Memo to New Agency Heads: Listen to Staff
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By Joe Davidson
Wednesday, October 8, 2008

If you buy a new car, it comes with an owner's manual.

If you buy a dresser from Ikea, instructions tell you how to put it together.

If you become the boss of a federal agency, good luck.

Jonathan D. Breul wants the next set of government managers to have more than luck. His 22 years at the Office of Management and Budget, rising to become the top career executive for management policies, taught him that the officials who come to town with any new administration need more than the on-the-job training they usually get.

So, now, in his current role as executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government, Breul and three colleagues -- Mark A. Abramson, John M. Kamensky and G. Martin Wagner -- have produced two how-to volumes for those who will run government agencies and their senior teams, including political appointees and civil servants.

IBM funds the 10-year-old center, which conducts practical research with an eye toward making the public sector more efficient. The two books, "The Operator's Manual for the New Administration," and "Getting it Done: A Guide for Government Executives," offer practical lessons in an accessible, nicely packaged, well-written form.

The books aren't very long, which is a good thing. Each is less than 200 pages and they are organized in a way that allows readers to jump from topic to topic in order of interest. Bureaucracies run on memos and the authors creatively use that model to the reader's advantage. Each chapter of "The Operator's Manual" begins with information in memo form. For example, chapter three begins:

"Memorandum for the heads of executive departments and agencies

Subject: People"

Under the heading "develop effective relationships," the memo advises the new bosses: "It is crucial that you develop a good working relationship with your own employees. . . . Based on the experience of many previous agency heads in government, spending an appropriate amount of time with your union representatives to forge an effective working relationship can be beneficial."

Innovation, a topic too often overlooked in management discussions, has a chapter that encourages executives to "recognize that employees, especially those who are on the front line of your organization and who regularly deal with your agency's customers, often are the source of innovative services that can benefit your customers."

The companion to "The Operator's Manual" is "Getting it Done." It begins with a "to do" list of six items, including learning what actions must be taken quickly and assembling a political/career team.

"Don't view your staff as two distinct camps (political and career)," the book advises. The new executives should avoid meetings with only the political appointees, the suggestion continues, while encouraging the two groups to work as one management team.

One of the best things about this volume is the list of 14 stakeholders, including institutions from the White House (listed first) to the media (listed last).

In the chapter on interagency councils, one of the stakeholders, the authors advise readers to "expect to be viewed as a peer, not as the head of an agency. Get used to being treated differently than you are back at your home agency."

I particularly like the line in the media section that says: "Stiffing them will not work."

One line in "The Operator's Manual" certainly demonstrates how the authors have learned from the experiences of the Bush administration, which has pushed a pay-for-performance system for federal employees.

The book says implementing that system "will require much consultation and engagement with employees within your organization."

That provides a perfect segue to this item about a pay-for-performance system that didn't work.

Under a settlement with the National Treasury Employees Union announced yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission will pay $2.7 million to African Americans and employees at the agency whom the union said were unfairly hit by subjective standards used to determine salary increases.

Last year, an arbitrator ruled that the SEC's merit pay system was illegal, saying implementation of the merit pay, or pay-for-performance, operation violated laws against racial and age discrimination. The union estimates that 300 black and 1,000 older employees will share the settlement.

One lesson here -- in addition to obvious ones about fairness -- concerns the importance of involving workers in workplace issues. The union said the pay system was imposed over objections that it "lacked fairness, credibility and transparency."

Agencies should "not try to go it alone," said Colleen Kelley, NTEU president.

Contact Joe Davidson atfederaldiary@washpost.com.