ELC 2008:  On the Edge of Opportunity

To some, change feels like crisis. To those truly prepared, however, change can mean enormous opportunities – opportunities to lead and grow as industry and government partner to address new and longstanding challenges. The transition to a new Administration presents many opportunities -- to innovate and to improve government’s performance of its missions on behalf of the American people.   While new efforts will unfold, the age of government transformation will surely continue.  This year’s ELC tracks capture the many cross-cutting themes inherent to this transformation including collaboration, transparency, environmental issues, agility, and how the key enablers like acquisition, human capital, and information technology support, evolve, and lead change.   TRACK 1:     NEW PARADIGM FOR CHANGE: ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPARENCY AND PARTNERSHIP   The business of government is rapidly evolving in response to growing demands from all constituencies who seek greater emphasis on the environment, transparency of information flow between government levels and our citizens, and workable partnerships that get results.    ENVIRONMENT.  Managing IT energy usage toward future environmental sustainability has become a global imperative.  Government agencies are beginning to pave roads to a greener enterprise taking such steps as carbon footprint analyses, strategic IT energy audits, allocation of an energy budget, and adoption of energy-efficient practices with low-tech solutions.   TRANSPARENCY.  The evolution of e-Government solutions has increased citizens’ appetites for greater visibility into government transactions.  Citizens have more than just an interest but rather a need for tracking their government transactions along each link of the Information Value Chain.   PARTNERSHIPS.  As a matter of necessity, agencies are forming alliances with commercial providers and other agencies to achieve economies and efficiencies in the delivery of required services.  Indeed, “multi-sourcing” is becoming a reality as agencies are realizing meaningful results from these new forms of partnership.   This Track and its associated panels will tie these three important and timely issues together with recent examples of activities and initiatives that are making progress in all three areas.   TRACK 2:     MANAGING RISK   Risk management is a critical global challenge for all organizations and businesses.  Risks can take on many forms - from privacy and security to organizational transformations to geopolitical upheaval. Making informed risk-based decisions and developing effective mitigation strategies is now a necessity.  In fact, all agencies need to take risks while delivering services.  Effectively managing those risks while delivering on programs is critical to organizational success.    This track examines the policy decisions involved in how much and to what extent an agency will take those risks; as well as establishing governance for managing risk across large programs or enterprises. The track also addresses factors such as the cultural bias for avoiding risk at all cost and alternatives to that risk posture. Lastly, the track will also examine emerging technologies, applications, and collaborative workplace tools that facilitate strengthening the convergence of physical and logical security as well as related risk mitigation strategies.   Governance – without it, the best policies will fail: what governance structures are working best and why? Security and Privacy – strengthening security and protecting privacy are imperatives:  what are the strategies, leading practices, and promising technologies? Redundancy and Business Continuity – ensuring resilient capability for mission critical programs is a fundamental requirement: what is the right level of redundancy and what are the most effective ways to ensure continuity of critical operations? Information sharing and Information assurance – seemingly concepts pointing in opposite directions:  how can you effectively address managing their polarity? Cultural Change – mitigating but not eliminating risk: what level of risk is acceptable and how does an organization address anything less than a zero risk tolerance?   TRACK 3      Transforming Government with a Changing Workforce   Perhaps there is no area that generates more continuous debate than the “right” balance of roles, responsibilities, and relationships between the public and private sector workforce in meeting the mission goals of federal agencies. The debate continues over what is inherently governmental and what is not?  It is manifested in the question, “What should be done by the government workforce, what should be done by contractors, and does the government have the right policies and skills in place to effectively manage a blended workforce?”  Are we going to increase the government workforce or should outsourcing be continued or even accelerated?” How does this play out in an era where Federal, State, and local governments must be able to respond to crises quickly and effectively? What other policies like those focusing on integrity, transparency, and compliance are driving the acquisition community?   Similarly, what needs to be done to ensure a well-trained and effective acquisition workforce able to meet rapidly changing requirements? What improvements are needed to facilitate competition as well as integrity and common sense? How do we do this while key personnel are retiring and it is increasingly difficult to attract the next generation of personnel?  This track examines a myriad of related issues and strategies to address a government in transformation including collaboration at all levels, development of the acquisition workforce, management of a blended workforce, the impact of a change in the composition of the workforce and the critical role for technology.   Acquisition Community – critical to the business of government:  what’s the right mix of public and private roles and responsibilities, and what other policies are significantly impacting acquisition?  Acquisition Workforce – a wealth of legislated acquisition reforms over the years recognized workforce training and delivery is crucial to success:  are they meeting the legislative goals, are they well trained and empowered, are they focused on the right issues, and what future initiatives are likely? Agile Government – Terrorist attacks, natural disasters, emergency management and continuity of operations require an agile response: what are the keys to a faster, more responsive and effective government? What are the opportunities and challenges for leveraging intergovernmental capabilities in an era when crises have no organizational boundaries?  What are the implications for the acquisition community? Workforce Changes – attracting new generations to the workforce is critical:  what strategies are evolving to address increasing retirements in key positions and attracting and managing a new cross-generational workforce?   TRACK 4      CROSSING BOUNDARIES – COLLECTIVE GOOD   Over the past decade or so, governments at all levels have 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 hasn’t yet made a noticeable dent in public sector organizational culture. This observation is warranted because, for such a transformation to have occurred would have surely nudged most culture-bearers out of their bureaucratic silos and stovepipes – where this transformed behavior would be highly demonstrable.     Major Transformational Challenges   Performance   Starting with the performance challenge itself, to what extent have the various team elements planned, resourced and orchestrated initiatives to foster a performance culture?   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 agency strategic emphases shifted to address priority oversight needs?   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 government’s career leadership – and the difficulty in attracting younger generations to public service, what are team members doing to address this challenge in the workforce?   Communication   Making transparency an organization-wide value is critical to achieving openness and candor in public bureaucracies – within and among different levels and branches of government and with the public and the media has become increasingly problematic.