Off to a Running State Capital Start: A Transition Guide for New Governors and Their Teams

Submitted by on Wed, 11/07/2018 - 11:54
Reports
PDF icon Off to a Running State Capital Start.pdf
Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene
In many states, a new governor has just been elected—in 2018, 17 current governors did not run for reelection in November, while 36 states held gubernatorial elections. Next comes the hard work for governors and their teams of delivering results for citizens. Yet, gubernatorial teams have a short span of time in preparing to take the reins in their state capitals.

This report provides three sets of lessons from Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, a pair of veteran observers of state and local government management, to help gubernatorial teams move quickly and set the stage for a successful term in office:

  • Leverage state government’s existing executive talent
  • Treat state government as an integrated enterprise
  • Organize decision making to achieve results

These lessons are based on the authors’ nearly 30 years of experience in reporting on state governments as well as a set of reports developed in 2016 for the upcoming presidential transition, prepared by the IBM Center for The Business of Government in collaboration with the Partnership for Public Service.  A basic message emerged that has relevance at all levels of government: prioritizing good management early in the tenure of a new administration helps achieve positive results quickly, while a lack of management focus can derail successful implementation.

Read our blog about the report.

Check out our infographic on the report.