Source of Acquisition NASA Washington, D. C. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Academy Sharing Knowledge 1 The NASA Source for Project Management and Engineering Excellence I APPEL WINTER 1 2000 I~ r,? \YNE HALE ON LEADING YOUR LE t H S I 2&d:'zm g;&J:l *.. ,>. D,- .A WN: COOPERATION, NOT CONTROL PLANNING FOR DISASTER I.. , ' . r ASK MAGAZINE I 1 Contents DEPARTMENTS INSIGHTS STORIES 3 8 5 In This Issue Leading Your Leaders The Summer of Hydrogen BY DON COHEN BYN. WAYNEHALE.J R TO make well-informed BYPHILIP WEER The Kennedy Space decisions, leaders need to be guided by the Center ground crew ded~catedm onths of 4 knowledge and judgment of those who do effort and ingenuity to finding and fixing a From the APPEL Director the hands-on work. puzzling hydrogen leak. BY ED HOFFMAN 24 12 48 Using the Space Glove to Teach Dawn: Cooperation, Not Control Knowledge in Brief Spatial Thinking BY TODD MAY The Discovery and New BYPETER LORD The head of the Island Frontiers Program Office at Marshall had 49 Astronomy Institute enl~stedth e aid of the to earn the trust of the Dawn team by ASK Bookshelf astronaut glove inventor to teach space proving that it wanted to contribute to science to schoolchildren. the mission, not control it. 50 The Knowledge Notebook BY LAURENCE PRUSAK The Power of Story Best Buy: Planning for Disaster BYJESSICA WXAND DON COHEN Narratives BYADAM SACHS AND KERRYELUS Rising to 52 can communicate ideas, values, and the challenge of a summer of hurricanes ASK Interactive emotions-and inspire action. in Florida, the retailer shaped an effective disaster-response plan. 29 Interview with Jay O'Callahan 20 BYDON COHEN The well-known storyteller The Astronaut Glove Challenge: Big talks about the power of stories to explain Innovation from a (Very) Small Team and inspire, and the essential contr~bution BYPETER HOMER Learning from incremental of story listeners. failure, the author-inventor built a better astronaut glove. 40 Reaching for the APEX at Ames 33 BYMATTHEWKOHUT Structured mentoring Learning from Space Entrepreneurs and on-the-lob training help Ames project BY WlLUAM POMERANTZ Small, passionate, managers and systems engineers develop resourceful teams of space flight the skills they need. entrepreneurs compete-and cooperate- in X PRIZE Foundation competitions. 42 The Project Manager Who Saved 3.8 His Country Featured Invention: BY JOHN BANISZEWSKI A project completed Laser Scaling Device more than 150 years ago affords lessons BY CAROL ANNE DUNNAND GlNY CHEONG for today's project managers. A device developed by the Applied Physics Lab to aid shuttle repair is adopted by crime 46 scene investigators. Choosing and Developing the Right Leadership Styles for Projects BY DR RALF MULLER Because dtfferent k~ndsof projects require dtfferent emottonal, managerial, and intellectual sktlls, success depends on carefully matching the leader to the task. Staff APPEL RRECTjOr q@. ,, , Dr. EdmdW atWr~ar~ .L?.;' ehoffmanQnasa.gov 5% *'. Ti$ wl83 mm(ORm1FTmEi --+ - * .->5-- 7: Laurence Prusak -- 2 1- -++ ! lprusakQmsn.com ; . '-4 ..% MAMA- . . _ ,- The Academy of ProgramlProject and Engineering Leadership (APPEL) and ASKMagazine help NASA managers and project teams accomplish today's missions and meet tomorrow's challenges by sponsoring knowledge-sharing events and publications, providing performance enhancement services and tools, supporting career development programs, and creating opportunities for project management and engineering collaboration with universities, professional associations, industry .': kerry.ellisQasrcms.com partners, and other government agencies. ex , -ei 2 1g- .-r4g- 5. 'e DNtFII13mI-T -l'-- ASK Magazine grew out of the previous academy, the Academy of ProgramIProject .;STM att Kohut Leadership, and its Knowledge Sharing Initiative, designed for programlproject ? - 7 mattkohutQinfactcommunications.com managers to share best practices and lessons learned with fellow practitioners across the Agency. Reflecting APPEL's new responsibility for engineering development 5-sw- - Rosie Rob"fnssn .-, -kt$ eanngdi nteheer incgh aallcehnigevese moef nNtsA aSsA w's elnl eaws imnsiisgshiotn i, nAtoS Kbr oinadcleurd eisss uaerst icolfe so rtghaant izeaxtpiolonrael %a-m '" rosie.robinsonQasrcms.co~~-z;.; knowledge, learning, and collaboration. We at APPEL Knowledge Sharing believe $>@-.<& -< ..g7. .-4 -+--. that stories recounting the real-life experiences of practitioners communicate L, % . important practical wisdom. By telling their stories, NASA managers, scientists, and - -p- ;, ,- q-;4>. B en Bruneau engineers share valuable experience-based knowledge and foster a community of -5 - - A ben.bruneauQasrcms.com reflective practitioners. The stories that appear in ASK are written by the "best of -. the best" project managers and engineers, primarily from NASA, but also from other - Katherine Thomas <, government agencies, academia, and industry. Who better than a project manager or katherine.thomasQa engineer to help a colleague address a critical issue on a project? Big projects, small projects-they're all here in ASK You can help ASKprovide the stories you need and want by letting our editors know what you think about what you read here and by sharing your own stories. To submit - Cl-l- < e stories or ask questions about editorial policy, contact Don Cohen, Managing Editor, OEmm - [email protected], 781-860-5270. Hirshom Zuckermq Design Group, lnc- www.hzdg.com For inquiries about APPEL Knowledge Sharing programs and products, please contact the Knowledge Sharing Project Manager, Rosie Robinson, ASRC Management Services, .< -. 6303 Ivy Lane, Suite 130, Greenbelt, MD 20770; [email protected]; Dave Dixon 301-837-9067. da~id.~.dixonQnasa.~ov PRPWRlrPQ To subscribe to ASK, please send your full name and preferred mailing address GraphTec (including mail stop, if applicable) to [email protected]. ASK MAGAZINE 1 3 In This Issue The success of complex project work depends on good Innovation is another of this issue's themes. The innovation communication. That's such an obvious truth, it may hardly articles hinge on a different kind of "listeningw-that is, paying seem worth mentioning: if the many people building a attention to what experimentation and failure tell you. Peter spacecraft or pursuing some other ambitious goal can't Homer won NASA's Astronaut Glove Challenge by quickly understand one another and coordinate their efforts, the turning dozens of ideas into prototype glove fingers and project will fail. But knowing that communication matters learning something from each failure that pointed the way to doesn't tell you how it works. Several articles here take a a better idea. Homer considers awareness a vital contributor close look at both the what and how of communication. to innovation. His solitary achievement is the exception rather One way peoplecommunicatei s through story. "The Power than the rule. As Ed Hoffman says in his "From the APPEL of Story" notes that stories excel at communicating norms, Director" column, most innovation arises from groups whose values, relationships, and emotions-essential elements of members communicate well, combining their "old" ideas to teamwork and project success that cannot be evoked by the make something new. content or language of technical documents. Stories also Philip Weber's "The Summer of Hydrogen" and William draw listeners into the action, offering a vicarious experience Pomerantz's "Learning from Space Entrepreneurs" offer of what life or work is really like, as opposed to the theorist's other examples of learning from trial and error or rapid description of what it should be like. Because stories are prototyping-of listening to experience. Both articles also such potent communicators, we decided to interview a affirm the importance of communication among the people master storyteller in this issue of ASK rather than a manager, striving to build something new or solve a difficult problem. engineer, or scientist directly involved in the space program. The Kennedy ground crew eventually fixed the Space Shuttle's One surprising point storyteller Jay O'Callahan makes is that, hydrogen leak by working closely with the contractor who the listener plays an active, creative role in storytelling: that built the faulty seal. The space entrepreneurs competing for effective listening is also a skill. X PRIZE Foundation prizes frequently share experiences and The importance of listening is implicit in the argument of information, recognizing that they get as much as they give Wayne Hale's "Leading Your Leaders." Hale writes about how from that open conversation. There's also the fact that they and what people doing hands-on work should communicate are too passionate about their work to keep quiet about it. to the leaders who make decisions about that work. He stresses the importance of clarity, of providing context and Don Cohen describing solutions as well as problems. But the leaders Managing Editor being led by that information have an essential role to play as open, intelligent listeners. Real communication is always a partnership between speakers and listeners. Other articles that are less directly about communication-"Best Buy: Planning for Disaster," "The Project Manager Who Saved His Country," and "Dawn: Cooperation, Not Control"-all touch on the importance of listening and being open to learning from what you hear. 4 ( ASK MAGAZINE From the APPEL ~iiector Innovation: Burning Bridges or Building Them? BY ED HOFFMAN I love movies. What does that have to do with ASK "Martin Scorsese" into Amazon's search field and and NASA? My love of movies recently led me to was ecstatic to find the documentary had been put purchase a DVD set called A PersonalJourney with on DVD in 2000. Martin Scorsese Through American Movies. Scorsese The relatively new experience of online is a great director. Among his forty films are Tnxi purchasing is amazing. The Amazon site offers Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Departed. reviews, search capabilities, communities, buying Buying and watching the documentary crystallized options, and links to other sites. It is successful not for me concepts about innovation-an issue that is only because of shopping convenience but because critically important to NASA and this magazine. its technology makes a large, like-minded social Until now, I accepted the notion that community instantly accessible. It helps you do innovation was about destruction: breaking away old things-buy something you want and connect from the past, blowing up the old, changing with other people-in a new way. '7 can only talk about everything Burn your ships when you get to a By definition, innovation means something what hm moved me or new place so there's no going back. (According to new, but the best innovations of the Internet- intrz@ed me. I can't legend, Spaniard Hernindo Cortts did that on the Google, Amazon, eBay, Second Life-are powerful real& be olrjective here." coast of Mexico to make retreat impossible.) because they build on exactly the things that are I think that view is wrong. In reality, innovation most useful and valuable from the past. Instead of -Martin Scorsese, from brings the old and new together, both in what it the new overthrowing the old, the new strengthens A Personal Journq with Martin Scorsese Through creates and how the creative process happens. It and extends proven ideas and capabilities. The ease American Movies doesn't burn bridges; it builds them. and power of its social connections has made the I first saw the Scorsese documentary years ago Internet a ubiquitous tool, as common as drivinga car when I checked out a beaten-up set of VHS tapes or turning on the television. From games to shopping from my local library. I loved every minute of it. to information exchange to influence networks, it Scorsese communicated his passion and devotion has wrought a tremendous transformation thanks to great movies and vividly evoked the challenge especially to the vast potential for collaboration it movie artists face in bringing their unique visions has opened up. The Internet is an innovation in to the screen. Those individual visions can only be how we collaborate that I believe will lead to even made real through the competence and cooperation greater innovation. of a whole community of reflective practitioners. So both Scorsese's understanding of how great And however brilliant and "new" they may be, movies are made and my experience of buying the they will only matter to audiences if they connect DVDs on which he shared his wisdom tell me that with fundamental human experiences and feelings community is an essential part of innovation. Humans that are very old. have always needed to communicate, collaborate, I never expected to see this documentary and share with other humans, and great innovations again. But after watching the recent Kennedy spring from our communal experience. Innovation is Center Honors that included Scorsese, I typed more about connection than destruction. I Ground crew veterans at Kennedy Space Center still talk about what they call "the summer of I hydrogen"-the long, frustrating months in 1990 when the shuttle fleet was grounded by an elusive hydrogen leak that foiled our efforts to fill the orbiter's external fuel tank. I I was the external tanWsolid rocket booster project engineer on propulsion system detent cover, which holds the prevalve-the the ground crew during that painful stretch of mainly trial-and- main valve supplying hydrogen to Space Shuttle Main Engine 3 error efforts to locate &d solve the problem. It drove us crazy for -in the open position. The seal passed leak tests at ambient more than six months-a Florida-length summer. As painful as temperature but leaked when cryogenic temperatures were it was, the experience demonstrated the incredible dedication and persistence of the workforce and, we eventually discovered, showed the importance of designing tests that match flight conditions as exactly as possible. ONE MEMBER OF THE GROUND CREW Columbia (STS-35) was on Launch Pad A for a scheduled EVEN VOLUNTEERED TO SIT IN THE AFT May 30 launch when we discovered the hydrogen leak during - tanking. The external fuel tank is loaded through the orbiter. FUSELAGE DURING FUELING WEARING AN Liquid hydrogen flows through a 17-inch umbilical between the orbiter and the tank. During fueling, we purge the aft fuselage OXYGEN SUPPLY SO HE COULD CARRY with gaseous nitrogen to reduce the risk of fire, and we have a leak-detection system in the mobile launch platform, which A SENSOR AROUND FROM POINT TO samples (via tygon tubing) the atmosphere in and around the POINT UNTIL HE FOUND THE LEAK. IT'S vehicle, drawing it down to a mass spectrometer that analyzes its composition. When we progressed to the stage of tanking where NO SURPRISE THAT HIS PROPOSAL WAS liquid hydrogen flows through the vehicle, the concentration of hydrogen approached four percent-the limit above which it VETOED ON SAFETY GROUNDS, BUT would be dangerously flammable. We had a leak. HE WAS READY TO DO IT-THAT'S HOW We did everything we could think of to find it, and the contractor who supplied the flight hardware was there every FRUSTRATED AND DETERMINED WE WERE. day, working alongside us. We did tanking tests, which involved instrumenting the suspected leak sources, and cryo-loaded the external tank to try to isolate precisely where the leak originated. We switched out umbilicals; we replaced the seals between the umbilical and the orbiter. We inspected the seals microscopically applied. We added new leak sensors-up to twenty at a time- and found no flaws. We replaced the recirculation pumps, and tried to be methodical in our placements to narrow down and we found and replaced a damaged teflon seal in a main the possible sources of the problem. We even switched orbiters, sending Columbia back to the Vehicle Assembly Building and nearby, testing with hydrogen had become too dangerous. Liquid bringing out Atlantis, scheduled to fly as STS-38. Two shuttles nitrogen was the safe alternative. But liquid hydrogen, at about on their mobile launchers passing in the night was a majestic -253"C, is much colder than liquid nitrogen, which liquefies at sight, but not one you want to see if you're trying to get an about -196°C. Also, hydrogen atoms are many times smaller than orbiter launched. None of this told us where the leak was, or if nitrogen atoms. So the seal worked fine with liquid nitrogen, but we were dealing with more than one leak source. liquid hydrogen created gaps it could slip through. (Hydrogen One member of the ground crew even volunteered to sit in atoms are so small, they can even escape through a weld.) the aft fuselage during fueling wearing an oxygen supply so he The lessons we took from this experience, in addition could carry a sensor around from point to point until he found to seeing that persistence and dedication eventually pay off, the leak. It's no surprise that his proposal was vetoed on safety are these: grounds, but he was ready to do it-that's how frustrated and determined we were. Don't take anything for granted. Eventually, since nothing else had worked, we put a series Stay in constant communication with the of leak detectors outside the orbiter, near where the umbilical hardware manufacturer. connected with the external tank. We found the greatest Test as you fly. concentration of hydrogen there, so we knew, finally, that the leak had to be at the seal we had changed out and so rigorously On October 6,1990, Dhcovevy took off from Launch Pad 39B, inspected. Now that we knew the leak was there, we were able the first launch since April. Other successful launches would to figure out what was happening We knew from the testing occur in November and December. The summer of hydrogen that the leak would appear when the liquid hydrogen, which was over. is much colder than the gaseous hydrogen used to chill the system, was flowing through the vehicle. The extremely cold liquid hydrogen made the metal of the joint contract unevenly, creating small gaps that the hydrogen escaped through. The fix seems counterintuitive: we added spacers outboard of the bolts in the umbilical flange; when the bolts were tightened, the inside diameter of the flange squeezed down tighter on the seal. We also slowed the loading sequence to reduce the cold shock created when the liquid arrived at the joint. But how had the seal passed all its tests at the contractor? Why didn't they see the leak then? Since they were working so closely with us, they were able to supply the answers as soon as we understood the problem. They had tested the seals with liquid nitrogen, not liquid hydrogen. They had a good reason for that choice. Their facility in Downey, once fairly isolated, had seen Los Angeles grow around it. With schools and offices 8 1 ASK MAGAZINE I INSIGHT Leading Your Leaders BY N. WAYNE HALE, JR.