The Importance of Doing Things Differently

Heard a great story on NPR this morning that really demonstrates the success you can have when you change the way you are communicating.

An astronaut at NASA working on a project to help senior managers identify what inhibits "innovation" at the space agency decided that instead of doing the typical powerpoint preso he would present it as a video which can be seen here on YouTube.  He shot it on a borrowed  video camera and edited the piece right at home on his computer.

The story-line follows a young engineer as she tries to pitch a better way to design a spacecraft and all the bureaucracy she encounters along the way.  In the end, she takes a job with Google and they think the idea is so great they say they can probably "sell it to NASA"!!!!

The result of this piece?  A lot of embarrassment and raised eyebrows at the agency.  In the words of one senior NASA administrator: "This is really funny.  And not funny it all...."

Well, at least it got their attention.  Fair to say if this had been a powerpoint preso no one would have paid any attention to it.  Kind of like the engineer's idea...

JPL