NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

By: Jim Hodges

Open door sessions. Managers walking around, talking to employees. A path through some of the bureaucracy. Awards to those who deserve them. A new-look for @LaRC.

All of those things and more are part of the Internal Communication Initiative, passed Monday by the NASA Langley Center Leadership Council.

The idea is to get people talking with one another, and the initiative was an attempt to let people know that management is listening.

"People think that we do nothing with the results of these surveys," said Lelia Vann, head of the Science Directorate and also of the Communications Initiative Committee, under the direction of Langley associate director Cindy Lee. "On one recent @LaRC Poll, a question was asked about communications, and 41 percent of the respondents checked 'nice idea, but doubt it will lead to change.'

"This is a process toward that change."

Lelia Vann: "Judge us on what we are doing now, not on the baggage of 10 years ago. This is an initiative to let employees know that we have listened to them and want to change the environment." Credit: NASA/Sean Smith

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The process actually began in August, when the committee was formed to address issues that came out during various surveys, including the Federal Human Capital Survey in 2008. Chief among them was a lack of communication between management and employees.

On Monday, the Center Leadership Council agreed to a try from now until February to get Organizational Unit Managers (OUMs) to hold regular "open door" sessions and get out of their offices more, to walk around their directorates, talking to employees. The trial will be evaluated, with input from an @LaRC poll.

"The open-door sessions offer an opportunity for an employee to give us their ideas," said Vann, who holds them regularly in the Science Directorate. She added that such sessions also offer "face time" with management for employees who might be reticent about speaking up in an open meeting or getting on a busy calendar.

"When I started doing them, I found that I saw people I hadn't met with before," Vann said. "I have people who come in just to tell me what they are working on. It's refreshing."

Lesa Roe, Langley's center director, regularly holds open-door sessions.

Also approved was a measure designed to improve communications between product directorates, such as Science, Aeronautics Research and Exploration and Space Operations; the core resource directorates, such as Research and Technology, Systems Engineering and Center Operations and the Mission Support Offices, such as Procurement and Systems Management. Each would designate primary points of contact, lessening the difficulty in determining who in an organization one would need to see to get something done.

The initiative also would make sure support staff is included in the center team awards process.

The center's Office of Human Capital Management will educate and work with supervisors on employee performance plans and career development, with group and/or one-on-one activities involved.

In January, line managers will meet to hear ideas about dealing with a host of topics, including improving performance plans and managing employees who may be struggling to perform at an effective level. One of the complaints other employees have made questioned the value of the initiative if sub-performing colleagues weren't made to account for their work.

"Ensuring managers and supervisors have the tools to address those issues is a step in the right direction," said Janet Sellars, Equal Opportunity director.

Another common complaint by employees was that they knew what decisions were made, but not why. The Center Leadership Council agreed to communicate those key points and explain the "why" to employees.

Also, more training will be offered to managers on "people" skills.

"Our employees need to know that we care about them and that we are listening to them," Vann said. "We may not agree with everything, but we should have an honest discussion. Many of us are being trained on how to have these sometimes difficult conversations and in an empathetic way."

And, finally, it was determined that while @LaRC has a primary function in center communications, it has evolved into an unworkable hodge-podge of information. Larry Merrill is charged with putting together a committee to re-make @LaRC, with input from around the center. The idea is to make it more appealing and easier to use.

To implement all of this and to get more employee input, the first of four "rollout" sessions is scheduled for November 12 in the Reid Conference Center. A "theme" for the initiative will be voted upon in an @LaRC Poll.

Periodically, questions will be posed in the @LaRC site to check on progress of the initiatives.

The hope is that they will be taken as they are intended: To foster a new environment that enhances open and honest communications.

The real test of improvement comes next year when the biennial Federal Human Capital Survey is conducted. The idea is to evaluate today at NASA Langley, not the past.

"Judge us on what we are doing now, not on the baggage of 10 years ago," Vann said. "This is an initiative to let employees know that we have listened to them and want to change the environment."


 
NASA Langley Research Center
Managing Editor: Jim Hodges
Executive Editor and Responsible NASA Official: H. Keith Henry
Editor and Curator: Denise Lineberry