The Smart Mission: Sharing Nassa's Success

In the podcast episode, Ed Hoffman discusses his book, 'The Smart Mission,' which shares the lessons learned from managing knowledge, people, and projects at Nassa. The book aims to capture what makes an organization like Nassa special and the ingredients that contribute to its success. Hoffman emphasizes that a good mission alone is not enough; it's the people and the culture of learning that make Nassa successful. He highlights the importance of differentiating between micro, macro, and global projects, with each having unique knowledge needs and challenges. Examples of projects like the 'Vital' project and the International Space Station illustrate the varying levels of technical expertise, organizational capability, and cross-cultural collaboration required. Hoffman also emphasizes the significance of creating spaces for conversation, sharing, and appreciation to foster effective knowledge flow in distributed environments.