should have been highlighted, and will become a meme on my Facebook page (emphasis mine):
Looking for a good book? Anyone looking to get the most out of their workers or company needs to read Innovation the NASA Way by Rod Pyle, and anyone with even a passing interest in NASA and space exploration will want to read this excellent book.
Rod Pyle's Innovation the NASA Way is a very successful book on two levels.
First, this is a very nice summary of NASA's history, hitting the highlights (Gemini, Apollo, Voyager, Skylab, ISS, Space Shuttle, etc) -- the successes -- and touching briefly on the catastrophic failures. You could certainly write volumes on any one of the NASA projects, but Pyle manages to capture the essence and the innovation of NASA's existence.
Second, the book does precisely what it sets out to do -- point out the innovation of one of the most necessarily creative organizations in existence. Often born out of necessity, NASA's innovation comes from the fact that time and again, they set out to do things that not only had never been done before, but had to prepare for things that they couldn't possibly know might be problems. As Pyle points out, this is precisely why he chose to use NASA to illustrate innovation.
Pyle very nicely poses questions or challenges throughout each chapter, and follows these up with 'solutions' using NASA's history to illustrate his points.
We've probably all heard the over-used phrase "think outside the box" but NASA is the perfect example of this, and in many ways this book is a salute to that tired phrase. Innovation = thinking outside the box.
Something that I found very interesting, though it was not necessarily an intentional point to the book. Money, and the lack of it, can change the course of innovation.
At the beginning of NASA's existence and popularity, money was rather plentiful. Pyle notes that NASA's budget was almost 5% of the national budget (as opposed to the .5% today). At this time, when NASA had a Presidential directive to be the first to the moon, innovation came from a great deal of dreaming and planning and trial and error. When something failed, it was examined, corrected, and attempted again. There was money for this and in many ways it led to a very productive and positive beginning of the space program (with the exception of the horrific results of Apollo 1). At this time, innovation was a result more of preparing for the unknown (would the module actually be able to leave the moon and meet up with the orbiting ship?) and the known (thrusters would only be able to get a limited amount of weight out of Earth's gravity). As the U.S. government lost interest in the space program, innovation was often a result of monetary constraints. NASA might still want to push the boundaries and attempt the unknown, but now they are asked to do more with less. Both reasons for innovation, however, often lead to unusual (some might say unorthodox) solutions.
Having worked in the not-for-profit sector for decades, I can greatly appreciate the need for innovation, and can empathize with the need to be creative or innovative and to do more with less. However, Pyle makes one statement that does not sit well with me. At one point, Pyle's "challenge" is: " Preserving a mission that has gone well beyond all expectations of achievements ... and budgets." His solution is: " Trim required personnel, equipment, and "mission footprint" to a bare minimum, and use only the time and personnel that are absolutely necessary to accomplish the task at hand."
While NASA may have had their 'fat' days and the luxury of indulging a large number of people to work on projects, this is very rarely the case in the private sector. I can speak from experience in the non-profit world, that there is already not enough money to hire the people who are necessary. Every year of preparing budgets I have heard the same mantra "trim the fat" and yet there isn't any fat. What happens is that more and more people are reduced and upper management points and says "See...you didn't need those people" not realizing that it has made a dedicated few over-worked for no additional compensation. Who decides what is "absolutely necessary" and what is the criteria? Innovation due to lack of funds is understandable. Innovation as a substitution for funding may show a lack of responsibility and can be dangerous.
I am definitely impressed with Rod Pyle's ability to give us a history of NASA and to point out how innovative the organization has been, challenging companies to think like NASA and come up with new solutions to their challenges. In many ways, I think the book can be summed up in Pyle's own words ... a quote which should have been highlighted, and will become a meme on my Facebook page (emphasis mine):
Despite the challenge of low budgets and risk aversion, thoughtful innovation does ascend through the system. There is always time later to rein in ideas to fit budget and schedule parameters. But if you don’t go large at the beginning, you will never achieve greatness.
Looking for a good book? Anyone looking to get the most out of their workers or company needs to read Innovation the NASA Way by Rod Pyle, and anyone with even a passing interest in NASA and space exploration will want to read this excellent book.
November 13, 2016
It was a fun read and awe inspiring sometimes to understand the (budget) challenges and hardships NASA went through to put people in space, satellites to the outer planets and eventually beyond our solar system while still functioning after decades (!), and a bunch of people on the moon. It felt sometimes a little bit like reading the recent biography of Elon Musk. Apparently pushing people and machines to its limits is not exclusive to Tesla/SpaceX.
January 30, 2019
Great historical writing so so business learning
March 25, 2020
A nice little history of NASA's achievements in light of obstacles. Not a great narrative provided from the perspective of business success.
July 17, 2025
Some of NASA's top projects or missions and key points of innovation, problem solving that got them through challenges or objectives.
December 19, 2014
NASA, the well-known American government space agency, has a reputation for innovation and pushing the technical envelope over time. Sadly it also has a bit of a reputation for waste, bureaucracy and inefficiency in some quarters that even crosses over into the mainstream press. To be fair, the criticisms usually focus on the higher executive levels of the organization where the praise is centered around the people who predominantly do the work.
You don’t need to be particularly interested in space exploration to get the most out of this book but should you ALSO have an interest here then you may get a great additional bonus. The book sets out to give organizational examples that can translate into success for any business, based around NASA’s own experiences. In all, it was quite fascinating.
Covering individual missions and challenges, each chapter starts with defining a few problems, requirements or tasks before looking at how NASA managed to provide a solution. The book is written in a fairly light, open style so you are not going to need to be an expert on quantum mechanics or space technology to understand things. If you are looking for a behind-the-scenes exposé of the F-1 rocket engine programme then this is not the book for you. Yet you might still learn some good, general information along the way.This is one of those books that you probably should read sequentially to get the most out of it. It is not going to give you a recipe for success and innovation like a cook book – you need to interpret the information, consider its message and implement it into your own programmes but that is not a bad thing either. Maybe you won’t discover a life-changing “ah-ha!” moment either but the subject material manages to be so engaging that you might not notice the other, more routine information entering your brain through literary osmosis.
At the end there is a wrap up that specifically rallies and inspires you to implement innovative strategies to your business. Does the book meet what it sets out to do? Probably. The harder work comes at your end.
As a general business advice/inspiration-type book this was a pleasant read. A good mix of actual real-world experience helped explain the central messages being pushed by the author. It did not feel like a dry, theoretical textbook written by an out-of-touch academic. Even if you don’t have your own business or managerial responsibility, it is quite possible that you could still take away many examples and possibly implement them in your everyday life.
Innovation the NASA Way: Harnessing the Power of Your Organization for Breakthrough Success, written by Rod Pyle and published by McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 9780071829137, 256 pages. YYYY
You don’t need to be particularly interested in space exploration to get the most out of this book but should you ALSO have an interest here then you may get a great additional bonus. The book sets out to give organizational examples that can translate into success for any business, based around NASA’s own experiences. In all, it was quite fascinating.
Covering individual missions and challenges, each chapter starts with defining a few problems, requirements or tasks before looking at how NASA managed to provide a solution. The book is written in a fairly light, open style so you are not going to need to be an expert on quantum mechanics or space technology to understand things. If you are looking for a behind-the-scenes exposé of the F-1 rocket engine programme then this is not the book for you. Yet you might still learn some good, general information along the way.This is one of those books that you probably should read sequentially to get the most out of it. It is not going to give you a recipe for success and innovation like a cook book – you need to interpret the information, consider its message and implement it into your own programmes but that is not a bad thing either. Maybe you won’t discover a life-changing “ah-ha!” moment either but the subject material manages to be so engaging that you might not notice the other, more routine information entering your brain through literary osmosis.
At the end there is a wrap up that specifically rallies and inspires you to implement innovative strategies to your business. Does the book meet what it sets out to do? Probably. The harder work comes at your end.
As a general business advice/inspiration-type book this was a pleasant read. A good mix of actual real-world experience helped explain the central messages being pushed by the author. It did not feel like a dry, theoretical textbook written by an out-of-touch academic. Even if you don’t have your own business or managerial responsibility, it is quite possible that you could still take away many examples and possibly implement them in your everyday life.
Innovation the NASA Way: Harnessing the Power of Your Organization for Breakthrough Success, written by Rod Pyle and published by McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 9780071829137, 256 pages. YYYY
October 18, 2014
Pyle (Curiosity: An Inside Look at the Mars Rover Mission and the People Who Made It Happen) presents well-known NASA missions and resultant lessons that managers and worker-bees can take to heart. It’s not a how-to; “lessons” are aphorisms with the missions presented in layman’s terms. It’s easy to dismiss this whole idea. After all, the projects are nothing like what normal peeps do on a day-to-day basis (e.g., building Skylab vs. shifting the Large Print collection). But careful readers will see that this shows how tenacious NASA was in getting stuff done – and how wild their work was. Like creating a reusable space plane or the biggest booster rocket in the history of booster rockets. Some lessons, like the total insanity of landing Curiosity on Mars, are about practicality in the largest sense; others, such as how Werner von Braun faced” pressure” in the form of President Eisenhower screaming, “How fast can you get some goddamned thing into orbit?” regarding his attempts to launch a satellite. So yes, Chumley, like them, you can do it. The mission bits are fun to read, the lessons are reinforced, and the aphorisms might stick if you work them. VERDICT While Pyle’s economy of language and facility at nugget-izing the huge scope of missions and their upshot is impressive, this is a truly focused tome that challenges readers to try things the NASA way—by being bold, daring, and passionate. Also, it’s hella more accessible than many other business titles out there (e.g., Winging It: ORACLE TEAM USA’s Incredible Comeback to Defend the America’s Cup).
Find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal. Copyright Library Journal.
Find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal. Copyright Library Journal.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews