Today I had the opportunity to represent younger generations at the AIAA’s 3rd Space Exploration Conference, on the Generation Y panel. Simply put, I’m in awe of the reaction.
Directly after the panel, and into the evening at conference social gatherings, numerous people came up to e and other Gen Y panel members to say that the panel really affected them and that what we had to say was very relevant. To be clear, some certainly had constructive criticism to offer (more below), but the reaction overall was extremely positive. People were actually thankful to be given the perspective of a younger generation, and were inspired by the ideas we discussed. Our 90 minute panel generated apparently 36 questions, which I later found out was the narrowed down number of questions given to the moderator; this was by far the most questions for any panel yet. People also loved the non-traditional use of powerpoint– and mentioned that they were inspired to try something different next time around! Go JSC team!! I revamped the NASA CoLab talk in the spirit of the Gen Y Perspectives powerpoint, and am glad I did so (change can happen :D).
To be clear, not all questions were positively phrased. A common theme was, “You seem to think your generation is special and entitled and that we should work hard to reach out to you– why should we have to?” This actually came up most often when I asked for constructive feedback. I think older generations really DO feel like they have a lot in common with us, particularly in what they want– openness, collaboration, etc. (”nobody WANTS bureaucracy”, one person pointed out). I wonder if we might ask them to JOIN us in implementing this changes in NASA– that an opennasa is not just for us youngins, but that they can bring out their youthful spirits again. I also believe they want to be incorporated into this future vision, and that their potential contributions as mentors be recognized.
Kudos for George Whitesides for bringing out some of these difficult questions during the panel– it made for a much more interesting conversation!
I am deeply inspired by what transcended today. To have higher ups for NASA and industry thank me and the others for sharing, for being open to listen, and for honestly sharing their feedback. NASA is ready for NASA CoLab– I truly believe it now. I have a lot of hope for the space program and related industries, and am thankful to have more senior folks listen to Gen Y perspectives and be willing to engage.
[Note added Feb. 29, 2008: I was the 3rd of four panelists: Mary Lynn Dittmar, Kristen Painting, self (Delia Santiago), Alex Stimpson. Kristen’s presentation (the big buzz generator, from 4 JSC folks) is at http://www.opennasa.com/download/1/ My presentation is at: http://nasacolab.org/files/SpaceEx08_DLSANTIAGO.ppt More information at: http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=230&lumeetingid=1989 ]
February 28th, 2008 at 7:42 am
They keep thanking us. They keep saying we’re important. Three NASA Administrators in a row have supported boosting next gen participation. Most of NASA top leadership supports us enthusiastically. However, NASA remains a monogenerational oprganization, as does JPL and the contracting community. Even worse, the trend lines all show that despite the pretty words, the situation continues to get worse. In 1990, NASA predominantly hired 20- and 30-something boomers; in 2008, NASA predominantly hires 40-something boomers. The under-40 NASA workforce fell to 16% at the start of 2008.
Between Gen X and the Millenial (Gen Y) Generation, we’re half the U.S. workforce. We shouldn’t be asking to be allowed a seat at the table. We shouldn’t have to be asking for NASA baby boomers to reach out to us. We need to fight the monoculture which says that only baby boomers “are” NASA or “are” the space business. We need to “be” NASA and do this work ourselves. Despite our paltry small numbers we are not a circus curiosity. We are the space business, too.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:06 am
I fear that there are some additional realities that are not always being considered in the discussion about what NASA is doing to attract Gen Y.
It is no secret that American students today are not interested in the hard fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Technical companies of all stripes have realized this problem and have been spending enormous amounts of money on trying to get kids excited about these STEM fields. The NIH, NSF, Dept. of Ed, and others have very generous grant opportunities available. Nearly every state in the union also has programs that try to address the shortfall of students in these fields. Indeed, it is a goal of my company, Exploration Solutions, to work with these programs to frame children’s imaginations in the realm of science.
In 2006 & 2007, the Northrop Grumman Foundation, has given my former employer, Zero Gravity Corp, large sums of money to fly school teachers in districts where they have industrial facilities. The point: inspire teachers and their students to be excited about STEM fields. Northrop Grumman’s main concern: if current trends continue, they may not be able to hire an American citizen in the very near future. Outsourcing our national defense and space programs is NOT AN OPTION.
This past weekend, a government agency called Space Florida also started a program to bring teachers and a select group of students’ experiments to experience microgravity. Their concern is identical to Northrop Grumman’s: how do ensure today’s Floridian students become tomorrow’s engineers (with employers who stay in Florida)?
Armed with these facts, one must then revisit what the composition of ‘today’s workforce’ is. A deeper understanding of the workforce demographic will likely indicate that NASA and its contractors have limited choices. Think about it: the older, more educated, and experienced workforce is also much more expensive and less productive over time. Does anyone seriously think that these corporations (NASA Contractors) are actively choosing to avoid the more profitable workforce?
So before we continue to blame NASA for the composition of its workforce, let’s realize that the statistics reflect cultural and societal problems with our education priorities, problems that pale in comparison to a return trip to the moon.
February 28th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Garth says: “We shouldn’t be asking to be allowed a seat at the table.I
Alas, that is exactly what you are going to have to do - just like very generation before you. No one is going to just hand over the keys to NASA because the thought dawned on them one day. Indeed, it hasn’t happened yet. Gen Y needs to reach out and grab the keys- and then do something useful - and different with them - to prove that they should have them and that they can be trusted to use them wisely.
February 28th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Keith says: “Gen Y needs to reach out and grab the keys- and then do something useful - and different with them - to prove that they should have them and that they can be trusted to use them wisely.”
I can see the point that Keith is making, but I think the Gen Yers have a point here - the numbers mean that they’re vastly under-represented in US space work right now. Indeed, when you’re at ESA, you see a far younger group of people, far more involved in mission decisions, than at NASA.
One problem is that there’s a desert when it comes to Gen X, as well (as I kinda count myself as an early Gen-X, but that’s maybe a midlife crisis thing and not wanting to call myself a late baby boomer ;)). That’s a big loss, too, as it’s the Gen Xers that real made the transition from raw networked communication to collaborative computing, and created the models that agencies should be adopting, to provide operating environment and the mentorship for Gen Y. And, in the end, it IS Gen Y that’s going to build Cx!
So the problem is getting extreme - there’s little Gen X thought in NASA to allow a recognition of the importance of Gen Y, and thus Gen Y is truly being held back by us, and not by a lack of ability or doing something useful. And by holding Gen Y back, we hold the future back. That’s not acceptable.
February 28th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
I think, however, that the very point is not necessarily that Gen Y-ers need the keys. The point is that every individual from any generation, in any organization, should have access to NASA. That access should not be limited solely to the data gathered either. Access should be provided to the direction and proposed plan for reaching the end goal. NASA as an organization and institution has bubbled up to the position of proclaimer. They dictate to the rest of the world what NASA is going to do without regard for where the public wants it to go. I believe we have two very distinct issues that are being addressed simultaneously and this particular example speaks louder because Gen Yers are so difficult to capture. I would, however, hate to disregard the sentiment and similar situation of many generations.
February 28th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Go Delia! Risk, courage and fearlessess is what it takes to get out there and be heard. The ones who sent Apollo up were the GEN-Y of their time. Bureaucracy, age and experience wasn’t that much of an issue until NASA started to be scared and solely depended on the waning leadership and vision in Congress (not to mention operating dollars). It’s a long inter-generational education and communication curve coming up, and if the higher-ups can see this momentum and support it, perhaps the public would once again be inspired by this cool-but-nobody-cares behemoth named NASA.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Replying in part to Matt Reyes’ discussion: When I was finishing my engineering degree, all my EE classmates were looking for dot-com careers. Several of the Aero engineers I knew were not entering the workforce.
Remember that the 90’s, when a lot of Gen X was entering the workforce, was also a time of considerable hiring freezes. I was told ~1988-1990 not to go the aero engineering route, because it wasn’t as marketable.
The other thing I can’t emphasize enough is the importance of role models to encourage the post-millenials to carry the banner onward. It doesn’t matter how young you are, you can get out there and volunteer at the [url=http://spaceset.org/]Space Settlement Design Competition[/url], [url=http://www.futurecity.org/]Future Cities Competition[/url], FIRST, etc.
Schools are key. One of our SWE officers tried to talk with girls in a nearby school district about engineering. The counselor told her “None of our girls are interested in that.” In a Greater Houston area school district!!!!
February 28th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I find it interesting that the same topic was presented on opposite coasts, on the same day, by people working at different NASA centers and had no idea the other existed. I organized a panel which presented at the NASA Project Management Challenge Wednesday on the same topic with similar results. On our panel, we had 3 Generation Y-ers (1 from JSC, 1 from KSC, and 1 from HQ), 1 Deputy Center Director from GRC, and one retired NASA employee and current college recruiter. We had mostly positive questions and positive reinforcement during and following the panel. However, at one point, one of the senior members of the panel asked the younger members to be more PC. I think it is very important to be respectful to older Generations during this process. Many of the people who attended the panel attended Nick’s follow-on session as well, and I was excited with the enthusiam created by his presentation among KSC people.
Since yesterday, after seeing the presentation in CO and hearing about the panel in Daytona, our Center Director has organized a team of people at KSC to begin working this issue.
My next goal is to put together a thorough list of people interested and willing to do something with this issue from across NASA and its support team, so we can all be in contact. Let me know if this already exists.
I am really excited about the attention this topic is getting, and for the first time, feel like I may be making a difference at NASA. Thanks to all the people working hard on this!
February 28th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Congratulations to the the GenY leaders who took a risk and put their thoughts out there. We are an agency that is about possibilities, and what I hear from you is: Consider the possibilities of thinking differently. I think your presentation is thought provoking, creative and a beginning of change necessary in our collective thinking to be more effective in our communication and relationships.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:06 am
Matt - I agree with you that there’s a national problem with the general lack of interest in STEM fields. However, I also think it is an oversimplification to imply that employers are choosing more experienced and more expensive employees simply because those are the only people available. The fact is that as an employer you’re given choices like choosing between hiring someone who is 40 years old and an expert in a particular field or someone who is 22 years old who you’re going to have to train for years for them to have the same technical contribution to your organization. Now maybe it is short-sighted to pick the 40 year old, but particularly when you’re talking about a profit-making venture, you’re not necessarily worrying about the long term - you need someone who can produce ASAP.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:41 am
Hey Delia! Great post. For those of you that weren’t there, I also presented with Delia. We did receive some excellent feedback immediately after we gave the presentation. Some of it was just “Hey, good job!”, some of it was, “Thanks for explaining my kids to me”, and some of it was very constructive criticism. All of which I was very thankful for! It was such a great experience for me to meet so many other active gen y-ers. I know that we have a long way to go and there is a lot that is still laid out in front of us, but I have seen that we have a great team of people that are ready and willing to make things happen.
One thing that I do want to make mention of: A few people that I spoke to after the panel commented that they thought that Gen Y wanted a lot of things handed to them and that resulted in Gen Y-ers asking for a lot of things to change FOR them and not WITH them. I hope that people come to understand that this is something that we want to change, but we are also willing to do the work to change. We don’t expect it to change for us, we just hope to work with the way things are and change them a bit. However, we’ll keep working and we’ll demonstrate this rather than just saying it. I can’t wait to keep working with such an incredible group of people!
February 29th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Talked about reaching out to the youth and Open NASA a little today on http://www.thespaceshow.com … perhaps we can get someone on the show Jessy .
February 29th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Maybe I have an unusual seat on the action, but I see the massive contribution that the next gen folks are having. I don’t want us to ask for a seat at the table, because in many ways WE ALREADY HAVE ONE. Do you all realize there have been large numbers of next gen’ers involved in every major NASA strategic plan, strategic workforce study, architecture study (like ESAS), technical trade study, etc? There were a number of next gen’ers on the team that wrote the actual document entitled “The Vision for Space Exploration.” No kidding.
We may be few in number, but we are not a random sample. Each and every young person in the space business has a unique story about how they overcame great odds and defied the prevailing wisdom. They also had to have been brilliant and very very persistent.
The question is not whether we CAN be heard. That’s actually easier than most people think. The question is what do we WANT. People realize how we are few in number and they realize how sparse and scattered and isolated we each may be. But we are scattered everywhere, at all levels, in all offices, in all organizations.
If all the next generation of explorers wants is fancier information technology, that can be done far more easily than going to the Moon. But somehow, once people stop thinking small about getting wikis and blogs and twitters, there must be some deeper policy proposal that they could envision.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Quoting Garth: “The question is not whether we CAN be heard. That’s actually easier than most people think. The question is what do we WANT. People realize how we are few in number and they realize how sparse and scattered and isolated we each may be. But we are scattered everywhere, at all levels, in all offices, in all organizations.
If all the next generation of explorers wants is fancier information technology, that can be done far more easily than going to the Moon. But somehow, once people stop thinking small about getting wikis and blogs and twitters, there must be some deeper policy proposal that they could envision.”
Fantastic question/ challenge to pose! This should probably be its own discussion, but…
I want: 1) the world to see space as humanity’s future AND something realistic and here and now (”we” are going to the Moon) and be willing to work for that (this might entail education efforts, policy reform, all of the above) 2) NASA–environment linkage to be clear. Part of this “want” is wanting NASA to link to issues that are important to the public right now (i.e. the environment).
I’m over my two cents…
February 29th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I wanted to express my appreciation and support for CoLab and Open NASA activities. Also, I think there is an opportunity that comes with this approach that I would like to propose.
To use Keith’s analogy; we may be able to mint a new set of keys to NASA by becoming the cause of and conduit to the broad and deep seeded support of NASA from Gen Y at large, and it may be possible to do it on a relatively short time line. By creating the opportunity for the NASA and the aerospace supporting segment of Gen Y (currently in the minority) to speak out to the rest of Gen Y, the relevance of NASA and exploration can be communicated.
Much like the Apollo program NASA astronauts and the teams of people supporting them inspired a whole generation (and more) to aspire for greatness in so many fields (not just space), we have the same opportunity here and now. Gen Y is still finding its niche in society, and NASA has the opportunity to provide inspiration at an important time for all of Gen Y.
I think the efforts associated with CoLab and the others who spoke on the Gen Y panel at the 3rd Exploration Conference are on the right track for building a fan base that can include the majority of Gen Y. If this were to happen, just as we are entering this exciting new era for space enterprise, the rest of the world can actually participate in the story as it unfolds. So, thats my thought…inspiring all of Gen Y could be the key that opens the door to the entire solar system.
March 1st, 2008 at 12:55 am
Please bear with this GenX input but here is a different perspective, and one you may not want to hear. I saw the briefing by the NASA GenY employees and must say it was EXCELLENT! If our colleges are turning out people that can communicate this well, then they are, at least, doing SOMETHING right. Having said that, here goes.
1) NO seat “at the table” is given, it must be earned. I’ve been in manned space over 20 years. My seat at the table was not given, it was earned by taking my basic education, learning my job, thinking critically, and CONTRIBUTING ideas that helped accomplish the mission. As the Boomers retire, I am finding my seat closer to the HEAD of the table and here is what I see relative to Gen Y. Intelligent, communicative, free thinking, do not know when to shut up, no desire to “stick with it” through a long or tough project, out for instant gratification, easily bored, self-important, and generally only in it for themselves.
Much of these negative attributes ARE NOT GenY, they are true about youth in general, they were true about me at one time.
2) The “establishment” is finding it rather difficult to take the GenY folks into their confidence. GenY folks think that data and information is PUBLIC ACCESS (e.g. music file sharing) but large companies, in fact the entire capitalist system is built on finding a better idea, KEEPING it a secret until the right time, and making your million before any competitor can find a way to do it better and/or cheaper. GenY seems to have a problem grasping this to some extent. Where NASA plays, the “sensitive data” isn’t sought by other companies, but by other governments, and not to make a better cake mixer either.
3) GenY seems to be self-important. For example, the expectation that they DESERVE a place at the table. The Greatest Generation gave us a victory in WWI and an industrial country. Boomers gave us CDs, microwaves, color TV, portable computers etc. Gen X is about to assume the reigns and we’ll see what that group does with their time at the forefront. THEN comes GenY. NO, you are NOT building the next generation rockets, that effort is the swan song of the boomers and the “coming of age” of the GenX folks, I know, I work with them. You are not yet at peak earning years, the youngest of you is just 8 years old. By and large, the older groups are still footing the bill too. So buck up and start earning your place at the table.
You have potential, LOTS of it, and you WILL change the world one day, but you also have to realize that, while you may throw out some of our ways as antiquated, you will also find, to your astonishment, that many of them are worth keeping.
March 1st, 2008 at 1:31 am
[…] Y in it. The presentations were very different from any others during the conference. What kind of reaction could this type of exchange receive? In most instances, this would be a recipe for complete […]
March 1st, 2008 at 6:36 am
I am Gen X and agree with Allen’s post.
However, I do feel that a paradigm shift is at hand and while I agree that Gen Y needs to earn their place at the table, the concept of just what being at the table means is changing.
In 1996 who would have thought that some ex-NASA guy could sit in his little condo and post things on a computer that would get him on national TV hundreds of times and allow him to personally tweak how NASA does things - daily?
I used to be the only one. It was fun - but a little lonely. Now there are hundreds - soon thousands - of people who can also do this. And the result of this will be … ?
Like I said, “being at the table” is morphing. But that does not mean that Gen Y is entitled to a seat at whatever it morphs into simply because they feel left out.
Every younger generation since the beginning of time has to fight to be heard.
That’s how human culture works.
However, therein lies and opportunity - and the path.
March 1st, 2008 at 11:41 am
I’ll also agree with Allen that a place at the table is earned. However, my experience as a contractor indicates that the place CAN be earned young. The key is something both our generations are good at: Communicate.
Make presentations like this, ask questions, find answers to the questions the experienced people ask you, learn, learn, learn, and update the presentations with your new knowledge.
Respect is also important. I consider myself fortunate to work with someone who worked on Dyna-Soar, and with people who made the Apollo program happen. One of our great gifts is that we can take a high learning curve. Do that.
I’d also say that I see parallels to something that happened at my church. We got a Young Adult Group together, which gave us something to share, build relationships, and connect. Then we did a church service (the equivalent of your presentation), and suddenly were asked to become involved. I think every year since then we’ve had a Young Adult on the Board of Directors, several in all sorts of committees.
This website is one place to make connections. AIAA Young Professionals can be another resource.