Making smart and timely decisions will enable the next administration to more effectively implement key priorities and address emerging challenges. But it won’t be easy. Incoming leaders will be flooded with information and advice and will face a never-ending barrage of decisions. To succeed, new appointees need an organized approach that uses data and draws on proven processes and frameworks.
In this report, “Enhancing the Government’s Decision-Making: Helping Leaders Make Smart and Timely Decisions,” author Ed DeSeve presents insights and offers recommendations for transition teams and the next administration on establishing effective decision-making approaches, taking an enterprise view and using data-driven analytics.
This is the third report in our Management Roadmap series, published jointly by the Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center for The Business of Government. The reports share lessons learned from roundtable dialogues with key stakeholders, identifies promising initiatives and offers ideas on successful implementation.
Learn more about the Ready to Govern initiative.
Over the last year, the Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center for The Business of Government have held a series of roundtable discussions with key government leaders and stakeholders to develop a Management Roadmap for the next administration. This roadmap will share lessons learned, identify promising initiatives and offer ideas on successful implementation.
Our first roundtable and report focused on executive talent. Our second roundtable discussion was centered on how to create an ecosystem for cross-agency collaboration in the new administration. In the new report, “Building an Enterprise Government,” Jane E. Fountain outlines a framework that the next president and agency executives can use to formulate strategic priorities, modernize management processes and build capacity to achieve cross-agency goals.
In the coming months, we will release additional reports on related management topics. We invite you to learn more about the Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition and the Management Roadmap.
In the report, “Building the Enterprise: A New Civil Service Framework,” the Partnership for Public Service calls for major reforms to the federal government’s decades-old civil service system and lays out a plan to modernize areas that include the outdated pay and hiring policies.
“Our nation’s civil service system is a relic of a bygone era,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. “Our nation’s leadership must make it a priority to create a civil service system that our public servants deserve and that will produce the results our country needs.”
Produced in collaboration with Booz Allen Hamilton, the comprehensive report calls the federal personnel system, the foundation for effective government, obsolete and in crisis, and an obstacle rather than an aid in attracting, hiring, retaining and developing top talent.
“Good government starts with good people, and our nation is fortunate to count some of the brightest, most dedicated professionals among its ranks. But they too often succeed in spite of the current system, not because of it,” Stier said.
The report calls for overhauling the entire civil service system, including pay, performance management, hiring, job classification, accountability and workplace justice, and the Senior Executive Service, the nation’s career leadership corps.
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The Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton released “Building the Enterprise: Nine Strategies for a More Integrated, Effective Government,” a report designed to assist the Obama administration’s efforts to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the federal government. “Building the Enterprise” calls on the administration to take a more coordinated, multiagency approach to tackling today’s critical challenges. From reducing homelessness and safeguarding food to securing cyberspace and reducing joblessness, the report lays out the case for our government to build on current efforts by acting as a single, integrated enterprise.
By implementing these nine strategies, the report argues our government can begin to eliminate program duplication and overlap, and align scarce resources toward defined goals to better serve the needs of the American people.
The key to improving our federal government’s operational health is a robust management framework “a roadmap to reform” that tackles challenges from federal budgeting to the use of technology to deliver services. The centerpiece of the president’s government reform plan needs to be a strategy to restore prestige to and increase the capacity of our federal workforce.
Each aspect of the government deserves more attention, but the new president’s management framework should focus on the talented, but underutilized, civilian workforce. The goal should be clear: to improve organizational performance. Core components of an effective workforce, which foster high performance, include:
- The Right Talent
Government has the right people, from top to bottom, with the right skills to work on behalf of the American people.
- An Engaged Workforce
Government employees are motivated, empowered and performing to the best of their capabilities.
- Strong Leadership
Managers are able to inspire and make meaningful and credible distinctions among employees in terms of performance.
- Public Support
Americans value and support federal public service and understand the importance of having good people in the federal government.
This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Office of President-elect Bush and the Clinton administration establishes the relationship between the transition team and the outgoing White House as required by the Presidential Transition Act. It includes provisions for transition procedures, identification of transition contacts and access to non-public government and transition information. This document was signed by the White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, and chairman of the president-elect’s transition team, Dick Cheney on December 18, 2000.
Memo dated Nov. 29, 2000 from White House Chief of Staff John Podesta to Clinton administration political appointees requesting their resignation letters effective at noon on January 20, 2001. The memo provided sample text for resignations and were to be submitted no later than Dec. 15, 2000. Exceptions were made for U.S. Attorney and Marshals, inspectors generals and appointees serving on a term appointment.
Memo dated Nov. 29, 2000 from White House Chief of Staff John Podesta to Clinton administration staff working in the White House requesting their resignation letters effective at noon on January 20, 2001. The memo provided sample text for resignations and were to be submitted no later than Dec. 15, 2000.
Memorandum from White House Chief of Staff John Podesta to heads of executive departments and agencies regarding presidential transition guidance during the election recount in Florida.
November 13, 2000
Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies
From: John Podesta, Chief of Staff
Subject: Presidential Transition Guidance
A number of agencies have raised questions about how they should handle requests for assistance or information by members of a Presidential Transition team. Because of the uncertainty over election results, no President-elect has been identified to receive Federal funds and assistance under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. Until a President-elect is clearly identified, therefore, no transition assistance as contemplated under the Transition Act is available. You may continue to provide the kind of information or assistance, if any, that you typically provide to presidential candidates, and should continue to prepare for the Transition so that we are able to provide full assistance quickly to the Office of the President-elect.
Please contact Maria Echaveste, Deputy Chief of Staff, or Thurgood Marshall, Jr., Assistant to the President for Cabinet Affairs, with any questions.
The code of ethics details the expectations for members of the Clinton-Gore transition team. The document includes guidelines for accepting gifts, conflicts of interest, and other standards of conduct expected from employees of the transition team.
