F2M Task Force seeks to break down the barriers
Jay Levine, X-Press Editor
and Carol Reukauf, Dryden F2M POC
Six members of NASA's Freedom to Manage (F2M) Task Force visited Dryden on Nov. 13 to explain the initiative and listen to what employees said are barriers or impediments to their work.
The Task Force is going to each center to conduct a Town Hall meeting and a set of four focused breakout sessions. Task Force members said the well-attended sessions at Dryden included insightful contributions to the F2M effort. Dryden proposed 77 new items, including seven that were added to the F2M Task Force's high-priority list.
"The Administrator, Sean O'Keefe, is seriously interested in hearing and addressing the concerns that employees have with requirements and activities that do not seem to add value to the product," said Carol Reukauf, Dryden's F2M Center point of contact.
NASA Chief of Staff and White House liaison Courtney Stadd chairs the F2M task force and NASA Deputy Chief Technologist Greg Reck is the co-chairman. Both attended the Dryden Town Hall and F2M Sessions.
Stadd explained F2M seeks to identify obstacles and barriers to accomplishing work efficiently and effectively within the Agency, determine the root cause of the obstacles, and then find ways to remove them. The Task Force is empowered to harness resources within the Agency to propose legislative and regulatory changes, as well as negotiate streamlined requirements and processes within the Agency itself. F2M has its roots as an implementation step of the President's Management Agenda.
"Our task is to identify and remove impediments to effective management and to stimulate change in support of the President's Management Agenda," Stadd said.
The Task Force grouped employee imputs into five categories: human resources, procurement, financial management, intellectual property and all other. Within the Task Force are points-of-contact for each area, who are responsible for review and follow-up of all inputs within that particular category. Supporting the Task Force are points-of-contact from each Center, who assist the Task Force in communication flow and change implementation.
The Town Hall meeting offered an opportunity for Dryden employees - both civil service and contractor - to gain a better understanding the Task Force and listen to a status report on the more than 300 inputs collected when the Task Force began its work and the more than 200 new inputs added through the center visits.
"We want to identify some of the elements that make your jobs hard; some we can change to make everyday tasks easier," Center Director Kevin Petersen said in his opening statements.
The focused breakout sessions were additional opportunity for employees to discuss issues in a smaller setting. Sessions were arranged for each of the major F2M areas except for intellectual property (an area with a small constituent group). In preparation for the Task Force's visit, the various Dryden codes had caucused to identify, clarify, and prepare specific issues relevant to Dryden for the sessions.
The panelists for the Town Hall included: Anne Guenther (Headquarters) who spoke about updated Procurement initiatives; Greg Hayes (Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas) who reported on Human Resources inputs; Rich Beck (Headquarters) who spoke about Financial Performance initiatives and proposed legislation changes; and Olga Dominguez (Headquarters) who described the nature and status of the issues that fell into the Other category. The panelists then went on to lead breakout sessions on those topics.
The F2M process has so far led to eliminating numerous reports; delegating authority to the field Centers to increase efficiency on issues such as hiring; and streamlining Agency processes like budget management. Also among the successes, the Task Force has restructured and streamlined NASA boards and councils at Headquarters, delegated authority to Centers to reorganize within the scope of their missions, and implemented the one-NASA badge so that civil servants now can gain entry into any NASA center with their badge. Panel members also described legislation included in the NASA Authorization Bill, which is designed to knock down barriers, such as the current requirement to separately fund travel and programs.
Employees may follow progress on F2M inputs through the Agency Web site: f2m.nasa.gov. They may also make new inputs through that Web page.
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