Preface<br > Top Executive Performance had its beginning three years ago，<br >when Col. Edward P. Barry， Jr.， United States Air Force， at<br >Space Division in Los Angeles. contacted me about developing<br >a special seminar for his senior research and development<br >directors. As a part of this seminar， Col. Barry asked that 1<br >present and lead comprehensive discussions in several areas<br >that were important in managing the development of expensive<br >hardware for use In space. These areas included planning， time<br >management， innovation and creativity， roles and missions，<br >communications， people management and motivation， deci-<br >slon making， stress management， and productivity.<br > The conference， held in San Diego over two and a half days in<br >the spring of 1981， was highly successful， and the participants<br >were very enthusiastic about what they had learned.<br > Other organizations at Space Division asked to receive the<br >same training. Every time the seminar was repeated， it was<br >modified and improved. And every seminar received outstand-<br >ing written evaluations. Clearly the subject matter and its<br >treatment hit the mark..， and tile extensive research accom-<br >plished In preparing the material was obviously worth the<br >effort.<br > The next step was to expand the material even further and<br >concentrate on various psychological techniques that could<br >not have been explored earlier because of my own limitations in<br >