kelly.michael

11

Kelly 02/24/09 This briefing is for status only and does not represent complete engineering data analysis

NASA Engineering & Safety Center (NESC)

Agency-wide Benefits from

Diverse Broad-Based Teams Michael J. Kelly

Project Management Challenge 2009

22






Case Study #1 – Composite Crew ModuleMichael T. Kirsch

Case Study #2 – Max Launch Abort SystemDawn M. Schaible

33


NESC Broad-Based TeamsPrologue

NASA’s ten Centers…

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• Inward focus• Managers serve as information

gatekeepers • Information communication vertical

direction only• Poor/inconsistent inter-silo communication• Disincentives to collaborate or share

information

• Turf battles, power struggles over authority and resources

• Loss or disenfranchisement of talented employees

• Poor/inconsistent Interface with external parties

• Poor/inconsistent execution of common goals

NASA’s ten Centers… sometimes behave like “information silos.”

55



– increase inter-center knowledge and information flow.– facilitate inter-center collaboration.– encourage inter-center relationships and communities of practice.

Connecting people across the Agency helps to tear down silos.

Diverse broad-based teams help establish Agency-wide networks that:

66


NESC Broad-Based TeamsPresentation Agenda

• How NESC builds Diverse Broad Based Teams

• Agency-wide benefits from Diverse Broad-Based Teams

• NESC Overview & Technical Discipline Teams

77


NESC OverviewNESC Broad-Based Teams

In 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) observed that NASA's safety organization lacked adequate technical expertise and resources for independent technical

reviews of NASA's Programs and Projects.

The NASA Engineering & Safety Center (NESC) was formed as a response to this observation, with a mission to provide the Agency’s Programs and Projects with rigorous independent

technical perspectives on their most critical technical issues.

88


NESC OverviewFive years later - The NESC remains dedicated to technical excellence by:

– Creating technical findings based on independent testing, analysis and inspection, and generating recommendations that improve the quality of stakeholder technical decisions.

– Fostering the core tenet of technical rigor.– Enhancing mission success by focusing on the most complex, critical, high-risk

technical issues.– Facilitating hands-on design & development experience

NESC Broad-Based Teams

99


NESC OverviewFive years later – The NESC remains independent:

– Centrally managed and funded through the Office of Chief Engineer.– Unaffiliated with and unbiased by any specific NASA Program or Center.– Unaffected and unbiased by the Programs our teams evaluate.– Has an independent engineering chain of command to assure an avenue for

consideration of all points of view.


1010


NESC OverviewFive years later – NESC continues to cultivate an Agency-wide safety culture by:

– Modeling technical rigor and engineering excellence. – Encouraging healthy tension during technical discussions. – Cultivating an open environment & encouraging diversity of opinion.– Promoting more-informed stakeholder risk-based decision-making.– Fostering strong in-line checks and balances.– Advocating safety as a vital component of design and development.


1111


NESC teams engage in a variety of activities:

• Conducting technical assessments of high risk issues by reviewing data, creating new data by performing independent testing and analysis, creating data-driven findings and observations, generating solution-driven, preventative or corrective recommendations that are rigorously grounded in team findings and observations

• Engaging in forward-looking technical investigations, which may include performing independent tests and analyses with high potential to advance knowledge within a discipline.

• Performing design development and demonstration work, which may include conducting design trade studies, performing preliminary design definition, weights trades, structural analyses, systems analyses, detailed design work, design integration work, and constructing full-scale test articles for laboratory and flight testing.

NESC Broad-Based TeamsNESC Overview

1212


The NESC organization is comprised of just six offices

• Office of the Director – Leadership team located at Langley Research Center (LaRC).

• NESC Chief Engineers – Embedded executives, one at each Center, who provide access and insight into Center-based Programs and Projects.

• Principal Engineers - Discipline generalists with systems engineering and project management skills who lead assessment teams and advise other assessment team leaders.

• Systems Engineers – Systems engineering and process specialists, who provide system engineering and integration for assessments and other NESC activities.

• Management & Technical Support – Administrative management experts who provide contracting and budgeting solutions for NESC teams and the leadership team.

• NASA Technical Fellows (Agency discipline experts) – Stewards for technical disciplines, who form and lead Technical Discipline Teams (TDTs).


1313



NASA Technical Fellows (one for each of thirteen technical disciplines)

Loads and DynamicsMaterialsMechanical SystemsNon Destructive EvaluationPropulsionSoftwareStructures

AerosciencesAvionicsFlight MechanicsGuidance, Navigation, and

Control Human FactorsLife Support/Active Thermal

Office of the DirectorNASA HQ Senior S&MA

Integration Manager

Principal Engineers Office

System Engineering Office

Management and Technical Support Office

NESC Chief Engineers (one per center)

ARC

JPL

DFRC

JSC

SSC

MSFC

GRC

KSC

GSFC

LRC

1414


NESC Technical Discipline Teams

The NESC has created thirteen pools of discipline specialists called Technical Discipline Teams (TDTs).

• Aerosciences• Avionics• Flight Mechanics• Guidance, Navigation, and Control• Human Factors• Life Support/Active Thermal• Loads and Dynamics• Materials• Mechanical Systems• Non Destructive Evaluation• Propulsion• Software• Structures


These standing teams of experts are the core of the NESC’s workforce.

Each TDT is lead by a NASA Technical Fellow.

1515


TDT members are chosen by the NASA Technical Fellows:• from the ten Centers• from industry• from academia• from other U.S. Government agencies and laboratories

They are selected based principally on their peer-recognized discipline expertise and engineering excellence.


• Record of success meeting team goals

• Open-mindedness• Planning• Negotiation

• Collaboration• Humility• Listening• Creativity• Tenacity

Demonstrated team skills are also a factor in selection:


1616


About one-quarter of TDT members are from outside of the Agency


NASA (74%)

Other US Gov't(4%)

University(4%)

Industry(17%)

Other(1%)

•

The rest proportionally represent all 10 NASA Centers.


1717


NESC Broad-Based TeamsBuilding Teams

The NESC brings NASA’s best engineers together from across the Agency, and teams them with other experts from outside the Agency, to address the Agency’s highest-risk, most-complex problems.

When forming broad-based teams, NESC goes beyond TDTs.

With consideration given to a team’s specific objectives, team leads purposefully recruit additional technical experts and topic specialists:

• from the ten Centers• from industry• from academia• from other U.S. Government agencies and laboratories

This is done deliberately, to maximize diversity of technical thought.

1818



Diversity of technical thought derives from diversity of personal perspective.

Team members bring unique points of view that reflect their:

• Organizational cultures • Business cultures • Collegiate cultures• Cultures related to geographic location• Cultures related to age, race, and gender

1919



NASA has a culture of engineers and scientists, but numerous “sub-cultures” are apparent.

Each of the ten NASA Centers:

• performs unique types of work:• human versus robotic• launch vehicle, spacecraft, aircraft• research, development. operations

• possesses a unique mix of experience. • has different age demographics.• has heritage strengths in design, analysis, and testing.• holds different perspectives on the merits of emerging technologies.• predisposition towards technology development versus technology acquisition. • employs different analysis or testing methodologies.• has different affiliations with proximally located colleges and universities. • has affiliations with regional fabrication companies.• has unique communication practices.• has different business practices and different management cultures.

The NESC deliberately brings people together from multiple centers, to leverage these differences.

2020



Industry partners are recruited for NESC broad-based teams to add perspective and improve knowledge - in areas where Agency team members may lack experience.

Those with product development experience are included on teams engaged in design development activities - to help improve the skills of Agency team members by facilitating hands-on design experience, and experience with integration, configuration control, test planning, etc.

Team members from academia or from government national laboratories are often included on NESC broad-based teams for their pertinent knowledge of relevant emerging areas of research .

Partners from other government agencies are sometimes included on NESC broad-based teams to bring non-space systems perspectives.

Teaming with experienced non-Agency partners assures valuable knowledge transfer to Agency team members.

2121



NESC includes young (“resident”) Agency engineers on broad-based teams, who contribute:

• Knowledge of new tools• Enthusiasm, energy, creativity

NESC contracts with retired (“grey beard”) Agency veterans, who provide:• Perspective on heritage system design details• Perspective on design decisions made on heritage systems• Perspective on organizational issues

Working together provides the resident engineers with:• Historical Agency perspective• Recognition and understanding of lessons learned on heritage systems• Hands-on design and development experience• Improved Agency-wide familiarity

NESC Broad-Based Teams bring generations together to improve Agency knowledge continuity.

2222



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Other U.S. government entities, industry & academia

Building Teams

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Agency-Wide BenefitsNESC Broad-Based Teams

The Agency benefits from broad-based teams at least five ways:

1. Innovative solutions are generated for Agency problems when teams represent a broad diversity of thought and experience.

2. Inter-Center collaboration is vastly and permanently improved when Agency-wide networks of expertise are created.

3. Near-term decisions are improved when the right technical information is provided to decision makers at the right time.

4. Long-term decisions are improved when future decision-makers are provided with hands-on experience today.

5. Mission safety and mission success is improved when the NESC’ssafety culture is proliferated across the Agency.

2626


NESC Broad-Based TeamsBenefit 1 – Innovative Solutions

Bringing people with diverse perspectives together assures innovative solutions that might not otherwise be possible.

Broad-based team members learn from each other when they are given a common goal that requires them to share ideas and collaborate to find solutions.

NASA benefits when the readiness level of new technology (TRL) is advanced by the innovative collaboration of a broad-based team.

Agency program or project stakeholders benefit when broad-based teams create

• novel findings and recommendations• new analytical tools• new physical tools• inventive testing methods• original inspection techniques

Agency programs or projects benefit when broad-based design development teams deliver an innovative design or design feature that is adopted to replace a similar design.

2727



Networks of expertise are an enduring benefit for the Agency!

Benefit 2 – Networks of Expertise

Broad-based teams connect technical experts across the Agency – with each other and with experts in industry, academia, and other U.S. Government agencies.

These connections are inter-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary, inter-organizational and cross-organizational.

NESC experience has shown that the resulting professional relationships persist after the team’s work is complete. They endure long after the teams are disbanded:

• Team members continue to associate, meet, query, discuss, collaborate, and learn from each other.

• Exchanges of technical information and ideas continue, regardless of organizational association or geographic location.

• Experts leverage these associations to help them resolve new problems.

This benefit extends beyond the participants themselves, to their worksite associates, who by virtue of their affiliation with their resident expert, are also connected to the larger network of expertise.

Such broad-based teams persist and grow as a virtual team.

2828


NESC broad-based teams have occasionally been reconstituted, in part or in whole, for the purpose of tackling a new Agency task related to their original area of focus.

Examples of team members becoming assets to subsequent Agency activity include:

• Smart Buyer team members became an asset for the Orion Project

• Composite Crew Module (CCM) Conceptual Studies team members became an asset for the CCM Design and Development Team

• CCM Design and Development Team members became an asset for the Orion and Altair Projects

• Alternate Launch Abort System (ALAS) team members became an asset for the Max Launch Abort Systems (MLAS) Team

• MLAS team members may become an asset for the Launch Abort System (LAS).

NESC Broad-Based TeamsBenefit 2 – Networks of Expertise

Experienced broad-based team members bring value to new teams.

2929


NESC Broad-Based TeamsBenefits 3 & 4 - Better Decisions & Decision Makers

Improving employee decision-making competence is a significant legacy benefit for the Agency.

When broad-based teams deliver peer-reviewed findings and actionable recommendations, stakeholder programs and projects gain insight that improves their near-term decisions on high risk technical issues.

Agency team members that participate on broad-based design development teams, gain personal insight into the complexity of full-scale system design and development, integration, fabrication and testing, which makes them better-informed decision-makers who will make better Agency design decisions for the rest of their careers.

The Agency particularly benefits when such experienced, knowledgeable team members accept key decision-making positions within the Agency.

3030


NESC Broad-Based TeamsBenefit 5 – Exported NESC Safety Culture

Through the Agency-wide Network of Expertise that broad-Based teams create, the NESC Safety Culture proliferates across the Agency.

NESC broad-based teams spread the NESC’s safety culture Agency-wide.

In 2008, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) Annual Report, called for “efforts to institutionalize … NASA-wide programs to reinforce safety as a core value within the Agency,” and to promote safety “as a paramount decision-making consideration throughout NASA design, development, and management.”

NESC broad-based teams cultivate an Agency-wide safety culture by:

• Modeling technical rigor and engineering excellence • Encouraging healthy tension during technical discussions • Cultivating an open environment, deliberately encouraging

diversity of opinion• Advocating safety as a vital component of design and development• Promoting more-informed stakeholder risk-based decision-making• Fostering strong in-line checks and balances

3131


The NESC has found that building diverse broad-based teams of technical expertise from across the Agency, and from outside the Agency, creates substantial benefits for NASA.

ConclusionNESC Broad-Based Teams

• Better-informed Agency near-term technical decisions

• More-experienced Agency decision-makers and consequently better long-term technical decisions

• More innovative solutions to Agency problems

• Enduring Agency-wide networks of expertise

• Agency-wide proliferation of the NESC’s safety culture

3232


NESC Broad-Based TeamsEpilogue

The NESC has advantages that help us build broad-based teams:• We have standing contracts with non-Agency TDT members.• Funds are pre-positioned for Agency TDT members at all ten centers.• NESC MTSO Office has analysts dedicated to coordinating new

contracts.• NESC files are managed centrally.• We have our own independent chain of command.• Teams have clear accountability.• NESC is a flat organization that allows maximum flexibility.

3333



How can you emulate this success when forming a team? • Wherever and whenever possible, seek team members with diversity

of technical thought.• Look beyond your ‘circle’ – even if just from your own center. • Deliberately recruit team members from multiple generations.• Consider other dimensions of diversity.• Reach out to other centers – invest the effort to overcome difficulties

with inter-center funding.• Create an environment for knowledge transfer from contractor team

members to Agency team members.

3434


Questions?NESC Broad-Based Teams

Contact your Center’s NESC Chief Engineer or email [email protected]

. . . b r o a d e n p e r s p e c t i v e s !Broad-Based Teams

3535


Backup charts: Whole presentation WITH

animations


3636





Case Study #1 – Composite Crew ModuleMichael T. Kirsch

Case Study #2 – Max Launch Abort SystemDawn M. Schaible


3737



NASA’s ten Centers…

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• Inward focus• Managers serve as information

gatekeepers • Information communication vertical

direction only• Poor/inconsistent inter-silo communication• Disincentives to collaborate or share

information

• Turf battles, power struggles over authority and resources

• Loss or disenfranchisement of talented employees

• Poor/inconsistent Interface with external parties

• Poor/inconsistent execution of common goals

NASA’s ten Centers… sometimes behave like “information silos.”

3939



– increase inter-center knowledge and information flow.– facilitate inter-center collaboration.– encourage inter-center relationships and communities of practice.

Connecting people across the Agency helps to tear down silos.

Diverse broad-based teams help establish Agency-wide networks that:

4040


NESC Broad-Based TeamsPresentation Agenda

• How NESC builds Broad Based Teams

• Agency-wide benefits from Broad-Based Teams

• NESC Overview & Technical Discipline Teams

4141


NESC OverviewNESC Broad-Based Teams

In 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) observed that NASA's safety organization lacked adequate technical expertise and resources for independent technical

reviews of NASA's Programs and Projects.

The NASA Engineering & Safety Center (NESC) was formed as a response to this observation, with a mission to provide the Agency’s Programs and Projects with rigorous independent

technical perspectives on their most critical technical issues.

4242


NESC OverviewFive years later - The NESC remains dedicated to technical excellence by:

– Creating technical findings based on independent testing, analysis and inspection, and generating recommendations that improve the quality of stakeholder technical decisions.

– Fostering the core tenet of technical rigor.– Enhancing mission success by focusing on the most complex, critical, high-risk

technical issues.– Facilitating hands-on design & development experience


4343


NESC OverviewFive years later – The NESC remains independent:

– Centrally managed and funded through the Office of Chief Engineer.– Unaffiliated with and unbiased by any specific NASA Program or Center.– Unaffected and unbiased by the Programs our teams evaluate.– Has an independent engineering chain of command to assure an avenue for

consideration of all points of view.


4444


NESC OverviewFive years later – NESC continues to cultivate an Agency-wide safety culture by:

– Modeling technical rigor and engineering excellence. – Encouraging healthy tension during technical discussions. – Cultivating an open environment & encouraging diversity of opinion.– Promoting more-informed stakeholder risk-based decision-making.– Fostering strong in-line checks and balances.– Advocating safety as a vital component of design and development.


4545


NESC teams involve themselves in a variety of activities:

• Conducting technical assessments of high risk issues by reviewing data, creating new data by performing independent testing and analysis, creating data-driven findings and observations, generating solution-driven, preventative or corrective recommendations that are rigorously grounded in team findings and observations

• Engaging in forward-looking technical investigations, which may include performing independent tests and analyses with high potential to advance knowledge within a discipline.

• Performing design development and demonstration work, which may include conducting design trade studies, performing preliminary design definition, weights trades, structural analyses, systems analyses, detailed design work, design integration work, and constructing full-scale test articles for laboratory and flight testing.


4646


The NESC organization is comprised of just six offices

• Office of the Director – Leadership team located at Langley Research Center (LaRC).

• NESC Chief Engineers – Embedded executives, one at each Center, who provide access and insight into Center-based Programs and Projects.

• Principal Engineers - Discipline generalists with systems engineering and project management skills who lead assessment teams and advise other assessment team leaders.

• Systems Engineers – Systems engineering and process specialists, who provide system engineering and integration for assessments and other NESC activities.

• Management & Technical Support – Administrative management experts who provide contracting and budgeting solutions for NESC teams and the leadership team.

• NASA Technical Fellows (Agency discipline experts) – Stewards for technical disciplines, who form and lead Technical Discipline Teams (TDTs).


4747



NASA Technical Fellows (one for each of thirteen technical disciplines)

Loads and DynamicsMaterialsMechanical SystemsNon Destructive EvaluationPropulsionSoftwareStructures

AerosciencesAvionicsFlight MechanicsGuidance, Navigation, and

Control Human FactorsLife Support/Active Thermal

Office of the DirectorNASA HQ Senior S&MA

Integration Manager

Principal Engineers Office

System Engineering Office

Management and Technical Support Office

NESC Chief Engineers (one per center)

ARC

JPL

DFRC

JSC

SSC

MSFC

GRC

KSC

GSFC

LRC

4848



The NESC has created thirteen pools of discipline specialists called Technical Discipline Teams (TDTs).

• Aerosciences• Avionics• Flight Mechanics• Guidance, Navigation, and Control• Human Factors• Life Support/Active Thermal• Loads and Dynamics• Materials• Mechanical Systems• Non Destructive Evaluation• Propulsion• Software• Structures


These standing teams of experts are the core of the NESC’s workforce.

Each TDT is lead by a NASA Technical Fellow.

4949


TDT members are chosen by the NASA Technical Fellows:• from the ten Centers• from industry• from academia• from other U.S. Government agencies and laboratories

They are selected based principally on their peer-recognized discipline expertise and engineering excellence.


• Record of success meeting team goals

• Open-mindedness• Planning• Negotiation

• Collaboration• Humility• Listening• Creativity• Tenacity

Demonstrated team skills are also a factor in selection:


5050


About one-quarter of TDT members are from outside of the Agency


NASA (74%)

Other US Gov't(4%)

University(4%)

Industry(17%)

Other(1%)

•

The rest proportionally represent all 10 NASA Centers.


5151


NESC Broad-Based TeamsBuilding Broad-Based Teams

The NESC brings NASA’s best engineers together from across the Agency, and teams them with other experts from outside the Agency, to address the Agency’s highest-risk, most-complex problems.

When forming broad-based teams, NESC goes beyond TDTs.

With consideration given to a team’s specific objectives, team leads purposefully recruit additional technical experts and topic specialists:

• from the ten Centers• from industry• from academia• from other U.S. Government agencies and laboratories

This is done deliberately, to maximize diversity of technical thought.

5252



Diversity of technical thought derives from diversity of personal perspective.

Team members bring unique points of view that reflect their:

• Organizational cultures • Business cultures • Collegiate cultures• Cultures related to geographic location• Cultures related to age, race, and gender

5353



NASA has a culture of engineers and scientists, but numerous “sub-cultures” are apparent.

Each of the ten NASA Centers:

• performs unique types of work:• human versus robotic• launch vehicle, spacecraft, aircraft• research, development. operations

• possesses a unique mix of experience. • has different age demographics.• has heritage strengths in design, analysis, and testing.• holds different perspectives on the merits of emerging technologies.• predisposition towards technology development versus technology acquisition. • employs different analysis or testing methodologies.• has different affiliations with proximally located colleges and universities. • has affiliations with regional fabrication companies.• has unique communication practices.• has different business practices and different management cultures.

The NESC deliberately brings people together from multiple centers, to leverage these differences.

5454



Teaming with experienced non-Agency partners assures valuable knowledge transfer to Agency team members.

Industry partners are recruited for NESC broad-based teams to add perspective and improve knowledge - in areas where Agency team members may lack experience.

Those with product development experience are included on teams engaged in design development activities - to help improve the skills of Agency team members by facilitating hands-on design experience, and experience with integration, configuration control, test planning, etc.

Team members from academia or from government national laboratories are often included on NESC broad-based teams for their pertinent knowledge of relevant emerging areas of research .

Partners from other government agencies are sometimes included on NESC broad-based teams to bring non-space systems perspectives.

5555


NESC includes young (“resident”) Agency engineers on broad-based teams, who contribute:

• Knowledge of new tools• Enthusiasm, energy, creativity

NESC contracts with retired (“grey beard”) Agency veterans, who provide:• Perspective on heritage system design details• Perspective on design decisions made on heritage systems• Perspective on organizational issues

Working together provides the resident engineers with:• Historical Agency perspective• Recognition and understanding of lessons learned on heritage systems• Hands-on design and development experience• Improved Agency-wide familiarity


NESC Broad-Based Teams bring generations together to improve Agency knowledge continuity.

5656



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Other U.S. government entities, industry & academia

Building Broad-Based Teams

5757



5858



5959


Agency-Wide BenefitsNESC Broad-Based Teams

The Agency benefits from broad-based teams at least five ways:

1. Innovative solutions are generated for Agency problems when teams represent a broad diversity of thought and experience.

2. Inter-Center collaboration is vastly and permanently improved when Agency-wide networks of expertise are created.

3. Near-term decisions are improved when the right technical information is provided to decision makers at the right time.

4. Long-term decisions are improved when future decision-makers are provided with hands-on experience today.

5. Mission safety and mission success is improved when the NESC’ssafety culture is proliferated across the Agency.

6060


NESC Broad-Based TeamsBenefit 1 – Innovative Solutions

Bringing people with diverse perspectives together assures innovative solutions that might not otherwise be possible.

Broad-based team members learn from each other when they are given a common goal that requires them to share ideas and collaborate to find solutions.

NASA benefits when the readiness level of new technology (TRL) is advanced by the innovative collaboration of a broad-based team.

Agency program or project stakeholders benefit when broad-based teams create

• novel findings and recommendations• new analytical tools• new physical tools• inventive testing methods• original inspection techniques

Agency programs or projects benefit when broad-based design development teams deliver an innovative design or design feature that is adopted to replace a similar design.

6161



Networks of expertise are an enduring benefit for the Agency!

Benefit 2 – Networks of Expertise

Broad-based teams connect technical experts across the Agency – with each other and with experts in industry, academia, and other U.S. Government agencies.

These connections are inter-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary, inter-organizational and cross-organizational.

NESC experience has shown that the resulting professional relationships persist after the team’s work is complete. They endure long after the teams are disbanded:

• Team members continue to associate, meet, query, discuss, collaborate, and learn from each other.

• Exchanges of technical information and ideas continue, regardless of organizational association or geographic location.

• Experts leverage these associations to help them resolve new problems.

This benefit extends beyond the participants themselves, to their worksite associates, who by virtue of their affiliation with their resident expert, are also connected to the larger network of expertise.

Such broad-based teams persist and grow as a virtual team.

6262


NESC broad-based teams have occasionally been reconstituted, in part or in whole, for the purpose of tackling a new Agency task related to their original area of focus.

Examples of team members becoming assets to subsequent Agency activity include:

• Smart Buyer team members became an asset for the Orion Project

• Composite Crew Module (CCM) Conceptual Studies team members became an asset for the CCM Design and Development Team

• CCM Design and Development Team members became an asset for the Orion and Altair Projects

• Alternate Launch Abort System (ALAS) team members became an asset for the Max Launch Abort Systems (MLAS) Team

• MLAS team members may become an asset for the Launch Abort System (LAS).

NESC Broad-Based TeamsBenefit 2 – Networks of Expertise

Experienced broad-based team members bring value to new teams.

6363


NESC Broad-Based TeamsBenefits 3 & 4 - Better Decisions & Decision Makers

Improving employee decision-making competence is a significant legacy benefit for the Agency.

When broad-based teams deliver peer-reviewed findings and actionable recommendations, stakeholder programs and projects gain insight that improves their near-term decisions on high risk technical issues.

Agency team members that participate on broad-based design development teams, gain personal insight into the complexity of full-scale system design and development, integration, fabrication and testing, which makes them better-informed decision-makers who will make better Agency design decisions for the rest of their careers.

The Agency particularly benefits when such experienced, knowledgeable team members accept key decision-making positions within the Agency.

6464


NESC Broad-Based TeamsBenefit 5 – Exported NESC Safety Culture

Through the Agency-wide Network of Expertise that broad-Based teams create, the NESC Safety Culture proliferates across the Agency.

NESC broad-based teams spread the NESC’s safety culture Agency-wide.

In 2008, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) Annual Report, called for “efforts to institutionalize … NASA-wide programs to reinforce safety as a core value within the Agency,” and to promote safety “as a paramount decision-making consideration throughout NASA design, development, and management.”

NESC broad-based teams cultivate an Agency-wide safety culture by:

• Modeling technical rigor and engineering excellence • Encouraging healthy tension during technical discussions • Cultivating an open environment, deliberately encouraging

diversity of opinion• Advocating safety as a vital component of design and development• Promoting more-informed stakeholder risk-based decision-making• Fostering strong in-line checks and balances

6565


The NESC has found that building diverse broad-based teams of technical expertise from across the Agency, and from outside the Agency, creates substantial benefits for NASA.

ConclusionNESC Broad-Based Teams

• Better-informed Agency near-term technical decisions

• More-experienced Agency decision-makers and consequently better long-term technical decisions

• More innovative solutions to Agency problems

• Enduring Agency-wide networks of expertise

• Agency-wide proliferation of the NESC’s safety culture

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The NESC has advantages that help us build broad-based teams:• We have standing contracts with non-Agency TDT members.• Funds are pre-positioned for Agency TDT members at all ten centers.• NESC MTSO Office has analysts dedicated to coordinating new

contracts.• NESC files are managed centrally.• We have our own independent chain of command.• Teams have clear accountability.• NESC is a flat organization that allows maximum flexibility.

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How can you emulate this success when forming a team? • Wherever and whenever possible, seek team members with diversity

of technical thought.• Look beyond your ‘circle’ – even if just from your own center. • Deliberately recruit team members from multiple generations.• Consider other dimensions of diversity.• Reach out to other centers – invest the effort to overcome difficulties

with inter-center funding.• Create an environment for knowledge transfer from contractor team

members to Agency team members.

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Questions?NESC Broad-Based Teams

Contact your Center’s NESC Chief Engineer or email [email protected]

. . . b r o a d e n p e r s p e c t i v e s !Broad-Based Teams

kelly.michael

Technology

launch abort system

proximally located colleges

performs unique types

encouraging healthy tension

assessment team leaders

te se lig

scale test articles

selected based principally