Gen Y Management Concept Update

Spacehack has simple community guidelines ( http://spacehack.org/guidelines ) to encourage a ‘be nice’ attitude in our community of space participation. Particularly, “Play nice with our wonderful community of space hackers and don’t be a troll”.

At the present time only one person is blocked from interacting with the Spacehack Twitter feed, no others. As is somewhat obvious from your passive aggressive posting, that person is you, Keith, because you have demonstrated over years - and the archives of NASAWatch attest - clear and repeated violation of that community principle.

Editor's note: Yet I let you post here, Ariel, in the NASA Watch "community" ... and I do not block you from accessing my sites or my Twitter feed. Tsk tsk, Ariel - you have now engaged in the very thing you accuse me of doing i.e. ad hominem name calling. Feel better now?

In terms of seriousness and generating genuine excitement about space:
spacehack > nasawatch

but

In terms of the sheer entertainment value of whiny, juvenile snarkiness:
nasawatch >> spacehack

Kind of blows up the typical Gen-Y stereotype, doesn't it?

This presentation is a bit disappointing... I do like the idea of the -educated- public participating in Space exploration at large.

That said, the first 60% of the slides are really not that interesting nor useful. This alleged information age is kind of an abstract thing which is only relevant under certain parameters. In fact it mostly applies to office functions, i.e. management, financial, and some engineering functions. A hairdresser, a kitchen chef or even a brain surgeon still have to open shop at 09h00 and use their hands... Also the anytime/anywhere work is not necessarily a good idea, in fact many thinkers see this as a rather unacceptable invasion of our private lives disguised as "empowerment", even if it is true though that people whose job it is to have ideas don't necessarily have to have them between 9 and 5.

Finally, the implication that most people therefore work in this office capacity is firstly not necessarily true, and secondly probably an anomaly due to the focus of economically-liberal Anglo-saxon economies on services (which, with the ongoing crisis, may or may not continue). So basically the people concerned by this collaboration are not many...

That aside, the concrete ideas proposed are "spacehack" and the digital astronaut, i.e. software. Spacehack projects are mostly collaborative software or student design projects (with the exception of cubesats). In my experience it is extremely rare that undergraduate students come up with a solution that professionals haven't thought of.

So what should be said is that so far, it is possible for some NASA activities to call on larger communities (but not the public at large) for some participation. But the implication that we can do rocket or satellite projects Open Source seems a bit silly. It would have been more useful to focus on how to use those collaborative environments inside NASA. This could help reduce the overheads and delays associated with large-scale management and systems engineering.

A.

Same old tired style, graphics and Gen Y themes. Ya think folks would give up on trying to take over the world by coup d’état. They would be more successful by just beginning to do it the old fashion way - by earning it through hard work and dedication.

Just wonder how much money is being spent on the perpetuation of the "Gen Y dream." I would like to meet the leaders and supervisors who empower this colossal waste of taxpayer dollars.

Stop making cute little PowerPoint’s and roll up your sleeves and get busy creating the space exploration vehicles of the future. If you want to change NASA, it may be advisable to spend your efforts saving it, first.

"passive aggressive posting" (PAP) ! feel a new meme coming on...:)

"One other thing, how is it that a NASA civil servant can exert usage restrictions on a document he created as a civil servant as part of his official duties?"

No need to start waving your arms around wildly about a Creative Commons license. Seems to me to be a nice, succinct summary of NASA's guidelines:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/policies.html#Guidelines

Did he need to put it in there? Probably not, but I'd say the CC by-nc-sa license is in line with the guidelines, so I don't really see a problem here.

Editor's note: is rather clear based on this link that Nick cannot claim copyright on something he does as part of his job as a NASA employee. No mention of Creative Commons is made in the policy you refer to.

Honestly, I resent the implication that the young professionals at NASA and its contractor community aren't earning our stripes through hard work and dedication.

On the small team I support, I've been looking at how we can use SharePoint and wikis to improve our communication, better track our individual tasks, and store institutional knowledge. And I still get my day-to-day job done.

The JSC Inclusion & Innovation Engagement Teams - discussed on Wayne Hale's blog and OpenNASA - were sanctioned by the center director and comprised of individuals from across generations and disciplines. Senior management is looking at how to make their ideas become real because they recognize that technical excellence must be bolstered by excellence in leadership and personnel development.

Unless it's part of my job or a sanctioned activity, my advocacy is done on my own time. I'm a volunteer for Yuri's Night. I'm a member of the Speakers' Bureau and Educational Outreach program. I've written for AIAA Horizons. That's how much I love this grand pursuit of exploration. That's how dedicated I am, that I give more of myself than just what I get paid to do in a culture that glorifies running for the hills when the work week is over.

I'll even offer to take a lunch break or stop somewhere after work to listen to anyone here at JSC that thinks what we're doing is a "colossal waste." All I ask is that you listen when it's my turn to talk.

What a bunch of crap. Where is the added value? How does kumbayah get a rocket built more efficiently? Just because something is shiny, it does not mean it has value. My friend, the sad thing is that you will probably float to the top, like a snickers bar in the pool, based on presentation alone. But until you learn what a bit is, how long a millisecond lasts, and why AL 6061-T6 is used in aerospace vehicles, you will never contribute or "participate" in a meaningful way.

103 Slides in a presentation that could easily be condensed into 4.
Good Job Nick.

Justin,

In your post you mention SharePoint, wikis, Inclusion & Innovation Engagement Teams, Open NASA, Yuri’s Night, Speaker’s Bureau, Educational Outreach, and AIAA. These seem like lots of fun ways to fritter away your time, but I still don’t have any idea what your day job is. Who exactly is paying you?

One of the first Participatory Exploration slides: “What is Work” seems to be very telling……..

Slide 34 pretty much sums up the whole concept. A bunch of cool-sounding themes all connected... but open the lid on any of these ideas and there's nothing in the box.

Great. Another NASA Watch post that serves to further divide the multi generational workforce. It would be more helpful to focus on how to work together instead. Like in any industry, we need to capitalize on the strengths of each generation to be successful.

Editor's note: yea Matt. Its all my fault. Bad Keith.

I really appreciate your feedback. In regards to the copyright / license comment(s), here’s some insight and an update. One of the common questions I get after sharing a presentation publicly is if others can use or remix the presentation. As pointed out, NASA generally has no objection to the reproduction and use of NASA material subject to some guidelines listed at http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/policies.html#Guidelines. Given the amount of questions I still get, I don’t think this is widely known (at least in the audiences I've come across) even though the guidelines are listed on the jsc.nasa.gov website. Even then, the word “guideline” can be misleading. My goal for using creative commons license was to alleviate any misunderstanding. I want people to know that they are free to use my presentations. The creative commons licenses are generally well understood, easy to apply, and useful in reducing the questions that you get. Adopting CC licenses, or developing similarly easy-to-apply guidelines in-house, may be something worth considering for future work. Until then, to be conservative, I modified the last slide of the presentation with a brief introduction and then redirected people to the guidelines on the NASA website.

Great. Everyone in the world gets to help design space missions via their laptop while sitting on the can at home. Who's going to be left to do the unglamorous work of drawing the detailed parts and assembly drawings, and getting dirt under their fingernails fabricating, assembling, testing, and launching the hardware? Without that unglamorous work and dirt under the fingernails, you don't have a real space program, you have a simulated space program. Everyone cannot be a Program Manger, Chief Engineer, or Advanced Projects Mission Architect. If everyone sees himself or herself in those roles while participating in mission and vehicle design studies from the local Starbucks, I foresee unending arguments and dissenting opinions about every single trivial detail.

This presentation cites 4 examples of user contriubtition systems (Proctor and Gamble, Dell, Innocentive, and Threadless). I'm not exactly clear what Innocentive is, but for the other three, the crucial difference between these companies and NASA is that they produce consumer products and have an incentive to iterate with their customer base. NASA is a federal agency that is subject to ITAR restrictions, so open source becomes a security risk and a potential export violation. No one seems to acknowledge that.

I'm a Gen Y'er myself, and I hate that my generation's reputation within the space community is being spoiled by the 'ladder climbers' who have aspirations for upper management. NASA is a top heavy organization already with too many queen bees and not enough worker bees. I wish that I could get through to my peers that credibility is not a birthright. It is earned. In order to change the way things are you first have to understand how we got to where we are.

I just think it's funny how many of these Gen Y'ers are dissapointed to discover that working for a federal bureaucracy is so lame.

Chris Foster,
NASA is a servant of the public trust. So, yes, it does have a "customer base" to respond to - the American people. Unless what we do provides measurable value, especially in the opinion of the elected officials in Congress who represent them, then NASA will not be considered relevant.

As for open sourcing, every discussion I've been involved in has almost immediately turned to ITAR issues. Any implementation would absolutely have to take export control into account. I don't think anyone is ignoring that. We're just saying that NASA needs to learn how to compete in the global marketplace of ideas - while still following US law - to stay on the leading edge of technology.

Might I also suggest that you not denigrate your fellow travelers as 'ladder climbers' that are only interested in talking their way into upper management? One of the reasons I left my last job was because I had no interest in going into management there. I wanted and found a job where I felt like I was making a real contribution.

Perhaps you might find more people listening if you talked with us, instead of down to us. As JSC, in particular, this is bigger than "just a Gen-Y thing," as exemplified by the I&I Council and its Engagement Teams. People from all over the center, civil servants and contractors alike, and all the generations have been figuring out ways to try to make this the best possible place to work.

If you're here in Houston, my offer to talk it over at lunch still stands, Chris. I'm a firm believer that there is no substitute for a face-to-face conversation, especially in the electronic age.

Truth,
Developing the SharePoint site and the wiki was to help with knowledge capture and task monitoring for my team. Until I arrived, there were exactly two people on the team and, with an increasing work load, we needed a central location for all that data. Tracking everything by e-mail and memory just isn't sustainable or efficient. Since I am a contractor for a fairly conservative organization, that's all I'm going to say in this forum.

The Engagement Teams were created by the Center Director and my participation was considered support for a direct request by him. I consider myself fortunate that my contractor management and the NASA managers I work with value my contributions on that front. However, anything I did above and beyond the four hours-per-pay period authorized was entirely voluntary and I did not get paid for it.

Justin,

How long have you been looking into the use of wikis and sharepoints? In one of the small teams I am part of, we spent about 15 minutes discussing the wiki before deciding to go for it. After a week or two we had it set up and it is a tremendous help to our work. If you have to spend a lot of time thinking about how to use this technology to help improve productivity, it's probably not that useful to your task. If you're thinking using wikis and sharepoints at NASA is a new idea, you're way behind.

Justin,

I have worked with folks in the aerospace community of all ages, races, and genders. I have had the priveledge of working on Gen-Y populated and led teams that have had immense talent, incredible cohesiveness, and an unsurpassed work ethic.

My experience has always been that engineers typically exhibit a professionalism and a passion for their chosen field that tends to close the divides that cause other folks so much grief.

So, with that said, I guess I don't understand where you are coming from, but it seems clear where you are going. Chris Foster is right. Try not to stumble on the way up.

As to where we're going... The Moon. Sit down, strap in, shut up, and hold on. We are going to drag the whole damn world behind us if we have to :)

Justin,

How do you measure the value of the military? Sure we might feel safe, but how do you measure safety? How do you determine return on investment for an aircraft carrier? Dead non american bodies divided by dollars spent? Just because the value produced by NASA and its assets is not easily measured, you cannot say it is irrelevant.

As far as your response to ITAR is concerned, you can't say that you acknowledge it but then treat it like it is irrelevant. That's sort of like saying I realize you're shackled to the floor, but you need to find a way run to the store to get some milk. ITAR is a huge problem not only for NASA but for the private sector as well. I worked in satcom for a while and one of the problems we had was that we could not talk about anything at international conferences. We could listen and that's all. Under ITAR rules, communications satellites are armaments and thus discussing them with foreign nationals constitutes arms trafficking. Instead of talking about sharing information while respecting ITAR, perhaps you should come up with some suggestions for changing ITAR so we can share information.

CG and Space Squid

Down boys! I think you've bothered Justin enough.

Interesting presentation, but it is so demographically myopic. The “Baby Boomers” aren’t retiring, which is okay. There are a lot of “Boomers” I truly admire. The Gen-Yers are a mixed bag. Some are really talented and are willing to work hard. Others come across as self-indulgent and entitled. Regardless of your generation, the economic climate is going to necessitate that we all learn how to communicate and work together. Versatility is key, and this presentation lacked versatility.

I really enjoy the work that I do, and I am willing to share my ideas and my enthusiasm for my job. I even agree that there are time when “virtual” is a viable option, but there are probably more times when “real” is better. You learn so much by being part of the action. Modeling an antenna and its deployment is extremely useful and helpful. Seeing that antenna being deployed in a test environment brings about a sense of accomplishment. Knowing that the antenna has been launched into space and is operating as designed is a wonderful experience. Not being able to share the excitement of those development phases with my colleagues would be disappointing. Twittering is cool, but it isn’t the same as being there. It is the next best thing.

Lastly, I am really, really, really tired of being told my career path has to change because of the needs of some other generation. Just remember job reclassification won’t solve anything. The pecking order that existed before is still there. The name have been changed to appease the ignorant and naïve. It is a zero sum game.

Matt says "...Another NASA Watch post that serves to further divide the multi generational workforce...".

I am truly stunned! Last I checked the one making an overt preference to a specific generational workforce was the one talking about Gen Y only. We've seen these rethorical exercises before.

I am also baffled about the digital astronaut example. Where did people get the impression you could do a project without first doing experiment/bending metal to get all the great curves on these graphs. For one, bone loss in microgravity is sorely needing more than a few data and interpolating curves through scattered points is the easy part. The hard part is gathering enough data in the first place. Even with the ISS, we still do not have that!

Finally, why would a young engineer work for NASA ?
- You cannot talk about you do because your contractor-employer really does not know what is ITAR, what is on the Commerce List and what is trivial knowledge, so everything is "ITAR"
- You cannot express yourself on any relevant subject for fear that the PR folks at NASA or your contractor employer will silence you or fire you.
- You are working in an area that is largely on the tail end of innovation. Innovation at NASA has really nothing to do with what serious people call innovation.
- Low pay because NASA relies on the glossy image of astronauts.

While the examples for Dell and others are interesting, they are all based on IC miniaturization or Moore's law. They enable more information to go through channels but building these channels is what NASA does. For example,
- how is that relevant to reducing the size of the equipment for astronauts to breathe, eat,...? It's not.
- how is this relevant to getting a payload in orbit or to Jupiter ? It's not.

Unless these issues are addressed, no amount of monkeying with an ill-defined Gen Y concept on slides will matter.

I sometimes do not like what Keith writes but heck, NASAWatch is the only operation that tells it like it is. Censoring Keith on any undertaking related to space is a clear sign of a bureaucratic fear of dissent: It doesn't bode well for that exercise.

Personally, I have not seen any element in that presentation that remotely is revolutionary. I'd even go further and compare it with similar undertakings such as the desastrous "faster, better, cheaper" mantra of the Goldin years.

CG,
The team wiki and SharePoint site is something that's developed within the past week. It's certainly not something I've agonized over. :) I'm also well aware it's not "groundbreaking." We used a team wiki in my previous job. That's why I thought it would be a good idea. My point was simply to illustrate that social networking technologies can be useful in our jobs, if used appropriately, and that it's not just fluff.

As for relevance, I absolutely believe that NASA is relevant because I see it as the ultimate investment in our future. However, I don't think we do a good job at relating with the public and the policy world. We do outreach until we're blue in the face, but most people have no idea what we really do. I'm not saying it has to be hard numbers, but it does need to be something tangible. Something the public can relate to.

I'll be honest that I really don't have much experience with ITAR and export control. I'm used to working on stuff that's already restricted to US-nationals-only, so it's easy for me assume that ITAR is something that can be worked around. Since you clearly do have quite a bit of experience with it, what do you suggest be changed?

Space Squid,
I have a perennial inability to "shut up," but I would tend to agree with the rest of what you said. :) This is absolutely not "just a Gen-Y" thing.

Chris,
So, are you going to take me up on that offer, or not? :)