Step by step, NASA is doing what it takes to 'fix the culture'

[Marc]

We've discussed 'Changing the Culture' in a company in a number of threads here over the years. Just wondering if any of you folks have a coment on the following from USA Today:

(broken link removed)
By Sean O'Keefe
One small step for NASA could turn into a giant leap for the space program.

In 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board found that NASA's safety culture contributed as much to the space shuttle Columbia accident as any mechanical failure. The board assessed that we needed to "fix the culture" — and thus was born one of the largest, most complex organizational changes ever.

During the past 13 months, the agency has developed a model for understanding culture and how it changes. It has measured specific aspects of the culture across all 19,000 employees, designed and tested an intervention method and is implementing the strategy that will reach throughout NASA by the end of 2005.

While activity cannot be equated with achievement, the fact is the program is already working. A recent survey taken in February of 2004 and then October found "solid, measurable progress" from the initiative. It looked at nine fundamental attributes of culture — including employee-supervisor relationships, management credibility, teamwork, work-group relations, the safety climate and upward communications — and each category showed improvement. Employees are increasingly more comfortable raising safety questions, and their concerns are being fully explored.

'Measurable progress'

Statistically and anecdotally, the progress is real — and the process is working faster than what has been achievable in many organizations. NASA set a very aggressive schedule, and the agency's mind-set for achievement has helped to create solid, measurable progress.

This does not mean that NASA's culture is fixed. Organizations don't fix cultures the way plumbers fix leaks; they address a set of issues so that a new culture develops. In the tough world of organizational change, that's progress, not success. At NASA, some people are embracing change, others are awaiting their turn and still others will never buy in — that's human nature.

Of course, there are those within the agency and in the space-exploration community who still aren't convinced. USA TODAY recently reported the views of those who think NASA's culture has not been fixed. Debates have emerged, as reported Friday in The New York Times, on the methods for measuring the actions taken to meet the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Such opinions show the dialogue is continuing.

The relationship between NASA employees and their work is unusual. NASA ranks high in employees' ratings of workplace desirability. NASA employees are not as motivated as others by financial gain or other extrinsic rewards. They are motivated by their personal connection to what the agency does, what it wants to do, and what it means to be part of space exploration and the discovery of the universe.

 

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Just wondering if any of you folks have a coment on the following from USA Today:

I'll bite: What NASA has set out to do must surely be one of the toughest tasks around. To change the mindset of that behemoth of an organization. Daunting, to say the least...

Daunting, but not impossible. It can be done, and the fact that NASA sets out to do it should send a signal to other organizations in dire straits: Never ever give up.

/Claes

 

[Randy]

When you get down to basics NASA is no different than any other bureaucracy. You have very long term, tunoptic, function specific, technically minded, job secure, and unbending people that think that only their way will work.

If they truly wanted culture change they would use the resources at hand like their QMS/EMS programs (which I suspect is a bunch of hooey and BS based upon recent events) to do it and ultimately achieve customer satisfaction and expections. My guess is, they haven't properly identified their customer so they really don't know which direction to "improve". The "committment" thing comes into play here as well.

One thing that really strikes me is the "safety" thing. Here we have an employer (the astronauts are employees) knowingly ingoring communication about safety related issues that have resulted in the deaths of 2 flight crews and the destruction of 2 very expensive pieces of equipment. Where's OSHA? Any other work environment OSHA would be investigating...in California, Cal OSHA would be prosecuting.

The culture will only change when accountability comes into play.

 

[Jim Wynne]

My guess is, they haven't properly identified their customer so they really don't know which direction to "improve".

I think the problem is that they have identified the customer, and have done a good job of meeting customer expectations. Just because something blows up and people get killed doesn’t mean the customer won’t be satisfied.

Here we have an employer (the astronauts are employees) knowingly ingoring communication about safety related issues that have resulted in the deaths of 2 flight crews and the destruction of 2 very expensive pieces of equipment.

I don’t think the employer ignored anything. They heard the opinions and made decisions. Again, whether those were wrong decisions depends entirely upon one’s point of view. That the decisions resulted in disaster is not in dispute. The problem lies in a system that forces administrators to make potentially disastrous “business” decisions in order to satisfy their customers. We also have a tendency to equate NASA with GM or other large commercial enterprises, and apply the same “zero defects” mentality. It’s naïve to expect that you can shoot people into the heavens on top of absurdly powerful incendiary devices and not kill someone sooner or later. The best we can hope for is that when the inevitable does happen, that it will be due to causes that were reasonably unforeseen. But when a table is made with all the predictable things that can go wrong in column “A” and with the costs of prevention in column “B,” and funding comes from Congress, it’s also naïve to believe that dice won’t be rolled under pressure from the number in the “B” column.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

NASA's Safety culture

An interesting article about the assessment of NASA's safety culture can be (broken link removed)