ML20266G329
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| Issue date: | 09/17/2020 |
| From: | NRC/SECY |
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Text
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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PUBLIC MEETING ON TRANSFORMATION AT THE NRC - MILESTONES AND RESULTS
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- THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2020
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The Commission met in the Commissioners' Hearing Room at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, at 10:00 a.m.,
Kristine L. Svinicki, Chairman, presiding.
COMMISSION MEMBERS:
KRISTINE L. SVINICKI, Chairman JEFF BARAN, Commissioner CHRISTOPHER T. HANSON, Commissioner DAVID A. WRIGHT, Commissioner ALSO PRESENT:
ANNETTE VIETTI-COOK, Secretary of the Commission MARIAN ZOBLER, General Counsel
2 NRC STAFF:
REED ANZALONE, Nuclear Engineer, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation AMY D'AGOSTINO, Human Performance Analyst, Office of Research MARGARET DOANE, Executive Director for Operations JONATHAN GREIVES, Branch Chief, Region I NADER MAMISH, Director, Office of International Programs PATRICE REID, Organizational Development Psychologist, Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer 1
3 P R O C E E D I N G S 1
10:00 a.m.
2 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Well, good morning, everyone. The Commission 3
meets this morning to resume a dialogue we've been having with the Staff for some time 4
now, but we will be hearing from a panel of Staff representatives on the transformation 5
activities.
6 We've termed this Key Milestones and Results, but I imagine as the 7
nature of these meetings has been for us, it will be a fairly wide-ranging conversation on the 8
topic of the significant initiatives we have going on here at NRC related to what we call our 9
transformation, which I always say is such a big word because it is a big word, but there's a 10 lot of really substantial initiatives that are going on.
11 And this is one of the meetings that I know in the spring, the members of 12 the Commission had so looked forward to, and it was one of the meetings that we had to 13 defer, but it's really wonderful to be here today and to see the Staff presenters who will be 14 talking to us this morning about a number of interesting topics and just a handful of others 15 here in our socially distanced format that the public health conditions this is what's available 16 to us now, but it's great to be able to be here and conduct this meeting with a limited 17 number of folks in the room, and of course the webcast that allows all of the NRC Staff, and 18 there are many who have an interest in this topic, so many significant contributors that can't 19 be in the room today, and I know they would otherwise be sitting here to be a part of this 20 discussion, but they can tune in and members of the public as well.
21 So, before we turn to the Staff panel, I would just ask. Sometimes 22 Commissioners have some opening comments. And I know that the camera view is a little 23
4 different the way we sit now, a little more spaced out.
1 But we are not joined by Commissioner Caputo today. It's not in any way 2
indicative of a lack of interest in the transformation topic and she's taken a very strong and 3
active role as a member of the Commission in engaging the Staff on their activities.
4 There was a scheduling matter that didn't allow her to be here today, but 5
I'm certain she's tuning in and also will review the transcript carefully, I'm sure, and continue 6
to stay abreast of all of the Staff's impressive work like she's been doing.
7 So, but are there any of the other Commission members that wish to 8
make an opening? Okay, I think everybody just wants to get right to it.
9 So, again, we will hear from one panel of NRC representatives and we will 10 be led off by Margie Doane, our Executive Director for Operations, who is wearing a 11 similarly colored blazer today, no coordination between the two of us, so Margie, take it 12 away. The floor is yours.
13 MS. DOANE: Thank you. Good morning, Chairman and Commissioners.
14 Thanks for the opportunity to share the agency's accomplishments on our transformation 15 efforts.
16 Since we last met about a year ago, we've made significant strides in our 17 transformation journey one decision at a time, while remaining steadily focused on fully 18 realizing our vision of becoming a more modern risk-informed regulator.
19 I think our approach to transformation is appropriately captured in the 20 African adage, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together," all to say 21 we knew from the beginning that if transformation was to be successful, we needed to take 22 a thoughtful and paced approach that provided opportunities for all employees to take part 23
5 in the journey.
1 When we last met, we discussed the futures assessment, the futures 2
JAM, the formulation of our four focus areas, and the seven initiatives, first horizon 3
initiatives.
4 Then, we hosted the transformation expo to introduce employees to the 5
focus areas and initiatives and showcase some of the transformational work happening all 6
throughout the agency.
7 This well-attended event featured 32 booths representing different 8
transformation activities throughout the NRC and regions. The energy and excitement were 9
palpable, and this event truly represented how far the agency had come by going together 10 on our journey.
11 In the following months, we made steady progress on the seven initiatives 12 and this would turn out to be very fortuitous as we found ourselves facing the challenge of 13 the COVID-19 public health emergency which truly underscored the importance of 14 transformation.
15 Our earlier efforts to push technology adoption and encourage innovation 16 throughout the agency helped us adapt to our new environment, and as difficult as the 17 COVID circumstances were, they put us in what I call hyperdrive.
18 The pace of our transformation journey was accelerated because we were 19 pushed to employ innovative solutions to business process challenges in order to fulfill our 20 important safety and security mission.
21 For example, we fast-tracked instituting a process electronically to review 22 and concur on documents, learning how to use virtual platforms to host large-scale 23
6 meetings, and became adept at collaborating in real time on a single document via 1
OneDrive.
2 These are just a few of the agency-wide efforts that allowed employees to 3
continue collaborating, connecting, communicating, and engaging while working remotely.
4 There are many other transformation achievements that further 5
demonstrate how we continue to progress in our innovation efforts and enhance how we 6
carry out our important mission. Next slide, please?
7 With me today are several people who, along with their initiative teams, 8
are instrumental in helping realize significant transformation achievements. They join me 9
today to discuss the work being done in their initiative areas and highlight some remarkable 10 transformation successes. You can see their real jobs up on the slide. I'll tell you about 11 what they're going to be talking about today.
12 Amy D'Agostino, the team lead of Innovate NRC 2.0, will be discussing 13 the programmatic aspects of recent successes of the Innovation program.
14 Patrice Reid, the team lead for the agency's desired cultural initiative, will 15 discuss the importance of creating a culture that will enable the agency to transform and 16 continue achieving its mission.
17 Nader Mamish, the team lead for signposts and markers, together with 18 Jonathan Greives, will discuss key indicators that will help us monitor factors most likely to 19 affect our future work, and Reed Anzalone will discuss how data is being used in the 20 nuclear reactor safety program to enhance our regulatory activities. Next slide, please?
21 Before I turn it over to my fellow presenters, I'll provide a brief update on 22 the remaining four first horizon initiatives not being highlighted in today's presentations, and 23
7 highlight some of the notable transformation accomplishments in those areas.
1 First, the Be riskSMART initiative. The Be riskSMART initiative team 2
developed a framework to give Staff confidence in accepting well-managed risks and 3
decision making without compromising the NRC's mission. This framework can be used in 4
the legal, corporate, and technical areas.
5 To date, the Be riskSMART framework has been applied in numerous 6
contexts, including areas of fee billing, summer hire recruiting, information technology 7
deployment, risk-informed licensing actions, and emergent safety and security issues.
8 The initiative team has conducted 32 presentations across all offices and 9
are being requested to hold more, even to come back to some of the same offices, and the 10 team also launched an ambassador program to support Staff and they learn about and 11 apply the framework.
12 Next, is the process simplification initiative. This team worked to simplify 13 and streamline key agency processes, which was an area identified by the Staff in the 14 futures JAM as needing improvement.
15 The team identified significant process improvements for developing 16 SECY papers and communication plans, and developed corresponding procedures.
17 Staff has been using the new process for SECY paper development 18 during last month and has reported noticeable improvements in attaining early alignment 19 among involved parties.
20 To date, the initiative team has provided training to the Office of Nuclear 21 Reactor Regulation, NRR, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, NMSS, and 22 the Office of the General Counsel, with other offices to come.
23
8 Next is the career enhancement initiative and the employee journey 1
initiative. The recently completed career enhancement initiative and follow-on journey 2
initiative focus on helping NRC employees plan their career paths and provide valuable 3
interactive tools and resources to support current and future workforce needs.
4 Over 340 Staff have accessed the tool provided under the career 5
enhancement initiative which includes direct links to policies and resources such as the 6
Office of Personnel Management, sponsored resume writing classes, and information on 7
our human capital programs.
8 This tool has provided Staff the ability to connect with mentors and 9
provided more efficient and informed ways to update their individual development plans, 10 and identify training opportunities to help them progress in their current careers, and even 11 prepare for future careers.
12 Finally, there's the technology adoption initiative. To date, the technology 13 adoption initiative team has conducted 91 training sessions on Office 365 to over 3,200 14 participants and created a network of IT experts to help employees. They're called IT gurus.
15 These actions were critical in helping us quickly transition to working 16 remotely during the COVID-19 public health emergency, and employees have been 17 embracing new technologies, including the recent adoption of the Teams technology.
18 Just in the first week of deployment, we've had more than 2,500 active 19 users who have joined in, and more than 30,000 messages were sent. Clearly, Staff is 20 demonstrating their adaptability and willingness to embrace new technologies to help us 21 work and collaborate in better ways.
22 Aside from providing new technology tools, efforts were also focused on 23
9 improving access to strategic use of data within the agency. For example, the Chief 1
Information Office or the OCIO developed a centralized data repository or warehouse.
2 Prior to this effort, the agency's documents were so siloed that they did 3
not allow for broad access. Additionally, the data quality of many documents was 4
inadequate.
5 This prompted the OCIO, the whole office, to focus on modernizing 6
agency data, including digitizing the agency's entire microfiche collection which is 7
comprised of millions of documents.
8 OCIO also joined the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and the Office of 9
the Chief Human Capital Officer to implement two powerful cloud-based business 10 intelligence platforms, Power BI and Tableau.
11 This transformed OCFO's and OCHCO's ability to analyze and present 12 data in ways that improved decision making processes, but collaboration didn't stop there.
13 I'll never forget the day the CIO and the Chief Financial Officer, who was 14 then Maureen Wiley, proposed partnering with NRR to create a system that married 15 individual effort with cost and output using these data platforms that they had recently 16 developed.
17 This was the genesis of the mission's analytic portal or MAP. However, 18 the idea of matching program office data with financial and human resources data extends 19 beyond a singular office, even though I will say that NRR is very enthusiastic and their 20 director is very enthusiastic and has really put his vision on this process, which has been 21 key in developing MAP to where it is today.
22 However, but what we'd like to do now, work is underway in NMSS to 23
10 develop a comparable system similar to MAP to enhance decision making so that NMSS will 1
now have its own MAP program that has just similarly enthusiastic executives all the way 2
down to the project managers for this project, and that will enhance decision making within 3
their programs.
4 Lessons learned from the implementation of MAP are being considered as 5
NMSS works with the Office of the Chief Information Officer and NRR so that we use 6
lessons learned to create products tailored to their unique processes.
7 We've also realized technology advancements that support inspection 8
activities, including providing mobile capabilities to access real-time data and perform in-9 field data analysis to support regional and material inspections.
10 And even individual employees across the agency are taking advantage of 11 the capabilities of Power BI and Tableau to curate and manage program data to inform their 12 own work and decision-making processes, and you'll hear about this later in our 13 presentation.
14 These varied success stories prove there's no single best way to 15 approach innovation. When an environment exists that allows every employee, regardless 16 of their background or experience, to participate in the Innovation process, significant 17 progress is realized across the entire agency as the roots of innovation take hold.
18 We are at the point in our transformation journey when four of the first 19 Horizon Initiatives, Innovation, Signposts and Markers, technology adoption, and career 20 enhancement will be closed, but this doesn't mean we stop with respect to those areas.
21 Instead, individual regions and offices will take responsibility for curating 22 their respective efforts in the initiative areas and ensure positive benefit continues to be 23
11 realized.
1 This will allow us to focus on completing activities under the remaining first 2
horizon initiatives and launch some new initiatives that will build on the transformation 3
framework that we've already constructed. Next slide, please?
4 Finally, I'd like to discuss the role organizational health plays in our 5
transformation journey. In their book, Beyond Performance 2.0, a Proven Approach to 6
Leading Large-Scale Change, Scott Keller and Bill Schaninger defined organizational health 7
as how effectively an organization works together to achieve its common goal.
8 Throughout our transformation journey, we have paid close attention to 9
organizational health and experience of our employees. This is because we care about our 10 employees and because organizational health directly informs how successful we will be at 11 meeting our goals.
12 That means NRC's organizational health directly affects our ability to 13 reach our strategic safety and security goals, as well as our transformation goals.
14 We have a proud history of working well together to achieve our strategic 15 goals, and now we must focus on working together toward realizing our transformational 16 goals.
17 We've been assessing our organizational health by evaluating internal 18 alignment, quality of execution, and capacity for renewal. We are ensuring alignment in 19 several ways, including developing an interactive web page that provides employees 20 information on initiative efforts underway and progress to date.
21 We also hosted the first ever series of executive and supervisor 22 workshops at headquarters, and hosted employee workshops to ensure a common 23
12 understanding of our transformation journey and vision.
1 We also send out future feeds to keep Staff updated on a real-time basis 2
on these efforts. Finally, in the month of November, we're going to partner with several 3
offices to offer several transformation knowledge workshops.
4 Execution refers to whether employees have the necessary tools, 5
resources, and support to perform their daily work and contribute toward our transformation.
6 We will discuss these tools throughout the presentation, including technology, idea scale 7
for innovation, and dashboards.
8 Renewal refers to how well we, as an organization, understand, respond, 9
and adapt to our external environment through innovation and creative thinking. We have 10 certainly underscored our ability to adapt during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
11 We've also addressed this element by focusing our efforts on developing a 12 new pipeline of talent through restructuring and modernizing our new hire program and 13 implementing the nuclear regulator apprenticeship network. We have our first class.
14 Efforts are also focused on continuing to increase our readiness to review 15 applications for the use of new technologies for existing and new nuclear power reactors 16 and materials users.
17 This concludes my introductory remarks. I'll now turn it over to Amy 18 D'Agostino.
19 MS. D'AGOSTINO: Thank you. Good morning, Chairman and 20 Commissioners. It's nice to see you in person today, and I'm back here again to tell you 21 about innovation.
22 We've gotten a lot done in the last year. I've been lucky enough to be 23
13 asked to be the team lead for the innovation effort and -- can you hear me? Okay, there we 1
go. All right, there we go.
2 I just want to first of all say thank you to our SES champion, Andrea Veil, 3
and my teammates who couldn't be here but are hopefully watching virtually, Niav Hughes, 4
Dan Shermeyer, Pat Vokoun, Steve McCarthy, and Marcos Colon. They have been integral 5
to this effort, and so I just wanted to make sure that you're aware and wanted to thank them 6
for their efforts. Next slide, please?
7 Okay, so I'm going to kind of bring you back to about a year ago. We 8
talked a bit about what the initiative was going to undertake, and so as a reminder, the 9
objective of the Innovation initiative was to create a best in class Innovation program.
10 Some of the ways that we prepared to do that was by incorporating the 11 lessons that we learned from our 1.0 version of the program and also by benchmarking 12 other federal agencies to develop how our program would go forward based on best 13 practices.
14 Now we're in stage three as you can see here, which is the full 15 implementation of the Innovate NRC program, 2.0 program. Next slide, please?
16 So, there are four primary elements to our Innovation program and I'm 17 going to provide a brief overview as a reminder to you and then progress and tell you the 18 progress that we've made on each aspect.
19 So, the first aspect of our program, the Innovation platform, really in the 20 JAM in 2019, we heard from the people that participated and also affinity groups across the 21 agency.
22 The tool was really needed on a consistent basis to collaborate across the 23
14 agency in a way that would break down geographical and organizational boundaries to 1
allow for a more democratized approach to innovation.
2 And so the response to this was our Innovation platform called IdeaScale.
3 Hopefully you've heard some buzz about it. I would say in the hallways, but maybe more 4
like on Skype or Teams, and hopefully you've even gotten in there and got to see some of 5
the good work that we've done.
6 We launched the platform agency-wide on June 18 and we've seen 7
continuous adoption of the platform since then. We're now at over 50 percent of employee 8
adoption of the platform. Next slide, please?
9 Oh, I'm sorry, no, stay with that side, sorry about that. The second aspect 10 of our program are our new tools that come with IdeaScale and with how we've set up the 11 program.
12 Two of those are crowdsourcing challenges and the success gallery, 13 which were a big part of our launch campaign on June 18, and I'll be talking a little bit more 14 about those in the upcoming slides.
15 The third aspect is our integrate Innovation community. This, from my 16 perspective, is the most important part because it's the part about our people. We 17 transitioned from 16 different Innovation panels in our 1.0 version to one integrated 18 Innovation community.
19 Our initiative team developed new rules for our community members, 20 including things like Innovation coaches, creative strategists, ambassadors, and 21 management champions, and not only did we create these new roles to support our new 22 program, but we also launched, created and launched training for each role that's available 23
15 to the entire agency, and even Commissioners can take it because everybody can be an 1
Innovation ambassador.
2 And then lastly is the rewards and recognition piece of this initiative that 3
we're -- this was included to ensure that we reward and recognize those behaviors that 4
support the NRC's leadership model and desired culture.
5 Some of the behaviors that we plan to reward and recognize were 6
identified through extensive research as behaviors that facilitate and sustain a best in class 7
Innovation program, and so we need to make sure that we're rewarding and recognizing 8
these to really meet that objective of being a best in class Innovation program.
9 So, we specifically want to reward and recognize three types of behaviors, 10 the first being engagement behaviors. So, engagement behaviors are things like submitting 11 ideas, comments, and votes, say in a crowdsourcing challenge.
12 You know, when people do this, it may seem like a small thing, but 13 employees are really taking a risk to improve our operations because they're putting their 14 ideas out there for everyone to see, they're commenting on other people's ideas, and they're 15 voting to let us know where their energy and attention is focused.
16 And the engagement behaviors are obviously very necessary to have a 17 successful Innovation program, and ultimately contribute to the culture that helps us 18 become a more modern risk-informed regulator.
19 The second piece is the achievement behaviors. So, these are things 20 that, you know, ideas that get implemented or folks that submit to challenges and are our 21 challenge winners that really help us improve government operations.
22 And then the third category are the exceptional contributions. So, these 23
16 are sort of personal superior accomplishments. So, when I think about this, I think about 1
who is out there breaking boundaries so that we can get things implemented that maybe 2
otherwise we would have said, well, we just don't do it that way.
3 Well, we do now because we're innovating and we're finding ways to do 4
that, and there are people out there who have really helped us break those boundaries and 5
find new ways of doing things. Now, next slide, please?
6 Okay, so returning to the new tools as I promised, the first tool I want to 7
highlight is the success gallery. When we launched the program in June during the 8
Innovate-A-Thon, we captured over 300 implemented innovations in the IdeaScale success 9
gallery. So, you really want to think about this as the knowledge capture and knowledge 10 sharing portion of our new program.
11 I have a couple of examples up here just to give you a flavor for what's in 12 the success gallery. The first one is the audible version of the NRC Information Digest.
13 This is an annual publication that basically highlights the agency's activities.
14 It's typically done in a print, in both print copies and online, but OPA 15 decided to develop an abridged audiobook to appeal to new audiences and broaden the 16 publication's reach, and it was done entirely in-house by our OPA Staff.
17 The second one is the single Federal Register notice for four exemptions.
18 So, NMSS Division of Fuel Management received four nearly identical exemptions from 19 three licensees, and in order to minimize cost for publication in the Federal Register, NMSS 20 worked with NRC's legal research center to develop a template for issuing these four 21 exemptions in one.
22 And then finally the last one, the ADAMS QuickView app, is probably my 23
17 favorite, and it may be one of your favorites if you've had a chance to use it. ADAMS 1
Navigator is a tool to manage and search agency documents.
2 However, it didn't really provide an efficient way to search documents 3
based on ML numbers, and as we all know, that's how we search for our documents.
4 So, an innovator developed an HTML script that enabled the ability to 5
search using ML numbers and even to drag and drop from multiple applications like Word, 6
and Outlook, and Adobe into a search box. And basically the Office of Research and OCIO 7
took that original script and they worked together to refine the original script to create an 8
internal desktop tool called the ADAMS QuickView app, which is now available to all 9
employees. Next slide, please?
10 Okay, crowdsourcing is the other major new tool that's been added, and 11 just to kind of remind you, crowdsourcing is where you put a problem or challenge 12 statement sort of out into the world and you ask for the wisdom of the crowd to come back.
13 In this case, it's internal to us, and so we can put things out there that all employees can get 14 involved with.
15 To date, we've run three challenge campaigns during our Innovate-A-Thon 16 and an additional campaign regarding the resident inspection program since the Innovate-A-17 Thon, and this slide features our challenge winners that you can see here. We got some 18 really great ideas.
19 It really allows us to collaborate across the agency and enable a faster 20 collaboration with a broader audience. In total across the four campaigns, we had over 50 21 ideas, over 600 votes, and over 200 comments.
22 So, you can see that there's a lot of engagement. There's a lot of 23
18 conversation going on, and we were really able to move the problem statements forward 1
into solution space. Next slide, please?
2 So, and finally, the next steps for our program is that, as Margie 3
mentioned before, you know, our initiative, this as an initiative under OEDO is coming to a 4
conclusion.
5 However, that's not the conclusion of our program, right? This was meant 6
to live on hopefully for many, many decades to come, and so we're going to be transitioning 7
it to a permanent home in the Office of Research.
8 We also want to expand our community and we want to do that in several 9
ways. We are currently bringing the Innovate 2.0 program to all offices, not just OEDO 10 reporting offices, and so at the current time, we have a representative from just about every 11 office in the agency to be the main point of contact for Innovation, and so we're getting 12 everyone involved.
13 We also want to expand the community of IdeaScale members. So, we're 14 at a 50 percent adoption rate. I personally am not going to be happy until we're at about 95, 15 and hopefully the five percent that aren't on there just means that they're, you know, out of 16 the office.
17 But we want to expand the community and bring in as many people as we 18 can, and I think we do that by, you know, getting really compelling crowdsourcing 19 challenges in there.
20 I'll tell you the resident inspector challenge, man, people really got fired up 21 about that. They had a lot of things to say. They had a lot of contributions to make, and I 22 think the more challenges that we put out there like that, the more we're going to see people 23
19 coming in.
1 They are also seeing that their ideas are getting celebrated through our 2
success gallery, and people are really seeing the good work that's getting it done across the 3
agency, and so hopefully that's going to continue to bring more people into the community.
4 And then finally, we want to continue to identify challenge owners across 5
the agency. So, we, you know, we're bringing this tool to the table, and it is just that.
6 Crowdsourcing is a tool and we want people to see this as another tool in their tool belt to 7
get their work done.
8 And then finally, we're working with OCHCO to finalize the guidance for 9
rewards and recognition for innovation, and we hope to get that guidance out by the end of 10 2020. And we're also, the transition to the permanent home in research will also be 11 completed by the end of the calendar year.
12 So, thank you so much for your time, and with that, I am going to turn it 13 over to my colleague, Patrice Reid, to talk about our culture initiative.
14 MS. REID: Thank you, Amy. Good morning, Chairman and 15 Commissioners. I am Patrice Reid, the team lead for the Agency Desired Culture Initiative.
16 I'd like to take this opportunity to provide an overview of the team's efforts to intentionally 17 manage our culture in a holistic way that ensures that we are consistently valuing and 18 supporting behaviors and norms that help us best accomplish our public health, safety and 19 security mission. Next slide, please.
20 Culture sets the tone and expectations for how we get work done to 21 include how we make decisions as well as how we interact, innovate and collaborate with 22 one another. Given that culture has an influential role in how we do business, we 23
20 proactively identified culture as one of our transformation initiatives to create a positive work 1
environment where Staff would feel engaged and empowered to lead during times of 2
change and demonstrate behaviors that enable trust.
3 Examining our culture also allows us to foster new ideas for organizational 4
improvement where we encourage continuous learning and thinking big across all areas of 5
the agency. Culture also enhances our adaptability and receptivity to change so that we 6
can maximize our individual performance in organizational effectiveness in a changing 7
environment. Next slide, please. Unlike previous efforts to address feedback in a 8
decentralized way, we have taken a unified, holistic approach to defining and managing our 9
culture. We sought to dig deeper into the norms and expectations that drive attitudes and 10 perceptions about our work environment.
11 Take for example this analogy of the tree, as pictured here on the slide.
12 Similar to the branches and leaves of a tree, our climate refers to the more salient 13 experiences that we often characterize as our attitudes and feelings. These attitudes and 14 feelings are apparent in conversations from the futures JAM, feedback during focus groups, 15 and results from more routine federal surveys like the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey 16 and OIG's Safety Culture and Climate survey.
17 The results from our climate surveys are outgrowth, or visible extensions 18 of our deeply rooted beliefs and assumptions about what is expected, accepted, and 19 rewarded at the NRC. Similar to the roots of a tree, these implicit assumptions are less 20 visible and we often refer to them as culture. These are the values and beliefs that drive our 21 behaviors and norms. To dig deeper into these more tacit assumptions, we use the survey 22 called the organizational culture inventory. It intentionally measures beliefs and 23
21 assumptions about behaviors that are expected at the NRC, and allowed us to assess how 1
the NRC's ideal culture compares to current norms and expectations.
2 Both our climate and culture are important to understanding who we are 3
and how we interact with one another. Each source of data tells our story, and it provides 4
us with different, yet complimentary information. Next slide, please.
5 One of our support steps in assessing our culture was to establish a 6
baseline to identify gaps where our current culture is not consistent with our ideal culture.
7 We primarily relied on the Organizational Culture Inventory, which includes two parts -- a 8
measure of our ideal culture, and a measure -- a measure of our current culture. Our ideal 9
culture represents a type of culture that our own members believe would maximize 10 individual performance and organizational effectiveness. In comparison to our current 11 culture, NRC employees believe that in our ideal culture we need to practice more 12 constructive behaviors, such as encouraging others, resolving conflicts constructively, being 13 good listeners, and thinking ahead and planning.
14 We also need to practice less of our defensive behaviors. For example, 15 accepting the status quo. It is evident that when we practice these defensive behaviors in 16 excess, they often come at a cost to growing our constructive ideals, such as creating an 17 environment that encourages innovation. These findings reveal gaps between our NRC 18 ideals and our current operating norms. Next slide, please.
19 Consistent with a holistic approach, we also looked at the results from our 20 agency's routine climate surveys, which show common themes. Our Federal Employee 21 Viewpoint Survey and OIG Safety Culture and Climate survey show that there are areas 22 where we've made progress -- like rewarding innovation, providing opportunities to improve 23
22 skills, pay satisfaction and work experiences at local levels and branch -- and within 1
branches and teams. Our climate surveys also reveal emerging risks. These surveys 2
reveal opportunities for us to improve aspects of our workforce motivation, employee 3
engagement, human capital management, and management's approach to ensuring a clear 4
line of sight between decisions and the mission, as well as how we get these goals and 5
objectives accomplished and communicated.
6 It is evident that when -- we are not where we need to be and our 7
employee feedback has shown us that there are opportunities for us to improve. All of 8
these surveys were important inputs in the development of our culture improvement 9
strategy. Next slide, please.
10 Our agency culture improvement strategy includes behavior changes and 11 process changes to move us from less productive norms in our current culture, to our more 12 constructive ideal culture. The behavior and process changes are focused on enabling us 13 to achieve key outcomes such as making quality and timely decisions -- and has 14 adaptability and receptivity to change, and maintaining an engaged workforce. Next slide, 15 please.
16 We are able to accomplish this culture shift by focusing on behavior 17 changes and process changes in a connected way. The behavior changes will require that 18 we will model constructive behaviors while also calling out instances where we fall back on 19 some of our more problematic behaviors. These process changes are -- are changes that 20 target areas where we need to make more fundamental changes to how we operate to truly 21 facilitate the behavior shifts that we want to see. At the agency level, we are targeting 22 behavior shifts that are consistent with our leadership model. They promote coaching and 23
23 empowerment, sharing different viewpoints, seeking innovative approaches, showing 1
mutual support, and brining our whole selves to work.
2 I'd like to take a moment to highlight the behavior shift that encourages us 3
to bring our whole selves to work, as it has become a unifying concept for the Agency in 4
recent months. When we encourage each other to bring our whole selves to work, we build 5
trust -- which allows for more connections and shared engagements with colleagues.
6 Bringing our whole selves to work means showing up authentically, leading with humility, 7
and valuing all of the unique characteristics and diverse backgrounds that make for a more 8
enriching and inclusive work experiences.
9 In these past few months we've been challenged with real world 10 opportunities that have helped us to better connect in more candid and authentic ways on 11 our journey to improvement. During the most recent social unrest that has affected our 12 nation, our agency rallied to create forums to have difficult, yet necessary, dialogues that 13 acknowledged the different realities that are often faced by members of our own community.
14 These forums allow for us to share authentic perspectives that often color our experiences 15 and contributions at work. This has been a learning journey for us, but one thing remains 16 true. When we can be our authentic selves, it builds trust. And we waste less energy 17 concealing important parts of our identities that add value to how we go about 18 accomplishing the mission.
19 Overall, these constructive behaviors are what we want to see and the 20 way we do business here at the NRC. Similarly, in order to institutionalize these desired 21 behaviors so that they become a way of doing business, we must embed structural 22 elements to further sustain these shifts. These process changes therefore amplify and align 23
24 our behaviors to help us achieve more desired outcomes. It is our intent to focus on 1
changing a few critical behaviors at a time, as well as process changes at a time, so as to 2
energize and engaged our most talented employees and enable them to collaborate more 3
effectively and efficiently. In this strategy we have outlined specific changes that we will 4
pursue agency-wide. But we've also empowered our individual offices and regions to take 5
actions at local levels, and to be catalysts for change. Next slide, please.
6 As we move forward on this journey, it will be essential to measure and 7
monitor progress at each stage of our efforts. Rigorous measurement allows us to course-8 correct where needed, and demonstrate tangible evidence of improvement which can help 9
us maintain momentum. In order to monitor changes in our culture, we will evaluate agency 10 performance metrics that show the impact of culture on our desired outcomes. We will also 11 measure the critical behaviors that we highlighted to determine if we're making progress 12 with establishing our key constructed behaviors as expected norms.
13 Additionally, we will track key milestones in our improvement plan to 14 ensure that we take action and meet our commitments to implement and adopt process 15 changes. We will also use our employee surveys to continue to assess whether key cultural 16 attitudes are moving in the right direction. Ultimately, successful culture change will be 17 determined by our ability to reduce the gap between our ideal culture and current culture 18 over time. Next slide, please.
19 In order to sustain change, we will focus on fostering shared learning 20 through various forums. Some examples of how we would go about sustaining these 21 improvements include facilitating senior management team check-ins that provide or lead us 22 with a standing forum, and structured to reflect on how they are role-modeling constructive 23
25 behaviors as leaders. There will also be continued touch points between the Culture 1
Initiative Team and champions in offices in regions -- as well as other transformation 2
initiatives to ensure that they have the support they need for alignment and success.
3 We will also use designated forums to discuss the progress of culture 4
improvement efforts and share success stories so that constructed behaviors are adopted 5
more widely. And finally, we will continue two-way dialogues with management and Staff to 6
provide updates and get feedback on the implementation of improvement efforts. While we 7
make some changes on the journey to living out our ideals, it will be important to honor the 8
strengths of our existing culture by emphasizing the various elements of what makes us the 9
best of who we are. Next slide, please.
10 Before I close, I would also like to briefly acknowledge members of the 11 culture initiative team who represent a cross-section of offices and regions and bring 12 thoughtful perspectives that are reflective of our diverse subcultures across the agency.
13 Their tireless efforts and creative contributions over this past year has helped the NRC in 14 leading the charge to improve our agency culture that -- and to ensure that we promote a 15 work environment that truly reflects one of the best places to work. I will now turn it over to 16 Nader Mamish, who will provide an update on the Signposts and Markers Initiative. Thank 17 you.
18 MR. MAMISH: Thank you, Patrice. And good morning Chairman and 19 Commissioners. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share with you the progress of 20 the Signpost and Markers Transformation Initiative. Next slide, please. The objective of our 21 project is to enable the agency to proactively address change by increasing awareness and 22 providing access to information about our external environment. By routinely collecting data 23
26 from reliable, internal and external sources on matters that have the potential to impact core 1
aspects of the agency's work and mission, we believe the agency can be better prepared for 2
the future and better able to make course adjustments as needed. The intent is to enhance 3
decision making during certain key activities such as the environmental scan, during 4
strategic workforce planning, by providing information about our external environment to 5
agency leaders. Next slide, please.
6 Our external environment is changing in a way that directly affects our 7
work. These changes may be incremental or more sudden, with varying degrees of 8
significance. Our ability to monitor and proactively address potential changes impacts how 9
effectively we can prepare for the future. This includes budget formulation, development of 10 the strategic plan, and/or environmental scans which impacts effective, strategic workforce 11 planning. Next slide, please.
12 The futures assessments provided a range of possible scenarios that 13 could represent our external environment in the next 30 years. It also cautioned us that we 14 need to remain aware of what indications exist for our external environment that show 15 whether the direction we're headed is likely to remain constant or to change. They call 16 these indications the signposts and markers of our future.
17 Our project used these signposts and markers as a starting point for 18 identifying key indicators for which data could be tracked on a regular basis to inform the 19 agency's decision making. Next slide, please.
20 Given our goal of providing information to our agency's leaders to enable 21 them to make informed decisions and prepare for our future, we set out to accomplish 22 several core tasks. First, we work to establish a set of key indicators to enhance the clarity 23
27 of the changing landscape for our agency. The futures assessment provided us 35 1
signposts that consisted of 100 discrete markers that we could monitor. Our team triage 2
these indicators to a manageable set that adequately displayed sufficient information about 3
the indicators most like to yield information about our landscape. Second, we worked with 4
OCIO to develop a dashboard to collect, analyze and display the data in the user-friendly 5
format. Today the dashboard is virtually complete and we will demonstrate it for you in a 6
few minutes.
7 Third, we considered what existing agency processes should incorporate 8
the review of these indicators to facilitate better informed decision making. This includes 9
existing activities such as the quarterly performance review, and strategic workforce 10 planning, budgeting and development of our strategic plan. Next slide, please.
11 So as you can see here, we identified 39 indicators in 16 categories. We 12 tried to balance information across business lines, like materials and reactors, as well as 13 leverage expertise across a number of offices. We also tried to have a good balance 14 between quantitative indicators -- that is data sets that we draw directly from existing 15 sources -- and qualitative ones that require assessment of factors by topical experts. To 16 standardize the data collection process, we identified reliable sources of information and 17 developed specific guidance for each indicator so that data owners have sufficient 18 information to periodically collect their data. Next slide, please.
19 So at this point I am going to turn things over to Jonathan Grieves who, 20 with the support of OCIO, was the chief architect of our dashboard. And he'll give you a 21 demo of the -- of the dashboard.
22 MR. GRIEVES: Thank you, Nader. So there's two products that I'll 23
28 demonstrate for you today. First is our user interface. So what we -- what we did was 1
create a separate page for each of our indicators. And I'll pull one up right now which is, 2
energy intensity -- the economy. You know, this indicator -- or these indicator pages 3
provide the point of contact from the office -- specific, you know, information on why we're 4
collecting that, why it's important, how we might think it affects -- it would affect our future.
5 So in this case, energy intensity -- the economy -- not only measures the degree of -- of 6
GDP growth, but also how that is correlated to the amount of energy consumption.
7 Obviously, which nuclear is a part of that.
8 It also provides specific instructions for how to collect that data, sources of 9
where they would go to get it, and then a very simple process. Our focus on this user 10 interface was to make it very low resource, you know, requirements for the future. To help 11 enable future, you know, use of the -- of the product. We also created a dashboard -- and 12 really our goal in the dashboard was to try and make it, one, versatile so that folks could see 13 data the way that they want to see it.
14 Generally I think of folks into two different groups. Folks that just want to 15 see the graphs -- want to see the numbers so that they can draw their own insights to it --
16 from that data. And folks that want an analyst to provide the insights. And we recognize 17 that analysis was already don't in the futures assessment. So we really created it in two 18 different ways.
19 So to start -- you know, I'll show you, we have our indicator pages. All 39 20 of those different indicators -- that 1.2 energy intensity of the economy is showing here 21 where we show not only the parts to that -- GDP growth, as well as total end use. But then, 22 what that energy intensity of the economy -- so what this tells me is that even though our 23
29 economy is growing, it's growing in ways that isn't necessarily, you know, drawing or 1
consuming a lot of electricity.
2 So what does that mean? We -- you know, again, there's 39 of those 3
indicators. And we tried to group them in logical means -- by topical area, by office. So in 4
this case, this tab has a number of both financial and demand side indicators. But if I click 5
over to, let's say Innovation, where we track both R-D and D funding in the electrical sector 6
from both U.S. and foreign sources -- levelized costs of electricity, which is basically the 7
cost to start up and operate different technologies -- provides some indication. Each of 8
these -- within the dashboard itself, you can click on them. It will pull up a description of 9
what that indicator is telling you. Might give some -- it will give some insights on -- you 10 could look at this indicator in conjunction with this to draw some insights out of it. We've 11 tried to make it very user friendly.
12 But as I mentioned, we also tried to create a dashboard that leveraged the 13 analysis that was already provided in the futures assessment. So we created the four 14 futures dashboard. So for example, that 1.2 I talked about where we saw that the economy 15 was getting less and less intense -- or, energy intense -- as we would see that over time and 16 how that projects on the -- the four futures, we recognize that that specific indicator over the 17 last ten years has indicated a drift down in our demand index. Now that's only one, and we 18 need to look at that as a collection of all the indicators. And we wouldn't want to focus on 19 any one, which is why we ended up with a series that adequately balanced across. So if I, 20 you know, un-clicked that and I look at all my indicators for 2019 -- and again, this is 21 zoomed in a little bit, so the changes aren't -- aren't overly large. But you can kind of see 22 the different indicators. I can click on them. See which one -- what that one is telling me. I 23
30 can -- you know, as I click on them see how that -- those indicators are changing over time.
1 Filter down by groups and really draw the insights out of what that's -- that's telling me.
2 Now what you can see is all of our indicators for 2019 are generally 3
grouped around the center point. That kind of makes sense. The futures assessment was 4
just done, you know, two years ago. So that's where we started. Our reality hasn't changed 5
all that much in a short period of time, and that's what it -- it -- you know, that's what the 6
indicators will be displaying. But we could look and focus down onto specific areas to see if 7
specific areas of our business are changing in ways that we might want to inform decisions.
8 And also look at an aggregate of those. Again, kind of -- you know, highlighting what I just 9
mentioned is that we haven't strayed too far from the center point based on our dashboard 10 information. And we expect that, as new years are added and data is collected year over 11 year in the future, we would see certain areas trend. And that would allow us to inform 12 decisions we're making in some of the key decision-making processes that Nader 13 mentioned.
14 Of course, if I put -- you know, what is that -- what are those insights? If 15 we do start seeing groups of indicators, or the collective marching off into one area, I can 16 just, you know, click and say -- remind myself, what did that future look like? Maybe even 17 do a visualize back to our displays in the RIC where we visualize what those futures might 18 look like. And that would help us to inform decisions that we want to make to hedge in 19 certain directions -- maybe make sure that we're prepared for what that future could look 20 like, and -- and -- you know, ultimately help make more informed decisions at a strategic 21 level. Now is -- that's how I wanted to demonstrate the dashboard. I'll turn it back over to 22 Nader. Thank you.
23
31 MR. MAMISH: Thank you, John. Next slide, please. We believe that 1
senior agency executives and policy makers will find value in the data generated by this 2
project in their decision making, including as I mentioned, previously integrating the data 3
into existing agency processes such as the quarterly performance reviews and strategic 4
workforce planning, budgeting and development of our strategic plan. Next slide, please.
5 Finally, I'd like to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of the Signposts 6
and Markers Initiatives team members in making this project the success. I know that 7
without their unwavering commitment to the project we wouldn't be where we are today.
8 Thank you for your attention. I look forward to your questions. And with that, I am going to 9
turn the mic over to Reed, who will provide you a briefing on using data analytics to improve 10 the Nuclear Reactor Safety program.
11 MR. ANZALONE: Thank you, Nader. And good morning Chairman and 12 Commissioners. My name is Reed Anzalone and I am a nuclear engineer in the Office of 13 Nuclear Reactor Regulation. And I am the project lead for a data project centered around 14 the reactor oversight process, known as Operation Rango which, I'll show you along with 15 several other dashboards later in the presentation.
16 I am pleased to be here to talk to you this morning about data analytics 17 efforts at the NRC, and more specifically about how we're taking advantage of data to 18 improve the Reactor Safety program. Next slide, please. So making full use of our data is 19 essential for us to operate as a modern business organization. Data allows us to make 20 better informed, better decisions, be engaged in more agile, faster decision making, monitor 21 our own performance in executing the mission -- leading to improved efficiency -- gain a 22 better understanding, and I would say more holistic view of our work. And when 23
32 complimented by a comprehensive set of analytics and visualization tools, data allows us to 1
communicate better both internally and externally. And as I will discuss later in the 2
presentation, this is something we're already able to take advantage of for our reporting 3
responsibilities under NEMA and to our congressional oversight committees. Next slide, 4
please.
5 As Margie mentioned in her opening remarks, the agency recognized 6
several years ago that we had a lot to gain by better integrating existing NRC data, and 7
we've made great strides towards integration since then -- particularly for financial data.
8 During the futures, Staff also gave us great feedback about more specific measures we 9
could take to further integrate our data and make it more accessible. And since then, 10 transformation efforts have put a lot of energy into data at the NRC and our progress even 11 in just a short time since then has been exponential.
12 Right now, Staff from across the agency are actively partnering with OCIO 13 to develop and deploy data analytics tools that bring together our existing data sets, analyze 14 them, and allow the analysis results to be displayed. And the data warehouse, which is 15 here on the left side of the slide, is one of the most significant steps the agency has taken to 16 date towards improving our data analytics capabilities. It pulls quality data from 17 authoritative sources and makes it available to other NRC applications, including all the 18 dashboards I am going to be showing later in the presentation. The data warehouse 19 enables us to take advantage of data that's already generated as part of our routine work 20 processes. So we're always provided with up-to-date information with no extra steps for our 21 decision making.
22 Importantly, the data environment that the agency has built is flexible 23
33 enough to allow users to use the platform they're familiar with. Margie already mentioned 1
the agency's focus on Power BI and Tableau for dashboards, but it also supports tools for 2
more advanced analytics works like Python or R. And even Excel can access the data 3
warehouse.
4 The rest of my presentation will focus on dashboards created by the 5
Reactor Safety Program. But I wanted to mention briefly that there's a lot of work being 6
done in this area across the agency. As you just saw, Signposts and Markers is making 7
great use of data to give us this strategic look ahead. The Futures Core team also created 8
a dashboard to track progress within the futures initiatives. And OCFO, the e-billing 9
program -- which was implemented in fall of 2019 -- integrates several disparate fee 10 systems under a common platform to provide transparency to Staff and licensees on the 11 agency's fee billing and collection practices. Next slide, please.
12 So the Reactor Safety Program considers maximizing our ability to use 13 data through the development of data analytics tools to be a high priority. And as Margie 14 mentioned, we've had very enthusiastic support from our office director in NRR on that front.
15 We're developing tools to monitor and manage new and operating reactor licensing 16 performance and workload, help with budget analysis and assess reactor oversight data.
17 This work is being spearheaded and coordinated by EMBARK Venture Studio and Shaun 18 Anderson will be here in two weeks during the strategic program overview of the operating 19 and new reactor business lines to talk a little bit more about EMBARK and their goals and 20 priorities for data.
21 We recognize that actually integrating data into our decision making can 22 be difficult. But we've pursued a philosophy of, first, empowering Staff to build their own 23
34 tools so we can build data awareness within the Staff; and second, working with the 1
eventual end-users of data tools to get buy-in and make it easier for them to see the value 2
that can be added. Next slide, please.
3 So first I am going to talk a little bit about Mission Analytics Portal, which 4
isn't a single dashboard, but it's a growing collection of data analytics tools. The first phase 5
of MAP focused on licensing workload management. But we've also developed some 6
budget analysis tools that will help us demonstrate accountability in our resource execution.
7 MAP draws data from the data warehouse, and the MAP team worked 8
with OCIO to make sure that the data necessary for MAP visualizations was able to be 9
pulled from the reactor program system and other sources, including financial systems. And 10 as I mentioned a couple of slides back, this allows us to make use of the data that is already 11 being input by users as they go about their regular work and enables us to update the 12 dashboards in real time as new information is added. Next slide, please.
13 One great example of this is the dashboard that we have developed to 14 track and report on our open licensing action inventory. It provides a high level summary of 15 the open licensing action inventory, as well as our performance in completing actions 16 relative to our metrics. Previously this information had to be manually assembled from RPS 17 and other sources, taking a team of people days or even weeks each quarter to pull 18 together and verify the information. Now it's successful at any time and automatically 19 updated with no extra work required. We've also developed other dashboards to help 20 manage and track performance on licensing actions down at more detailed levels. These 21 dashboards replaced a multi-page Excel spreadsheet for tracking project status at workload 22 management meetings, and it made it significantly more efficient to identify projects that 23
35 merit additional attention from management.
1 Overall, the MAP dashboards have already improved our ability to track 2
our licensing action reviews, allowed us to manage them more effectively, and enhanced 3
our communications both internally and externally. Next slide, please. Moving on from 4
MAP, Staff and NRR's Division of Reactor Oversight have created several dashboards that 5
provide one-stop access to tool that allow trending and searching of operating experience 6
data. These dashboards consolidate several disparate operating experience data sources 7
including inspection findings, scram data, generic communications, and operating 8
experience data from INPO's IRIS database.
9 The Staff has future plans to incorporate risk information from the SPAR 10 models and the accident sequence precursor program, as well as a broader array of 11 information sources. Next slide, please. So here I am showing a screenshot of the OpE 12 Scrams Dashboard. And before I go into any more detail, this screenshot is like a month 13 old and hasn't been updated. But the actual dashboard has more up-to-date information 14 that shows a slight up-tick in scrams in the month of August. But that's not shown here on 15 this slide.
16 It provides a high-level summary of scrams this year, as well as trends 17 going back in time. On the bottom -- on the upper left there's a ten-year trend in scrams, 18 and you can see that it's generally going down. Though, as I said, there's a slight up-tick.
19 On the bottom left there's scrams broken down by month over time. And typically you can 20 see there are more scrams in the spring. And on the bottom right there's a breakdown of 21 the scrams by system over time. And typically the main contributors are main feedwater, 22 generator and turbine issues. But it varies over time.
23
36 And while I'm showing the OpE scrams dashboard here -- just for the 1
purposes of talking about it here at this presentation -- there are a lot of other dashboards 2
available related to findings, generic communications, and they've even developed a couple 3
of COVID-related dashboards. Next slide, please.
4 Finally I'll talk briefly about Operation Rango, which was my team, that 5
was sounded by the NRR officer director just before we closed our offices for the pandemic.
6 With the goal of democratizing the reactor oversight process data on the public website to 7
make it more accessible to the public and the Staff. The team developing the project is 8
composed solely of NRC employees from NRR, the Office of Research in Region 2. The 9
website provides a website of the operating reactor fleet's current status and an ability to 10 trend and compare site performance in the ROP over time. And now I will switch over to a 11 quick, live demo.
12 So you can see here, when you first enter the page you get a high-level 13 overview with the map of the U.S. with the operating reactor locations on it. If I mouse over 14 those, you get a little bit of detail about what is at each site. You can also see as I am 15 mousing over those -- maybe -- that the action -- their location in the action matrix is 16 highlighted. So you can see, this is the current action matrix status. And I should say, this 17 is all -- for quarter two. It hasn't been updated with the more recent information. You can 18 see which plants are in column one and which plants are in column two of the action matrix.
19 You also get a roll-up of all the findings -- inspection findings so far this calendar year.
20 So if I were to click on a specific site, let's say Brown's Ferry, it filters 21 down to the findings just for that site and highlights where it is in the action matrix. And you 22 can add additional sites to this to get a quick snapshot of where plants are. If I drop those 23
37 now, you can see further down on the page -- there's trends in the action matrix over time.
1 That can give you a good, high-level overview of our assessment of plants and how that's 2
changed in the past. And then we also allow visualization of performance indicators. And 3
right now this is where the plant selection really gets to be helpful because -- you probably 4
can't even see this at all. There's a ton of lines there on that plot, but if I -- if I go and select 5
a specific plant, and I swear I am not picking on Brown's Ferry -- you can see that trend in 6
this particular performance indicator, which is unplanned scrams over time. We can also 7
extend that back for a longer period of time. For as long as we've collected data. And you 8
can get a good overview of where the trends have been for that plant -- or a bunch of plants 9
-- for each performance indicator over time.
10 The -- as compared to the current ROP public webpages, which only allow 11 you to go back and look at the past eight quarters. Finally, I'll go down and look at 12 inspection findings -- and I'll get it back just to the recent history. And this allows you to look 13 at inspection findings. And you can slice and dice it in a lot of different ways. Right now this 14 is broken down by site and grouped by cornerstone, but you could also group by 15 significance. And you can see where -- if you wanted to look at just greater than green 16 findings. Or if you wanted to select a specific site again, you could select it. You can also 17 group by region, group by year. There's a lot of different ways to cut this.
18 Down below here, we have a chart that allows you to drill down deeper 19 into the data. So if you wanted to look at findings under mitigating systems, you can look 20 specifically at that and see the breakdown between significance and you can click on those 21 to get further into the details. And also that -- excuse me -- filtering chart filters this table 22 here, which provides access to the publicly available inspection reports.
23
38 So that is it for my live presentation, which concludes my remarks. And I'll 1
turn it over to Margie.
2 MS. DOANE: In closing I'd like to thank the NRC Staff for their efforts 3
coming with us in this transformation journey, as well as the presenters here with me today.
4 As well as the future score team and everyone that helped us coordinate 5
this. Including Cathy Haney, whose been leading this, the Office of the Executive Director 6
for Operations, Assistant for Organization, Alysia Bone, Aida Rivera and Jackie Storch, who 7
helped really pull these presentations together.
8 And then with that, Commission, I'm going to turn this over to hear your 9
questions.
10 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Okay, thank you very much, Margie. We'll begin 11 the questions today with Commissioner Baran.
12 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Thanks. Well, thank you for your 13 presentations. Your enthusiasm and hard work really comes across.
14 And there are a lot of exciting efforts here. The data analytics and 15 visualization, the operating experience, dashboard getting more and better reactor data on 16 the website so that the public can understand what we're finding and so that we can see the 17 trends in what we're finding over time. Developing external environment indicators to inform 18 long-term agency planning.
19 I think these are initiatives everyone can get behind. They're great.
20 Where we get into trouble is when we cut safety inspections to save money. So that being 21 a transformation or a risk-informed label on weaker oversight isn't going to make it a good 22 idea.
23
39 Transformation can't be about less oversight or weaker standards. It 1
should be about the things we're talking about today. Developing NRC's workforce, using 2
data better, adopting new IT and simplifying cumbersome internal processes.
3 And I think those areas of focus are what we should take away from the 4
IG safety culture survey. Let's face it, the results of the IG survey were grim.
5 Compared to 2015, the 2020 results declined in all 12 categories with 6
significant declines in nine of the 12. These were the largest year-over-year declines in the 7
history of the survey. I think there have been seven in the decades.
8 The IG report found that there were growing concerns. That NRC has 9
changed dramatically in recently years. And those changes are largely perceived as 10 negative. Two of the top concerns were the shrinking budget and talent management 11 weaknesses. Most NRC employees don't think the Agency has been doing a good job 12 recruiting and hiring people for its future needs or retaining our current talent.
13 NRC employees also expressed a real concern about reduced inspections 14 and weakening oversight.
15 Most employees think it makes sense to consider risk but they don't want 16 to lose, to see us lose our focus on safety. They are not as confident as they were in prior 17 years that safety issues are being appropriately resolved.
18 We saw a big drop in the number of employees who believe that 19 management decisions are consistent with our safety and security mission. I suspect those 20 employees are seeing transformation used as a buzzword to justify actions that could 21 negatively affect safety.
22 In today's presentation there was a lot of talk about alignment and desired 23
40 culture. And I completely agree that we want a culture at NRC that supports innovation, 1
creativity and collaboration.
2 But I worry that the language being used is sending the signal to Staff who 3
have substantive disagreements about some of the proposals for change that they just need 4
to get with the program.
5 Margie, I want to ask you about this. How would you respond to that and 6
are you concerned that the focus on alignment in an Agency desired culture could come 7
across as trying to make everyone think the same way?
8 MS. DOANE: Okay, thanks for that question, Commissioner. There is a 9
lot packed in there so let me start by saying that the culture survey also showed a bit of an 10 uptick, it wasn't much, but a bit of an uptick in Staff's willingness to come forward and tell us 11 about their differing opinion.
12 So I think that gives me assurance, while it was just a slight uptick, in 13 other years, that it had been going down and down and down. So that sees as a steady 14 trend, and maybe even a little uptick, encourages me that people will speak up. So that's 15 the first thing. We need people to express their differing views on these issues.
16 The second thing is, we make sure that every opportunity, included today, 17 I believe every single presentation, that we are always staying focused on our safety and 18 security mission while we are doing this.
19 Our culture, our safety and security culture is focused on our beliefs and 20 our set of behaviors that are moving us toward our strategic goals of ensuring adequate 21 assurance of public health and safety, common defense and security.
22 Our values haven't changed, our principles of regulations haven't 23
41 changed. Most of our behaviors we're not even looking at. Like, our behavior to be 1
independent or to not be promotional in some of these other issues.
2 We're focused on a very small set of behaviors that have to do with 3
receptivity to new ideas. And that goes with even thinking about risks since we have better 4
tools of analyzing this.
5 We've instituted a number of things to make sure we're going in the right 6
director. And that, even in those two things.
7 So for example, we have the be risk smart initiative, which is absolutely 8
focused on making good decisions. And it's already helped us.
9 So, those are a few ways that we're keeping focused, but we are 10 appreciative and we are working to have, you've heard through these presentations an 11 inclusive environment that gives us checks on this system.
12 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Okay. Well, when I heard some of the 13 language, and I, you know, in terms of, well, there are constructive behaviors and then there 14 are defensive behaviors. And the defensive behavior is one that says, I'm in favor of the 15 status quo. Well, no one wants to be in favor of the status quo, I mean, that just sounds 16 terrible.
17 But on any particular issue, let's say the issue is, I think there is a 18 proposal to reduce inspections in an area. The status quo position may be, no, I think we 19 should keep inspecting at the level we are.
20 If we're characterizing that as a behavior we don't want to see, you see 21 where I start getting concerned.
22 MS. DOANE: Absolutely. And so we talk about these as excessive 23
42 defensive behaviors.
1 And in our presentations to the Staff we always start out saying, these are 2
good things, as regulators, that we should have. But it was Staff who told us that, but in 3
excess, it prevents them from being empowered and from bringing in new ideas. And from 4
moving forward on issues that could be done differently.
5 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Well, I hope that's how it will be implemented.
6 When I looked at the IG report, one of the findings there was that leaders, and this is a 7
quote, leaders are aware of this fundamental view from employees that the new changes 8
may lead to increased safety risks.
9 However, leaders feel that these new changes are meant to make the 10 agency more efficient while maintaining safety standards, though they feel the point, that 11 that point has not been clearly communicated.
12 But I don't see this as a communications issue. There are a lot of 13 dedicated people in the agency who think it is a bad idea to cut corners on safety. They 14 understand what managers are saying about cutting inspections, and they just disagree.
15 And I do think part of the reason the scores are so low is that managers 16 are simply not listening to inspectors who thing less inspection is the wrong way to go. We 17 should listen to our inspectors and not try to align them around a set of troubling proposals 18 in the name of transformation.
19 But let me shift to something more positive because there is a lot of 20 positive here. In one area where there is healthy alignment is on the need to boost our 21 hiring and improve our employee retention.
22 Can someone talk a little bit about how the new nuclear regulatory 23
43 apprenticeship program network, NRAN program, is working out and how it differs from past 1
entry level hiring efforts?
2 MS. DOANE: Okay, so I think that question --
3 COMMISSIONER BARAN: It might be me. It might be you.
4 (Laughter.)
5 MS. DOANE: I'm not sure if any other friends want to pipe in, but you've 6
been working with them so you can add to it.
7 So, difference in a lot of ways. But the most, I think important way is, that 8
we brought the NRAN class in. Now, part of that's virtual, right? This wasn't our intention 9
but that's what we had to do.
10 But we brought the NRAN class in and they're staying together for a 11 longer period of time so they can build relationships and get one holistic look at the agency 12 to learn the regulatory craft. Both in materials and reactors, a lot of the principle documents.
13 And they're doing that together.
14 Before they used to be disbursed into the offices right away and then 15 come together. And it was not as effective. Sometimes they would come, sometimes they 16 wouldn't. There were all kinds of different challenges to that. So this is marked difference.
17 And it's been beautiful during this crisis, this public health emergency, 18 because they've been together with each other. Because they've been coming in.
19 Believe it or not they love their space. We've given them space where 20 they can collaborate. And have really taken into consideration the type of space that they 21 would be looking for, for this kind of a program.
22 And then finally, they're going to be going back into the offices in October.
23
44 And we've worked on mentoring with them and all kinds of different things to make this very 1
successful.
2 And we're doing the best we can under these circumstances to even get 3
them in person, in-person training and connections. But it has been a challenge, but that's 4
something that we're really focused on.
5 Diane Jackson is the branch chief, which is different. We've never had a 6
branch chief. She is completely focused on them.
7 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Great. And one of the areas where there is 8
some focuses, you know, over the years the Agency struggled, I think, with the concurrence 9
process often takes a long time to complete. Sometimes leaves people on the concurrence 10 chain uncertain about what they're responsible for reviewing.
11 What's the Staff doing to improve that process and how those efforts 12 coming along?
13 MS. DOANE: Okay, I'll take it at a high level, but of course we have the 14 executive here that's sponsored. And that is the sponsor for the program. So, do you want 15 to go first?
16 MS. VIETTI-COOK: You can go and then I'll follow-up. Whatever, 17 however you want to do it.
18 MS. DOANE: I've been doing a lot of talking.
19 (Laughter.)
20 MS. VIETTI-COOK: Okay. Okay, I'll give you a break.
21 Okay, so we put together this team of very talented people, first of all, that, 22 Tim Mossman is a branch chief in NRR, lead the team. And we had Jon Harrison who is a 23
45 black belt and lean six sigma.
1 And then we had people from all over the agency. OGC, NRR, NMSS, 2
that all came together as volunteers because there is a lot of energy around this.
3 So, we looked at the GM comments, all of the different forums. Had focus 4
groups, talked to leadership, all the different leadership. I mean, because it was actually a 5
concern for leadership, not just for Staff.
6 Went to other agencies. GSA was paperless before COVID so we had 7
some insights from them.
8 And we've been looking at this issue since 1995. We found an EDO 9
memo from 1995 talking about concurrence and giving some instruction of how we can 10 improve it.
11 So we tried to look at one of the most complex processes that we have in 12 the Agency, which is SECY paper development process. And we thought if we could 13 address it there, then people could apply it to maybe the lower tiered documents. Some of 14 the recommendations that we had.
15 So one of the first things we did was we looked, the lean six sigma that 16 was done in 2009 on the SECY paper development process was, it was really sound, but 17 Staff had tried to, had gotten, drifted away from some of the best recommendations in there 18 which was, to have the early alignment with the different stakeholders, all the way through 19 leadership, and to document it.
20 So that it was almost like a little contract between the product developers 21 and the folks so that expectations were very clear, execution was more easily done because 22 they knew what to, you know, it empowered them to do the job.
23
46 And when we say alignment we're not saying on the conclusions for the 1
paper, we're saying a plan of what to look at. And the idea is that you bring in people early 2
in that process so that you get all those views early on and you try to address them in the 3
paper at the front end, plan for, locate it as an option to either consider or reject. But that's 4
all documented.
5 And then you don't, so that when you get to the concurrence phase you've 6
already addressed those issues. I mean, that's the idea of, you know.
7 And then in the end you try to limit the number of concurrences for the key 8
individuals. But that doesn't mean you're cutting people out of the process. Like, you can 9
continue to give people information for awareness, for courtesy reviews. But you're not 10 holding it up for concurrence.
11 Now, if somebody did feel like, hey, I need to be part of the concurrence 12 process they can continue to talk to their, the author, the product developer. They can 13 continue to talk to their management.
14 If they're still not satisfied, they can still avail themselves to the different 15 views program. So we were very sensitive to that issue.
16 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Okay, great. Well, I went a little over on my 17 time but thanks for the update. Thanks.
18 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Thank you, Commissioner Baran. Next we will 19 turn to Commissioner Wright.
20 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Thank you, Chairman. This is a great 21 meeting and I, again, I share your concern that Commissioner Caputo is not here. You 22 know, I would love, I know we're going to hear for her input on it because I know she's 23
47 watching and she will share her feelings and her questions with us too, and I'm looking 1
forward to that.
2 Before I get into my questions, Margie, and to the rest of you, because, 3
one, you're awesome. And I've seen, I've had the opportunity to be with some of you and 4
some of your presentations, be through EMBARK or through the Innovate. And I've had 5
dialogues with you and so I know what you're doing and I'm very appreciative.
6 But I feel like I've got to address something right up front. I'm convinced 7
our people, I am convinced that our people know how to transform and how to innovate, I'm 8
convinced of it. I've seen it.
9 I know the value of empowering people. That, to me, empowering people 10 is a really good way to lead. Because if you empower them to do their job and you help 11 them do their job and to be successful, then you find success for yourself. And that's what I 12 think the agency is trying to do, and we're going to get there.
13 I don't look at it, at what we're doing, in anyway as trying to cut corners on 14 safety. I don't see that at all.
15 I do see that, I mean, just in something as simple as the ISFSI thing that 16 we were looking at a couple of months ago, we found that there is duplication. And if you 17 eliminate the duplication that's there, I mean, one, it's a better use of our Staff's time and 18 resources, right.
19 Yes, there is some economies there too, and that's a good thing. That's a 20 real good thing too.
21 And if there is overlap that doesn't need to be there we need to eliminate 22 it. So that's not cutting corners on anything.
23
48 I just think it's a more effective way of using our Staff and using our 1
people. All right?
2 And there is going to be other areas that we're going to have 3
conversations about this on. And in the transformation arena that is where it's going to, the 4
rubber is going to meet the road is going to be right there.
5 So I'm convinced that we've got 40 years of data and experience and the 6
data analytics that are there and what they're doing using through EMBARK and what you 7
guys are doing with the dashboards. It's incredible stuff.
8 And it's going to provide us opportunities to do better work in budget 9
execution space. It's going to allow us to do better job in inspections, it's going to allow us 10 to do better job in managing our projects wherever they're at. Licensing reviews, you name 11 it. Amendment reviews.
12 So I'm excited, and I know that the people can do it. So, I wanted to start 13 with that.
14 Your presentations were great. Again, it's exciting to see how you all are 15 doing everything.
16 And, Margie, I thank you again for your leadership in leading the charge 17 towards transforming. I mean, you're at the top and we look to you, and the Staff looks to 18 you. And then we look to support you in ways that we can. And to the Staff, I really love to 19 see the concrete ways there.
20 And I don't just mean the leadership, I mean down in the trenches, people 21 who are doing the work. I want to see them sometimes sitting at this table. Or around this 22 table out here talking to us about what it is they're doing, what they're seeing. What they 23
49 thought going in and what they seeing coming out.
1 Did they see it the same way, did it happen the same way. I'm learning 2
that no, they have a different view sometimes, right.
3 So, at a high level, and you talked about some of the tools and stuff like 4
that, that's been mentioned. Can you talk to me maybe about how the Staff is translating 5
some of these new tools and processes and how they're using it in their everyday work right 6
now?
7 MS. DOANE: So, important, I guess we can pick any of these, but I think 8
based on some of the conversations coming here I think maybe one of the ones I should 9
concentrate on is, let's talk about the Be RiskSMART initiative for example, that I said, I've 10 already gone over we're using it all over.
11 But during the COVID situation, if you think about what we were faced 12 with, very quick decision making on very real safety issues, they applied it in their decisions 13 about the relief requests, exemptions. We also had to consider inspections.
14 And so, I give you an example from the inspection process, as it was 15 given to me as I was trying to give strategic oversight and make sure that we were centered 16 and going in the same direction. We divided inspections into two areas.
17 Inspections that would be bringing plants back into compliance versus 18 inspections that were routine. And for those that were being brought back into compliance, 19 even with relief or exemption requests or things like that, plants that were coming back into 20 compliance, our inspections, we put boots on the ground. We had some remote working 21 but we put boots on the ground. Those were different issues.
22 For routine inspections we had a little more flexibility. Some of them were 23
50 in, for example, a three year inspection cycle so we put them off.
1 So this is the kind of, and still stayed within the inspection cycle. Let's say 2
it was a three year cycle in year one, we could put it off but still maintain exactly our 3
inspection program.
4 So these are the kind of real life things you can do with the Be 5
RiskSMART initiative. You can, it's a common language. It's not new tools. We still use 6
the risk policy statement and other issues to make the decisions that reminds them of those 7
documents. But it's the common way of discussing it.
8 And it's an analytical framework to tell everybody how the decision is 9
being made. To have differing views come up and be resolved. So, that's just one initiative.
10 And they've gone out, they're getting ambassadors. It's a tremendous 11 effort. There almost, have so many people involved that they almost have a community of 12 practice.
13 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Okay.
14 MS. DOANE: So we are very focused on risks.
15 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Thank you. So, and again, you, and then, 16 Nader, maybe you might want to, maybe you can kick in on this too.
17 You know, Tuesday we talked about innovations in licensing and 18 inspection, enforcement and corporate support processes and stuff based on what's 19 happening with COVID, right, and how we're going about that.
20 Which is, again, another opportunity for us to innovate and to transform 21 and to see, be forced into do things we never thought we would be able to do. Or would 22 have to do. And we're seeing successes there, right.
23
51 Are events like the pandemic included in our sign posted markers and can 1
you tell me a little bit about, has our experienced tracked with what was expected or has it 2
been different?
3 MR. MAMISH: Are you referring to international or just in general?
4 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: In general.
5 MR. MAMISH: Yes. I mean, everything --
6 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: And to be honest with you, yes, international 7
too because that has been a big issue too.
8 MR. MAMISH: Yes. So, internationally, Commissioner, there is a great 9
deal of focus now by a number of nations. And in fact, IAEA working with our Canadian 10 counterparts and many nations, including the NRC, are looking at putting together some 11 kind of standards, international standards, for how we might deal with reactor material 12 issues in the post-COVID-19 environment.
13 So, a lot of the things that we, actions that we took here at the NRC are 14 going to be reviewed internationally. Many nations, frankly we were the only nation that had 15 prepared for laptops and prepared for pandemic the way we did. We were leading the world 16 in that aspect.
17 We're also going to be looking at how we conduct our international 18 program in the post-COVID-19 times. Do we have to attend every single international 19 meeting or can we do some of that work virtually? So that's another thing we're going to be 20 looking at.
21 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Thank you. Do you have anything to add?
22 Okay.
23
52 And I've only got a minute or so left, and I'm not going to be able to get 1
into the deep dive I'd like to get with Reed and Jonathan, but you know I've been a part, and 2
I've been watching what you're doing and I want to thank you. And if you have an 3
opportunity to chime in on the question I'm about to, please do, but it's going to be focused 4
more for Amy and Patrice.
5 I heard, earlier I heard the word status quo. And although that's a great 6
word, in a transformation arena sometimes that's not the best word. And I know, and the 7
way you were mentioning it you thought the same thing, okay, so I got that.
8 And innovation is big on everything we're doing. One thing that's 9
concerned me since I've been here is, and learned about the silos that had been within the 10 agency, we get a lot of great ideas that are being bounced around now, right.
11 And EMBARK has been a great area where these have been tested and 12 people are unafraid to come forward with that. I really like that, okay.
13 And I'm just concerned sometimes that they may not all be being shared 14 with the agency the right way. Can you tell me how you are working through that and how 15 you're adopting and taking those success stories to other parts of the Agency?
16 Do you all want to chime in on the last few, on the last minute?
17 MS. REID: Sure, I'll quickly, thank you, Commissioner Wright, for that 18 question.
19 One key approach to us managing our culture intentionally is really to look 20 at it at three levels throughout the Agency. We really have to look at it from the individual 21 level, the organizational level, but also at the group level that you're speaking to.
22 And having and fostering into disciplinary teams is really what's going to 23
53 get us to that diversity of thought, promoting different ideas, different viewpoints. And we 1
like to use examples like the Innovate 2.0 team to really spotlight what they're doing, what's 2
working, so that we can replicate that and scale that across the Agency.
3 So, that is one of our key efforts in the Agency desired initiative moving 4
forward is to look at opportunities where we can spotlight interdisciplinary teams and how 5
they go about fostering diverse discussions as well as different viewpoints. And then to use 6
those examples and designated forums to share those ideas of what's working.
7 We recognize that we're a unique agency and we like to compare our self 8
to ourselves. So, who better than to actually look at what's working for us and that we can 9
grow those ideas.
10 So we'll be using examples across the Agency. And to start with Innovate 11 2.0 as one of those examples.
12 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Amy?
13 MS. D'AGOSTINO: Thanks for the question. So, I think that the Innovate 14 2.0 has actually brought us a long way in sort of breaking down some of those silos. One of 15 the ways that we're doing them, that I've seen, just the success scaler be used.
16 So like I said, there were over 300 ideas entered on the day of the 17 Innovate-a-Thon and over 400 total. And I'll give you one example.
18 In NMSS they've taken a spreadsheet of all of those ideas, gone through 19 everyone and said, okay, what can we learn from the other offices across the agency that 20 we can adopt here at NMSS. Instead of recreating the wheel, right, they're taking a look at 21 what others have done and saying, okay, let's do this too because this seems to be working 22 for them.
23
54 And so, that's one way that we're breaking down the silos. We're sharing 1
successes and we're really capitalizing on the innovations of our colleagues.
2 Another thing is that before when we had the 16 different Innovation 3
panels and 16 different share point sites, right, that didn't talk to each other, we had the silo 4
issue continue, right. It was great that innovation was happening but it was happening in 5
the silo.
6 Now it's happening in one, a one stop shop in IdeaScale where it's 7
completely transparent. You can see every idea that's submitted, you can see the 8
conversation around every idea, you can see every comment that was made, how things got 9
processed.
10 And so, we're able to have the transparency. We also see the diversity of 11 thought. If an innovation gets implemented and someone is not in agreement, they can put 12 that comment in there. And it allows us to have that diversity of thought.
13 It also makes it a little bit easier, I think, for people to collaborate across 14 the, from the regions. With headquarters there is not that kind of barrier.
15 And also, it can be, everyone from our NRAN folks all the way up to our 16 EDO contributing on the site, which I think it really allows us to share all the, break down 17 those silos, break down those barriers.
18 And then in addition to that, I think the final thing is that we are doing this 19 program expansion where we're getting outside of just the EDO reporting offices and getting 20 representatives from every office that have, you know, because everybody has got a slightly 21 different viewpoint.
22 And so, we're ensuring that those people are coming into our community 23
55 so that we can share our different viewpoints and get to the most efficient solutions to some 1
of our bigger challenges.
2 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Thank you. Chairman, I'm sorry I went over.
3 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: That's okay. Thank you very much.
4 Commissioner Hanson, please.
5 COMMISSIONER HANSON: Thank you, Chairman Svinicki. And thanks 6
for the Staff for the presentations this morning.
7 The NRC has really been involved in, now in a multi-year journey to right-8 size the Staff and re-engineer some of the business and regulatory processes. To adapt to 9
a, really a rapidly changing environment.
10 And that was all before the public health emergency. And I've just been 11 impressed so much with the flexibility and professionalism of the Staff throughout this whole 12 process. And even from afar when I was outside the Agency.
13 The NRC started to transform, it started using its transformation initiatives 14 really in the businesses processes side. And I think that's a great way to get moving.
15 And I really look forward to seeing how the lessons learned from that, 16 some of that business process work is going to influence our regulatory activities as well.
17 I was really pleased to hear Patrice's presentation about the importance of 18 Staff being able to bring their whole self to work. I think that it's critically important.
19 And I want to link that, I think explicitly or probe a little bit, that idea to 20 becoming a modern risk-informed regulator as we consider risk.
21 And, Amy, you touched on this a few minutes ago as well. The 22 importance of a variety of viewpoints, right.
23
56 Some of those judgments about risk are going to be quantitative 1
undoubtedly. But many of them are going to be qualitative based on the way people see 2
the quantitative information that we have.
3 And I'm just wondering if you could either, or both of you could talk a little 4
bit about culture change, importance of culture diversity linked explicitly to risk-informing our 5
regulations and our processes and the Be RiskSMART initiative?
6 MS. REID: Thanks, Commissioner Hanson, for that question. I can 7
definitely say the culture initiatives approach to really modeling and replicating the diversity, 8
fostering diversity of viewpoints is one in which that we will be looking to highlight into 9
disciplinary teams that I mentioned before. But also to equip them with useful strategies 10 that help to foster diverse ideas.
11 What comes to mind are some potential strategies that might seem just 12 simple in nature but is really powerful and effective. For example, just being able to observe 13 and model the groups that, the teams that will be using technics, such as simply asking, is 14 this the best question, I mean, is this the best answer to address certain questions with 15 regard to how we are risk-informing our decisions. Are going about, are risk-informing our 16 decision making.
17 There are four elements, if you would, in terms of how one would go about 18 that. It's really looking at it from four angles.
19 Have you covered the facts and analysis of that approach, have we 20 covered the human elements of that approach? But also, the other two parts about, have 21 we met the milestones and are really thinking about the big ideas that would really help for 22 us to holistically look at how we go about decision making in the risk-informed way.
23
57 Another approach, I mean, teams that tend to think alike really get to the 1
same solution quickly. And what we would encourage in terms of a technic that, you know, 2
interdisciplinary teams could use is to think about the next best. The next best option.
3 Because it then gives us an opportunity to really, to truly explore, have we 4
covered those impactful areas that really drill into the facts and analysis, the risk-informed 5
pieces that we may be missing when we're thinking alike. And also, that we're covering the 6
human element to it as well.
7 How is it going to impact the people, the stakeholders? Whether they're 8
internal or external stakeholders.
9 And then the big idea. Is there something that we may be missing? And 10 that kind of reflects, or goes back to the context or essence of, where I was going with the 11 status quo.
12 Is that, you know, sometimes we don't know what we're missing because 13 we're not exposed to a different perspective. Which is often reflective of those backgrounds 14 and the differing contributions that people bring into interdisciplinary teams.
15 So, I would pretty much say that those are two approaches that we would 16 use to really grow those positive, to encourage those constructive habits and to grow those 17 ideas.
18 And Innovate 2.0 is another example of how we would go about doing 19 that.
20 MS. D'AGOSTINO: Yes, and I would just offer that, one of the tools that 21 we highlighted today, the crowd sourcing tool, that's exactly meant for that purpose so that 22 anyone and everyone in the agency can contribute to a challenge that we're facing. Give 23
58 their view, their thoughts.
1 And that we can go through and look at, okay, what are we hearing from 2
most employees, where are some of the viewpoints that disagree with this, why do they 3
disagree. We can drill down on some of those things.
4 And anybody who is interested and motivated can contribute their 5
thoughts. One of the ways that we do that is through the resident inspector challenge, 6
right?
7 We got a lot of thoughts in there about how to look at in modernizing some 8
of our, some of the things around the resident inspector program.
9 And the interesting thing was, we got people from all over the agency. It's 10 not just the current inspectors, right. We got people who used to be inspectors, we've 11 gotten people from headquarters who have never been inspectors, might bring a different 12 viewpoint.
13 So I think that that's another way that we're able to do this. And it's tool 14 for that.
15 COMMISSIONER HANSON: Yes, thank you very much. I think that's, 16 that's very interesting as a way to bring in as many different kinds of voices as possible into 17 these things.
18 One of the issues you touched on was kind of institutionalizing change.
19 And as a former career civil service employee, one of the most concrete ways to 20 institutionalize change in the workforce is through the annual performance review process 21 and the appraisal process.
22 And I can see ways in which it would be very difficult to incorporate some 23
59 of these ideas into annual appraisals, but there might be other ways where it's completely 1
appropriate. And could you talk a little bit about that and how that might impact the Staff?
2 MS. REID: So, in terms of our culture change with regard to our desire, 3
moving in the direction of that ideal culture, we've identified that we need the structural 4
elements to include the example of incorporating some of these desired behaviors into 5
performance plans. Starting with our SES and our SLs.
6 And this really gives us an example, an opportunity for them to lead by 7
example. But for also to see how that works. And growing and learning from the different 8
challenges that may come in terms of modeling those behaviors.
9 It's great to have it on paper because it gives us that common reference 10 point. But I harken to say that the challenge would be for us to consistently live out those 11 ideals.
12 And this is where we have the opportunity to facilitate forums and 13 dialogues that gets us to sharing those stories about, how did we address this is a 14 constructive way, how did we coach and lead by example. And then learn from others in the 15 room who have faced some of the challenges to ensure that we are really practicing the 16 ideals, the behaviors, the values in concrete ways.
17 So we do have that set out in our plan. To really start with our SES and 18 SLs. And hopefully in the near future we can partner with the union to bring this to our 19 bargaining employees, as well as to expand this across the agency because change is 20 really everyone's responsibility, but it starts with the leadership and our leadership 21 acknowledges that.
22 MS. D'AGOSTINO: I would also add to that too that one of the most 23
60 tangible events that I say, and, Margie, you may want to comment on this as well because 1
you mentioned it before, were the workshops that happened this year.
2 We had the workshops for our senior leaders and then we had the 3
workshops for all the branch chiefs across the Agency. You know, while that's not 4
incorporated into their elements and standards currently, what it does do is it sets the 5
expectation for both our senior leaders and our first line supervisors to say, this is what we, 6
this is our expectation that you are contributing to innovation and transformation and 7
motivating your people and giving them, you know, empowering them to also bring, to bring 8
their innovative ideas and their whole selves to work.
9 So, Margie may have more to say on that.
10 COMMISSIONER HANSON: Okay. I was going to try and sneak in one 11 more question. But I appreciate that and I look forward to hearing more about it as we 12 come along.
13 Just real quickly here with the time I have left. We've heard quite a bit 14 about the risk-informed process exemption process and a couple of other higher point 15 initiatives.
16 But I was wondering if one of you could highlight one of the, another 17 example or two of ways in which our licensees are seeing changes as a result of these 18 transformation initiatives?
19 MS. DOANE: Do you want to go first, Jon?
20 MR. GREIVES: Sure.
21 (off record comments.)
22 MR. GREIVES: Great. Yes, I think one of the things I might highlight from 23
61 a regional perspective, we really focused quite a bit when the public health emergency 1
happened.
2 I think just to demonstrate, Margie talked about how that really showed 3
some of the diversitility, some of our technology adoptions, some of those things.
4 So in the beginning, even my resident inspectors, I have three plants so 5
three sets of resident inspectors at our sites, and very early on before it happened, started 6
interfacing with our licensees to say, how can we access information remotely, what can we 7
do to continue to do our independent oversight but perhaps not necessarily be onsite every 8
day.
9 So we spent very early on quite a bit of time engaging our licensees.
10 They were very receptive to that and very supportive of that. Giving our folks access.
11 It allowed us to maintain our independent oversight and engagement with 12 the licensee while at the same time not necessarily adding the risk of potentially exposing 13 them to what we may have. We looked at that.
14 And Margie talked about the kind of two different pools of inspection. So 15 looking at, when do we need to be on ground. And I think really just that line of thinking for 16 inspectors of, what am I going to the site to do today and why am I there, right.
17 And so, being much more thoughtful. So it's not really, it doesn't have 18 necessarily a negative impact on safety, it actually has a positive impact on safety because 19 we're much more thoughtful about what we're doing to make sure that we're going with a 20 purpose.
21 I'm not just going to be there to sit in my office and I'm going to review 22 documents. I may be able to do that at home, but I go to my site I'm going to be doing 23
62 something very specific with a very direct link to safety.
1 So that was just one example of, I think how our licensees may have seen 2
some impact of just how flexible and how we've been able to adapt in just really recently.
3 COMMISSIONER HANSON: Thank you. And thanks to my colleagues 4
for letting me run over a bit.
5 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Certainly. I think we all happily consumed a little 6
bit of Commissioner Caputo's time today.
7 (Laughter.)
8 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: So if you're listening in, thank you very much, but 9
we will yield it back to you when you return very soon.
10 Thank you all for your presentations. And for me this is, we've just heard 11 from my colleague who is new and arrives with kind of a lot of first impressions about what's 12 going on here for me. We kind of bookend this because I've been here for a while.
13 I view transformation as just the most recent evolution of NRC's long 14 journey since its creation. And organizations go through a period of maybe less rapid 15 adoption of change.
16 But then there are just change accelerants. As I mentioned yesterday, 17 things like the pandemic, and I think it's very natural.
18 But I will share some reflections because I do have the benefit of going 19 last today so I was listening carefully to the presentation, so I was having my own reflections 20 about things that have happened here in the past.
21 And I was listening to my colleagues as well today. And my colleague 22 made a statement that there are a lot of dedicated employees who believe that reduction in 23
63 inspection hours is a bad idea, and I agree with that statement.
1 But I would hope that we would all agree that there are a lot of 2
equivalently dedicated and experienced employees here at NRC that think that there is 3
opportunity to look at various elements of programs and do that.
4 And neither of those employees is automatically right from being in one 5
camp or wrong from being in one camp. Until we get a chance to step back and look at it in 6
a really systematic way.
7 We're developing and investing in tools that help us do that. And I think 8
that that's a reflection of kind of starting where we are.
9 It's confused me in my years on this Commission when we talk about this 10 notion of, who cares about safety more than other people. And I said this, but I haven't said 11 it for a few years, so I'll bore everyone by saying it again.
12 I've never met a single NRC employee, whether it was like an in-depth 13 engagement over an issue or an open door policy meeting with me, or frankly even just 14 riding the elevator when we used to be all here meeting each other in the elevators, I never 15 met a single NRC employee that I wasn't completely confident that they are here because 16 they extremely devoted to the mission. In some ways it's kind of a, you know, I've worked a 17 few different places in government, and at state government.
18 I think the clarity and unity of purpose and mission here is one of the 19 unique characteristics about this place. And in a Commission, in an Agency where you're 20 led by a Commission, which is put here purposefully to model disagreeing without 21 impugning each other's motives on things, it's kind of curious to me that Agency Staff don't 22 kind of take that.
23
64 And they need to look no further than the Commission itself for purposeful 1
different perspectives being brought in to have, as Patrice was saying, that really rock 2
polishing give and take so that you have a strong confidence in integrity and outcomes, 3
comes from bringing that diverse perspective together.
4 I do worry when we reduce it to saying, I am going to kind of characterize 5
your motivate and seeking change or your motivate in resisting change. I think we need to 6
look carefully at not vilifying perspectives.
7 But it can be the cheapest form of debate, frankly. I think a lot of 8
American public is turned off by debate that says not, I'm right and you're wrong, let's have 9
a discussion about it, but I'm right and you're evil and that's the end of the discussion.
10 So, you know, we have a strength and culture here where I think we can 11 have those discussions. But we did need to focus on that. We had the, having difficult 12 discussions, training and things like that.
13 And we do need to look at the IG survey results and other survey results.
14 I know we take that very seriously.
15 Not only because we want to have the kind of culture that people enjoy 16 and that is where you want to be working, but it can have a negative effect on our 17 achievement of mission. And that's why we take it so seriously here.
18 So, I think that starting to look internally and beginning where we are, if we 19 can't work on our culture, and I don't know if Patrice knows this, but when we had the 20 Innovation expos a while back, as I wanted to spend equal time around the room I ended up 21 spending the most time with the culture initiative people just because I found it so 22 fascinating.
23
65 And I think it can be an enabler to beginning and having an opportunity to 1
swing for the fences on a word as big as transformation. I think we need to begin where we 2
are.
3 But that being said, I do think that the elements of what we're doing do 4
need to be visible to those impacted by the work we do. People outside of our organization.
5 I'm super excited about Operation Rango and I love that their bringing fun.
6 They got to name that themselves.
7 Reed was a classic nuclear engineer. I can say that as one to the other.
8 You brought a lot of kind of low-key description to it.
9 But it's exciting the word that you're using about it is democratizing 10 information about nuclear safety at reactor facilities. And I don't know if you've yet offered 11 even a virtual briefing to NGOs and other groups.
12 I know some of our very active NGO stakeholders in the nuclear safety 13 communities external to us would love, they have had to go through ML numbers, who was 14 mentioning that today, Amy, and fight with ADAMS and try to compile some of that.
15 I won't speak for them, but I can think of a handful of them that would be 16 thrilled to have something that made that so readily available to them. Is that something 17 that you intend to do, Reed?
18 MR. ANZALONE: We have talked to a couple external stakeholders and 19 we're continuing that engagement.
20 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Well thank you for that. And maybe it's, I know 21 you still have some of the tools somewhat in, maybe in beta, and you're working through 22 them but --
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66 MR. ANZALONE: Absolutely.
1 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: But I think it is an opportunity, and also then, as a 2
corollary, I don't think there's anything inappropriate about saying it will also manifest and 3
enhance transparency for the regulated community. Either through the billing and invoicing 4
systems or just an ability to come in and know what the status of submitted items is. There 5
is a certain amount of transparency in that. And technology.
6 One of the reasons, I know there's a lot of people against technology, but I 7
think technology, with the conductivity and just the openness that it brings, it really can 8
advance a lot of democratic ideals. That sounds a little high-minded, but I think it absolutely 9
can.
10 And the other thing to think about, it's been mentioned as an example 11 here a little bit about the crowd sourcing of the resident inspector experience.
12 I'm going to take some credit for the birth of that in a very odd way, which 13 is that, that having a very vital and healthy resident inspector program in terms of making it 14 a desirable job, having an entering workforce want to train themselves and apprentice into 15 and become resident inspectors, and eventually maybe senior resident inspectors, this 16 country, in my personal opinion, will never have operating reactors without their nuclear 17 regulator having resident inspectors. It's simply a principle that's been adopted. Not all 18 countries have it.
19 But I don't see it ever going away here. And yet we have had recruitment 20 and retention problems with that.
21 So the Staff provided some proposals to the Commission about how we 22 could further induce it and make it more attractive. And it was a little bit of different 23
67 perspectives, as I was saying on the Commission.
1 But at the end of the day I think that there was a central Commission 2
concern that all we did was take things we had done in the past and say, well, if we allow 3
the tours to be long let's allow them to be even longer. And what the Commission, in 4
rejecting some of those ideas, and what I said to the Staff was, if there is going to be a 5
resident inspector program in the year 2040 and the year 2050, it will not be attractive 6
based on the things you used in the past.
7 You can't take a program that has attributes of, the Mad Men era of your 8
spouse moves with you to a new city and she doesn't work and because you're obviously a 9
male working as a resident, it needed to have a whole, like, if you were designing it today 10 for 2050, what would be the inducements.
11 I think they include things like permanent and not just project-based 12 telework. But, I mean, those are my opinions. And if I have a few ideas I know that there 13 are a hundred better ideas amongst the NRC Staff because often we are kind of a mile wide 14 and an inch deep at the Commission level by nature of the work we do.
15 So, things like that really excite me. I think that is the way to solve it.
16 And I'm not going to put any kind of a, like a morale judgment on the 17 entering workforce of today. And again, we value and honor our skilled workers.
18 And Patrice talked about the fact that we look at culture, an important 19 element. And I think wrote down what you said was just honoring all the strengths of the 20 culture we have.
21 That's the other thing here is, at the Innovation expose I walked up and 22 overheard some NRC Staff talking about something. And somebody said, well, that's never 23
68 going to work because it never worked in the past.
1 And I think those are the kind of immediate defensive rejections of change 2
that we're talking about, that we want to challenge, that I think is appropriate to challenge.
3 But changing things is not a repudiation of those who came before.
4 It doesn't mean that the resident inspector's program was previously 5
flawed and who were the people who developed that, and they obviously weren't informed.
6 That doesn't mean it's right for 2040 and 2050.
7 And the Staff that wants to aim towards that, at our meeting on Tuesday 8
we heard about NMSS of the future. I mean, I think that's wonderful.
9 And I've gotten some suggestions very recently. Maybe I'll close on this.
10 But this is maybe a thing I shouldn't say. But the suggestion that to me was, why doesn't 11 the Commission, because the pace of your transformation isn't what something it should be, 12 why doesn't the Commission just grab up the reins and just direct this whole thing.
13 I will say that leadership can do a thing like that. I've not been supportive 14 of that because I think that by design, again, our Commission is to have these different 15 voices and perspectives that will come and go.
16 The Commission didn't, itself, think of and design the ROP to replace the 17 sell (phonetic). The Commission didn't itself, although it contributed to, come up with Part 18 52 and have the one-step licensing process.
19 These things are well formed and well propounded because they do have 20 all these perspectives. And when we want to have, as Margie said, so maybe I'll close with 21 this, she said that the African adage is: if you want to go fast, go by yourself.
22 The Commission could issue, by majority fiat, a whole lot of thoughts.
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69 And to sit from its lofty perch and go, this is what 3,000 people need to be doing, and I have 1
such supreme knowledge, and I know that.
2 Or if you want to go far you will really kind of start where you are, work on 3
innovative cultures, work on organizational cultures, work on the sign post to try to make 4
sure that I view it not so much as you have debiting but you're like a sailboat. You know, 5
you're kind of going different ways and you're saying, am I drifting off and do I need to take 6
a different direction.
7 And you are developing these tools because technology gives that to our 8
Staff. And I think at a bare minimum what we can do is, let's not deprive the Staff of the 9
things that will make their job a lot easier.
10 And if those things can enhance public transparency and transparency to 11 the regulated community, that may be in all the more kind of benefit, or gravy to it.
12 But that was my long, and so, Commissioner Hanson, welcome to the first 13 of my 11 and 40, 11 minute and 40 second homilies, but sometimes I just, I listen and then I 14 have things to say. So, I don't know that there was a question in there for anybody. Reed 15 got one question.
16 But again, I appreciate all of the work you're doing. I just kind of wanted 17 to share some observations. And I thank your Commission, to a person, is definitely 18 cheering you on in terms of what you're doing.
19 I do think that it best resides with you. There are things that the 20 Commission does need to decide that you come up with.
21 But I don't think we can take the transformation and just drive you all to it.
22 So, with that, I will at least pause and ask if any of my colleagues have any remarks they 23
70 would like to make?
1 Okay. Again, thank you all. And thanks for a great meeting. And the 2
Commission has been wanting to have transformation focused meetings at intermittent 3
periods. I don't know when we might.
4 As we caucus think that it would be best to have another one, but I would 5
suggest, certainly at some point in the new year I think it would be ripe and the Staff's 6
activities would have produced, again, a good quantity of things to talk to us about.
7 So with that, all, thank you again. And we are adjourned.
8 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 11:53 a.m.)
9