Tragedies and Triumphs of America's Moon Program Profiled in New Book, Apollo Leadership Lessons: Powerful Business Insights for Executives

CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- America's effort to put a man on the moon is a compelling story, one filled with hope, tragedy and, ultimately, a triumph of human spirit and ingenuity that remains unequalled to this, its 50^th anniversary year.  Every step of way, it's about the leadership demonstrated by a small number of key personnel, ones who took Apollo from the bold vision of a martyred President to a seemingly impossible technical reality, in less than a decade.

In his new book, Apollo Leadership Lessons (Authority Publishing, 244 pages, ISBN-978-1-949642-13-1, Retail: $19.99), executive development expert Dick Richardson shows how the leadership tactics employed by the Apollo program's key decision-makers can be applied in business today, from the C-suite on down to the frontline.

Richardson is the founder of Experience to Lead, a firm that offers unique, immersive experiences to improve the leadership skills of senior business executives.  His book is based on his company's popular Apollo Leadership Program, which has taken over 100 teams from Fortune 500 companies to the Johnson Space Center to learn directly from the NASA executives and astronauts involved in Apollo and other programs. 

Apollo Leadership Lessons provides a vantage into leadership via chapters dedicated to key players in the program including:

• Wernher Von Braun – How the "enemy scientist" behind Germany's deadly U2 rocket program escaped with his research team and "repositioned" himself as an advocate of peaceful space exploration and an indispensable asset to NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo efforts.;
• JFK – How President Kennedy's brief speech at Rice University provided not only a winning vision for a country that was losing the space race, but a way to support other initiatives he campaigned for, from boosting scientific research, education and the economy to mitigating segregation;
• James Webb and his Triad – How a finance expert who doubted his own ability to handle this very technical task became its chief administrator, guiding NASA from its beginnings through the moon missions, and compensated for his short-comings with "The Triad," a three-person, decision-making team;
• Apollo 1 Disaster and George Low - How the "normalization of deviation" helped cause the fire that took the lives of three astronauts of Apollo 1. Why one heroic technician, George Low, took a demotion to redesign the space craft, instituting 400 improvements only 40 of which dealt with the fire, and then reframed the Apollo program after this disaster to get America "first to the moon."

Richardson's Apollo Leadership Lessons also addresses how NASA's meritocracy focus helped battle segregation, why great bosses – and not money – proved vital to attracting the best and the brightest and how NASA refocused its mission after achieving the seemingly impossible goal of landing a man on the moon.

For more information, visit https://www.experiencetolead.com/

For review copies and interviews: Sal Cataldi, Cataldi PR, Tel: 516.236.3817, 212.244.9779   [email protected]

SOURCE Dick Richardson