{"product_id":"the-smart-mission-nasas-lessons-for-managing-knowledge-people-and-projects-9780262046886","title":"The Smart Mission: Nasa's Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People, and Projects","description":"\u003cb\u003eWhy human skills and expertise, not technical tools, are what make projects succeed.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe project is the basic unit of work in many industries. Software applications, antiviral vaccines, launch-ready spacecraft: all were produced by a team and managed as a project. Project management emphasizes control, processes, and tools--but, according to \u003ci\u003eThe Smart Mission, \u003c\/i\u003e that is not the right way to run a project. Human skills and expertise, not technical tools, are what make projects successful. Projects run on knowledge. This paradigm-shifting book--by three project management experts, all of whom have decades of experience at NASA and elsewhere--challenges the conventional wisdom on project management, focusing on the human dimension: learning, collaboration, teaming, communication, and culture. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe authors emphasize three themes: projects are fundamentally about how teams work and learn together to get things done; the local level--not an organization's upper levels--is where the action happens; and projects don't operate in a vacuum but exist within organizations that are responsible to stakeholders. Drawing on examples and case studies from NASA and other organizations, the authors identify three project models--micro, macro, and global--and their different knowledge needs. Successful organizations have a knowledge-based culture. Successful project management guides the interplay of knowledge, projects, and people.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEdward J. Hoffman, currently CEO of Knowledge Strategies, LLC, and Senior Lecturer at Columbia University, was NASA's first Chief Knowledge Officer and founder of the NASA Academy of Program\/Project and Engineering Leadership (APPEL). Following the Columbia shuttle failure, he led the team that designed the Strategic Management and Governance Handbook. He is the coauthor of \u003ci\u003eShared Voyage: Learning and Unlearning from Remarkable Projects\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMatthew Kohut, former major communication advisor to NASA, is coauthor of \u003ci\u003eCompelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential\u003c\/i\u003e, named one of Amazon's Best Business Books of 2013. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLaurence Prusak, former strategy consultant to Hoffman at NASA, is Senior Lecturer in the Information and Knowledge Strategy graduate program at Columbia University and the coauthor of \u003ci\u003eWorking Knowledge\u003c\/i\u003e, a widely cited text about how knowledge works in organizations, and other books.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50673730650386,"sku":"9780262046886","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_dc39e7d7-63df-4060-b381-e54daa71aa64.jpg?v=1733842035","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-smart-mission-nasas-lessons-for-managing-knowledge-people-and-projects-9780262046886","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}