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Government Leader home > November/December 2006 issue
Coalitions and Compromises - At a postal conference in San Diego, shortly after his appointment to postmaster general in 2001, John Potter met with basketball legend Bill Russell, who was speaking at the conference about mentoring. Potter recalled sharing with Russell some of the plans he had for the Postal Service.
High Culture - Each federal agency has its own distinctive culture, a sense of “that’s the way we do things here.” Some agency management cultures don’t change much from year to year. Other agencies adapt more nimbly to changes in leadership or resources. At the Defense Intelligence Agency, for example, the management culture has changed considerably over the years, said Louis Andre, DIA’s chief of staff.
VA’s Model of Success - There was a time when the last place any veteran could expect good, basic health care was at a government hospital. And the dismal reputation wasn’t just in the mind-set of vets and their families. Think back to the movies “Born on the 4th of July” and “Coming Home.”
Enlightened Enterprise - As the agency that audits other federal agencies, the Government Accountability Office has to have a leadership and management culture that is “as good or better than anybody else in government.” By most accounts, GAO, under David Walker's, has built one of the most progressive management cultures in government.
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ViewPoint
Wyatt Kash | Viewpoint: Network Governance: Help Wanted - There are many skills that define successful managers in the public and private sectors. But one skill set that separates effective public sector managers from merely good managers in general is the art of managing governance and policy. Increasingly, however, that capability is taking on new and more complex dimensions as government moves from a command-and-control culture to a network-managed approach.
UpShot
Into the Sunset - Rob Portman, director of the Office of Management and Budget, hopes the PMA is here to stay. He says the next president, regardless of party affiliation, should adopt the President’s Management Agenda and continue to press ahead on its goal of improving management in the federal government.
UpShot
Transformation Transfigured - Transformation in government is coming down the pike but it’s not what you think.
UpShot
Voinovich's Lament - The problems with pay for performance reported by a sampling of the civil service’s most elite group—the Senior Executive Service—don’t bode well for governmentwide implementation of a performance-based pay system.
Commentary
Robert D. Behn | Commentary: Metric Misgivings - One of the traditional mantras of management—both public and private—has been: “What gets measured, gets done.” The implication of this aphorism is obvious: If you measure it, people will do it.
Survival Guide
On the Ropes - First, the bad news about turf battles in federal agencies: They still exist. In fact, they’ve become more common than ever with the proliferation of chief executive , or CXO, titles over the past decade.
Inside Job
The Simple Life - A simple approach, a few innovative employees and a management open to new ideas have produced big savings at the IRS.
BriefCase
Cooler Headsets Prevail - Federal agencies are increasingly using the Internet instead of standard telephone lines for voice communications. The Food and Drug Administration, for example, has incorporated a voice over IP infrastructure into its new Maryland headquarters building, which houses 1,700 employees. And the Agriculture Department’s Forest Service recently installed VOIP to ensure communications among its offices as part of its preparation for fire season in the West.
BriefCase
Bookshelf: Clarity on the Metrics Muddle - It isn’t easy to measure performance in the public sector. In the private sector, organizations have clear-cut metrics like profitability and stock market performance.
Practical Leadership
DOD Cultivates Its Next Generation - For the Senior Executive Service at the Defense Department, it’s back to the future. The department has launched “Developing 21st Century Leaders,” an initiative that envisions a senior management cadre that rotates through an array of operations, absorbs a variety of experiences and acquires enterprisewide leadership skills tested for a coming era of demanding, even disruptive, change.
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