Conversations That Matter

Ep 411 - Smart Mission: How NASA solves problems Guest: Ed Hoffman   “The COVID-19 global pandemic demonstrates the need for international collaboration to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges,” states a new book on project and program management called “The Smart Mission, NASA’s Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People and Projects.” Over 37 days, a NASA team of aerospace engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory with no knowledge of medical devices built a working ventilator from off-the-shelf parts. This illustrates how effectively teams learn and share knowledge in real-time contexts.   One of the book’s authors is Ed Hoffman, who was the Chief Knowledge Officer at NASA, who says,  “Never has there been more urgency. The social dimension of knowledge and the need for people to collaborate remains constant as projects become increasingly complex and pose technical challenges that we cannot anticipate.”   Hoffman continues saying, “Complex challenges require complex teams in multiple disciplines ov