Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Half Empty Cup

The Emperor called attention to it in his NASA Update segment the other day, as if to point out that the minions are mindless and unable of comprehending his ministrations. The numbers are telling. Let's have a look at the 2007 NASA Culture Survey results....drum roll please!

Across all of the centers, 95% or more of the minions felt that communications was very important to do their jobs. Yet when asked if the Emperor was providing useful answers in his "Ask the Administrator" mechanism, fewer than 35% (and more often in the low 20s) responded affirmatively. So much for getting the message straight from the horse's mouth.

When asked about relying on honesty in management, the average score across the centers hovered on 50%. Put another way, almost half of the civil servants in NASA do not believe their own management. More than 50% feared reprisals if they raised a dissenting opinion. The Theater on E Street registered a particularly low score for that item as did the current ESMD AA's former center. Imagine that? Just about the same for trying to bring innovation into the work place. Just about the same for management making timely/clear cut decisions. When asked about how smoothly administrative processes were operating last year, the numbers were mostly in the 30s and 40s. Not very smooth at all.

Yet the good minions still believe they can do good things if given the opportunity. Too bad the Chief Engineer of the Universe doesn't trust his own people, nor they him. Imagine what might have been possible starting three years ago if old school and ego had not gotten in the way of imagination and selflessness.

You can almost hear the Emperor's response to all of this "culture nonsense." "The beatings will continue until morale improves."

1 comment:

Doom Pilot said...

I feel that the Direct approach is generating momentum. We need something positive to happen soon. I very much want the VSE to succeed, the Ares implementation is seriously flawed.

At some point, I'd like to be an old man watching a high-definition broadcast live from the surface of Mars. That would be something extraordinary.