The View From Here


Clarity is a Critical Component of Excellence

Written by: developer

It has been six months since I took the helm of the Space Foundation, and I've spent a good part of that time assessing how best to lead this exceptional organization to master future challenges.

Just as the world's spacefaring nations need to work together to achieve success in space, at the Space Foundation we are aligning the efforts of our team members in a unified approach to excellence in our three strategic pillars: education, space awareness, and service to the space community.

Before my first day at Space Foundation, I sent a letter to the team members, emphasizing the importance of clarity. I wrote:

Unless we acquire and sustain effective internal and external communication, we will not achieve our true potential...We must be absolutely clear about our essential missions and prepare thoroughly for delivering them. At any time, our goals must be explicit at every level and I ask that you always consider what you contribute to the big picture of the Space Foundation and focus on your support to our mission.

Over the summer, I worked closely with our esteemed board of directors to redefine our organization, as expressed in new vision and mission statements. Here is the outcome of those discussions:

Our new vision:  The world's premier organization to inspire, educate, connect, and advocate on behalf of the global space community.

Our new mission:  Be the preeminent resource for space education, a trusted source of space information, and a provider of exceptional forums for the exchange of ideas.

Please take a minute to read about our new strategic plan here.

As we work toward clarity in our internal communications, we are also making changes to the way we communicate with our corporate member companies, partners, and the greater space community.

Before the end of 2017, we plan to roll out a redesigned spacefoundation.org. One feature of the new website will be a daily news feed on the homepage, providing current information, not only about our organization, but about global space activity.

The 'spacescape' is changing rapidly. Commercial space activity has been on the rise for a while and almost every nation on our planet is launching satellites. The Space Foundation needs to be more responsive and frequent with our updates and information for our space community. To that end, instead of receiving our Space Watch newsletter by email once a month, you will be able to go to our website to find out what you need to know about space news today. We are replacing our monthly communication format with a more timely, daily information approach.

Soon, if you're looking for a launch update anywhere in the world, you can find it on our homepage. And if I have news to share with the organizations that support and partner with the Space Foundation, I'll post my message on our homepage.

We'll let you know when we roll out our new website, and we hope you will communicate with us regarding the clarity of our vision and the execution of our mission.

Tom Zelibor
Chief Executive Officer
Space Foundation

This article is part of Space Watch: November 2017 (Volume: 16, Issue: 11).


Posted in The View From Here