Applying power in all its forms to secure the present and future is ultimately a leadership challenge. That challenge is especially complex in the current century when the forms and patterns of security are changing in so many ways at an accelerated pace than ever before. The capabilities required to threaten a nation, region, or even global stability are available to both rich and impoverished nation states, as well as small networks of people who can and do operate relatively independent of any nation state. There is more data available than ever before to make sense of this era.

Ms. Erin C. Conaton is the Undersecretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C. She was confirmed March 4, 2010.

Ms. Erin C. Conaton is the Undersecretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C. She was confirmed March 4, 2010. Ms. Conaton is responsible for the affairs of the Department of the Air Force on behalf of the Secretary of the Air Force, including the organizing, training, equipping and providing for the welfare of its more than 334,000 men and women on active duty, 176,000 members of the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve, 170,000 civilians, and their families.

Understanding the difference between a complicated problem and a complex one is important for today’s leaders. They require different strategies and tools that are largely not interchangeable. Sometimes a problem will morph from one state to the other—either from complicated to complex, or vice versa—so you’ll need to be ready to adapt your strategies and tools accordingly. So what are the differences? A recent Harvard Business Review article by Gokce Sargut and Rita Gunther McGrath offers these distinctions:

What is transformational leadership? How have government leaders successfully led transformational change? When should government leaders consider undertaking transformation initiatives? Explore these answers with Bob Reisner, author of "A Leader's Guide to Transformation: Developing a Playbook for Successful Change Initiatives."

Learn how program managers can assess whether their efforts to increase citizen participation in their programs are making a difference.

Government officials have warned of the potential for a cyber Pearl Harbor that paralyzes one or more critical components of the country’s public and private infrastructures. In April 2011, a cyber attack crashed 30 servers at a South Korean bank, destroying data and eliminating financial services for several days. If North Korea was responsible for the attack, as South Korean officials have asserted, it demonstrates how one of the world’s most impoverished nation-states can use cyber to successfully attack one of the world’s most prosperous.

They note that even with the recession, over half the workforce is unsatisfied with their jobs and that the workforce now spans four generations.  These challenges are compounded by rapid technology changes in the workplace.  When taken together, they create enormous challenges for managers in both the public and private sectors.

Following the customer service initiatives launched by Gore’s reinventing government team in the 1990s, the federal government has waxed and waned on the importance of customer service in the course of serving the public.  Now that citizen satisfaction with government services is under 20 percent, a new law may turbo charge the emphasis if it is passed, since it would tie customer service to employees’ performance ratings. Background

These types of challenges run the gamut from the 2008 meltdown of the global financial system to the Y2K challenge, pandemics, and natural and man-made disasters. Many are more difficult to anticipate, get out in front of, and handle. In most manifestations, they don’t follow orderly and linear processes.

Transformation continues to be seen by noted practitioners and 21st century federal leaders as a compelling description of the essential change that is needed throughout the federal government. In the future, transformation will be a joint-ownership enterprise that spans boundaries and involves constituencies in unprecedented ways. This emerging characteristic alone will require the successful leaders of future transformations to adopt a more democratic management style and build on the work of pioneers who have gone before.