Creating innovative frameworks to spur cultural change at the NASA armstrong flight research center

Changing the culture of an organization is a monumental task that often takes years and has no set formula. Steps can be taken, however, to spur cultural change by creating spaces and infrastructure to serve as the initial driving force. A collaboration space and a bicycle sharing (bike share) program were implemented at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) (Edwards, California) with a vision toward connecting Center personnel, and fostering collaboration and innovation. This paper discusses the steps taken, challenges faced, novel culture-change-focused design elements, lessons learned, acquired metrics, and how these initiated cultural change at AFRC. Funding was secured through the NASA Convergent Aeronautics Solutions project, key stakeholders across the center were identified and kept in the loop early in the process, research was conducted by looking externally and internally to the government, and decisions were made iteratively and in a small group. All aspects of the design of the space and the bike share program were tied to the core idea of connecting people across the center to create a collaborative and innovative culture and that core idea was uncompromised despite tight deadlines and budgets. The collaboration space and the bike share program together are an effective initial framework for innovation and collaboration. Culture change takes time, but these two frameworks are already showing signs of making a positive impact on the AFRC workforce.