As the head of science at NASA, Thomas Zurbuchen managed an $8.6 billion dollar budget. A typical Monday, for him, might have involved hitting an asteroid with a space craft or trying to launch a rocket.

Zurbuchen left that role in 2022, but he’s still the longest continually serving head of science in NASA’s history. He and his team accomplished a lot in that time.

In this episode, he shares what he learned about leading extremely technical, complex, and expensive projects with a high risk of failure. You’ll learn how to manage your time, how to balance high-level strategy work with overseeing operations, and how to manage failure in a way that encourages learning and innovation.

Key episode topics include: leadership, teams, talent management, innovation, NASA, managing risk, collaboration, engineering, project management, government.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

• Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: NASA’s Science Head on Leading Space Missions with Risk of Spectacular Failure (2022)


• Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.


• Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.