Ep. 411: Smart Mission: How NASA solves problems

Guest: Ed Hoffman, former Chief Knowledge Officer at NASA

“The COVID-19 global pandemic demonstrates the need for international collaboration to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges,” states a new book on project and program management called “The Smart Mission, NASA’s Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People and Projects.”

Over 37 days, a NASA team of aerospace engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory with no knowledge of medical devices built a working ventilator from off-the-shelf parts. This illustrates how effectively teams learn and share knowledge in real-time contexts.

One of the book’s authors is Ed Hoffman, who was the Chief Knowledge Officer at NASA, who says, “Never has there been more urgency. The social dimension of knowledge and the need for people to collaborate remains constant as projects become increasingly complex and pose technical challenges that we cannot anticipate.”

Hoffman continues saying, “Complex challenges require complex teams in multiple disciplines over multiple jurisdictions and cultures coming together to find solutions – solutions that are possible to achieve if and when knowledge over information is at the core of the team’s approach.”

We invited Ed Hoffman to join us for a Conversation That Matters on how and why NASA is able to accomplish the impossible and how that insight can help you and your team conquer the seemingly impossible.