Cross Generational Activities Briefing to the Strategic Management Council March 19, 2009.

Cross Generational Activities

Briefing to the Strategic Management Council

March 19, 2009

Introduction

At the April 2008 Strategic Management Council (SMC) meeting, eight members of the next generation community discussed the long-term strategic effects on the NASA mission of current hiring practices and the upcoming gap in US human space flight, and specific actions that the SMC and the next generation community could each take.

This presentation is intended to:

•Provide a status on the next generation issue

•Report on the results of the cross-generational discussions requested by the Administrator in the April SMC meeting and the follow-on December SMC meeting

Issue Areas

Subsequent discussions and subsequent work has revolved around the 4 issues from the April SMC:

Provide the NASA workforce with an infusion of fresh ideas, methodologies and technologies

Provide the NASA workforce the programs and experience it needs to be the leaders in the future

Enable enhanced communication and collaboration between NASA centers

Attract, hire and retain young people

11

22

33

44

Progress Additional help needed

Idea InfusionCenters have begun implementing ideas

Varying levels of participation

Development opportunities

Many new training opportunities, esp. for leadership & system engineering

More historical hands-on “training” with smaller projects

CommunicationTremendous grass-roots community building

No formal top down support for cross-center discussions

Hiring!More flexibility to hire students

NASA’s average age continues to climb

8-Month Scorecard

There was a great deal of progress between April and December

11

22

33

44

Provide the NASA workforce with an infusion of

fresh ideas, methodologies and technologies

Agency & Center Next Generation and/or Cross-Generation Project Teams, focus groups, and/or inclusion and innovation councils to work issues

– Dryden New Professionals Group– GRC Developing Professionals Club– HQ NextGen Lunch– JSC Inclusion & Innovation (I&I) Council– KSC Refresh team– LaRC focus groups/Center Director round tables– MSFC focus groups/Center Director round tables– OpenAmes – OpenGoddard– SSC focus groups/Center Director round tables

Activities

11

Provide the NASA workforce the programs and

experience it needs to be the leaders in the future

Progress has been made with training and development programs focused on professional, personal effectiveness, and leadership capabilities

– NASA FIRST Program– Supervisory Training– Communications Training– Mid-level Management Training– Business Education Training– Systems Engineering Leadership Development Program– Program/Project Management Training– C-GPS

Activities

22

Enable enhanced communication and collaboration

between NASA centers

Multiple communication venues – formal and informal – provided to improve vertical and horizontal communication and to provide more access to center leadership

– Initiated Agency & Center Next Generation and/or Cross-Generation Project Teams for the purposes of making recommendations for improving programs and activities at NASA

– Networking websites have been created at the Agency and center levels

– Establishing Agency-wide young professionals network

– Centers are providing cyber café, library, and/or cafeteria meeting areas

– There are center director round table discussions/brown bag lunches

– Culture Survey – developing a “Go To Organizational Model” to strengthen/improve

communication within NASA (multi-generational)

Activities

33

Attract, hire and retain young people

New efforts to show interest in Next Gen workforce

– Informed OMB that Co-ops would not count against center ceilings. Back up plan is in place should we once again have to count them. KSC has set the precedent with their Kennedy Intern Program – educational opportunity not personal services

– Several JSC college students created entertaining videos to help their generation connect with NASA in a way not expected from a government agency. KSC also preparing a recruitment video to target next-gen workforce

– Improved New Employee Orientation programs

– Matched Next Geners with mentors

– OBIN – working to have new employees fully functioning as close to day one as possible and through first year of employment

– Developing a Career Management Program (cGPS) – career patterns of progression

Activities

44

Results of Center

Discussions

Cross-Generation Project Teams, focus groups, and/or inclusion and innovation councils at seven centers held discussions

Report is a description of those results and recommendations**

The team analyzed the data to look for trends and realistic suggestions that could be implemented at the Agency level, rather than addressing all the ideas that can be implemented at the organization or Center level

** A complete list of ideas is captured in Appendix A.

DECEMBER SMC ACTION ITEMS

• OHCM/Dawsey to provide specific recommendations and/or actions for mission directorates and centers to:

• Increase the number of fresh outs, such as adding requirement to performance standards and cluster hiring of co-ops prior to last semester;

• Advertise NASA leadership development, at all levels, to promote leadership training and identify high-potential candidates;

• Ensure Agency-wide consistency and quality of mentoring programs;

• Implement new employee rotation programs;

• Expand, and broadly advertise, communication technologies; (OHCM set up a meeting with OCIO to discuss the cross-generational team’s suggested collaboration technologies (e.g. blogs and wikis), and how the Agency CIO Web Council and/or the Office of the CIO can advance associated outreach and policies.); Added at OMC

• Institute a business resource management model that provides employees time for innovation;

• Motivate employees, e.g. set aside launch tickets for employees, at all levels, at each center."

DECEMBER SMC ACTION ITEMS

Approaches to date:

Not establishing “Agency” teams for one Agency-wide solution

Benchmarking programs and practices in place at centers

Using next gen/cross gen/NASA FIRST participant teams – with team champions at Agency and/or center levels

Current Situation

Key Theme #1 Fresh Outs

1) NASA is vulnerable to a retirement wave of a large fraction of its experienced workforce with a paucity of people with sufficient experience to replace them.

2) The recent trend to replacing “attrited” workforce with people of similar years of experience has led to little hiring of people within a few years of their terminal educational degree. As a result, NASA has not had sufficient benefit of people trained in the very latest tools and techniques, particularly in the technical disciplines where the pace of evolution is rapid.

3) The trend has also had the effect of hiring experienced technical replacement workforce predominantly from the aerospace industry and even more predominantly from within the NASA development and operational culture. As a result, NASA does not have sufficient benefit of people with good education and skills who are not invested in the status quo. Absent hiring such people, NASA risks becoming a stagnant technological and development organization.

Recommendations

Key Theme #1 Fresh Outs

Recommendation to increase the number of fresh outs, by:

adding requirement to performance standards (MSFC)

and

clustering hiring of co-ops prior to last semester (DFRC)

Recommendations

Key Theme #1 Fresh Outs

Recommendation: Add as a requirement to performance standards at the Center Director level. Suggested language is:

"Ensure support for short and long-term programmatic and institutional needs by providing a workforce that is balanced appropriately by skills, level of experience, and demographics."   

Rather than a specific metric that is applied equally at all Centers, Center Directors would establish a plan and/or goal for their center.

An implementing approach is to have Centers report progress on a quarterly basis – like they do at the BPR with FTE targets.  

Recommendations

Key Theme #2 Formal Development Program

Recommendation to develop a new strategy for advertising NASA formal development at lower levels at centers to promote leadership training and identify high-potential candidates

Action completed: Developed and distributed brochures to all Center training offices, held discussions with HR directors and training officers, and established a website on the Workforce Services Portal.

KSC employees requested a similar matrix for KSC leadership development opportunities, which KSC HR just completed. It will be shared with the other center HR offices at an upcoming VITS.

Recommendations

Key Theme #3 Mentoring

Recommendation that the Agency Office of Human Capital Management investigate the possibility of having an Agency-wide contract with a vendor that could set up and administer formal mentoring programs at each of the Centers

On February 19, by VITS, the Center HR Directors benchmarked KSC’s new in-house developed mentoring program tool.

JSC is assessing their current program from an inclusion perspective to consider different mentoring models and making recommendations to revamp their formal program and create a suite of informal mentoring opportunities.

A team of current NASA FIRST participants are working this action as their class project.

Recommendations

Key Theme #4 NASA Rotation Program

Recommendation that a new employee rotation program be implemented within the agency:

Newer employees can apply for details lasting three months at other NASA centers to gain knowledge within that center’s areas of expertise.

All newly hired employees and converted coop students would be eligible, and can potentially work one or more details over a two to three year period at other NASA centers.

On February 19, by VITS, the HR directors benchmarked KSC’s new in-house developed rotation program tool.

A team of current NASA FIRST participants are considering this action as their class project.

Recommendations

Key Theme #5 Communication Technology

Expand, and broadly advertise, communication technologies:

OHCM set up a meeting with OCIO to discuss the cross-generational team’s suggested collaboration technologies (e.g. blogs and wikis), and how the Agency CIO Web Council and/or the Office of the CIO can advance associated outreach and policies.

Held first meeting on February 4 and included PAO. Technology is in place.

Follow-up meeting with OCIO scheduled for March 24

Recommendations

Key Theme #5 Communication Technology

• OHCM, OCIO, and others are addressing social networking at NASA What is social networking? What are the issues (e.g., records management,

privacy)? What are NASA’s current technical capabilities

- External: NASA to public, examples include:Publishing to the public (NASA.GOV)Broadcast messaging (email, RSS, Twitter)Custom portals (myNASA.gov)

- Internal: NASA to it's employees; examples include:INSIDENASA.GOV

Wikis (inwiki and Confluence)Blogs (blogs.nasa.gov)Broadcast messaging (email, RSS, Jabber, LCS)Social networking (Spacebook pilot at GSFC)Team workspace (Sharepoint, eRoom, NX)

How can NASA better leverage it’s existing capabilities, recognizing budget and other constraints?

Recommendations

Key Theme #6 Business Resource Management

Recommendation to institute a business resource management model similar to the 70/20/10 model successfully implemented by Google

A modified version of the model suggested for use at NASA, with the intent of cultivating innovation, would empower employees to utilize their time in the following 80/20 ratio:

80% of time should be dedicated to core business tasks

20% of time should be dedicated to projects related to the core business

Recommendations

Key Theme #6 Business Resource Management

JSC has 7 “Engagement Teams” and a couple of the teams are assessing the feasibility of such a model.

One of the recommendations:

Charter a team to conduct a 60 day study to identify innovation barriers and make cogent and specific recommendations to the Administrator for action. Another recommendation takes a different approach:

Task each Center cross-generation group to look at barriers for innovation and bring them together in focused workshops with 3 outputs expected.

Met with GSFC Chief Technologist to champion this action for a NASA FIRST team

Recommendations

Key Theme #6 Business Resource Management

Met with GSFC Chief Technologist, Peter Hughes, who has agreed to champion this action for a NASA FIRST team

Discussed an innovation model which originated at GSFC – the IRAD approach, which funds promising new technologies and

includes early career calls for ideas

Also discussed the “Innovation Incubator” which is exploring the idea of implementing long-range innovation, offering more

inclusion for early idea development to validate and solidify the ideas for investment. Will require 20-40 hours of development time.

Recommendations

Key Theme #6 Business Resource Management

Reviewing IdeaFactory – a web-based tool which gives all employees a voice in how the Agency should operate and evolve.

The program is designed to drive innovation, change and employee empowerment throughout the Agency.

Employees brainstorm new programs, processes, and technologies based on specific topics and then comment on, and rate, each other’s ideas.

Highly rated ideas are reviewed by a Review Board.

Recommendations

Key Theme #7 Launch Tickets

Recommend tickets to be set aside for employees at each center, at all levels, for viewing of launches to experience the fulfillment of NASA’s mission

(JSC Awards & Recognition team)

NASA is often so good at celebration, and we want to: Expand the focus of who and what we are celebrating, making it easier for everyone to get involved in the process and be a part of the solution; Encourage open-mindedness, collaboration, inclusion,and innovation; Create an environment that incubates and incentivizes creativity and innovative thinking

Recommendations

Key Theme #7 Launch Tickets

Recommend tickets to be set aside for employees at each center, at all levels, for viewing of launches to experience the fulfillment of NASA’s mission

Award examples are:

Viewing other launches Tours of facilities, (NBL, MCC, SVMF, Food Lab, etc.), A call from the ISS, Watching Apollo 13 in the MOCR, Ride in the Zero G plane

A NASA FIRST team has been formed that will be championed by an OHCM staff member and will include working with the JSC Awards and Recognition Engagement Team.