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Return to Article: The Best and the Brightest

• 91323
  

  See, y'all? I TOLD you there were more Skeeters buzzin' around out there. Jim, BLUF, you're clueless. Try wearing the hat before you expound on the fit. Heck, trying looking for facts before pounding the pulpit.

  Your military comprise 25 - 30% of our ranks and we CONTINUE to serve with pride! We STRIVE for excellence dispite the changing whims of congress.

  As for pay, let's try to interject some reality for a change. It may behoove you to try being that average GS-9 living out here in the Rest of the US and getting those BIG 1% annual bonuses and 1.5% ECI raises. The big bucks have ALWAYS been found in industry; particularly those who cater to YOUR government.

  Yeah, we're living it up on your dime; and struggling to provide you with the services you beg your representatives to impliment without paying for them!

  Get a life or a clue; your choice.

  Tip off Posted November 5, 2009 12:44 PM
• 91322
  

  "we are fed up with Civil servants?"

  If you're asking me, then my answer would be an emphatic, "No, of course not!"

  "Government Service (other than the US Military)"...shows how little you know, this is like saying "chocolate milk (without the milk)".

  noman Posted November 5, 2009 12:35 PM
• 91241
  

  Government Service (other than the US Military) has long been a refuge for the unqualified, those seeking mediocrity and anonymity. The code words " hide under your desk, don't make waves" apply to you. As a Civil Servant, you now make more money than your private counterpart, have much better benefits, and short of committing a felony, have more job security than any in the public sector. Your President and Congress protect you, you have only the people you are to serve to worry about. Start worrying! we are fed up with Civil servants? at all levels, we don't want to pay you any more. You are a loss leader. Understand?

  Jim Luntz Posted November 4, 2009 7:43 PM
• 91227
  

  The government will struggle with efficiency no matter what they do. It is very heavy with Regulation policy and procedure. It can get better since most regulations dont even address a computer age! No kidding get rid of the red tape and you become efficient isnt that something. Of course we spend money like drunkin sailors we try to work within the rules we have but find it almost impossible because changes in one area of the government have not been addressed by another yet we are to work together. It is so big and complicated. We only need to look at the greatest business models that are out there Walmart for instance they have skinnied down the cheifs and use more worker bees they are light at the top. The government has another problem with efficency the Directors pay is determined by there responsibility so if a worker bee suggest that all the files in the file room go to and image system and all the paper gets recycled this would be efficiency! However the boss will niche it because it will effect there grade right up to the director its crazy but thats how it works in the government. In the late 80s I had shown my Director and Imaging system since they where going to spend twice as much on micro-fiche he loved it but what I didnt know being young and all is the system of gs grade and how my echelon keeps their grade. This idea was good industry would have jumped on it but in the government people would have lost there jobs and the boss would take a hit. How do you get anything done in a system like that. And by the way the idea was turned down because it was CD technology and its a fad. These people in my opinion set the ARMY back at least 10 years because of greed. The government is doomed to plug along unable to react to anything in a timely manner. I have suggested many things in my time with the Feds and find myself beat down by the negativity.

  LC Posted November 4, 2009 4:01 PM
• 91179
  

  "The heads of VBA's 57 regional offices then will review the ideas and submit the ones they like the best to headquarters, where a review team led by VA's undersecretary for benefits will pick its favorites." Doesn't this guarantee failure? Senior Officals have a stake in maintaining the status quo. Why not have the ideas reviewed by a group that is more neutral?

  BTW - they already have a winner - Thompson's case management system. VA should go back to that. Listen to Brian, VA, and muster up some commitment to go along with the PR words.

  Charlie Posted November 4, 2009 9:20 AM
• 91173
  

  An "idea beauty contest" is only one, and I might add a fairly simplistic and distant, model for soliciting innovation ideas from employees. I should think that a leader would want to talk to the people he supervises at all levels to make sure the lines of communication are open and that the information and decisions reaching that leader's desk are the best available.

  Open communication and accurate knowledge are vital tools for a successful leader. Sure, the leader of an organization as vast as the government's VBA cannot be spending all their time learning about their employees, as they would never get their own job done.

  A contest to me sounds like a simple "silver bullet" solution to a complex problem, and perhaps that's the issue with the VBA. The "problem" is not just case management vs assembly line. The solution may not fit on a 3x5 card. Tell the VBA leadership to get to work to dig out the real problem: find out what worked and didn't work about both options. Find out if the problem is funding, structure, or just simply the nature of trying to match well the programs and the beneficiaries. Maybe what is needed are some temporary benefits that can be adjudicated quickly, followed by a needed, lengthy evaluation process to commit the proper level of benefits for the long term health and well being of the veteran.

  Some problems may be too big or complex for a 3x5 card solution. An idea beauty contest may not be the best way, and it is certainly not the only way, to solicit innovation from employees. And don't ignore middle managers in favor of frontline employees. They all have their unique skill and knowledge sets to bring to bear on a problem.

  Dave B. Posted November 4, 2009 8:59 AM
• 91159
  

  "The heads of VBA's 57 regional offices then will review the ideas and submit the ones they like the best to headquarters...." Boy, if ever there comes a need for a "faulty screening process" poster child, there it is.

  There is no doubt that introducing the initial screening level is, at least partially, a strategy to limit the volume flowing to the august "review team led by VA's undersecretary for benefits," but that volume could easily be handled through categorization (in much the same way that responses to open-ended survey questions get categorized for analysis). In being presented only those ideas that pass local muster, the review team will be missing insights that can be gleaned from "raw" input.

  When I see approaches such as the one summarized in the article, I get the impression that the effort is all "show" and no "go."

  EJC in ATL Posted November 4, 2009 7:33 AM