I had the opportunity to participate in the first JSC Vision forum this evening. It opened with a brief introduction to the 20-Year Vision for Johnson Space Center, how it was derived, and the five big ideas for implementation. We then split off into breakout groups to discuss the Vision as a whole and the implementation concepts. Lots of people went straight for the implementation groups, so I decided to split off with the smaller group that was analyzing the Vision itself.

I was easily the youngest person in my breakout group. Including the moderators, the only civil servant was the guy taking the notes (which will be distilled and passed on to JSC management in an anonymous format). There were six of us, plus two moderators and our notetaker. I’d say the big theme that kept coming up was that we need to figure out a way to communicate with and get buy-in from people who aren’t necessarily sold on high-level collaboration and integration… and that we desperately need “public input” to help make what we do at JSC relevant to people’s lives.

For the most part, though, everyone - from 20-something me to the Baby Boomers - was very positive about the basic premise of having a vision for JSC being a collaborative, integrated, innovative place that is willing to be bold in the pursuit of human space exploration. We recognized that this first meeting was rather self-selecting, though, in that we were all willing to give up part of a Wednesday evening after work to contribute. Thus, there will be more of an effort to get participation from people in the community that are skeptical of the effort on the next run.

I think the value of this forum, beyond the feedback that will be provided to center management, is that we got people from different disciplines and different generations all together to talk about how we can make the future of JSC become a reality. We’re ready, willing, and able volunteers that have demonstrated our commitment to this community and have taken the first step in building the network we will need to begin implementing the initiatives that center management buys into.

Leadership from the top integrated with action from the working level is what’s going to get this done. That’s the message I’ve taken from the forum today and I’m very excited to be a part of it.