Lockheed Martin Space teams with Daniels to provide customized executive education modules to its highly educated workforce
“It isn’t exactly rocket science” is now part of our vernacular for describing mundane jobs or uninspired ideas.
But employees at Lockheed Martin Space, the Denver-based business unit of global security and aerospace contractor Lockheed Martin Corporation, eschew that phrase. After all, their work is rocket science.
Lockheed Martin Space employs more than 22,000 people in 10 states who design and build satellites and spacecraft for government and commercial customers. Flying high above Earth barely visible to the eye, their customers’ satellites warn us of impending severe weather, connect troops on the battlefield and deliver the convenience of GPS directions to people worldwide. They’re also building NASA’s Orion spaceship to take the first woman and the next man to the Moon by 2024.
Rocket science has become an intensely competitive business. Industry participants include dozens of traditional aerospace companies—such as United Technologies and Northrop Grumman—and newer entrants, including Google, Microsoft and Elon Musk’s SpaceX. So, much like the aerospace industry itself, the demand for talent and leadership is out of this world.
Rebecca Szpak
Lockheed Martin Space stands out in the race for talent by providing learning, development and training opportunities to its employees—many of whom are, indeed, rocket scientists. The company recently partnered with the Executive Education division of the Daniels College of Business on two distinct leadership development offerings for management-level employees: Supplemental Accelerator Workshops and Leader Academy.
“These Lockheed Martin programs show the diversity of solutions Daniels Executive Education can provide,” said David Worley, executive director of executive education at Daniels.
Supplemental Accelerator Workshops
The Supplemental Accelerator Workshops (SAWs) augment Lockheed Martin’s sophisticated, homegrown development program, which accelerates the growth of leadership skills among the company’s high-potential middle-management leaders.
In 2019, internal discussions to provide additional learning opportunities through its program led Lockheed Martin Space to Daniels Executive Education. Discussions resulted in the pilot of a SAW focused on personal development in January 2021 for the year’s first cohort of leaders and second cohort in August.
Dani Chambers
Positive feedback prompted the introduction of three additional pilot SAWs concentrating on risk, innovation and data analysis for a third cohort in November. The initial pilot SAW was also reconfigured to focus on strategy. The workshops were structured as live lecture and discussion sessions delivered virtually by Daniels Executive Education faculty.
“Daniels’ involvement in creating and delivering the SAWs to enhance our Accelerator program is about pulling on the College’s expertise in leadership development to give our participants a more robust program,” said Rebecca Szpak, leadership development consultant at Lockheed Martin. “The workshops give participants different ways of thinking about strategy, risk, innovation and data—which are important strategic areas for Lockheed Martin—in a way that supports their career and the business. We want them to come out of the program ready to take what they’ve learned back to their teams and use this knowledge in their future roles.”
Response to the expanded program has been positive.
“To date, the Accelerator program has been my favorite learning experience here,” said Dani Chambers, multi-function engineering & science manager at Lockheed Martin Space. “The professor of my risk workshop provided me with a new perspective on risk. He helped me understand that while our goal is 100 percent mission success, the product development and design stage is a time to figure things out. It’s a time for the team to take some risks, and identify and fix issues that will lead to end-product perfection. It’s not a matter of perfection at every stage. That took a huge burden off me.”
Meg Blight
Leader Academy
The success of the Accelerator program with the addition of the SAWs prompted Lockheed Martin Space to implement Leader Academy for newer leaders in partnership with Daniels Executive Education.
“The question we were thinking about was, ‘What are we doing to prepare our newer leaders to scale and take on broader roles.’” said Meg Blight, leadership development consultant at Lockheed Martin. “How do we move them from being good to great leaders, while helping them do it quickly and successfully? Very importantly, how do we foster an environment to entice that development?
“One of the ideas that came forward was to create a special kind of program with a degree-granting institution,” Blight continued. “That led us to pursuing the program as a partnership with Daniels rather than us owning the entire program.”
After completing the Leader Academy program, participants can continue their learning through Executive Education workshops to earn a High-Performance Leadership Program credential in the form of a digital badge. The courses can also satisfy elective requirements of some Daniels degree programs.
“If you want your organization to thrive, your people need to be growing and getting better at what they do,” Worley concluded. “Lockheed Martin serves as a great model for other companies that believe in the benefits of ongoing education. While they have outstanding internal programs, they also know when to seek outside expertise to supplement what they do.”
