NASA’s Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People, and Projects: The Smart Mission

“This book is about people (often a missing ingredient), knowledge, and the grand value of stories….and oh yes, projects too. The three authors gave me more concrete advice on leading people, knowledge, and projects in this book than I could have ever learned from hiring an outside consultant for a year.”—E. LaVerne Johnson, Founder, President and CEO, International Institute for Learning, Inc. “Every leader who leads and manages teams should read The Smart Mission. It explains the intangibles of successful knowledge organizations in a tangible way. The authors master the art of explaining how people culture, process, and relationships drive the successes and failures of projects. The book helped me to gain clarity and focus about the challenges we try to solve in our organization.”—Susann Roth, Chief of Knowledge Management, Asian Development Bank “This book supplements and corrects the somewhat sterile project management literature. It recognizes that successful projects are about acquiring and applying knowledge. And NASA provides the perfect example. Whatever your type of moonshot, The Smart Mission will help land it.”—Thomas H. Davenport, Distinguished Professor, Babson College, and Visiting Professor, Oxford Saïd Business School; author of The AI Advantage, Competing on Analytics, and Working Knowledge “Intangibles such as knowledge, learning and culture are the source of productivity and innovation in any organization. However, intangibles by nature are extremely hard to measure or manage, until The Smart Mission. It cracks the code with principles and practices gained through NASA’s long journey. It’s a must-read for managers and knowledge-workers, especially those at project-based organizations.”—Naoki Ogiwara, Managing Director, Knowledge Associates Japan “Every mission should be a Smart Mission. NASA has paid high costs to learn these lessons, and Ed Hoffman, Matthew Kohut, and Larry Prusak have distilled and refined them as tools for any program or project.”—Peter Temes, President, Institute for Innovation in Large Organizations; author of The Power of Purpose, The Just War, and We the PeopleBronze Axiom medal, Business Intelligence / Innovation category, 2023