NASA's Artemis II mission taught us many things about space and the moon and, and, and! it also provided excellent lessons about organizational communication.
I was glued to Artemis II coverage across NASA's constellation (ha!) of channels earlier this month. And when I wasn't being awed by the images and affirmations the crew was sending back, I was marveling at the terrific examples of science and organizational communication on display by the space agency's team at every level. The sheer amount of training and coordination that was required to pull off consistent, human-level commentary is remarkable on its own before you even factor in that much of it was done live and unscripted. That's down to clarity, care, training and a dedication to the cause and the craft. But there's something even NASA can't teach, and that's humanity. It's conveying genuine empathy, wonder, gratitude, curiosity and, yes, even joy. That's recruiting people who know their feelings, communicate them authentically and — crucially — encouraging them to bring those emotions to their work. That's where a lot of organizations break down. Good on NASA for making humanity a core value.
NASA invests in communications training, from the top administrators down to volunteer ambassadors like me. That's right! I'm a member of NASA's Earth to Sky Community of Practice. We're teachers, scientists, park rangers, nature interpreters, and other formal and informal educators who communicate about climate change. We regularly hear from NASA folks about their work and how we can infuse it into our own. They also host workshops and courses to help us apply evidence-based communications practices.
Check out some of their live feeds (NASA's always got something going on!) and follow their various missions and divisions on social (they finally joined Threads after Artemis returned because so many of us were geeking out over there and reposting their Insta content!). While it may be hard to emulate the passion NASA team members have for the agency's work at your place of employment, I'm pretty sure seeing how they do it will inspire you to find some [moon] joy in your own comms work.