The Operator's Manual is a guide to how government works and how to make it work to advance policy goals and objectives. We present, in brief and simple terms, descriptions of the most important tools and levers that executives can use to advance agency goals and the president's agenda. This Manual will help executives understand the terrain of government, become familiar with the terms and lingo used inside agencies, and know how to effectively use the tools of government.

Chapters include information on leadership, performance, people, money, contracting, technology, innovation, and collaboration. The Foreward begins, "Musing about the word “operator,” one’s thoughts drift to the only true government insiders’ use for the word: the one that describes the intelligence officer or special military professional who works in the secret, sometimes dark, and often dangerous world of clandestine intelligence activities. But wait a minute; that doesn’t seem to be among the topics treated in this volume. So we focus on the phrase “operator’s manual.” Aha, that’s it: The analogy is to one of those instruction books that come with complex machines. I am reminded of the four 6-inch binders that came with the 30-foot, jet-powered, state-of the art picnic boat a friend bought recently. These how-to volumes for the craft he christened the Richard Henderson were truly impenetrable to those uninitiated in modern maritime ways.

Government is even more complex than the Richard Henderson, and so it seems audacious to think that an operator’s manual can fit in fewer than 200 pages. But that is what you will find in this book by leaders of IBM’s Center for The Business of Government, which has just celebrated its 10th year of running a top-notch research program on management issues in the public sector. The authors presume, with considerable merit, that the past decade has produced a set of management principles that find common application across much of government. This truth might come as a relief to some readers, people who are newly arriving to staff the next administration. After all, they might understandably believe that government has greatly changed as a consequence of the September 11 tragedy and its aftermath, and continues to evolve as security remains paramount. And, indeed, they would not be far off the mark.

The huge Department of Homeland Security, which enveloped 22 agencies, remains a work in progress. The Defense Department, consuming well over half of all federal discretionary spending, is struggling with the difficult job of balancing today’s recruiting, retention, and equipment needs against tomorrow’s requirements for expensive new weaponry and larger force structures."