Lean Knowledge Management: How NASA Implemented a Practical KM Program

“The new world is one based on knowledge. Lean KM offers a practical approach to Knowledge Management, filled with historical references and interesting stories. It brought back wonderful memories of NASA.”—Dr. Edward J Hoffman, Former NASA CKO and Director of the NASA Academy of Program, Project, & Engineering Leadership (APPEL), CEO Knowledge Strategies LLC Lecturer, Columbia University, Information and Knowledge Strategy (IKNS)

Lean Knowledge Management Helped Change NASA’s Culture and It Can Do the Same for Your Organization.

NASA suffered three human spaceflight tragedies and Lean Knowledge Management was a major tool that helped NASA management implement massive cultural changes.

Traditional knowledge management is too often regarded as overly complicated or a wasteful bureaucratic exercise, but Lean Knowledge Management can become a critical component for your organization to operate effectively, efficiently and safely.

Lean Knowledge Management simplifies the process by:

• Clearly defining your organization’s key employees,
• Filtering the enormous amount of internal “information” into “critical knowledge”.
• Utilizing a myriad of resources to get this critical knowledge to the people who need it most - the very people that can make your organization successful.

Repetitive mistakes and failures can cost an organization millions of dollars in lost revenue, scrap, and even lawsuits. Lean Knowledge Management strips away the academic jargon and implements a practical, cost-effective, organic program emphasizing lessons of the past.

Knowledge is free! Your hard-earned corporate knowledge is right in front of you, why risk losing it and having to pay for it all over again?

Knowledge is power! Lean Knowledge Management is a structured plan to harness that power for your organization.

Mr. Forsgren started his career as a mechanic apprentice at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio and, after ten years of night school, earned an undergraduate and then graduate degree in engineering. In 2005, Mr. Forsgren transferred to NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. to manage agency training and in 2013 was appointed the director of the Academy of Program/Project and Engineering Leadership (APPEL). In 2016 he was given the additional responsibility of serving as the NASA Chief Knowledge Officer until his retirement in 2021.