Knowledge Sharing: Some Myths, Ideas, and a little IT

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Knowledge SharingSome Myths, Ideas, and a
little IT

• Jean E. EngleChief Knowledge Officer
• Johnson Space Center

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A Little History of NASA
Teamwork Key to a Successful Space Program
Teamwork Key to a Successful Space Program
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and JSC

• JSC manages the development, testing, production
  and delivery of all U.S. human spacecraft and all
  human spacecraft-related functions.
• Home of the Astronaut Corps and Mission Control
• Workforce consists of 3000 civil servants and
  14,000 contractors

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Major Programs Space Shuttle

• Fly the Shuttle safely until retirement in 2010
• Essential for the core completion of the ISS
• One last Hubble Telescope repair mission

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Major Programs ISS
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Major Programs Constellation

• Bring a new Crew Exploration Vehicle into service
  in 2015 to replace the Shuttle Program.

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Defining Knowledge Sharing
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A Few MythsWith Acknowledgement to Dr. Ed Rogers
GSFC CKO

• Culture change can be mandated from the top
• Collaboration effort can be purchased or
  sharing be rewarded
• KM efforts can be outsourced
• Anybody (who isnt busy) can do KM
• KM can be solved by buying the right software
• KM can be independent of the business process
• Communities of practice can be established by the
  top
• KM is about centralizing knowledge content to use
  it more efficiently
• KM is really about databases
• KM is an IT function and should be given to the
  CIO

Some of these myths are adapted from a Top Ten
Mistakes of CoPs list produced by John Hickok,
director, Defense Acquisition University (DAU),
knowledge management.
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A Different Approach

• Benchmarking (a studied approach)
• Various entities inside/outside Government and
  Aerospace industry
• Consortium studies with the American Productivity
  and Quality Center (APQC)
• Colleague at other NASA Center
• Center-wide Knowledge Management maturity
  assessment
• Provided insight into how much knowledge sharing
  was occurring and where
• Identified strengths and gaps/barriers

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A Different Approach

• The following concepts evolved
• Leadership modeled behavior
• Local Learning encourage
• Codify -- when appropriate
• Change management takes time

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A Few Ideas -- People

• Generational differences (average age is around
  45 years)
• What is on incoming undergrads minds?
• Learning curve
• Technology Gap
• Engage Younger Employees
• More on their perspective

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A Few More Ideas -- Technology

• Google installed but
• Led to identifying repositories, beginning with
  websites
• Which is leading towards identifying usage of
  websites
• Which will lead towards document and content
  management strategies
• Supported by stronger taxonomies and metadata
  structures

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A Few More Ideas Process

• Social networking
• Pause and Learn
• Integrate Risk Management with Knowledge
  Management
• Information lifecycle management
• Tacit knowledge capture

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A Few More Ideas People/Technology/Process

• Web-enabled High Performance Teams
• Knowledge Sharing Forums
• Case Studies teaching by providing context to a
  story
• Web 2.0 technologies enabler for infusion,
  collaboration, and sharing

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www.nasa.gov
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