Government Executive - Authors - Chawndese Hylton

Around Government

Kevin Baron, Chawndese Hylton, and Eric Katz — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 09:43:36 -0400

Northern Exposure

The U.S. military charts an eight-point plan for securing the Arctic and its natural resources.

By Kevin Baron

T he Arctic has gained increased attention in national security circles as melting ice caps promise new access to strategic positions and undersea resources for three of the world’s most powerful countries—the United States, Russia and China—as well as Canada and NATO.

Citing American interests in climate change, energy security and the integrity of northern sea lanes, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has introduced a new Pentagon plan for Arctic security that promises to significantly increase U.S. military resources and attention to the polar region. The plan is the Defense Department’s follow-on to President Obama’s national Arctic strategy, released in May 2013.

“We are beginning to think about and plan for how our naval fleet and other capabilities and assets will need to adapt to the evolving shifts and requirements in the region,” Hagel told a delegation of international officials last fall.

The United States will not relent in defending Alaska and its northern borders, Hagel said, laying out an eight-point plan:

Protect U.S. borders and Alaska
Do more to more study theenvironment
Enforce the law of the seas
Evolve Defense Department capabilities and infrastructure
Increase international training
Prepare for natural disasters
Protect the Arctic environment
Build and enforce international institutions and organizations

A Tangled Web

Americans’ satisfaction with federal services declined this year mostly because they find agency websites more difficult to navigate, less reliable and the information less useful, according to a recent American Customer Satisfaction Index report. More than one-third of citizens who interact with government mainly use websites.

Turning the Other Cheek

No agency has embodied the paradoxical cliché across government—doing more with less—during the past few months more than the Office of Personnel Management. In its role of helping agencies with personnel matters, OPM issues furlough guidance, administers hiring freezes and interprets how new laws impact federal pay and benefits.

OPM, however, is not immune from the governmentwide cuts. The agency recently laid off more than 300 employees in its Human Resources Services office. A few days later, OPM sent a memo to all agencies offering its services to help them improve employee morale.

Most agencies could stand some internal improvements. In the 2013 Employee Viewpoint Survey, the percentage of workers giving positive marks decreased in 53 of 55 categories measured.

So OPM finds itself in a difficult position. The future of the federal human resources agency will largely depend on its ability to
help other agencies accomplish their missions with limited resources, while simultaneously managing its own shortfalls.

- Eric Katz

How to spread constructive behavior in your organization.

In their new book, Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less , Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao address the challenges and trade-offs leaders face in spreading constructive beliefs, behaviors and practices in their organizations. The book highlights the strategies behind success stories such as Kaiser Permanente’s patient health records system and Wyeth Pharmaceutical’s model manufacturing processes.

The authors, who are professors of management and organizational behavior, offer a series of lessons for building and uncovering “pockets of excellence” learned through seven years of case study research and conversations with leaders in a variety of industries. They include:

Spread and sustain a mind-set of excellence, not just a footprint.
Scaling requires addition and subtraction—the problem of more is also a problem of less.
Use healthy doses of worry and self-doubt to combat illusion, impatience and incompetence.
Slow down to scale faster —and better—down the road.
Learn how to strike a balance between customization and replication.
Link emotionally hot causes to cool solutions.
Use hierarchy and process to destroy bad bureaucracy.
Connect people and cascade excellence, using social bonds to spread the right mind-set.
Accelerate accountability: Build organizations where “I own the place and the place owns me.”
Think bad to great, not good to great: Clearing the way for excellence to spread, eliminating destructive beliefs and actions is the first order of business.

- Chawndese Hylton

Tomorrow’s Warhorse

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2014 is wrapping up a two-year test of robotic pack mules that can gallop behind military squads in the field and carry up to 400 pounds of equipment. The strain of carrying 100 pounds of gear can severely hamper a warfighter’s readiness, according to the Army and Marines, who have made it a top technology challenge. The Legged Squad Support System, or LS3, is designed to follow visual and verbal commands, and has the ability to traverse rugged terrain and even right itself if it falls.

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11 Tips for Scaling Up Excellence in Your Organization

Chawndese Hylton — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 15:43:03 -0500

In their new book, Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less, Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao address the challenges and trade-offs leaders face in spreading constructive beliefs, behaviors and practices in their organizations. The book highlights the strategies behind success stories such as Kaiser Permanente's patient health records system and Wyeth Pharmaceutical's model manufacturing processes.

The authors, who are professors of management and organizational behavior, offer 11 lessons for building and uncovering “pockets of excellence" learned through seven years of case study research and conversations with leaders in a variety of industries.

Spread and sustain a mind-set of excellence, not just a footprint
Scaling requires addition and subtraction -- the problem of more is also a problem of less
Use healthy doses of worry and self-doubt to combat illusion, impatience and incompetence
Slow down to scale faster -- and better -- down the road
Learn how to strike a balance between customization and replication
Sometimes, snowballs are better than no balls
Link emotionally hot causes to cool solutions
Use hierarchy and process to destroy bad bureaucracy
Connect people and cascade excellence, using social bonds to spread the right mind-set.
Accelerate accountability: Build organizations where “I own the place and the place owns me”
Think bad to great, not good to great. To clear the way for excellence to spread, eliminating destructive beliefs and actions is the first order of business.

(Image via Shutter_M/Shutterstock.com)

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Around Government

Charles S. Clark, Chawndese Hylton, Susan Fourney, Eric Katz, and Kedar Pavgi — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Debating the Draft

One lawmaker says women should sign up, while others say shut it down.

The decades-old military draft system could be in line for a face-lift if some in Congress have their way.

Lawmakers are making moves to reform the Selective Service, the agency in charge of registering young men for compulsory service in the event of a military call-up. The agency was created in 1948, and the last draft was in the early 1970s during the Vietnam War.

One bill, sponsored by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., would reinstate the draft and require women to register with the Selective Service System—which now applies only to men ages 18 to 25. According to Rangel, the Defense Department’s new policy to allow women in combat should require them to sign up as well.

“Requiring women to register with the Selective Service would compel the American public to have a stake in the wars we fight as a nation,” he said in
a statement.

Two other lawmakers want to eliminate the Selective Service. Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Mike Coffman, R-Colo., say the agency’s $24 million budget is a waste of taxpayer money. They argue that the Pentagon is unlikely to resort to a draft if a conflict breaks out, and say Congress is unnecessarily prolonging the agency’s life.

Either proposal would bring significant change to the Selective Service System. Since the shift to an all-volunteer military force in 1973, the agency and its workforce of about 130 employees has taken a back-seat role in supporting Defense. Still, registration with Selective Service is mandatory for eligibility in many federal programs, including student financial aid and government employment.

Though legislation is unlikely to make headway anytime soon, the movement to change the draft is likely to persist in Washington’s tough budget environment.

- Kedar Pavgi

For the Birds

Government transparency is considered an aspirational goal these days, but on occasion it can ruffle some feathers.

Collisions with glass buildings cause up to 1 billion bird deaths each year, according to Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., who has introduced a bill to compel the General Services Administration to incorporate bird-safe building materials and design features into federal structures.

“This completely cost-neutral bill will save these birds’ lives without requiring unrealistic actions or expenditures,” Quigley wrote on his website. “The way we live our lives cannot be detrimental to other species, and yet collisions with glass on buildings is a man-made issue.”

- Susan Fourney

Tornado Relief Fund Started

Terri Long was known as a fighter.

During her career at the Federal Aviation Administration, she fought against her cancer—which she defeated—and for her co-workers, as vice president of the Oklahoma chapter of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists.

Long died May 20, one of 24 people killed by tornadoes in Moore, Okla. Federal employees have mobilized to help her family and other storm victims.

“We have been nonstop since [the tornado hit],” says LeAnn Jenkins, president of Oklahoma’s Federal Executive Board. “There’s been a lot of communication and coordination of resources and unmet needs.”

There are at least 5,000 FAA employees in Oklahoma, many of whom work at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City. The storm—and a tornado in Shawnee the previous day—destroyed the homes of many federal employees.

A Social Security Administration building was damaged, and the local post office in Moore was destroyed. U.S. Postal Service employee Richard L. Jones was killed. Two weeks later, another tornado outbreak ripped through the region and killed 14 people.

To make a donation to the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund for tornado relief, go to www.feea.org.

- Eric Katz

Getting Personal

The perils of using private email accounts for federal business.

It’s tempting, with modern remote access to email worldwide, to toggle back and forth between personal and business accounts. But for federal officials, the temptation can spell trouble.

Several Obama administration officials have been taken to task recently for conducting government business using private email. Lisa Jackson, before leaving as Environmental Protection Agency administrator in December, drew attention from EPA’s inspector general and Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, who serves on the House Science and Energy committees, for using a secondary email account for selected communications—along with other agency officials. The account used the pseudonym Richard Windsor.

Thomas Perez, President Obama’s nominee for Labor secretary, faced a rocky confirmation battle in the Senate this spring, in part because of some 1,200 emails from his personal account in which he discussed Justice Department strategy in a controversial housing discrimination case in St. Paul, Minn.

Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was criticized by his agency’s inspector general in May for using a personal email account in discussing regulators’ handling of the collapse of the brokerage firm MF Global Holdings in 2010.

William Bransford, general counsel to the Senior Executives Association, says using personal email for work is not advisable because of the need to archive. “With a personal account, the government can’t investigate something that may be inappropriate or on the edge—they would need a search warrant,” he says.

EPA argues it is standard practice and that the personal accounts are subject to the same disclosure requirements as official accounts. Lawmakers argue it violates the administration’s commitment
to transparency.

- Charles S. Clark

Out of Africa

A virtual trip can be the next best thing to being there when tight budgets make the trek impossible. That’s why the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art has partnered with Polycom to use video collaboration tools to bring art and science exhibits like “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts” into the classroom. The free interactive virtual field trips offer “a way for schools to enhance their art education without spending resources or traveling,” says Deborah Stokes, NMAA’s curator for education.

- Chawndese Hylton

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Around Government

Charles S. Clark, Chawndese Hylton, and Kedar Pavgi — Tue, 28 May 2013 09:56:37 -0400

VA's Oldest Beneficiaries

Civil War survivor checks are among mounting veterans payments.

Planners of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 were hardly focusing on the lengthy future of veterans benefit payments their action was locking the government into.

But a decade later, federal checks going to service-disabled veterans and the survivors of those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have reached $12 billion a year, and that figure is rising. Even more eye-popping, those payments are likely to endure for decades—or even a century.

That judgment stems from the fact that 148 years after the Civil War, the Veterans Affairs Department is still paying $876 a year to two survivors, the Associated Press learned through analysis of payment records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The recipients’ names are confidential due to privacy regulations, but they live in North Carolina and Tennessee. The assumption is that these nonagenarian beneficiaries were born to mothers who had married aging veterans of the War Between the States as relatively young women.

Ten survivors of veterans of the 1898 Spanish-American War also continue receiving monthly federal payments, costing about $50,000 a year, says AP. Survivors of World War I (1914-1918), who still number 2,289, collect $20 million annually from VA accounts; those from World War II (1939-1945) receive $5 billion. Veterans of the Korean War (1950-1953) and their survivors still collect $2.8 billion a year.

Moving on to the Vietnam War (1959-1975), AP estimates veterans payments top $22 billion annually.

Reasons for rising payments to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, experts say, include longevity due to improvements in medical care, as well as a slow economy in which people entitled to benefits are more likely to file claims.

- Charles S. Clark

The Greenest Agency?

Which federal entity is most advanced in environmental sustainability?

Surprisingly, it’s not the Environmental Protection Agency or even the General Services Administration, which promotes green solutions governmentwide.

The question was put to longtime solar energy advocate and consultant Scott Sklar of the Stella Group, who has outfitted his Arlington, Va., home with enough solar panels and energy-efficient materials to power it almost completely off the grid.

The top three agencies for solar and renewable energy, Sklar says, are the Defense Department, the Interior Department and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Army, “has named six net-zero energy military bases and has a $5 billion process to buy at competitive rates renewable power,” Sklar says. The Navy has a net-zero energy rule and recently completed a zero-energy building at the Washington Navy Yard. And, he says, “the Air Force is the largest buyer of green electricity.”

Interior has issued a streamlined process for renewable energy on federal land and offshore.

The FAA, Sklar says, “has fuel cells and solar panels at airports for powering security and communication systems.”

- Charles S. Clark

Paint by Numbers

Official portraits of Cabinet members cost thousands of dollars, and some lawmakers are taking a stand.

Is a picture really worth a thousand words? Or thousands of taxpayer dollars?

That’s the question some federal officials are facing after a Washington Times article revealed the cost of their official portraits—a customary practice among Cabinet members.

During the past two years, taxpayers subsidized nearly $400,000 for paintings of top names including former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley, according to ABC News. Others include former NASA chief Daniel S. Golden, and former Commerce Secretary John Bryson, whose portaits cost more than $20,000 each.

Some lawmakers are pushing back. In April, Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced the Eliminating Government-Funded Oil-Painting Act—known as the EGO Act. “As Americans tighten their budgets and cut excess, their government should do the same,” he said on his website.

Not all officials agree, however. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack—whose portait cost $22,500—told ABC News the cost was a “small ball” issue in relation to the $1 trillion federal deficit.

Still, in a town looking to cut waste, critics say it doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

- Kedar Pavgi

Beauty Interrupted

The National Park Service in April limited access to sections of Joshua Tree National Park because of vandalism. Rattlesnake Canyon, a 308-acre section of the park, was closed to the public so staff and volunteers could remove spray-painted graffiti from the defaced rock formations. “While this started as a few markings, social media posts appear to have sparked numerous individuals’ interest in adding to the vandalism of this scenic canyon,” NPS said in a statement.

- Chawndese Hylton

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Around Government

Chawndese Hylton, Susan Fourney, and Kedar Pavgi — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Nobel Pursuits

NIST scientist David Wineland’s work leads to the call of his life.

By Kedar Pavgi

People in government tend to associate the 3 a.m. phone call with a crisis. For National Institute of Standards and Technology scientist David Wineland it was one of the best surprises of his life. In mid- October, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences called Wineland in the wee hours at his Colorado home to inform him that he had won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physics. He had only one word running in his mind: “Wow.”

Wineland was awarded the Nobel Prize alongside French physicist Serge Haroche for their research in quantum physics. His work has focused on controlling subatomic particles using lasers for further applications in atomic clocks and quantum computing. Wineland is the fourth NIST scientist in 15 years to receive the Nobel Prize, and one of the first to receive it in the quickly transforming field of quantum physics.

Wineland says in 1975 he chose to come to NIST because of the broad opportunities it offered. “I had my heart set on going into academia, but after looking at, and seeing what the real possibilities were, it just seemed that I would be able to do more if I came to NIST,” he says.

Wineland is the first to point out that his achievements are a team effort. His working group on subatomic particles—which includes scientists James Bergquist, Wayne Itano and John Bollinger—goes by the name Team Ions around the office.

Applications from their work are now used in everything from satellite technology and Global Positioning Systems to data servers needing critical time measurements.

Glossy Government

The Library of Congress has stepped up its government cool factor with a new magazine, LCM. The color glossy is a far cry from the library’s first publication, launched during World War II as a mimeographed newsletter. LCM’s first cover story details how the fledgling congressional library, which was burned by the British during the War of 1812, came back to flourish. Its collection has grown to 151 million manuscripts, photos, maps and movies—enough to fill the pages of LCM for years to come.

- Susan Fourney

Coordinating Camo

Best dressed is more than just a fashion statement when it comes to warfighting. But a recent report from the Government Accountability Office says the military services must better coordinate their uniform policies to fit missions and budgets.

Before 2002, all the services outfitted their troops with the Army’s version of the desert camouflage uniform. Since then each branch has introduced its own version to meet specific needs, according to GAO. Many of the changes have been technological, such as new fabrics that add flame resistance or blend into the environment.

The 2010 defense authorization directed the Pentagon to establish joint criteria for future ground combat uniforms, but limited guidance has failed to produce consistency, according to auditors. “Without a policy . . . the services could fall short of protecting all service members equally, potentially exposing a number to unnecessary risks,” the report said.

The cost of making new uniforms isn’t cheap either. GAO said replacing the Army’s battlefield uniform would cost nearly $4 billion over a five-year life span.

- Kedar Pavgi

Forever Fed

Sarkis Tatigian, the oldest Defense employee, is going strong at 90.

While many federal workers are looking forward to retirement in the next few years, 90-year-old Sarkis Tatigian has no immediate plans to hang up his spurs. The oldest employee in the Defense Department, Tatigian became eligible for retirement in 1973. Yet, this September he celebrated 70 years of service with the Navy.

Many public servants move on to new opportunities in the private sector, but Tatigian believes those who stay “do so because they like what they do.” For Tatigian, “a personal sense of accomplishment and reward” and a variety of experiences are what have kept him at the same agency for so long. He joined the Navy in 1942 as a junior radio inspector at the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia. While on active duty, he helped develop one of the first radar-guided missiles, the BAT, which was used in combat in 1945. Tatigian began his civilian career in 1946, and in 1979 he became associate director of the small and disadvantaged business utilization office.

“He helps steer billions of dollars that generate thousands of jobs across our country,” Sean Crean, director of the Office of Small Business Programs, said at the September event. “He has been part of the greatest Navy the world has ever seen, in the course of time that would easily be two or three careers for anyone else.”

- Chawndese Hylton

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Interior Department hosts reenactment of singer’s historic performance

Chawndese Hylton — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Marian Anderson's historic 1939 VIP concert at its Sidney Yates Auditorium in Washington. Ivy Anderson Hylton, a relative of the renowned vocalist, performed the songs Anderson sang on the same stage nearly 70 years ago, including renditions of "America the Beautiful," "Ave Maria," and "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen."

Anderson performed at Interior on the evening of April 9, 1939, after singing earlier in the day before an estimated 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial. That performance was scheduled after the Daughters of the American Revolution denied her the opportunity to sing at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington because she was African-American.

Interior employees and members of the public attended the free reenactment of Anderson's performance. The department's Special Emphasis Observance Committee and the National Park Service sponsored the event.

During the reenactment, Hylton was accompanied by a pianist playing the same Steinway Model B grand concert piano on which Anderson was accompanied in 1939. In 2004, then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton gave a special historic designation to the piano in memory of Anderson and Harold L. Ickes, who was Interior secretary under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Ickes helped arrange Anderson's performance at the Lincoln Memorial.

At Tuesday's event, David Verhey, Interior's principal deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, said, "It is a privilege to know that this agency played a role in making this day happen."

Editor's Note: Ivy Anderson Hylton is the stepmother of Chawndese Hylton.

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