Gem Reads

The Flow-Chart Fallacy by Max Stier; The Washington Post; Monday, June 8, 2009; A15

The president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service has it right:

When government fails, it typically has little to do with the way an agency is organized and almost everything to do with the performance of senior leadership at federal agencies, their ability to effectively manage the people working under them and the culture of the agencies.

The 9/11 Commission summed up this dynamic best when it said, “The quality of the people is more important than the quality of the wiring diagrams.”

His advice to Obama (while acknowledging that reorgs are not all bad):

Before investing tremendous amounts of energy in major reorganization plans, the Obama administration would be better served by focusing on preparing its political appointees to effectively lead federal agencies. Energized, well-trained leaders have much more potential to turn around a failing agency than a major reshuffling does.

This reminds me of that phrase I learned when I entered the workforce: “Good enough for government work.” We’ve come to expect government to be low-performing, as evidenced, for example, by the resistance to a government-sponsored health plan (and the legislative branch loves to bash the executive branch).  Paradoxically (as many commentaries note), we have high expectations, usually expressed as, “There oughta be a law!” Reams have also been written recently about our renewed faith in government because of our faith in Obama.

This also reminds me of my own tendency to rearrange piles or run out to Staples to buy THE OFFICE SUPPLY that will keep me organized forever more instead of just throwing stuff out.  Stiers describes DC as a “town with collective attention-deficit disorder.”  That’s my desk, too.