NASA 4-Dimensional Leadership Programme

Leadership Lessons from Space for the Workplace

Week 1: 22/7/2025 and 24/7/2025 12:00pm to 2:00pm (AEST)

Week 2: 29/7/2025 and 31/7/2025 12:00pm to 2:00pm (AEST)

Week 3: 05/8/2025 and 07/8/2025 12:00pm to 2:00pm (AEST)

Week 4: 12/8/2025 and 14/8/2025 12:00pm to 2:00pm (AEST)

Overview

The Artemis and Moon to Mars programs have forever changed expectations about the social and psychological conditioning, as teams embark on multi-year space missions. Studies conducted by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) in astronaut training analogs like Antarctica have challenged how we think about leadership, team cohesion and high performance.

Studies like NASA’s multi-year ICE (Isolation, Confinement and Extreme conditions) study, for example, have looked at the role of leadership in team dynamics, as candidate astronauts ‘over-winter’ in Antarctica, under conditions approximating a Moon or Mars settlement. These and other learnings from astronaut selection and conditioning around the world have highlighted the importance of traits like the ability to self-regulate one’s emotions.

The ability to process ‘failure’, for example (along with the associated emotions of frustration and feelings of incompetence) is a critical requirement for both astronauts and leaders of every description. Initially developed by NASA’s Director of Astrophysics, Charlie Pellerin, in the wake of failed missions and shuttle disasters, the 4-D program became a benchmark for leadership development in NASA and around the world. Since its inception, the program has been voluntarily completed by over 1,500 NASA teams, contributing to NASA being named Best Place to Work in the US government for the twelfth year in a row (May 2024). Outside of NASA, the program has been embraced by over 100,000 public and private sector leaders in over 75 countries over the past two decades. If you want to become confident in your ability to lead in any situation, this is the way to do it! Learn more

Learning Outcomes

This course equips participants with essential skills and strategies to:

Establish trust and set team standards
Set missions and achieve results
Make (almost) any team high-performing

NASA’s Four Dimensions

Why it Matters

PEOPLE-BUILDING
o This dimension establishes shared interests, linking personal and team interests to the organisation’s overall purpose to create alignment and group cohesion.
o Development becomes focused on strengths, but unafraid of difficult conversations, enabling individuals to thrive in an environment where team feedback is habitual, authentic, prompt, proportional, integrated, non-avoiding, empathetic, specific and strengths-oriented.

TEAM-BUILDING
o Keeping agreements, including setting boundaries and team standards, as well as external commitments, is crucial for the development of trust and cohesion.
o The ability to both surface and rewrite the ‘unwritten rules’ and then trade social currencies like power, attention, information and recognition makes high-functioning teams.

SYSTEM-BUILDING
o Clarity and alignment of responsibilities, accountabilities and authorities creates effective human systems.
o The team learns to recognise and confront dysfunctional belief systems and behaviours before they become an Achilles heel for the entire group.

MISSION-BUILDING
o Teams co-design a series of missions, grounded in reality, that will deliver an aspirational vision.
o Teams develop and convey a compelling vision of the future and bring it to life by applying the science of habit formation to embed it in the organisation.

8 Neurogenetic Behaviours

NASA discovered that exceptional leaders are fluent in four dimensions and these invisible social fields, determine team, project and organisational performance.

The NASA system introduces eight neurogenetic* behaviours that establish trust and psychological safety as a foundation for high performance.

What makes this program different to leadership frameworks developed from psychometric factors, psychological theory, or organisational values, is that it is grounded in contemporary social neuroscience and universally relevant to teams of all descriptions.

Who Should Attend

This masterclass is designed for leaders at all levels. Participants range from Commanders and Chiefs of Staff to Frontline leaders, and we are yet to see someone not get exceptional value from this program, irrespective of their current level of experience.

Preparation

This workshop is highly interactive with group activities and discussions throughout. Come prepared with some current challenges you are facing in your organisation. To participate you’ll need:

A computer with camera and microphone
Strong internet connection
Quiet, well-lit space

Meet Your Facilitator

Paul Hawkins, Chief Combobulator, Crazy Might Work

Paul founded Crazy Might Work in Antarctica in 2015, on a mission to bring learnings from frontiers like space to the workplace. Today Crazy Might Work is the leading provider of the Four-Dimensional Leadership program used by NASA and the strategic innovation partner of the Public Sector Network and Ageing Australia.

Prior to launching Crazy Might Work, Paul worked in over 20 countries, on everything from mergers and acquisitions to global shared services. He chairs the Board of a Community Services not-for-profit and is a sought-after keynote speaker on the subjects of human and artificial intelligence, innovation and leadership.

Paul is a skilled master of ceremonies and moderator, with formal qualifications in education, business and innovation, and accreditations in neuroscience and appreciative inquiry. He has a pending PhD in breakthrough innovation and will show you how to "10X Your Intelligence".

What your peers had to say

The NASA 4-D Leadership Program is truly unique as it helps leaders understand and then shape their context through the application of 8 key behaviours. The upfront leadership benchmarking provided the important baseline from which to build, whilst the exercises were engaging and unique. Who doesn’t want to be an astronaut for a day or two?

Chief Technology Officer, listed property group

Having studied Leadership for many years, the NASA 4-D Leadership Program was an amazing life changing journey, helping me to build better teams and navigate the most hostile environments I could imagine. The program brought together a group of intelligent professionals and challenged them to see the world differently. The logical pathway from building people to developing them into a team and designing strong systems to create the ideas to drive progress makes sense and I have been applying it to my everyday life.
Former Commander, Raptor Squad

The NASA 4-D leadership course came at a perfect time for me as I’m building a new team and I was able to immediately use the lessons and tools. I felt we were already on track to become a high performing team, but this course gave ownership to our individual team members, and I think that will make us a high performing team for a very long time. The course materials were relevant, professional, and engaging and I enjoyed learning about my incredible classmates’ challenges.

Major, US Military

Agenda

Why Attend

This program demystifies leadership using exercises and simulations from the current space program, making it a fully immersive, transformational experience and not just training.

Register

Register now to secure your spot and take the next step!

*Group Discounts Available - Contact Registrations at training@publicsector.academy or Call on (02) 9057 9070

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$1,999

1Available

*Prices include GST

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At PSN Academy, we pride ourselves on delivering content informed by global best practices, guided by the APS and state-based learning frameworks, and facilitated by industry-leading experts. Our flexible delivery options include in-person workshops, virtual training sessions, and hybrid models to suit diverse learning preferences and operational needs.