Weekly Roundup: November 10-14, 2025

CRISIS MANAGEMENT & GOVERNMENT CONTINUITY

President Trump signs government funding bill, ending shutdown after a record 43-day disruption. The longest government shutdown in U.S. history officially ended this week after 43 days, but experts warn that it could take months or even years for the federal enterprise to fully recover from the disruption, including challenges such as back-logged invoices, rescinded stop work orders, and delayed payments throughout the supply chain—with some people like unpaid federal workers immediately and directly affected, while others including recipients of federal funding through programs like Head Start and SNAP food aid experienced cascading effects as the shutdown progressed.

WORKFORCE TRANSFORMATION & HIRING REFORM

Political appointees to be more involved in recruitment decisions as federal hiring freeze continues. The Office of Personnel Management announced that hiring committees spearheaded by Trump administration political appointees must be in place by November 17 to oversee hiring processes for federal civilian agencies, with committees tasked to approve the creation and filling of job vacancies to ensure that agency hiring is consistent with the national interest, agency needs, and administration priorities.

OPM's Kupor wants more tech expertise in the federal workforce. After agencies shed more than 200,000 federal employees this year, OPM Director Scott Kupor outlined goals for attracting tech talent to the federal workforce, fostering early-career recruitment and streamlining hiring, with hints at upcoming tech hiring initiatives to launch "very shortly" that emphasize recruitment of tech skills, particularly in artificial intelligence—while expressing a desire to centralize the federal hiring process for roles that are common across multiple agencies, stating this would create a more systematized, consistent, merit-based and efficient approach to hiring across government.

FEDERAL ACQUISITION & DEFENSE TRANSFORMATION

Hegseth unveils 'transformation' of DoD acquisition system. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a restructuring of the Pentagon's acquisition system chain of command, replacing program executive offices that have long formed the backbone of Defense Department procurement with "portfolio acquisition executives" who will be more empowered to make decisions and more directly accountable for performance—changes that are part of a wide-ranging overhaul as part of what Hegseth framed as a war on Pentagon bureaucracy, aimed at accelerating the procurement system, increasing competition, using commercial technology as DoD's default option, and eliminating excessive regulations, with "speed to delivery" now the organizing principle.

Army Launches Major Overhaul of Acquisition Process. The U.S. Army is launching sweeping reforms on how it buys weapons and other capabilities, aiming to shorten procurement timelines and spur innovation, the service announced Friday. The overhaul will consolidate the service’s existing program executive offices into six new organizations known as portfolio acquisition executives (PAEs). According to the service, the new structure is intended to streamline decision-making by replacing the current decentralized approach, which divides responsibilities across multiple offices.

Bredenkamp Takes Helm of NGA. Army Lt. Gen. Michele Bredenkamp has assumed leadership of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), becoming the ninth leader of the agency, which provides geospatial intelligence to U.S. military, intelligence, and emergency response operations. Bredenkamp officially began her role as director on Nov. 5. She succeeds Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, who departed after a three-year tenure as director. President Donald Trump nominated Bredenkamp for the position in September.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT & ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY

Amid data gap, an alternative to FEVS emerges for federal employees. The Partnership for Public Service is launching its own version of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, called the Public Service Viewpoint Survey, seeking to fill what would otherwise be a gap in federal workforce data after OPM's decision to cancel FEVS for 2025, marking the first time OPM will not run the survey since it began over 20 years ago—with the Partnership's survey having 23 core questions compared to FEVS's 90 questions, with results expected in early 2026 to help determine the next round of Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings.

How Leaders Can Build Stakeholder Trust in Uncertain Times. Geopolitical fragmentation, economic volatility, technological advances and more have led to unprecedented levels of uncertainty. While you won’t be able to eliminate uncertainty, you can blunt or lessen it by employing three trust-building strategies: 1) Become a source of predictability; 2) Become a source of certitude; or 3) Become a source of stability. A trust-building orientation during times of uncertainty not only helps corporations achieve better outcomes during the period of uncertainty, it allows them to slingshot out of the bad times poised to take full advantage of the recovery.

The Surprising Success of Hands-On Leaders. Leadership theory suggests leaders should focus on high-level issues such as strategy and resource allocation. These authors challenge this conventional wisdom by spotlighting CEOs who dive deep into day-to-day execution rather than hovering at the strategic level. They distill five principles that define this leadership: obsessing over customer-value metrics, designing work processes, making decisions through experimentation, teaching tool kits, and embedding a culture of relentless improvement.

The Hidden Beliefs That Hold Leaders Back. High-performing leaders often face internal limiting beliefs that hinder their effectiveness and career growth. Identifying and reframing these hidden blockers can unlock greater leadership potential and improve team and organizational outcomes. Common limiting beliefs include the need to be involved in every detail, an urgency for immediate results, a belief in always being right, a fear of making mistakes, expectations that others should perform like oneself, an inability to say no, and feelings of not belonging. Overcoming these blockers involves recognizing and naming the limiting belief, understanding its origins and impact, and reframing it into a more productive belief.

Our Favorite Management Tips on Leading Through Uncertainty. Each weekday, in HBR’s Management Tip of the Day newsletter, HBR offers tips to help you better manage your team—and yourself. Here is a curated selection of our favorite Management Tips on leading through uncertainty.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & MODERNIZATION

A new bill would require agencies to disclose when AI replaces a federal job. Senators Mark Warner and Josh Hawley announced the AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act, which would require major companies and agencies to report AI-related job effects, including layoffs and job displacement, to the Labor Department, with Labor also required to compile data on AI-related job effects and publish a report to Congress and the public—legislation that comes amid rising concerns about AI's impact on the job market and federal workforce planning.

Designing a Successful Agentic AI System. Agentic AI systems can execute workflows, make decisions, and coordinate across departments. To realize its promise, companies must design workflows around outcomes and appoint mission owners who define the mission, steer both humans and AI agents, and own the outcome; unlock the data silos it needs to access and clarify the business logic underpinning it; and develop the leaders and guardrails that these intelligent systems require.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE & SERVICE DELIVERY

What codifying the Veterans Experience Office into law means for CX in government. With the recently enacted 'Improving Veterans Experience Act of 2025,' the Veterans Experience Office and its efforts to strengthen the veterans' experience have been codified into law, requiring that the VEO and a chief veterans' experience officer be in place with sufficient staff and resources necessary for CX initiatives—legislation that represents formal recognition by both Congress and the President that customer experience is a core government function, signaling that experience matters and hardwiring CX into the DNA of government.

THIS WEEK @ THE CENTER 

RECENT BLOGS

Understanding Government's Digital Foundation: New Report Explores Identity and Access Management for the Public Sector by Michael J. Keegan.  The IBM Center for The Business of Government announces the publication of a groundbreaking new research report that addresses one of the most critical challenges facing government agencies today: Government's Digital DNA: Identity and Access Management for Public Sector Security by Dr. Andrew B. Whitford, Crenshaw Professor of Public Policy at the University of Georgia.

Forthcoming Research Reports by Dan Chenok. The IBM Center is pleased to announce our latest round of awards for new reports with insights and recommendations to address key public sector challenges, which respond to priorities identified in the Center's research agenda.

Rethinking Resilience: Empowering Communities for Crisis Preparedness by Dan Chenok. A new report provides a roadmap for communities to build resilience in managing crises.

ICYMI – Insights on Leadership, Mindset, and Navigating Uncertainty. This week Michael Keegan dedicates an episode exploring leadership insights, strategies, tools, and mindsets that can help government leaders navigate uncertainty.  

LOOKING AHEAD

The week's developments underscore several critical themes for public management:

• Resilience: Government's ability to recover from disruption while maintaining mission delivery
• Talent Strategy: Balancing workforce reduction with the need for specialized skills
• Modernization Tensions: Accelerating innovation while managing change responsibly
• Evidence-Based Leadership: Maintaining data infrastructure for informed decision-making
• Citizen-Centered Service: Institutionalizing focus on customer experience

Federal leaders navigating these challenges will need to draw on adaptive management approaches, cross-sector best practices, and sustained focus on organizational capacity and mission outcomes.