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.
Sound management enables the effective implementation of policy and is essential for a successful presidency. That’s why the Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center for the Business of Government have joined together in sponsoring a series of roundtable dialogues with key government leaders and stakeholders to inform the next president about critical federal management issues, and recommend actions that can strengthen the new administration’s capacity to address key challenges.
Through these roundtables, the Partnership and the IBM Center will develop a Management Roadmap for the next administration to share the lessons learned, identify promising and proposed initiatives, and offer ideas on successful implementation.
The first roundtable discussion focused on strengthening executive talent across the federal government. In the new whitepaper, “Managing the Government’s Executive Talent,” authors Doug Brook and Maureen Hartney recap the roundtable discussion and propose a framework for the next administration to manage and harness the talent of top political and career executives in order to accelerate the achievement of presidential priorities.
In the coming months we will release additional whitepapers on related management topics.
Learn more about the Ready to Govern initiative.
The challenges facing our country are more complex and interconnected than ever, and addressing those challenges requires cooperation and compromise both within and between the branches of our government.
In the nonpartisan research report—“Government Disservice: Overcoming Washington Dysfunction to Improve Congressional Stewardship of the Executive Branch”—the Partnership for Public Service, with support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, examines how congressional polarization diminishes the effectiveness of federal agency programs and operations and looks at ways in which Congress can be a better steward of the executive branch.
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Federal agencies are extremely large and complex organizations with critical missions that range from safeguarding our borders to protecting us from disease. Managing these organizations effectively and ensuring that they achieve their goals is no easy task, and it is the responsibility of the chief operating officer (COO).
What role do COOs play in agencies? What are their top priorities and challenges? What is the state of management in federal agencies? Those are the questions the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton set out to understand in the inaugural report, “Bridging Mission and Management: A Survey of Government Chief Operating Officers.”
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 Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewing the conversion of appointees in non-career political positions to career appointments.
Report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) that explores the legal environment and practices surrounding the presidential transition released in December 2012.
