The Courage to Change When Challenged

The nation faces an enormous challenge but has the opportunity to institute

change through collaboration among top-level government and

private-sector executives. Americans want an effective, efficient, and

results-driven government as we move through the twenty-first century.We

have great opportunities to leverage information technology (IT) in areas such

as economic development, education, health care, homeland security, publicsafety, and worker productivity. Does the nations government

have the highly trained and talented top-level

executives critical in promoting innovative ideas and

growth through the use of IT? The answer is No.

The governments process for hiring the top-level

executives needed to implement this change-whenchallenged

approach appears to be broken.Government

does not attract the best talent; instead, young people shy

away from public service because they fear the bureaucracy

moves too slowly for their career development

paths.This top talent is crucial in leading government

organizations to success using current IT capabilities and

those yet to be discovered.

Our nations top executives need to understand

how to

reinvigorate government by transforming todays

organizations,

use current and future technologies to institute

change in government, and

establish national goals beyond the current Presidents

Management Agenda (PMA).

Reinvigorating Government

Reinvigorating the federal government requires

changing the negative image many have of being a federal

employee. Changing this image will help the government

recruit the best top-level executives, who can

serve as change agents as they address our current and

future IT challenges. Unfortunately, many of those who

seek change are criticized for their desire to modify

processes that others see as not broken.Thus, many

current government change leaders face punishment

rather than reward for the impact they have on process

and policy.

Federal government efforts to attract talent and

maintain institutional knowledge (in the face of downsizing,

hiring freezes, attrition, and budget cutbacks)

must be strategic.One approach is to hire younger leaders

into the Senior Executive Service ranks or to hire effective

senior private-sector managers to become part of

the leadership hierarchy.The latter would challenge savvy

business leaders with the opportunity to break down the

twentieth-century stereotype of government bureaucracy,

molding it into an environment willing to accept

change.The current presidential candidates have yet to

address this issue.

Leveraging Technology

In a globally competitive environment, the United

States must address the expanded use of IT to stay competitive.

Many worry that China is taking our jobs, but

its gross domestic product (GDP) is $1.6 trillion, while

we have a $16 trillion economy with less than one-quarter

of Chinas population.The real threat to our competitive

status is that the top Chinese leaders, many of

whom have advanced degrees in engineering, see technology

as a means to achieve national goals.To stay competitive,

the United States must develop a more dynamic

educational system, one that can enable future political

and agency leaders to grasp the power of IT and understand

how it can be used to help America maintain its

strong position in the global economy.

Many top federal government executives today dont

understand how to use a BlackBerry, let alone leverage

a simple idea like usingWeb technologies to communicate

with the public or adroitly integrate two agencies

with complicated policies and technologies for a common

solution (health care, for example). One solution

to this problem would be to ask major businesses to

loan their top executives to agencies for a time to instill

the changes needed to improve government.

Establishing National Goals

The current PMA is an aggressive strategy for improving

the management and effectiveness of the federal

government.Although it is a good start, we need even

more vision and commitment from the next president to

engender ideas for improving the next generation of

government services.We need to look at how the federal

government uses IT, find out which uses work well, and

meet the challenges of implementing new networking

and IT to keep us competitive with other global

economies.

One initiative that could be included in the next

PMA would be to assemble the chief information officers

to leverage broadband capability to the populace

and improve government service delivery.The publicsimply needs inexpensive high-speed communication

(broadband).

The Federal Communications CommissionsWeb

site offers some detail on what broadband can provide,

including the following (adapted from the site):

Access to a wide range of educational, cultural, and

recreational opportunities and resources

Provision of medical care to unserved and underserved

populations through remote diagnosis,

treatment, monitoring, and consultations with specialists

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) that can help

create new jobs, attract new industries, and offer

access to regional, national, and worldwide markets

Help in streamlining peoples interaction with

government agencies and information about government

policies, procedures, benefits, and programs

Public safety information and procedures, including

early warning/public alert systems and disaster

preparation programs,

remote security monitoring and real-time security

background checks, and

backup systems for public safety communications

networks

Access to new telecommunications technologies

such asVoice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which

allows voice communication using the Internet

Ability to useTelecommunications Relay Services

(TRS) andVideo Relay Services (VRS) to communicate

more easily, quickly, and expressively

with voice telephone users.

Because of the wide scope of application, the lack of

high-speed broadband penetration is a national issue.

Government leaders appear to be taking a wait-and-see

approach regarding faster broadband rollout.The United

States now ranks fifteenth in the world in broadband implementation,

down from fourth just a few years ago:

how long can we continue to have the largest GDP

when we are constantly dropping in the ranks of broadband

use? The next administration needs to take action

to move the United States into first place.To do so, we

must jettison old dogmatic policy and make way for the

next generation of technological advances.This change

will bring new opportunities for America to advance in

nanotechnology, biotechnology, Internet leverage, improved

graphical systems, and more.

Conclusion

A drastic change takes a great deal of knowledge and

courage, but we cant afford to maintain the status quo.

We need the courage to continue changing government.

Our candidates for president need to understand these

challenges, set an agenda involving smart executives and

next-generation technology, and begin communicating

it in their speeches to America.