John Kamensky

John Kamensky

Feb 12 – 16

Reorg Update: USAID. According to Federal News Radio: “After getting the go-ahead from the State Department to proceed on their own hiring strategy, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) released details Thursday on its proposal to reorganize the agency. . . . It’s unclear whether the reorganization would result in a net reduction in USAID’s workforce, but the agency will have to adapt to some budget cuts.”

The GPRA Modernization Act requires agencies to develop a set of 3-5 two-year priority goals and the Trump Administration posted its first set of goals for major agencies on an updated performance.gov website at the same time the FY 2019 budget was released. But the goals didn’t get the same billing as the budget

John Kamensky

Of course, we can’t predict the future of either the government workforce or workplace, especially not in the distant year 2040.  But we can envision what it might look like, given what we know about trends underway today.

John Kamensky

The Federal Workforce of the Future.  The Partnership for Public Service has released a new report that provides: “a snapshot of what the government looks like now and recommendations on how agencies can prepare for the future.”

The President’s fiscal year 2014 budget was released last week and emphasizes the creation of “a culture of performance improvement.”  This is also the theme of a new  IBM Center report, by University of Wisconsin professor Donald Moynihan who is a close observer of the international performance movement.

The big news for many was the announcement last week that Shelley Metzenbaum, who is the Office of Management and Budget official spearheading the Obama Administration’s performance management initiatives on a day-to-day basis, will be leaving to return home to Boston.  “She arrived with a plan and gave us a set of priorities,” notes Jeff Zients, who serves as President Obama’s chief performance officer.

Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen was superb at handling big, complex challenges that reach across agency boundaries.  He led the evacuation of lower Manhattan during 9/11.  He took over the Katrina rescue operations after they floundered.  He led the U.S. response to the Haiti earthquake, and the Gulf Coast BP Oil Spill.

Before Allen retired, I asked him “Where does the government find the next one hundred Thad Allens?”  He didn’t have a good answer.  But answering that question becomes more critical as the government finds itself increasingly facing cross-agency challenges.