Building a Learning Organization at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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Building a Learning Organization at the NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center

• Dr. Edward W. Rogers
• Chief Knowledge Officer
• Goddard Space Flight Center
• September 28, 2007
• Presentation to IIM Bangalore

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Where Does KM Fit in the Big Scheme?
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The Knowledge Production Function
Loss of
Inflow of
Customer
Opportunity
Human
Human
Need
Tools
Capital
Capital
Focus
(
)
-

Organization
Rate of
Rate of
Potential
Interaction
Knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge
Coefficient
Loss
Discovery
Utilization
Openness
Innovation
Knowledge
Project
Sharing
Creativity
Decay
Execution
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The Origins of Our Success
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The Nature of Knowledge Flows

• Must understand the Nature of Knowledge
• Hayek, Friedman and Phelps (3 Nobel Prize winners
  in Economics)
• Economics of knowledge flows in society
• Drucker, Prusak and Wegner
• Productive value of knowledge and its role within
  firms
• Whitehead, Polyani, and Novak
• Human learning and cognition for individuals
• Must avoid simplistic conceptualizations
• Is KM getting the right information to the right
  people at the right time ?
• Except we dont know what, who or when with
  respect to our knowledge!
• Feeds an efficiency of process at the expense of
  effectiveness of people
• Provides only single loop learning (fixes
  symptoms, not the system)
• We cannot treat knowledge like an expendable
  asset (collect manage)
• We cannot separate the value of knowledge from
  the host who carries it

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Knowledge Authenticity

• Civilization advances by extending the number
  of important operations which we can perform
  without thinking about them.
• Introduction to Mathematics, Alfred North
  Whitehead, 1911
• Assembly
• Experts
• Reference
• GSFC has developed a set of GOLD Rules required
  for all flight projects derived from the wisdom
  of our experiences. We follow the rules to apply
  the lessons behind the rules. Applying lessons
  should always be a learning experience.

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Knowledge Access

• Complete liberty of contradicting and
  disapproving our opinion is the very condition
  which justifies us in assuming its truth for
  purposes of action and on no other terms can a
  being with human faculties have any rational
  assurance of being right.
• On Liberty by John Stuart Mill, 1859
• Scientific Inquiry
• Intellectual Curiosity
• Free Circulation
• GSFC has implemented a case based series of
  workshops (The Road to Mission Success) where
  participants discuss recent project risks, issues
  and incidents with the project managers in an
  open forum.

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Knowledge Application

• If man is not to do more harm than good in his
  efforts to improve the social order, he will have
  to use what knowledge he can achieve, not to
  shape the results as a craftsman shapes his
  handiwork, but rather to cultivate a growth by
  providing the appropriate environment in the
  manner in which the gardener does this for his
  plants.
• The Pretense of Knowledge, Friedrich August
  Hayek, 1974
• Internal Knowledge Markets
• External Partnerships
• GSFC has written case studies on international
  projects to learn from these partnerships and
  what can be done to improve the way they work.

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Knowledge
People
Risk
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A Learning Organization is Made Up of Human
Learners not Smart Computers
We must not focus on IT as a KM driver with its
corresponding over-emphasis on capturing
knowledge from workers for the organization and
instead focus on facilitating knowledge sharing
among workers to increase individual, then group,
and finally organizational learning.
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Three Challenges for Sharing

• What shows people what to share?
• What equips people how to share?
• What motivates people why to share?

Personal Knowledge Strategies are Determined by
Organizational Members Implicit Theory of
Knowledge Utilization.
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Increase Internal Depth Perception
If people have a good grasp of what the
organization is all about they will be more
likely to openly share and communicate with each
other.
I can see how what I know matters to others.
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Keep Communication Open
If people are satisfied with the communication
systems and processes in place they will be more
likely to openly share and communicate with each
other.
I am hearing the whole story, and if I take the
time to speak something happens.
14
Reward Fairly (and Punish Fairly)
If people perceive the organizational employment
game to be fair and open they will be more likely
to openly share and communicate with each other.
If I work hard, it matters.
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Why Knowledge Sharing Efforts Fail

• Knowledge management efforts mostly emphasize
  technology and the transfer of codified
  knowledge,
• Knowledge management tends to treat knowledge as
  a tangible thing, as a stock or quantity, and
  therefore separates knowledge as something from
  the use of that thing,
• Formal systems cant easily store or transfer
  tacit knowledge,
• The people responsible for transferring and
  implementing knowledge management frequently
  dont understand the actual work being
  documented,
• Knowledge management tends to focus on specific
  practices and ignore the importance of
  philosophy.
• From The Knowing-Doing Gap How smart companies
  turn knowledge into action by Jeffrey Pfeffer and
  Robert Sutton. (1999). Harvard Business School
  Press. Page 22.

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Five Nots or KM Myths

• NOT just about Capturing Knowledge
• NOT Right Info, Right Person, Right Time
• Is NOT the same in any Organization
• CanNOT Be Meaningfully Measured
• Does NOT require Culture Change First

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Four Essential KM Practices

• Leadership Practicing Sharing
• (Modeled Behavior)
• Reflective Group Learning
• (Pause and Learn)
• Knowledge Sharing Events
• (Story Telling Workshops)
• Case Study based Training
• (Teaching Wisdom)

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Three Opportunities for a KM Effort

• To SEE all around the Organization
• Reviews, Reports and Trends
• To INTEGRATE KM into Processes
• Risk Mgmt, Safety and Reviews
• To INFUSE Knowledge in Other Projects
• Relevance, Impact and Risk

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Two Lessons Learned to Succeed

• KM Needs a Clear Definition of the Problem being
  Addressed
• Reliability of Organizational Systems to Produce
• Sustainability of Organizational Systems to
  Produce
• KM Needs a Champion
• KM Architect, Chief Knowledge Officer, Guru
  Cheerleader
• KM Needs a Constant Presence (office, committee,
  budget)

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One Focus The USER

• I Experience
• I eXchange
• I Collaborate
• I Extend
• I Learn
• As smart as a KM system may be, it will
  never be smart enough to fool the people expected
  to use it.
• McElroy, M.W. (1999). Double-Loop Knowledge
  Management, MacroInnovation Inc. Available from
  www.macroinnovation.com

KM simply supports the Users to Learn and Share
Together.
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Knowledge Management Office

• Established in May 2003
• Charter focuses on LEARNING

Enhances Center performance as a learning
organization through leadership of the knowledge
management function including lessons learned,
knowledge sharing and training initiatives.
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The KM Problem for the Organization

• Not Reliable
• Designer dependent outcomes (team make up
  determines team outcome as much as team function
  or structure)
• Organizational communication processes introduce
  risk to system (redundancy, reliability
  delusions, stress points)
• Knowledge loops are longer than operational
  throughput cycle time (knowledge is not timely in
  application)
• Not Sustainable
• Social networks are decaying faster than they are
  being reproduced
• Knowledge sharing legacy systems are not built
  around todays workplace structures
• Mentors have a time-space gap with Mentees for
  effectively sharing knowledge

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Goddard Learning Architecture
EWRogers 028/09/07
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Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)

• Responsible for designing and implementing
  knowledge management practices and learning
  practices to enable the center to function like a
  learning organization Leads the GSFC KM team.
• Champions knowledge management within the Center
  to make it a sensible and responsible activity to
  perform
• Articulates a vision and plan for knowledge
  management that makes sense to projects and
  technical groups across the Center
• Represents the Center on Agency boards,
  committees and activities related to knowledge
  management
• Interacts with the public and academic interested
  in knowledge management at NASA - Goddard to
  inform them and to learn more that NASA - Goddard
  may take advantage of in its knowledge management
• Publishes papers and makes presentations to
  disseminate lessons about how to design and
  implement knowledge management
• Speaks with other agencies of the Federal and
  State governments to share knowledge and
  experiences about knowledge management
• Supports as needed, activities from HQ related to
  knowledge management (from OCE, OHR, SMA, SMD and
  ESMD primarily).