The Smart Mission

The Smart Mission

Author: Edward J. Hoffman

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2023-10-17

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 0262547279

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Why human skills and expertise, not technical tools, are what make projects succeed. The 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 The Smart Mission, 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. The 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.


Mission Smart

Mission Smart

Author: David L. Frazier

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2013-12-27

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 9781492339267

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It costs a lot to train, send out, support and care for people in cross-cultural ministry; however, the costs are immeasurable when these workers don't learn the language and culture well, fail to be effective and return home in trouble spiritually and emotionally. Mission Smart addresses serious gaps in the mission mobilization process and offers fresh solutions for seeing less missionary attrition. Mission Smart is for overseas ministry candidates, church leaders, and mission agency staff. The goal is to send the right people who know their callings, can thrive overseas and be effective in cross-cultural ministry.


Remaking the American University

Remaking the American University

Author: Robert Zemsky

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780813536248

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At one time, universities educated new generations and were a source of social change. Today colleges and universities are less places of public purpose, than agencies of personal advantage. Remaking the American University provides a penetrating analysis of the ways market forces have shaped and distorted the behaviors, purposes, and ultimately the missions of universities and colleges over the past half-century. The authors describe how a competitive preoccupation with rankings and markets published by the media spawned an admissions arms race that drains institutional resources and energies. Equally revealing are the depictions of the ways faculty distance themselves from their universities with the resulting increase in the number of administrators, which contributes substantially to institutional costs. Other chapters focus on the impact of intercollegiate athletics on educational mission, even among selective institutions; on the unforeseen result of higher education's "outsourcing" a substantial share of the scholarly publication function to for-profit interests; and on the potentially dire consequences of today's zealous investments in e-learning. A central question extends through this series of explorations: Can universities and colleges today still choose to be places of public purpose? In the answers they provide, both sobering and enlightening, the authors underscore a consistent and powerful lesson-academic institutions cannot ignore the workings of the markets. The challenge ahead is to learn how to better use those markets to achieve public purposes.


Building Smart Nonprofits

Building Smart Nonprofits

Author: David J. O'Brien

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-08-15

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1538118246

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Best practices for nonprofits for long-term success in a rapidly changing world. Building Smart Nonprofits: A Roadmap for Mission Success is a handbook of best practices nonprofits can use to improve sustainability - a book of knowledge and know-how distilled from interviews with over 60 industry leaders who are in the nonprofit trenches every day—as executives, leaders, board members, funders, publishers, and service providers. David J. O’Brien and Matthew D. Craig provide real-life examples of nonprofits deploying best practices and emerging industry trends – such as the rise of socially conscious investing – to position their organizations for the long term. Topics include, among others, funding models, impact investing, compensation, strategic restructuring, leadership, full-cost grantmaking, program evaluation, storytelling, and financing. Readers learn how to best position their non-profit organization for a sustainable and long-term future.


The Smart Mission

The Smart Mission

Author: Edward J. Hoffman

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2022-08-16

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 0262046881

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Why human skills and expertise, not technical tools, are what make projects succeed. The 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 The Smart Mission, 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. The 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.


Who

Who

Author: Geoff Smart

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published: 2008-09-30

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0345504194

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In this instant New York Times Bestseller, Geoff Smart and Randy Street provide a simple, practical, and effective solution to what The Economist calls “the single biggest problem in business today”: unsuccessful hiring. The average hiring mistake costs a company $1.5 million or more a year and countless wasted hours. This statistic becomes even more startling when you consider that the typical hiring success rate of managers is only 50 percent. The silver lining is that “who” problems are easily preventable. Based on more than 1,300 hours of interviews with more than 20 billionaires and 300 CEOs, Who presents Smart and Street’s A Method for Hiring. Refined through the largest research study of its kind ever undertaken, the A Method stresses fundamental elements that anyone can implement–and it has a 90 percent success rate. Whether you’re a member of a board of directors looking for a new CEO, the owner of a small business searching for the right people to make your company grow, or a parent in need of a new babysitter, it’s all about Who. Inside you’ll learn how to • avoid common “voodoo hiring” methods • define the outcomes you seek • generate a flow of A Players to your team–by implementing the #1 tactic used by successful businesspeople • ask the right interview questions to dramatically improve your ability to quickly distinguish an A Player from a B or C candidate • attract the person you want to hire, by emphasizing the points the candidate cares about most In business, you are who you hire. In Who, Geoff Smart and Randy Street offer simple, easy-to-follow steps that will put the right people in place for optimal success.


The NASA Kepler Mission

The NASA Kepler Mission

Author: Steve B.. Howell

Publisher: IOP Publishing Limited

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9780750322942

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This book covers the numerous, paradigm changing scientific discoveries in exoplanets and other areas of astrophysics made possible by the NASA Kepler and K2 Missions. It is suitable for the interested layperson, pupils of science and space missions, and advanced science students and researchers.


AstroNuts Mission One: The Plant Planet

AstroNuts Mission One: The Plant Planet

Author: Jon Scieszka

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Published: 2019-09-10

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1452173036

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This laugh-out-loud, visually groundbreaking read launches a major new series by children's literature legend Jon Scieszka. Featuring full-color illustrations throughout, a spectacular gatefold, plus how-to-draw pages in the back, it's an outer space adventure that demonstrates a giant leap for bookmaking and a giant leap for any kid looking for their next go-to series. AstroWolf, LaserShark, SmartHawk, and StinkBug are animals that have been hybridized to find other planets for humans to live on once we've ruined Earth. So off they rocket to the Plant Planet! Will that planet support human life? Or do Plant Planet's inhabitants have a more sinister plan? AstroNuts Mission One is a can't-put-it-down page-turner for reluctant readers and fans ready to blast past Wimpy Kid.


The Smart Mission

The Smart Mission

Author: Edward Jay Hoffman

Publisher:

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780262369558

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"How NASA developed innovative strategies for managing knowledge and learning, and how other organizations can learn from NASA's success"--


Failure Is Not an Option

Failure Is Not an Option

Author: Gene Kranz

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2009-06-23

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 1439148813

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The author, flight director in NASA's Mission Control, tells of the challenges in space flight from the very early years to the current time and of "his own bold suggestions about what we ought to be doing in space now."--Jacket.