Human Development Team!

My commitment for NASA is that we inspire the planet.  So how do we really blow the roof off of our organization in order to do that?  Really, how do you take a mostly successful agency and take it to a whole other unimaginable level of success?

 

Well, first, let me share a model that I’m borrowing and applying to an organization, in this case to NASA.  Let’s say that there’s a finite amount of knowledge available in the universe.  NASA, as an organization, knows a certain subset of that knowledge: how to launch space shuttles, how to study the Earth, how to build spacecraft, etc.  Those are all things that NASA knows, and we know that we know it!

 

Then there’s a second set of knowledge in the universe, the stuff that NASA knows it doesn’t know.  In other words, NASA doesn’t know how to run a Toyota assembly line, how to do brain surgery, or how to feed all the people of the world.  This is all fine, as NASA isn’t intended to know how to do these things.  Of course, some of the things in this category are things NASA is working to learn: how to send humans back to the moon is a good example of something we currently know that we don’t know.

 

Then, finally, the third category of knowledge is the stuff that we, as an organization, don’t know that we don’t know.  Think of these as blind spots – the stuff that’s completely hidden from your view, that you have no idea even exists.  Also consider for a moment that perhaps this is the knowledge that is really key to reaching another unimaginable level of success.  Consider that there are things hidden from NASA’s view that would make a huge difference in the success of the agency.

 

Now, the good news is that in looking at this model of an organization, one could also propose that there may be folks within the agency who have this knowledge.  One could propose that the key to success is for folks to transform this knowledge from individual knowledge to organizational knowledge.  One could also propose that this is what great leadership is all about.

 

I think I’ve discovered one of NASA’s blind spots.  I think one of the things that we don’t know as an organization is the importance of human development.  Look at the accident reports from the two shuttle tragedies, for example.  These reports describe two different technical problems, yet they have a very common thread: a concern about culture and communication, how people weren’t able to work effectively with one another.  In response, instead of training people to relate to one another, we train them in more processes and procedures intended to avoid specific technical issues!

 

As I was thinking about this, I thought about my own education, at least the part that was required to get a job at NASA.  I was a typical engineer, one of those folks only interested in the physics, the math, the engineering.  I didn’t see much of a need to take any sort of human development classes, at least not any that weren’t absolutely required.  It dawned on me that it is no wonder we have trouble communicating at NASA – the vast majority of us are communicating with each other as if we’re 16 years old!  That’s about when most of us were able to focus our education on the “hard” sciences and stopped having to pay attention to those “soft” sciences and our own human development!  (This is not to say that there are no programs like this at NASA – they’re just way too few and far between!)

 

So I propose that if we’re going to be an exceptional agency with an unprecedented level of success, we’ve got to take a whole new revolutionary approach to human development.  We have to train our employees in who they are BEING, so that we can all transform how we communicate and how we relate to one another.  That’s the way to lay the foundation for us to achieve a whole new level of success!

 

Given all of that, I’m building a team that is dedicated to creating a new culture around human development at NASA!

 

Anyone can join the team, but team members must:

1)      be willing to develop themselves

2)      be a stand for human development in their environment

3)      take action to make a difference in other people’s lives

 

If you’d like to be part of the team, send me an email at Rivers.Lamb@nasa.gov, or leave a comment below!