SES

Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen was superb at handling big, complex challenges that reach across agency boundaries.  He led the evacuation of lower Manhattan during 9/11.  He took over the Katrina rescue operations after they floundered.  He led the U.S. response to the Haiti earthquake, and the Gulf Coast BP Oil Spill.

Before Allen retired, I asked him “Where does the government find the next one hundred Thad Allens?”  He didn’t have a good answer.  But answering that question becomes more critical as the government finds itself increasingly facing cross-agency challenges.

Four years ago, the Center for The Business of Government released “The Operator’s Manual for the New Administration.”  This report provided practical insights on how to make agency operations work more effectively, drawing on the first ten years of reports from the Center to draw lessons learned in areas ranging from leadership to money to technology to collaboration.  The insights were written in the form of memos to individual leaders who come into government and need to make its wheels turn to accomplish their objectives. 

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, a veteran corporate executive search recruiter, shares his approach for talent spotting for senior executives in an article in Harvard Business Review.  He says that traditional approaches have emphasized assessing intelligence, experience, past performance, and the competencies of the individual being considered for an executive slot.

John Kamensky

John Kamensky Fix, Don’t Kill Telework. Eyebrows have been raised over perceived misuse of telework at the Patent and Trademark Office. But Jeffrey Neal, a former chief human capital officer at Homeland Security, tells Federal News Radio that “Rather than attempting to reverse telework programs, we should be working on fixing the problems. Nothing I have experienced, heard from people currently in government, or read tells me telework and other workplace flexibilities should be killed. . . .

This event, the first of its kind under the current Administration, brought together several thousand Federal leaders (primarily SES, but also other senior executive designations – this post will refer to the group as SES henceforth), joined by a cadre of supporters of good government. The grand ballroom at the Hilton was full, and the mood was positive as the attendees listened to remarks from a variety of perspectives.

Cross –agency collaboration is a critical element to solving many of the hardest challenges that government faces in providing effective services to citizens.  In his report, “The Next Government of the United States,” noted public administration scholar Don Kettl writes that “effective 21^st century government requires new mechanisms for coordinating government agencies to ensure they can connect organically as they seek to solve the manifest problems they confront.”

How the new policy on 360 reviews of government #acquisitions can work — perspectives from @kelmansteve. How to build great customer experiences with government – insights from the experts: @actiac How the proliferation of devices is changing #cybersecurity — and what the government can do about it — ideas from @fcc_cio David Bray John Kamensky Tradition vs. Efficiency.