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Continuous Improvement of NASA's Innovation Ecosystem Proceedings of a Workshop (2019) / Chapter Skim
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3 What Should NASA's Future Look Like?
Pages 13-19

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From page 13...
... As would be expected, the answers and the comments generated in those sessions ranged widely, but, he said, there were discernible patterns and themes. There were a number of types of future failures that participants identified.
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From page 14...
... Whereas half a century ago NASA defined success mostly in terms of "put a man on the Moon" and 40 years ago success depended largely on building a reusable space shuttle, the sessions' participants focused on other things. They acknowledged the importance of, for example, building new technologies and having successful missions to the Moon and Mars, but no single item was seen as more important than the rest.
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From page 15...
... "These strong collaborative partnerships mean NASA is doing hard things," Ward observed. "NASA is learning, NASA is leading, NASA is contributing to advancing science, technology, space, aeronautics -- and doing more than just functioning as a regulatory partner, but as a genuinely collaborative leading partner." Summing up the lessons learned from the pre-mortem exercise, Ward identified three main things that participants identified as being important for avoiding a dystopian future: developing strong partnerships with industry and internationally, continuing the learning culture at NASA and building on it, and improving communication across NASA and with those outside of the agency.
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From page 16...
... " "SpaceX admits that NASA's technology led to success." And "NASA administrator approved for 10-year appointment." Ku commented about the last one: "I appreciated the NASA colleagues who explained to me what that meant." The other four headlines that Ku displayed all focused on a future where NASA is widely considered one of the most innovative agencies in the world and, therefore, a place where people want to work or to collaborate with. Those headlines were as follows: • NASA's partnerships create industries.
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From page 17...
... The others covered a range of topics. Some spoke generally about the agency's success, such as, "NASA achieves mission early to benefit of mankind." Others focused on workforce issues, such as, "NASA recruits and retains a flexible workforce that leverages partnerships with industry, academia, and the world" and "Incentives drive culture: new incentives in line with Vision 2030." Still others pointed toward the importance of establishing partnerships and doing it in the right way with the right partners: "NASA has established partnerships based on shared accountability, shared investment, and joint planning" and "NASA partnerships aligned with core values and expected outcomes." But the topic that seemed to generate the most headlines was leadership, and the session participants had a lot to say about what leadership in a successful NASA in the year 2030 would look like: • Leadership culture is open, inclusive, and learning-focused; provides shared consciousness; and offers access to decision makers.
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From page 18...
... So hopefully when you have debate, you can do it with good velocity and to drive accountability." • Start: Have debate, make decision, hold people truly accountable. • Start: Digital accessibility through shared consciousness, shared purpose, as "one NASA." "Hopefully that resonates with everyone," Ku commented.
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From page 19...
... • Stop: Select leaders based primarily on technical merit. "There are more dimensions to leadership than just the technical aspects of it," Ku commented.
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