Alan Howze

The Bush to Obama transition was the smoothest in our nation’s history, because the two leaders made it a priority to invest significantly in planning and preparation. The details of this successful transition are the subject of a new book, “Before the Oath,” by noted Presidential scholar Dr. Martha Kumar.

On September 16, the IBM Center for The Business of Government and the Partnership for Public Service co-hosted a Roundtable to discuss how agency leaders can coordinate and integrate activities to drive successful outcomes for the next Presidential term. An exceptional group of current and former senior officials from Administrations of both parties, leaders from Capitol Hill, as well as experts from academia and the private and non-profit sectors participated in a robust discussion.

This blog is a continuation of our first blog on Enterprise Government, which presented an introduction on Enterprise Government and highlighted a number of challenges for the next Administration to address.  In this blog, we will present the key findings and recommendations in each of four areas to spur a government-wide approach to solving problems.  These action areas include:

How can new leaders quickly gain situational awareness?  How can they harness ongoing processes like budget formulation and performance reporting as inputs for decision- making? How can they use and integrate expertise such as risk management and strategic foresight into actionable information? Are there decision-making frameworks and models that leaders can adapt to produce faster decisions based upon evidence? 

This post is a continuation of our first blog on decision making, which highlighted a number of challenges for the next administration to address. In this blog, we present the key findings and recommendations in four areas. These action areas include: Decision Processes – finding ways to harness government decision processes and not getting bogged down. Define clear parameters - use career staff to help incoming appointees translate governing priorities into clear goals and action plans that take into account existing budget and statutory constraints.

The release of President Obama’s Executive Order (EO) “Facilitation of a Presidential Transition” on May 6, 2016, comes six months before the election and 259 days until the next President is sworn into office. The EO marks the start of the efforts that the outgoing administration and agencies will undertake to support the transition of power. As the beneficiary, in 2008, of what has been described as the smoothest transition in history, President Obama’s EO signals his intent to pay it forward with his own administration’s preparations.