The following is adapted from No One’s Listening and It’s Your Fault

Most of us know NASA for its innovation and leadership in space technology, but did you know that it’s also an excellent example of successful organizational change? NASA today is quite different than it was during the height of the Space Race or even through the nineties. Back then, the organization designed rockets and tested flight technology in relative independence. Now, NASA is more diverse in its solutions, as well as its business model. 

According to a Harvard Business Review article, “The Reinvention of NASA,” the organization “moved from being a hierarchical, closed system that develops its technologies internally, to an open network organization that embraces open innovation, agility, and collaboration.” This transformation forced the organization to evolve and adapt to its changing environment. 

As we’ll explore, other companies can learn from NASA’s story in the face of organizational change as their choices determine whether they’ll rise to the challenge or fail to thrive.

Adapting to Challenge

Organizational change is often ignited by challenge, and the challenge that NASA faced is familiar to many organizations: budget cuts. 

When an organization’s budget changes, they have two options: work with less or find a way to secure extra funding. So by necessity, when NASA’s funding decreased, its vision increased. The organization had to open itself to change and accept a new way of operating. Fortunately, the organization chose to adapt to change and seek funding elsewhere. 

Government regulations, such as the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984, required NASA to expand its reach into the commercial space. While commercial space organizations drove innovation in the low-earth orbit, NASA prioritized innovation into deep space. This called for collaboration and greater reliance on partnerships to continue its operation. 

NASA Proved the Benefits of Sharing Power

If NASA had instead resisted change, they could easily have struggled to maintain adequate funding. In trying to preserve what they had, they might have lost it all. For many leaders, letting outside influence in is easier said than done, but it is often a required piece of organizational change. Whether a company undergoes a reorganization or a merger and acquisition, leaders often need to share power. 

Perhaps the most obvious reason why leaders miscalculate the importance of empowering others is because of the perceived loss of control. However, it’s important to realize that power is not a zero-sum game. Influencers thrive in all levels of an organization, and they have earned the power given to them by their peers and leaders. Empowering influencers, managers, and partners to carry the mission forward yields progress that will benefit everyone.

When we give away power, it does not mean we have less of it; it means we make more of it through others. NASA must have realized this potential for growth when they decided to open their doors and collaborate with external partners. 

Adapting to Change

NASA approached the organizational transformation by identifying three distinct phases that spanned over several decades, focusing on “technology strategies, cultural values, and ways of working with external parties.” 

To be successful, NASA had to relinquish its control on how the contracted work was completed and how it engaged scientists from other space agencies around the world. NASA was forced to collaborate. To demonstrate its value and earn the American public’s funding support, NASA invested more in external communications. 

Its interactions with public organizations promoted shared technical responsibilities, which spilled into the consumer market. Partnerships, such as those with SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, shifted NASA’s technology strategy, which resulted in shared costs and shared benefits across multiple industries. This cost-conscious approach has translated into innovation challenges targeting crowdsourcing solutions. NASA has become a more agile, collaborative organization poised for exploring new markets, both on Earth and beyond.

The shift in strategy forced NASA to relinquish its control and establish interdependent relationships with partners who could help carry the vision forward. NASA gave up a bit of control, but remember, budget cuts made change inevitable. In the end, what they gained far outweighed what they lost. 

A Lesson in Partnership

NASA’s transformational change is perhaps more than anything else an example of successful partnership. Their story demonstrates that to achieve great impact, we must empower others to carry our vision forward. 

People of influence may be internal partners or external collaborators. Our diversity of perspectives and experiences provides engagement and a more collective and wholesome solution. And when we achieve our goals because of shared accountability, we all celebrate in the success of the mission. 

For more advice on organizational change, you can find No One’s Listening and It’s Your Fault on Amazon.

PAM MARMON is the CEO of Marmon Consulting, a change management consulting firm that provides strategy and execution services to help companies transform.