NASA’s Glenn Research Center will host the 4th Annual NASA Knowledge Workshop, a hybrid event, with both in-person and virtual attendees, on November 6, 2024. The event will focus on knowledge continuity and succession planning. Credit: NASA
Hybrid event will focus on succession and continuity.
Every organization, team, and individual at NASA develops a wealth of knowledge in their time on a project or program. Everyone shares in the responsibility to ensure this critical knowledge, often accumulated over years of experience, is well-documented and effectively shared during succession planning or role transitions.
This information can range from the technical knowledge of retiring employees or those moving to new jobs, to the less-documented cultural and procedural knowledge internal to teams or departments. This type of tacit knowledge includes insights into decision-making processes, lessons learned from past projects, and the subtle dynamics of working within specific teams or across NASA.
The aircraft hangar at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Credit: NASA
“Knowledge continuity is a persistent challenge for many science and engineering organizations, and NASA is no exception,” said Tiffany Smith, NASA Chief Knowledge Officer. “People at NASA have exceptional knowledge and expertise, which is very difficult to replace when they transfer to new opportunities or retire after an exciting career. As we learned in our 2021 study of knowledge capture and transfer across NASA, there are good practices that teams can adopt to ensure that knowledge is maintained as teams change. All members of a team can make a difference in maintaining knowledge across generations.”
On November 6, 2024, Glenn Research Center (GRC) will host the 4th Annual NASA Knowledge Workshop, a hybrid event, with both in-person and virtual attendees, focused on each individual’s role as a knowledge owner, including in business and role continuity, succession planning, leadership, outreach, innovation, and more. Speakers from NASA’s Chief Knowledge Officer community will share best practices and offer insights from their own experiences in knowledge sharing and succession planning.
“There seems to be a need for discussions on knowledge continuity with the current environment at NASA. People seem to be spread particularly thin these days and with retirements, promotions, and general attrition it can be hard to keep the right people and the right knowledge in the right place,” said George Santosuosso, the Chief Knowledge Officer at GRC, and an organizer of the event
“My hope is that the attendees walk away with a sense of what they can do to adopt and instill a culture of knowledge sharing, as well as accessible strategies that they can apply in their day-to-day work.”
This workshop offers attendees the opportunity to strengthen their knowledge-sharing skills, explore strategies for transferring knowledge in a dynamic environment, and connect with others dedicated to preserving NASA’s knowledge for future success.
“While there are efforts underway at various organizational levels, the focus of this workshop is on practical efforts that can be implemented at the individual and team level. My hope is that the attendees walk away with a sense of what they can do to adopt and instill a culture of knowledge sharing, as well as accessible strategies that they can apply in their day-to-day work,” Santosuosso said.
For more details on the 4th Annual NASA Knowledge Workshop, including the full agenda and registration information, visit the event’s SharePoint page here. Interested JPL attendees can click here for more information and links to register for the workshop. Please feel free to enter George Santosuosso (george.r.santosuosso@nasa.gov) as the approving NASA Civil Servant in SATERN.”
