Workers Adjust to Business Demands

t's difficult to spread the gospel of change and assemble a core of acolytes in a big bureaucracy. But Richard D. Calder of the CIA's Directorate of Administration is winning converts to his cause of businesslike government one employee at a time.

Calder has a toolkit that includes various forms of recognition for people who join his movement. In his office, he keeps a checkbook filled with "Make A Difference" checks that can be written on the spot to reward employee contributions. Such workers are also honored in internal agency publications.

As employees become adjusted to working in enterprises that no longer can depend on appropriations but instead must charge customers for their services, their attitudes change. "Call me Jimmy," cries one worker at a CIA loading dock, in a bid to put a name and a face to services his customers once took for granted.

Below are some of the employees honored by the Directorate of Administration as converts to the cause of businesslike government. Their last names could not be included due to CIA security policies.

The Auditor

Beth, a certified public accountant and information systems auditor, spent her first 11 years with the CIA as a member of the inspector general's audit staff. In 1997, she was assigned to lead a seven-month audit of the agency's implementation of its working capital fund. For the first time, she saw agency officials show a real interest in using financial data to understand costs and explore better ways of providing services. Intrigued, she switched gears in 1998 and became chief financial officer for the agency's Office of Facilities Management, the next enterprise scheduled to enter the working capital fund.

The Secretary

Karen, 21-year federal government veteran, has served several tours overseas as a secretary and administrative assistant. To keep current with technology, she completed a bachelor's degree in information management in 1989 and began a progression of assignments in the agency's computer support arena. In 1997, she voluntarily joined a small team of individuals committed to creating a software development spinoff within the CIA, and today, she is the business manager of "ideas to Solutions (i2S)," the agency's fourth business enterprise. "I believe in the working capital fund concept, its emphasis on true costs, and the emphasis on placing a real value on all that we do," she says.

The Security Officer

Brent, a security officer by trade, is the chief of the Transportation Services Center-the CIA's motor pool. In his first 11 years with the CIA, he served as a background investigator, a polygraph examiner and a clearance adjudicator. An assignment to the Office of Personnel Security's Plans Staff gave him his first opportunity to see above the day-to-day concerns and focus on the serious resource challenges facing the agency. By participating in activity-based costing efforts and tracking internal money flows he came to see the agency's ongoing business transition as the "marriage of the problem, opportunity and internal solution." In February 1998 he accepted an offer to run the motor pool business start-up, and now he is pleased to be providing fee-for-service transportation at reduced costs and lower prices.

The Logistics Officer

Ron has worked at the agency's packing, crating and material transportation center for his entire 20-year career. He is the chief of packing and crating today, overseeing an operation expert in preparing a wide variety of material for safe delivery worldwide. When the idea of the working capital fund surfaced, he became heavily involved in providing data for the center's business plan. He was skeptical at first, and says it took time to get used to coming up with prices for everything. His skepticism was shared by some of his employees, who were concerned about their job security, and long-time customers, who thought prices were too high. Six months after the center became a business, he said the process began to make sense for all involved. "I always thought we provided a real good service," he says, "but we have increased our productivity and the return of a large number of paying customers proves that we offer good value."