The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is one of the most complex agencies in the US government. They have sent men to the moon, satellites beyond our solar system, peered further into space than ever imagined, and advanced an age of unparalleled discovery. In other words, NASA is the premier pioneer for exploration of our known universe.
What makes NASA so extraordinary? I would say its human resource, innovative thinking, and a willingness to achieve mission success. However, with great exploration comes great risk and failure. January 28, 1986 NASA lost the shuttle Challenger along with her crew, and more recently the shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas upon reentry. The loss of life and billions of dollars invested in these programs forced NASA to take a close look at where they could have made better choices, safer operations, and really take a look at their organizational culture. As with any failure NASA needed to know where they went wrong.
NASA employed an external entity to compile data through surveys, interviews, and observation of the entire agency, and what the information showed was a very clear gap in management-employee interaction and a lack of encouragement for upward communication. It wasn't a lack of willingness that was the problem, it was the lack of leadership upholding the core values of NASA that helped contribute to these disasters. NASA's Administrator, Sean O'Keefe, spoke to his organization about this extensive diagnostic effort and delivered an honest account that focused on answering the question of where they went wrong, what they plan to do to fix the issues, and how these changes will ultimately make NASA the organization it has the potential to be.
O'Keefe spoke about the importance of respect for fellow colleagues. He commented on the lack of leadership support and the encouragement of open communications up and down the organizational structure. More importantly, Sean O'Keefe took full responsibility for these pitfalls as the most senior leader at NASA. His message focused on the need for a cultural change throughout the entire NASA family, and I believe he was sincere in his commitment to see these changes through.
NASA core values are safety, people, excellence, and integrity. Every one of these core values involve the human element to achieve. They are not systems that can be established with code or automated with robots and computers. They are "people" values. The diagnoses of the culture within NASA showed that these values were understood thoughout the organization, yet they were not being implemented into action. Basically, the leadership in NASA was not walking the talk, and this is what O'Keefe focused on in his speech. Values without action are nothing more than empty words. Changing this cultural mindset was the answer NASA needed to rebuild their organization into a safer, more innovative, and powerful force in exploration. It starts with the people.
As I was watching O'Keefe deliver his message I kept thinking about my past career as a sales manager for Toyota. While I was not figuring out how to get a rover to mars, I was thinking about how I could be more proactive with my sales team. The only way to know what was going on in the trenches was to venture out from behind my desk and get involved. Sure, I had inventory to manage, numbers to crunch, and bosses to report to every hour, but none of that was more important to me than engaging with our customers and the sales people helping them. I often found myself staying far beyond closing hours to finalize the work I could have done during my shift instead of interacting on the floor, but I never minded that extra effort. It paid dividends with our customers, my sales people, and the dealership. Because of this I was able to find solutions to problems as they developed and not after the fact. I can only imagine how what sorts of results NASA could achieve with that same drive and awareness in its leadership ranks.
Very soon I will be the general manager of a small organization of talented people in Corpus Christi. I was not chosen to make drastic changes in this store, but to improve on the systems in place. Taking what I have learned from NASA and Sean O'Keefe I will focus my efforts not only on the products we sell, or the market we sell to, but on the valuable input and talent of the employees we have. I will continue to be engaged with our staff just as I had been with Toyota. I believe that the lessons learned from NASA's cultural changes supersede industry boundaries, and employing cultural awareness is the foundation for turning a good organization into a great opportunity.
JP
What makes NASA so extraordinary? I would say its human resource, innovative thinking, and a willingness to achieve mission success. However, with great exploration comes great risk and failure. January 28, 1986 NASA lost the shuttle Challenger along with her crew, and more recently the shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas upon reentry. The loss of life and billions of dollars invested in these programs forced NASA to take a close look at where they could have made better choices, safer operations, and really take a look at their organizational culture. As with any failure NASA needed to know where they went wrong.
NASA employed an external entity to compile data through surveys, interviews, and observation of the entire agency, and what the information showed was a very clear gap in management-employee interaction and a lack of encouragement for upward communication. It wasn't a lack of willingness that was the problem, it was the lack of leadership upholding the core values of NASA that helped contribute to these disasters. NASA's Administrator, Sean O'Keefe, spoke to his organization about this extensive diagnostic effort and delivered an honest account that focused on answering the question of where they went wrong, what they plan to do to fix the issues, and how these changes will ultimately make NASA the organization it has the potential to be.
O'Keefe spoke about the importance of respect for fellow colleagues. He commented on the lack of leadership support and the encouragement of open communications up and down the organizational structure. More importantly, Sean O'Keefe took full responsibility for these pitfalls as the most senior leader at NASA. His message focused on the need for a cultural change throughout the entire NASA family, and I believe he was sincere in his commitment to see these changes through.
NASA core values are safety, people, excellence, and integrity. Every one of these core values involve the human element to achieve. They are not systems that can be established with code or automated with robots and computers. They are "people" values. The diagnoses of the culture within NASA showed that these values were understood thoughout the organization, yet they were not being implemented into action. Basically, the leadership in NASA was not walking the talk, and this is what O'Keefe focused on in his speech. Values without action are nothing more than empty words. Changing this cultural mindset was the answer NASA needed to rebuild their organization into a safer, more innovative, and powerful force in exploration. It starts with the people.
As I was watching O'Keefe deliver his message I kept thinking about my past career as a sales manager for Toyota. While I was not figuring out how to get a rover to mars, I was thinking about how I could be more proactive with my sales team. The only way to know what was going on in the trenches was to venture out from behind my desk and get involved. Sure, I had inventory to manage, numbers to crunch, and bosses to report to every hour, but none of that was more important to me than engaging with our customers and the sales people helping them. I often found myself staying far beyond closing hours to finalize the work I could have done during my shift instead of interacting on the floor, but I never minded that extra effort. It paid dividends with our customers, my sales people, and the dealership. Because of this I was able to find solutions to problems as they developed and not after the fact. I can only imagine how what sorts of results NASA could achieve with that same drive and awareness in its leadership ranks.
Very soon I will be the general manager of a small organization of talented people in Corpus Christi. I was not chosen to make drastic changes in this store, but to improve on the systems in place. Taking what I have learned from NASA and Sean O'Keefe I will focus my efforts not only on the products we sell, or the market we sell to, but on the valuable input and talent of the employees we have. I will continue to be engaged with our staff just as I had been with Toyota. I believe that the lessons learned from NASA's cultural changes supersede industry boundaries, and employing cultural awareness is the foundation for turning a good organization into a great opportunity.
JP
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