Laufer, A: Mastering the Leadership Role in Project Manag.

Dr. Alexander Laufer is a chaired professor of civil engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, where he also served as the dean of the faculty. Currently he is also a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has served as the editor-in-chief of the NASA Academy of Program and Project Leadership Magazine, Academy Sharing Knowledge, and as a member of the advisory board of the NASA Academy of Program and Project Leadership. He has also served as the director of the Center for Project Leadership at Columbia University. He is a member of the editorial review board of the Project Management Journal. Dr. Laufer is the author or coauthor of five books; the two most recent ones are Breaking the Code of Project Management (Macmillan, 2009) and Shared Voyage: Learning and Unlearning from Remarkable Projects (NASA History Office, 2005).

In this book, renowned project management expert Dr. Alexander Laufer leads an all-star team of practitioners and thought leaders in presenting a powerful project leadership framework. Laufer's framework addresses the toughest challenges of new product development: large, complex projects composed of many diverse, geographically distributed, and highly interdependent components; and organizational change, as well as the unique characteristics of repeated and risky tasks. Laufer reveals core leadership principles that are crucial to successful project leadership in dynamic and complex environments, regardless of industry, project goals, or stakeholders. Then, together with his contributors, he presents eight chapter-length case studies covering exceptionally challenging projects in a wide spectrum of industries and products -- from developing missiles to reorganizing companies, building spacecraft and dairy plants to flying solar-powered airplanes. Powerful lessons taught by these projects include:

Foreword: Larry Prusak xi Introduction: Learning from the Best Practitioners 1 Alexander Laufer Chapter 1: Developing a Missile: The Power of Autonomy and Learning 19 Alexander Laufer, Dan Ward, Alistair Cockburn Chapter 2: Building of Memory: Managing Creativity Through Action 51 Alexander Laufer, Zvi Ziklik, Jeffrey Russell Chapter 3: Flying Solar-Powered Airplanes: Soaring High on Spirit and Systems 71 Alexander Laufer, Edward Hoffman, Don Cohen Chapter 4: Transferring Harbor Cranes: Delivering A Bold Idea Through Meticulous Preparations and Quick Responsiveness 103 Alexander Laufer, Zvi Ziklik, Jeffrey Russell Chapter 5: A Successful Downsizing: Developing a Culture of Trust and Responsibility 125 Alexander Laufer, Dan Ward, Alistair Cockburn Chapter 6: A Peaceful Evacuation: Building A Multi-Project Battalion by Leading Upward 149 Alexander Laufer, Zvi Ziklik, Dora Cohenca-Zall Chapter 7: Exploring Space: Shaping Culture by Exploiting Location 171 Alexander Laufer, Edward Hoffman, Don Cohen Chapter 8: Building a Dairy Plant: Accelerating Speed by Splitting and Harmonizing 193 Alexander Laufer, Jeffrey Russell, Dora Cohenca-Zall Epilogue: Practices for Project Leadership 213 Alexander Laufer Index 239