A630.5.4.RB - Change at NASA

• Why did NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe address NASA employees to describe the plan to bring about proposed changes to NASA's culture?
  Changing an organizational culture involves a large effort and everyone must be included. Thus, it was important for NASA Administrator O'Keefe to brief his employees regarding the proposed changes because it would affect all of them and be ineffective without their participation and support.
• Was he believable? Is it important whether he appeared to be believable?
  Overall, I think he came across as believable. It is very important that he appeared believable because he is asking for his employees to be on board with large organizational changes. He spoke about how the organization had stated values, but they were not necessarily being implemented and carried out throughout the organization. As a result, if he did not appear to be believable, his entire argument would lose its power and effectiveness. It was very powerful for him to be as open and honest as he was, because "the external image of organization reflects, in part, leadership practices within the organization" (Paus, 2013, p. 73). He recognized how his leadership affected the organization, and he demonstrated an honest and concerted effort to make a change to improve the organization.
• Why did he talk about NASA values?It was important for NASA Administrator O'Keefe to talk about NASA values because he mentioned "If we truly are a NASA family" that the organization will be able to make the changes needed to be successful and safe moving forward. In addition, the stated values include safety being of the highest priortiy, although they are not being implemented in practice to their fullest extent. He stated safety must be a "fundamental requisite", however "this is what we say" but "we don't act it". This was a very powerful statement to all NASA employees that all employees must practice what they say they practice. In addition, he noted that while employees respect each other in theory, they were not respecting each other in practice and how their work matters. He was able to use a large amount of data that was obtained through surveys with NASA employees; this was a very important evidence collection step in the diagnostic process, which Brown (2011) identifies as a crucial step in the OD process. I would imagine the survey results were very eye-opening for Brown and others in leadership at NASA to see how the culture varies from the stated values.
• What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?
  I have respect for NASA Administrator O'Keefe for being open and honest with his employees. He even identified that leadership, including him, were not as strong as they need to be in order to best lead the organization. This open admission creates a sense of "we are all in this together" and "we all have areas we can improve on". This humble approach really is powerful coming from someone in such a high leadership position, and I can imagine that it would have great influence on his employees. As a result, I will remember that it is important to recognize that no matter what type of leadership position I find myself in, I should always be willing to admit my mistakes and weaknesses when they come up in order to improve the quality of the team as a whole.

References

Brown, D. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8^th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Paus, V. (2013). New media and leadership: Social media and open organizational communication. Manager, (17), 73-78.