NASA GRC Internal Memo: Center Reorganization Update
“In my June message, I indicated that I would be working to assign SES personnel to positions and would then be validating those selections at Headquarters. I have had a number of discussions with individuals at Headquarters and continue to receive positive feedback and full support. There were a few details that I needed to work out and believe those have been resolved. I am targeting an All-Hands meeting for the week of September 16. There will be more information coming on the date and time.”
Have you ever noticed how your doctor can evaluate your health with a few measurements and short conversation? The health of a Center can also be determined from just walking around and looking at the people. At NASA GRC they recently decided to close the cafeteria and use food trucks instead. At Centers where they have good food service, the people gather at lunchtime and socialize. The important thing at Centers is the people, not the organization. Hopefully the reorganization will find a way to allow people to work together. Bring good food to NASA GRC is a step in that direction.
There’s a lot of socializing going on around the food trucks! Our cafeteria was…..not good. Honestly, though, there is so much competition very close to the center (less than 5 minutes), compared to places like KSC. I like the trucks, and it has seemed to create a buzz. It really appears that Jim is concerned with increasing that esprit de corps. At the very least, he is an approachable guy that accepts suggestions.
“There’s a lot of socializing going on around the food trucks!”
Meh. I don’t think that standing around waiting for your sandwich is really the kind of networking that the business schools are talking about when they emphasize bridging interdepartmental chasms.
Geoff, I think it is a form of socializing that also has it’s place. These unplanned, impromptu interactions are sometimes better at making new connections. If you “do lunch”, it’s something that has to be planned, mostly with people you already know. Running into someone you know in line at the trucks, and potenitally meeitng someone new that may be with them, is a great way to extend your working connections. Not to mention, it’s far easier to run into Jim Free in line and chat, than it would be to try and get a lunch date.
I’m also seldom impressed with what many business schools teach – I spent a long time working with companies on process improvments trying to get them to forget the immiediate, quarter-end blinders they learned while getting this MBA. There are many great MBA programs out there, but the IVY-covered ones are a big reason we have problems with Wall Street. Just a couple of cents worth of thoughts.
The center drifts and drifts and drifts… and the employees appear more concerned about “lunch trucks” than space and science programs… don’t know what to say anymore… it’s just sad.
Exhibit A of an agency adrift…..
Center Director gets canned for reorg plans…..that 9 months later are
pushed forward like nothing ever happened,
But this is what you get when you promote a Branch manager to Center
Director in just over two years….inexperience and more bad decision making under Boldens watch.
And you take about improving moral at GRC….
R U Freaking kidding me???