From Problem Solvers to Solution Seekers: Dismantling Knowledge Boundaries at NASA

Hila Lifshitz-AssafNew York University

Literature Predicts Rejection and Boundaries Protection

• Organizational knowledge processes occur within clearly pre-defined and selectively permeable boundaries (Tushman 1977, Kogut and Zander 1992, Nonaka1994, Brown and Eisenhardt 1995, Hargadon and Sutton 1997,Orlikowski 2002, Hargadon 2003, O’Mahony and Bechky 2008, Levina and Vaast 2008)

• Knowledge boundaries are an important and contested area for R&D professionals (Allen 1977, Katz and Allen 1982, Dougherty1992, Szulanski 1996, Carlile 2002, 2004, Bechky 2003, Kellogg, Orlikowski and Yates 2006, Monteiro, Mol and Birkenshaow 2011, O'Mahony and Ferraro 2012)

• The sociological “boundary work” and professionalism literature predict fierce rejection and jurisdiction protection (Gieryn 1983, Abbott 1988, Lamont and Molnar 2002)

Re-examining the Literature • The new paradigm of the Web is changing knowledge work and the

permeability of multiple boundaries in important and unexplored ways (Jasanoff 2004, Rabeharisoa and Callon 2004, Evans 2009)

• A call to re-examine the literature (Benkler 2006, O’Mahoney and Lakahni 2011, Baldwin and Von Hippel 2011, Afuah and Tucci 2012, Lakhani, Lifshitz-Assaf and Tushman 2013)• Debunking the deterministic treatment of technology as determinant

of social change (Sproull and Kiesler 1991, Barley 1986, Weick 1990, Orlikowski and Barley 2001, Orlikowski and Scott 2008)

?

In Contrast to Prior Literature, I Find “Knowledge Boundary Dismantling”

Professional Identity Work

• Prior studies on identity threat (Elsbach 2003) also predict rejection

• Recently, the identity literature is shifting from viewing identity as relatively enduring to a dynamic view focused on identity work and construction processes (Ibarra 1999, Wrzesniewski and Dutton 2001, Pratt et al 2006, Kreiner et al 2006, Elsbach 2009, Petrigeleri 2011)

• Adding a layer of meaning making (Weick 1996) to identity work

The transformation from Problem Solvers to Solution Seekers

Knowledge Boundary

Dismantling

Clearly Predefined & Selectively Permeable

Undefined & Constantly Permeable

Professional Identity

Elevating

Pre PostOpen Innovation Experiment

" It is a deep philosophy change, from being a problem solver to a solution seeker.... It is not only about the organizations [we work in]; this is how we have been trained ever since we are kids—to solve problems! To be the experts of a field and solve!"

Longitudinal In-Depth Field Study

Pre PostOpen Innovation Experiment

2009 20112010 2012

Data Collection

Pre PostOpen Innovation Experiment

2009 20112010 2012

Experimental Results: A Scientific Breakthrough

Results were successful beyond expectations: in a short amount of time and with few resources, 4 out of the 14 problems were solved successfully!

• A breakthrough, the “home run” solution: Predicting solar flares• New combination: Resistive mechanism device• New material from a different industry: Packaging food material for

Mars• Significantly improved optimization: ISS medical kit

This has spun up so fast here and has caught everyone off guard.... Turnaround time for a solution like this could take years!"

The Day After: From Excitement to Resentment• Positive responses and resource dedication from NASA’s top

management and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

 

This puts you on the leading edge in many ways of all organizations in the world trying to figure out this open innovation perspective It’s just another tool at your toolkit…”

Pre PostOpen Innovation Experiment

2009 20112010 2012

• Back in the organization: moving from experimentation to integration

 

"

Challenging Knowledge Boundaries, in Turn, Challenged the Professional IdentityPeople come here to innovate... so it becomes quite a slap in the face when we see opportunities to use yet2.com and Innocentive.… It's extremely frustrating. The feeling of people… is now ‘What value am I?’

It [open innovation] is such an anathema to what they were trained to do and what was modeled to do.

The history of the scientific method goes against it…. In our training, trying tosolve problems in the scientific method was: I take in all this information, I synthesize it, I do analysis and I come to some conclusion and so to reach out to other people to solve it, it’s like cheating!

Work artifacts Organizational ceremonies

""

Narrative analysis: clear hero figure

"

Tensions Around Who Creates New Knowledge

Comparative narrative analysis

Clear hero figure: the “problem solver" Unclear hero figure: the Web?

The open innovation model was challenging not only to how new knowledge is created but also to who creates new knowledge.

Vs.

Emergent Professional identity workIdentity protection work

I've been attracted to places that allow you to access a problem, come up with a plan, and execute the solution…. To be able to think and solve greater problems, if I can’t do it at NASA, what is keeping me from going somewhere else?

Identity elevation and reconstruction work At the end of the day it’s about the big agenda vs. the personal one…Science is about finding the truth! "

"

The solution may come from your lab, from your collaborator, from an open innovation platform, you should not care, you are the solution seeker!

Problem Solvers Solution Seekers

"The Next Rocket Scientist: YOU…Solving those mysteries has long been the domain of lab coat wearing scientists…However, with the advent of the internet, social web, and open source data, it has become possible for anyone to make scientific discoveries about our universe.

"

Knowledge Boundary & Professional Identity Work

Pre PostOpen Innovation Experiment

Emergent identity

work

It is a shift from thinking ‘The lab is my world’ to ‘The world is my lab’"

Resulting innovation locusLargely outside the pre-defined boundaries

Type of boundary work

External knowledge

Internal knowledge

Resulting knowledge boundaries

Illustration

Boundary Dismantling

Integrated within the knowledge used in the R&D process

Mostly open

Undefined & constantly permeable;constant knowledge flows inside and outside

Dismantling was carried out despite the significant effort required• Some even left their units to create a new one: “open innovation program"

Knowledge Boundary Dismantling Work

SP.ACE The Sandbox

We are committed to openness as the starting point… we believe that transparency, collaboration and participation are vital to creating change…without openness, this multidirectional flow of ideas is all but impossible

"

Members attempted to destroy all knowledge boundariesFrom open data:

To open processes:

New open R&D processes: perceived as “the information age revolution”

Knowledge Boundary Dismantling Work

Largest International Hackathon 2012

People say that they open the data but if no one can understand it, it’s not really open data!"

It’s not enough to open one side of the funnel, we are still choosing and biased so we need to open the evaluation part as well"

Type of knowledge boundary work

External knowledge

Internal knowledge

Resulting knowledge boundaries

Illustration

Resulting innovation locus

BoundaryDismantling

Dismantling Integrated within the knowledge used in the R&D process

Mostly open

Undefined & constantly permeableconstant knowledge flows inside and outside

  Outside the pre-defined boundaries

Perforating(Selective Dismantling)

Significant part of the internal knowledge is open

Semi permeable multiple entry and exit points for knowledge flows

  Outside or inside pre-defined boundaries

Boundary Protection

Layering

Brought inside, but kept outside the knowledge used

Only the knowledge about the problems is open

False semi-permeable

    

Inside the clearly predefined boundaries

Fencing

Stays outside the boundaries of the R&D process

Kept only within the predefined boundaries

Clearly predefined & selectively permeable

13%

30%

22%

11%

43%

33%

Co-evolving Knowledge Boundary Dismantling & Professional Identity Elevating

Knowledge Boundary

Dismantling

Clearly Predefined & Selectively Permeable

Undefined & constantly Permeable

Professional Identity Elevating

Pre PostOpen Innovation Experiment

2009 20112010 2012

Identity Elevation and Reconstruction: From “Solver” to “Seeker"

A new innovation and hero figure in narratives emergedShe found this device on YouTube! This physician developed it for his private clinic in his garage… and it works!

The open source mindset transfers us from the innovation-resistant Not Invented Here attitude to Proudly Found Elsewhere

New organizational ceremonies (2012)

""

Theoretical Contributions Knowledge boundary dismantling work:

• Organizational members no longer function as knowledge recombinators; they can also perforate and dismantle existing boundaries (Carlile 2002, Bechky 2003, Murray and O’Mahoney 2007, Levina and Vaast 2005, 2008,)

• Implications on knowledge related processes and capabilities (Afuja and Tucci 2011, Tambe, Hitt and Brynjolfsson 2012, Levina and Fayard 2012, Lifshitz-Assaf 2013)

Professional Identity work:• Lacking research on identity processes, especially regarding

relationships with other processes (Ibarra 1999, Pratt 2012)• Adding a layer of meaning making (Weick 1996) to identity work

(Lepisto, Crosina and Pratt 2013)

• Implications of the shift from problem solving to solution seeking:• Organizing for Innovation: attribution (Latour 79),incentives (Stern

2004)

This is amazing innovation wise…but no one gets tenure from being a connector MIT RLE labs director "You mean people don’t go to work and post their challenges on facebook?Undergrad students, biology "

Beyond R&D Organizational Members

We have to get beyond the current system of information and delivery, the professorial “sage on the stageThomas Friedman: The Professors’ Big Stage (2013)

" The journalist has not been replaced but displaced, moved higher up the editorial chain from the production of initial observations to a role that emphasizes verification and interpretation, bringing sense to the streams of text, audio, photos and video produced by the public. That is what we’ll aim to do, issue by issue.Columbia’s “Post-Industrial Journalism” report (2009)

"

Thank you!

“Houston, we have a problem!” “Houston, we have a solution!”

Apollo 13 mission control room, 1970 Online innovation platforms, 2010

Hila Lifshitz-AssafH@nyu.edu

New York University