Would-be reinventors striving to reform federal operations should not attempt to change their agencies' culture, a management expert said at the Federal Quality Conference Wednesday.
"That may be where you end, but that is not where you begin," said Carolyn M. Burstein, director of consulting services for the Ivy Planning Group. Changing peoples' attitude and mindsets is an impossible task if the organizational structure is not changed first, Burstein argued. "You can't be bureaucratic and be fast and flexible."
No agency in government has taken all the necessary steps to become an organization that welcomes change and can adapt to today's fast-paced world, Burstein said.
"It isn't the people's fault, it's the bureaucratic system," she said. "Individuals' behavior is powerfully shaped by their place in the organization."
Burstein said agencies should follow four steps to cast off bureaucratic structures and become entrepreneurial.
- Identify and organize around core processes. A core process is a collection of activities an agency is involved in that produces the products or services that lead to a desired organizational outcome. The Environmental Protection Agency has identified three core processes: environmental stewardship, partnership services and informing and educating. By organizing around these processes instead of being organized by program offices, the EPA could have broken down the stovepipe structure of the agency. Instead, EPA identified its core processes and then ignored them, Burstein said.
- Identify core competencies. Core competencies are the skills and technologies that represent an organization's specialties. For example, sneaker company Nike's core competencies are design, marketing and distribution. Nike hires other companies to actually make its shoes.
- Compete and outsource non-core activities. A support system should be kept in-house "only if a system is crucial to a core competency," Burstein said.
- Create permeable horizontal and vertical boundaries. Once organized around core processes, focused on managing core competencies, and unfettered with non-core support systems, agencies will be able to move people and resources around more easily to adjust to changes in their environment. There will still be a general chain of command, but it will not be bogged down with organizational boundaries that artificially impede accomplishing the agency mission, Burstein said.
"The government is starting to tiptoe into this," she said. "We're really talking the future here."
Stay tuned to Govexec.com this week for more coverage of the Federal Quality Conference.
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