Highlights from the Summer 2010 Issue

Feature

 

Aligning Training with Priority Outcomes at NPS

Irene Connelly

 

In 2006, the National Park Service’s (NPS) Park Facility Management Division jump-started an aggressive, competency-based training program—the Facility Manager Leaders Program (FMLP)—designed to develop the next generation of leaders in the maintenance field. By applying industry standards and using expertise from within and outside NPS, training managers designed a program that met the agency’s succession requirements while implementing a major change in park management culture.

The program’s exceptional record of success earned it the 2010 winner of the W. Edwards Deming Outstanding Training Award.

Irene Connelly is a senior editor in the department of communications and marketing at the Graduate School. Contact her at irene.connelly@graduateschool.edu.

 

 

FORUM

 

Making Training Strategic
Tim Brown

To make training more strategic within government agencies, it must be part of a larger plan or method that helps our organizations achieve a specific goal. Goals are established by the agency’s strategic and performance plans and are further elaborated in the workforce plan, as well as various business plans.

Preston “Tim” Brown is a manager in the organizational improvement practice for Grant Thornton LLP; tim.brown@gt.com.

 

Strategies to Improve Government Performance
John D. Breul

Four senior U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials—who are leading the Obama Administration’s management efforts—recently discussed their game plan and top priorities at the 49th annual Interagency Resources Management Conference (IRMCO) conference, convened this April in Cambridge, Maryland. This year, the opening plenary panel entitled “Expanding on the Management Agenda” was a conversation with the four senior OMB officials driving the Obama Administration’s approach to improving government performance.

Jonathan D. Breul is executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government; jonathan.d.breul@us.ibm.com.

 

The Performance Imperative
John M. Mullins

Many public opinion polls tracking federal government performance note that while there are pockets of improvement, the overall assessment is government does not work the way it should or how citizens expect. The gap between what is expected and what is actually done breaks down trust between the government and those governed. Numerous polls can be referenced to support this assessment, but the president’s assertion acknowledges the gap and sets a new bar for performance: “to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and to do our business in the light of the day. These three actions will go a long way to ensure the vital trust between a people and their government.”

John. M. Mullins is vice president of performance solutions for Proofpoint Systems Inc., a software company that helps improve organization and human performance. Mullins has spent more than 25 years in both federal service and the private sector consulting on organization and human performance. Additionally, he served as an examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program. Contact him at john.mullins@proofpoint.net.