Introduction: What Is Happening, Why, and So What?

Alan P. Balutis

In mid-2007, the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) began an effort to contribute to the new administration’s management initiatives, which are designed to better implement the president’s policy agenda and improve the operations, effectiveness, and efficiency of the government. IBSG developed a four-part program, consisting of small group seminars, publications, coalition and collaboration activities, and a website devoted to new ideas in government.

Individuals who participated in the series of monthly seminars were invited to prepare articles for the Winter 2007 and Spring 2008 issues of The Public Manager, which were reprinted in a special Spring 2008 issue of TPM. In addition, insights were posted on several blog sites, as well as Cisco’s New Ideas Website (www.newideasforgovernment.com).

Since that time, Barack Obama was elected president, a smooth transition occurred, a new cabinet came into office, and sub-cabinet positions and senior management jobs around government were filled—with more developments still to come. During this time, the financial markets seized up, credit froze, the economy went into a nosedive, and several massive financial, economic, and auto industry rescues were enacted. As the first year of the Obama presidency draws to a close, some assessment is in order.

Updates and Status Reports

In this Forum, the same team of analysts, experts, and government executives who outlined a management agenda for the new president report on the administration’s actual agenda. Without suggesting a causal link, much of what was advocated in the Spring 2008 issue of TPM has come to fruition. In the president’s FY 2010 budget, the administration’s new management and performance agenda is based around these themes:

• putting performance first by replacing the existing Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART) with a new performance improvement and analysis framework
• ensuring responsible spending of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 funds
• transforming the federal workforce
• managing across sectors
• reforming federal contracting and acquisition
• enhancing transparency, technology,
• and participatory democracy.

Readers are invited to examine this Forum to get an update and status report on

• human resources from W. Frederick Thompson, Stephen Benowitz, Steve W. T. O’Keeffe, Robert D. Childs, and Childs’ colleagues at the Information Management College at Ft. McNair
• acquisition from Allan Burman
• technology from John Sindelar, Tom Hughes, and Daniel Mintz
• performance from Robert M. Tobias
• citizen-centric government from Martha Dorris and David McClure
• collaboration and managing across boundaries from Robert J. O’Neill and Elizabeth K. Kellar
• overall management reform from Alan P. Balutis and Donald F. Kettl.

Alan P. Balutis is director and distinguished fellow in Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group. He is also chairman of The Public Manager Board of Directors. He can be reached at abalutis@cisco.com.

Change Is in the Wind for HR Management

by Stephen Benowitz

While long-term change does occur, it’s often at glacial speed because of the political issues associated with implementing it. As a result, transformational change in policies that govern the federal civil service rarely occurs. Has this happened with the Obama Administration—the party of “change”? It certainly has reversed a number of personnel policies that were adopted by the previous administration, many at the urging of employee unions.

Stephen Benowitz is a retired federal executive with more than 30 years experience in human resource management. He now serves as a consultant to government agencies and private sector clients on HR issues. He can be reached at stevebenowitz@comcast.net.

HR Strategies for Driving Change: Finding the Right Road

by W. Frederick Thompson

Economics has long held that when there is a common shared resource that none of the parties own, competing parties will pursue their own short-term interests at the expense of long-term outcomes and will thereby over time destroy the systems on which they rely.

Politicians, federal employees, and their managers are bound together in a common civil service system that they all want to change and improve. But they each have very different visions of how to do this. Past history need not lead to a future stalemate. We do not have to have winners and losers to make progress.

W. Frederick Thompson is an advisory fellow with Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group and a senior advisor to the Pew Charitable Trusts' Center on the States. He can be reached at frethomp@cisco.com.

Telework Tango: Take Two, From the Top

by Steve W. T. O’Keeffe

Government managers who oppose telework are like the ballroom dancing aficionados in college; we know there are a lot of you, but nobody’s out on the floor. Telework is certainly not a new craze in government. In fact, Uncle Sam has spent decades trying to move his distributed workforce to the beat. Despite legislation, the $4 gallon of gas, bird flu, H1N1, hurricane planning, green initiatives, cloud enablement, traffic gridlock, and so on, many agencies still have two left feet in telework.

Against this awkward backdrop, is there any hope that regular Feds will get to dance cheek-to-cheek with telework? Even with the false starts, a series of agencies are getting hip to workforce empowerment.

Steve W. T. O’Keeffe is executive director of Telework Exchange and founder of MeriTalk. He can be reached at sokeeffe@okco.com.

The Future Workforce: Gen Y Has Arrived

by Robert D. Childs, Gerry Gingrich, and Michael Piller

Going viral can be a great thing for an organization’s products and services. In the current Web 2.0 environment, favorable electronic communications that go viral give a big boost to the featured organization. Does your agency recognize the potential power of viral postings? Does it encourage its employees to create communications that might go viral?

Generation Y, also called the Millennial Generation, understands the importance of going viral. Bound by a hunger for IT, especially social media and other Web 2.0 technologies, Gen Yers spend enormous amounts of time, both professional and personal, communicating electronically. Learning how to go viral and how to jump on the beta wagon will be much easier for your organization if you reach out and connect with Gen Yers through the world of social media.

Robert D. Childs, EdD, is the senior director of the Information Resources Management (IRM) College and an expert on the competitive use of information, information technology, organizational models, and building educational programs. He can be reached at childsrd@ndu.edu. Gerry Gingrich, PhD, is a professor of systems management at the IRM College, and has more than 25 years experience leading, managing, and teaching organizational and technological strategy, innovation, and leadership. She can be reached at gingrich@ndu.edu. Michael Piller, PhD, directs the IRM College Laboratory Center,a hands-on environment for experiential learning. His expertise includes instructional technology, human-computer interaction, and simulation and game-based learning. He can be reached at pillerm@ndu.edu.

The Past Is Prologue: The Obama Technology Agenda

by John Sindelar, Daniel Mintz, and Tom Hughes

In spring 2008, our TPM article reflected on the progress of e-government under the Bush Administration and what it portended for the future of the new administration beginning January 20, 2009. While many of the themes and challenges cited then were relatively accurate, our self-congratulations is tempered by the realization that—in the words of that great philosopher Yogi Berra—“The future ain’t what it used to be.”

As we approach the end of the first year of the new administration, it is fitting to compare our past observations with the changes now upon us in the world of information technology (IT) and related governance. We begin by revisiting the macro trends of e-government (recognizing that this terminology is no longer in vogue); then moving to the critical drivers of Web 2.0 technologies; and examining the changing role of the federal chief information officer (CIO).

John Sindelar, client industry executive at HP, is a recognized leader in the field of electronic government, having worked closely with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, federal agencies, and the private sector. In February 2007, he retired from federal service after a 33-year career with the U.S. General Services Administration and Treasury Department. He can be reached at john.sindelar@HP.com. Dan Mintz is chief technology officer of the Civil and Health Services Group at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and a former CIO at the U.S. Department of Transportation. He can be reached at dmintz@csc.com or on Twitter under the handle technogeezer. Tom Hughes is currently a director at CSC, working in the civilian and public health organization. Until recently, he served as CIO of the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), overseeing e-goverment initiatives, computer security efforts, IT portfolio financial management, a second national data center, and a national Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution for the agency. He also served on the federal CIO Council. He can be reached at thughes26@csc.com.

Inherently Governmental Functions: Has the Debate Changed?

by Allan Burman

There has been a long-standing policy, codified in the United States Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), that functions intimately related to the public interest should only be performed by federal civil servants. Typically, these types of “inherently governmental” functions require either the use of discretion or the making of value judgments to apply government authority.

Some observers have expressed frustration that laws and policies offer agencies no bright-line test. As a result, contractors often perform work that should be carried out by civil servants. The Spring 2008 issue of The Public Manager asked the question: Should the government rethink its long-standing policy on contracting out work? The answer: Yes.

Allan V. Burman, PhD, is a former administrator for federal procurement policy of the U.S. government and president of Jefferson Solutions in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at aburman@jeffersonconsulting.com.

Performance Management Progress

by Robert M. Tobias

In addition to being the most powerful person in the world, the person elected president of the United States also is the chief executive officer (CEO) of the executive branch of government. Ordinarily, the organizational results “buck” stops at a CEO’s desk, but recent presidents have seemed more interested in running against the machinery of government.

Unlike his predecessors, however, President Obama has chosen to reverse this trend. He has announced that he plans to adopt a “lead-from-the-top” strategy to improve executive branch performance. Rather than pretend that the executive branch is inhabited by aliens who operate on a separate planet, President Obama seems to be taking responsibility for the results of executive branch performance.

Robert M. Tobias is the director of the Key Executive Leadership Programs and the Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation at American University. He can be reached at RTobias@American.edu.

Developments with Intergovernmental Cooperation

by Elizabeth K. Kellar and Robert J. O’Neill

In our article, “Now Is the Time for Collaboration,” we urged the new administration to seek honest dialogue and pragmatic solutions to the most important nondefense issues facing our nation: jobs, healthcare, security and safety, education, environment, and long-term economic security (retirement, Social Security, and Medicare).

What progress has the Obama Administration made on the intergovernmental cooperation agenda since taking office? We had an open-ended conversation with Donald Borut, executive director of the National League of Cities and Raymond Scheppach, executive director of the National Governors’ Association, to discuss what is working—and what has not yet been addressed.

Robert J. O’Neill is executive director of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). He can be reached at roneill@ICMA.org. Elizabeth K. Kellar is president and CEO of the Center for State and Local Government Excellence. She can be reached at ekellar@slge.org.

The Obama Technology Agenda: Open, Transparent, and Collaborative

by David McClure and Martha Dorris

The Obama Administration’s technology agenda is game-changing, bringing collaboration, participation, and transparency to government in a big way. As more information makes its way onto the Internet, an increased level of focus and flexibility is required to balance privacy and security concerns with the desire to make information more readily accessible. To maintain perspective, focused leadership from government executives and managers is paramount.

The collaboration and transparency push has already made an impact on government in some very interesting ways. Collaboration within government has improved through the use of lightweight, and often free, tools and technologies that provide fast, cheap and effective support and enable us to expand government’s reach and engage with citizens more broadly. 

David McClure is associate administrator for the Office of Citizen Services and Communications of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). Martha Dorris is deputy associate administrator for the Office of Citizen Services and Communications of GSA. She can be reached at Martha.dorris@gsa.gov.

Obama’s Stealth Revolution: Quietly Reshaping the Way Government Works

by Donald F. Kettl

Government reform has been a staple of presidential management for the last 50 years. President Kennedy brought in his whiz kids, led by Robert McNamara. President Nixon upped the ante with a management-by-objectives budget system, and President Carter trumped him with zero-based budgeting, which promised to force budgeters to explain the extra value that marginal dollars would bring.

During the Clinton administration, Vice President Al Gore identified hundreds of recommendations for reinventing government, and by day 200 of his administration, President George W. Bush had launched a top-down performance system tied to the budget. Does Team Obama have something on the way?

Donald F. Kettl is dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and author of The Next Government of the United States (Norton, 2009). He can be reached at kettl@umd.edu.

The Obama Management Agenda: Five Steps Toward Transformation

by Alan P. Balutis

In the Spring 2008 Special Issue of The Public Manager, nearly 20 current and former government executives, academicians, and private and nonprofit sector leaders outlined a management agenda for the incoming 44th President of the United States. It’s been one year since a healthy majority of American voters elected Barack Obama to change America. So we reassembled almost all the original contributors—and added just a few new ones—and asked them to assess the Obama Management Agenda.

Alan P. Balutis is director and distinguished fellow in Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group. He is also chairman of The Public Manager Board of Directors. He can be reached at abalutis@cisco.com.

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