More from NASA's Gen Y Employees
Report on “Cross-Generational Discussions and Activities”, Opennasa.com
“Last April, representatives of the next generation workforce community attended the NASA Strategic Management Council (SMC) at Stennis Space Center to discuss strategic workforce issues. The SMC is a top-level meeting with the NASA Administrator and top senior leadership across the agency.”
Editor’s note: What mystifies me is why this crowd can only seem to present things in Powerpoint. I have yet to see an actual written report from them – one that uses words in sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, and goes into depth in describing the issues that are raised. Relying on Powerpoint slides composed of pictures and one sentence catch phrases does not do the topic the justice that it deserves since this is all that 99.99% of the audience not in attendance ever sees. The response that is often offered is that these slides were used as part of a presentation. OK, where’s the video of that presentation? And why is it that this material can only (seemingly) be presented in the form of Powerpoint slides that someone has to then explain and expand upon? Can’t someone come up with a self-contained presentation that speaks for itself – in full detail – one that can be read? If the proponents of the ideas listed on these slides cannot explain themselves in writing, what does that say about their ability to fully communicate?
Short blog posts just don’t cut it.
Editor’s update: One of my readers pointed out that there was a report – but the link is all the way at the bottom of a blog posting. My oversight. You guys might want to make these links a bit more prominent – and fix the broken link that starts with “ohttp://www …. “.
The report “NASA Center Cross-Generation Discussions Summary of Efforts & Results from Ames, Dryden, Glenn, Goddard, Johnson, Kennedy, Langley, Marshall & Stennis” is mostly a loosely knit shopping list of things that people are doing or that people want to see done. The underlying reason(s) for doing these things, i.e. why they are important, how they are chosen, and ow their effectiveness measured, is more or less absent. There is also mention of a “One NASA Philosophy” – something that is not defined – is this just something for civil servants or is NASA’s (much larger) pool of contractor employees part of this as well? Nor is there any description of just what generation(s) are being discussed, who fits into which one, and why this “next gen” should be getting different treatment than previous generations. In addition, no author names or contact information is included. How does one seek more information on these topics or offer help? Oddest of all is why the bulk of the visibility and public discussion for this official NASA effort is being done by NASA employees via their own privately-run website. Shouldn’t all of NASA be in on this?
Nice start – but this is simply a Powerpoint presentation with lots of words. Maybe the Obama folks will re-initialize this entire discussion such that it results in progress agency-wide and not just verbiage posted in niche locations.
(yet another) Powerpoint presentation below
