Introduction
Over the past decade or so, government at all levels has begun
requiring short- and long-term plans, including strategic goals,
measurable objectives, a system for assessing outcomes, and
periodic reporting on results. More recently, decision makers have
attempted to tie budget and other resource decisions to agency
performance.
Ironically, this shift to a more results-oriented management system
hasnt yet made a noticeable dent in public sector organizational
culture. I say this because for such a transformation to have
occurred would have surely nudged most culture bearers out of their
silos and bureaucratic stovepipes. To illustrate, lets consider one
of the most prosaic examples of this phenomenon the non-strategic
state of training and development, or workplace learning.
Transformational Challenges
Theoretically, in a post-silo organizational culture, Chief Human
Capital Officers (CHCOs) and/or Chief Learning Officers (CLOs)
would be fully involved in the organizations strategic planning and
management systems. Moreover, these activities would be part of a
transparent, integrated, 360 process aimed at harnessing all agency
assets to meet priority challenges. What are some of these
challenges at this point in time?
Performance
Starting with the performance challenge itself, to what extent have
the CHCOs and CLOs planned, resourced and orchestrated workplace
learning initiatives to foster a performance culture? How have they
assured that all contributors across the organization, staff and
line managers and at different levels understand the link between
the procurement process and vendor performance? Between setting
budget priorities that help guide agency investment decisions and
justifying and reporting on the measurable outcomes of agency
training efforts? Have training and development investments been
made to compare performance against common standards learning how
other public sector organizations make use of benchmarking, leading
indicators and other methods to improve and evaluate performance in
a comparative context? And with respect to fostering an
organization-wide performance culture, what effort is being made to
pass along lessons learned from other federal, state and local
efforts to improve organization performance? To set standards, hold
organizations accountable and consider changes to HR law, personnel
policies and systems, and other innovative ideas (e.g., "employment
at will") in pursuit of a performance-based culture? And how do
these workplace learning investments cut across entrenched
organization sub-cultures?
Accountability
Moving to accountability challenges stewardship, ethics and new
financial rules and realities as agency responsibilities, resources
and sourcing relationships have grown in size and complexity, how
have training and development emphases shifted to address priority
oversight needs? What is being planned to assure basic performance
measurement acumen and achieve mastery of distributing
responsibility appropriately and adequately in a multi-sector
workforce; managing internal and external risk and assuring proper
internal controls; and effectuating outcome-oriented cost
management and cost sharing? And how do these workplace learning
investments cut across entrenched organization sub-cultures?
Human Capital
As for human capital, much of this challenge is framed by new
demographics and the need to recruit, engage and retain young
professionals. Considering the anticipated departure of a high
percentage of Baby Boomers over the next 3-5 years including many
from the senior-most ranks of governments career leadership and the
difficulty in attracting younger generations to public service,
what is the training and development community doing to address
this challenge? How have workplace learning efforts focused on
measuring performance and linking pay and performance (where
applicable)? Given the complex, wide variety and pressing nature of
the transformative challenges facing todays government
organizations, what are agencies doing to prepare their current and
future leaders and managers to drive this change over the next
several decades? Given the complex, wide variety and pressing
nature of the transformative challenges facing todays government
organizations, what are agencies doing to prepare their current and
future leaders and managers to drive this change over the next
several decades? What is being done to prepare current and future
leaders and managers to drive anticipated change both generic and
organization-specific over the next several decades? And how do
these workplace learning investments cut across entrenched
organization sub-cultures?
Technology
Much of the technology challenge for IT professionals and
non-technologists alike will revolve around keeping pace with
expanding E-expectations. How does the training and development
strategy assure that the organization will keep pace with new
technologies and rising expectations among all relevant users
citizens, the business community AND a younger more Web-savvy
workforce? Both and opportunity and threat stem from the need to
manage knowledge across organizational and jurisdictional
boundaries. How will training and development investments pave the
way in this regard helping transcend boundaries of federal, state
and local governments and fostering collaboration among public,
private, and nonprofit sectors. And how do these workplace learning
investments cut across entrenched, internal organization
sub-cultures?
Communication
To a large extent, the communication challenge is less readily
apparent yet poses a significant threat to achieving organization
missions. How does the agencys workplace learning strategy assure
that transparency becomes an organization-wide value, driving
increased openness and candor in public bureaucracies, within and
among different levels and branches of government, and with the
public and the media? How are government organizations preparing
managers to balance the need for internal controls and
confidentiality with the demand for increased freedom of
information? Given the volume, pace and complexity of policy
formulation activities, how are government agencies preparing
managers to engage citizens today particularly in the context of
new communication technologies? Given the inter-dependent nature of
todays public sector challenges and solutions, government agencies
and occupational groupings will need to go outside their own
vertically integrated comfort zones and interact with other
bureaucratic sub-cultures to achieve priority outcomes. How are
agencies preparing managers to reach out across traditional
boundaries, alter their basic assumptions and behaviors with
respect to sharing information and collaboration in planning,
sourcing and managing efforts of common importance? And what is the
agency doing to prepare practitioners for leadership and managerial
roles aimed at communicating a more global perspective among career
government officials around the world?
Governance
Going beyond inter-institutional communication, how does the agency
plan to share responsibility for achieving results with other
governmental levels, internationally and the private sector? What
are different levels of government doing to prepare managers for
and respond more collaboratively to catastrophic disasters, and how
are lessons learned and new techniques in one setting
institutionally shared with others? Also, finding common purpose in
international collaborations is almost always problematic. How is
the agency helping its managers learn how to work together
successfully and with alacrity internationally and in other
cross-cultural environments? Moreover, more and more government
work requirements have been sourced to private contractors. Given
the need to measure and report on the performance of all parties,
how are organizations learning to communicate oversight and
accountability roles and responsibilities in such a demanding,
resource-stretched environment? In this regard, what strategy does
the agency envision to have managers successfully engaged the
private sector, achieving high performance while remaining faithful
to their missions and code of ethics and protecting the proprietary
needs of their business community counterparts?