THE ONCE AND FUTURE IDEA
August 5, 2008

Folks seem skeptical about the last days of the Bush Administration and express concern that political appointees seem to be spending inordinate amounts of time polishing resumes, scrambling for their next opportunity, and scrambling, at least on paper, to plant a flag of accomplishment in the proverbial shifting sands of Administration time.  However, I see far more troubling issue.  

As political leaders rush out the door, some great ideas and initiatives might easily die on the vine.  Let me give you an example.

President Bush, in his 2007 State of the Union Address, boldly asked all Americans to commit to a 20% reduction in fuel consumption and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.   Unfortunately, no one took the next step: to designate an Administration official responsible for making concrete recommendations that would allow our nation to achieve this lofty goal.  Nor did the goal of 20% reduction by 2012 appear as part of the government’s scorecard system that tracks agency progress in meeting the President’s articulated goals.  
But good ideas, and a call by the President to perform, are powerful motivators.  After the President’s call for a 20% cut in fuel consumption by 2012, there was a lot of excitement at GSA, where I served.  We reviewed President Bush’s previous speeches for recommendations that might advance this ambitious agenda.    Various GSA divisions suggested innovative ideas to help reach the goal.  

We discovered a September 2002 speech by President  Bush requesting a reinvigoration of a Telework  concept that had been initiated back in 1990, based on an idea from the 60s, when the “father of telework”, Jack Niles, of NASA, coined the term.  Researching more original documents, we learned that telework, to quote Dr. Wendell Joice, was a “classic study of the struggle for change in a 20th century bureaucracy”:  for no less than three Presidents, and several  Congresses, over an 18 year period, had tried to promote its usage, with minimal impact. 

GSA decided to change that trend and put new energy behind our Telework efforts.  We announced an ambitious, but achievable, goal of 50 % of all eligible GSA employees to be telworking by 2010. With an invigorated work force and a senior career official managing the effort, progress came swiftly.  In fact, this month, GSA’s Telework Champion, Bill Kelly, reported that GSA hit the 30% mark, over half way to its goal with more than 2/3 of the projected time remaining. 

Just to provide some perspective, as Americans, we use 26 billion gallons of gas annually to commute to work which equates to 62% of the US Strategic Petroleum, and we waste 3 billion gallons of that gas stalled in traffic.  Given these statistics, the potential savings in gasoline consumption from telework are impressive.

 But, sadly, because the President’s goal of a 20% reduction in fuel consumption was not identified as a performance metric, many agencies have been slow in adopting proven solutions such as telework.    As a Taxpayer, I am concerned that despite three (3) Administrations’ recommendations, telework across government remains only marginally successful.   And this is only one small example. 

A broader and more critical question might be why, over 3 Administrations and  5 Presidential terms, the leaders of our country are often unable to motivate their own appointees to lead by example and turn ideological agendas into reality? 

Are there too many staffing layers between the President’s vision and the Agency leaders who are, seemingly, seldom encouraged to execute that vision?   Telework is an example of President’s Bush’s vision, as a way to ensure preparedness in times of national emergency, as a way to reduce traffic congestion and thereby fuel consumption, as a means to increase productivity and as an aid to employees with disabilities—all good  things. 

And yet, if one examines the many scorecards utilized by Agency heads, one doesn’t necessarily see a direct relationship between what is measured and what the President has identified as his objectives. 
What a wasted opportunity!

Administrations and personnel change, every 4 years, so I wonder, now, as we contemplate Administration turnover, with a new set of appointees, and a new President’s  vision:  How do we preserve critical initiatives and keep federal workers focused on the goals that return true value to the American taxpayer?  How do we ensure that, as a nation, we don’t throw out the baby with the bath water in a, potentially, overzealous attempt to execute the “new broom sweeping clean” philosophy that every Administration espouses?

Our federal government will experience great transitions in the upcoming months; let’s hope that valuable initiatives, such as telework, don’t become victims of the political revolving door.