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Making It in Washington

by Dave Oliver, Jr.

182 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0886; ISBN 1-55395-172-7; US$18.50, C$24.95, EUR16.30, £11.30

An essential guide for political appointees in Washington.

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About the Book      About the Author      Sample Excerpts      Catalogue Info

About the Book This 180 page book is for those people who endeavor to run the United States, those who help them, as well as students of government and management. There are suggestions and recommendations on different aspects of preparing to serve, as well as what any person needs to learn and do in order to be successful in Washington. In addition, separate chapters are devoted to significant players in the National Capitol, including the Press, the White House, Congress, Career Civil Servants, Military and the Industry.

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About the Author The Honorable Dave Oliver, Jr. learned leadership in the military and corporate worlds (he is a retired Rear Admiral). Dave aquired his Washington knowledge in five separate jobs. He has worked both with and for political appointees, and has personally served as a Senate-confirmed nominee for Republican and Democratic Administrations. "Dave Oliver offers us a perspective that is unique for Washington. During his 35 years of professional life, he has seen public service at every level. His last four years were at the top, but he remembers the pressures and challenges of every level. This experience provides a remarkable perspective that is fresh and helpful to all those who serve the country in public office." - The Honorable John Hamre, Former Deputy Secretary of Defense

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Sample Excerpts

    (On other political appointees) "I once interviewed a person looking for a civil servant political appointment, who had not "been right" for several other jobs. I took him, recognizing he would need special attention (one of the burdens of leadership) if he were to succeed. With some limited coaching, he became as good as or better than any of my career civil servants.

    "Did I mention he frequently played golf with the President, and had been the best man at the wedding of one of the Cabinet members? A lesser man than I would have been unable to ignore the opportunities those relationships might offer in accomplishing my Department's agenda. I am a lesser man."

    (On Building a team)"Overlaps, discontinuities and curve balls are resolved by consultation and coordinationÉ.It is easier if there is a relationship between the principals before the bell rings to announce the fight."

    Interspersed between the lessons and explanations are six actual case studies demonstrating how to integrate and use the book's advice. The author uses a spectrum of events in which he was involved, and discusses why -- or why not -- different leadership and management approaches were successful.

    The case studies include something for every taste, whether you are interested in a dustup over changing international policy, how politics put a department's cultural change on our TV screens, or the political difficulties in defending American against the threat of an Anthrax attack.

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This is an excerpt from Chapter 2, "Organizing Your Office."

    "Well done! The Senate has concurred in the President's decision to nominate you. Just when you thought it was all over, you have discovered that, due to a little disagreement between the President and Congress back in the 1800's, your confirmed nomination now has to go back to the White House to see if the President still wants you after (your hearing testimony, and) the Senate vote.

    And the President wants to personally sign your appointment in order to preserve that ancient Supreme Court decision. It normally takes four or more days for the documents to move and this process to be completed. As soon as the nondescript White House document arrives, it is time to take the oath of office. The great looking sheepskin certificate for your wall won't arrive for several months.

    Swearing In. Enjoy the moment. Often, for more senior officials, the swearing-in is done twice. Once, to be official, so you can start work immediately, and a second time within a couple of weeks, to give adequate notice for friends and family to assemble and witness your proud moment. Frequently the official swearing-in is your first "public" appearance, so make sure your short remarks (I would like to thank my dance teacher, my mother and all four of my stepfathers, etc.) are brief and appropriate.

    It is your moment, but you are joining a new team, many of whom you may not yet know well, and all of whom are secretly wondering if you can do your new job. This is a moment to enjoy, and, like the Senate hearing, an opportunity to exercise some self-restraint. Those first impressions are lasting. I once saw a new appointee who had carefully written his remarks to include several obscure references to his academic field of expertise. That might have been okay, since no one usually remembers what was said at these things, but in this case, his new boss was also an expert in the same field and had introduced him using similar alliterations. When the new appointee plunged ahead and read his remarks (he was nervous, as nearly all of us are at the moment), his failure to alter his comments to adjust to the introduction told everyone present he was not going to be great at thinking on his feet. Even worse, his boss sensed the appointee thought his own introduction had been inadequate! Of such acorns...

    Their relationship was never quite comfortable after those swearing in remarks.

    Personal Staff. But you won't make that mistake, so let us skip the ceremony and subsequent reception and turn immediately to organizing your staff and your routine. We start with your personal staff (the Secretary, Administrative Assistant, etc. in your immediate office, who are going to be particularly attentive to your every whim)..."

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The following is an excerpt from one of the case studies:

        "A Case Study -- Chips and Processors

    The hard work you are doing to learn the rest of the team has a purpose - to make you effective in Washington. When you are, you can make our Country stronger. This case study is an example which showcases the following leadership and management precepts:

        The exceptional leader can develop an environment which encourages his or her people to think unfettered by previous assumptions. (Facts are facts, but often "facts" are truly only assumptions, and some assumptions are flat wrong.)

        Times change. Circumstances change. A good manager should expect answers to alter accordingly.

        Consensus building in Government is a necessary, but time-consuming task. In any period of a year or two, you will only have time to construct a few consensus edifices around the Washington reflecting pool. Choose your targets well.

    The Situation. The computer chip and processor industry is important to the economic well-being of America. In the last decade, this industry has been responsible for more than three out of ten of the new jobs in America. It has significantly improved our standard of living, and been the source of a disproportionate percentage of our exports.

    Semi-conductor technology provided quite a military advantage during the Cold War: smaller, smarter weapons, as well as powerful computers to solve code-breaking and other data intensive tasks. To try to maintain this advantage, Congress established restraints (export controls) on what could be shipped out of the United States, depending on the relative "friendliness" of the particular destination and the ability to check the application to which the export was going to be devoted.

    The Congressional limitation was established based on the operating speed of the processors (how many millions of theoretical operations a processor could conduct in one second or, in the shorthand of the industry, MTOPS). Technology is hard to legislate, but Congress received testimony that it took a very sophisticated technician to wire more than four processors to work together. So limits were established based on this key limitation.

    In the industry's early years, three Departments (Defense, Energy and NASA) funded much of the research and development in chips, processors and computers. However, as the commercial computer industry took off, Government support became unimportant, and Defense, Energy and NASA each began adapting commercial processors for their own use, rather than developing unique applications.

    With new applications found for chips every day in the vibrant commercial industry, there is plenty of venture and investment cash available to fund the competition that drives innovation. As a result, the designers and manufacturers in the computer industry have been routinely doubling the capability of their product every eighteen months. Soon, the industry was bumping up against the Congressional limits. Concurrently, with the end of the Cold War, the fastest growing processor markets were in the Far East, particularly in China. The computer industry believed the current export control legislation, which severely limited any exports to China, was going to inevitably cripple America's Silicon Valley.

...(skipping ahead to show the types of things a case study discusses)

    The industry brought their concerns to the White House, State, Defense and Congress. Were their concerns valid? Was there a national interest at stake? Who should take the lead, review the adequacy of the status quo, and balance competing considerations?

    Taking Responsibility. The Deputy Secretary of Defense recognized this issue was of critical interest to national defense. He volunteered to take the lead for the Administration. His method of attack was a classic good management technique for dealing with an important problem. He started scheduling luncheons and dinners with all the people he could think of who had standing or interest in the issue, as well as those people who were his "problem solvers." At these functions, he began asking questions. He did not propose a solution at this point. He was both gathering information and, more importantly, sending a message -"This is an important issue. I am interested. It is worth my time (and thus is worth yours). You are important (or I would not be including you and buying you dinner). Think about the problem. Please help me solve it."

    He invited Members of Congress, including members of the opposition, representatives of the chip industry, and representatives from the Administration (National Security Council, State, Commerce, Justice, NASA and the National Security Agency), military officers involved in high technology projects, as well as technical and idea people from his own staff. He did not talk to these people as separate groups, but mixed them into small groups, spending personal time with each group, looking for synergistic understanding and idea generation.

    Throughout, he was also trolling for individuals to pick up the leadership of the process -- to evaluate, gather data and feel personally responsible. A person as senior as the Deputy Secretary does not have time to solve problems himself. He is always being interrupted by wars and the other details of running Defense. However, if anything is to change, the leader must keep sending signals as to how important this is to him until those around him take up the torch and begin running. Then he has to provide follow-up.

    The most important follow-up is to keep sending a clear, re-enforcing, message of this problem's significance. If it is important to you, and your colleagues know it, they will accordingly adjust their priorities. On the other hand, some managers spew forth a fountain of new ideas each day, and the competent people around them, who already have full plates, as well as their own set of priorities, may not be able to intuit the hierarchy of ideas. Therefore, if you truly want something specific accomplished, you must consistently send an ungarbled signal of your primary concern(s).

    Now, how do you recognize the best solution when it shows up?

...(leaving out some of the great advice since you haven't yet bought the book)

    Most managers never get "out-of-the-box" solutions because they are not sufficiently skillful leaders. Solution innovation comes from a new perspective of the basic facts. It can be the product of one instigator who conceives by himself, as Einstein did his relativity theory. However, history tends to indicate that original genius is in somewhat limited supply. One shouldn't run an organization expecting brilliance to come to your day-to-day rescue. And you well may not recognize a genius when he knocks on your door - he or she may well have misplaced their mastermind nametag.

    A preferable way is to manage your organization to facilitate mere mortals in developing "out-of-the-box" solutions. To do this requires the leader to clearly identify the one or few problems he believes important, and then to encourage interchange between his people and different/new ideas from other organizations, cultures and individuals. The leader's personal involvement in the process is essential. He needs to show it is acceptable to challenge the old assumptions. He has to demonstrate, by his personal interest, that this problem is, and remains, important to him.

    A good leader is one hell of a fine manager.

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Leadership Rules.

1. A good leader can facilitate innovation. It requires personal involvement, a readiness to question previous assumptions, and the willingness to search for ideas and concepts new to the organization.

2. Times change. "Facts" change. People learn. Answers should also metamorphasize.

3. Attacking a problem collegially builds consensus as the work is done. It is a great technique for working in our Nation's Capitol."

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Catalogue Information

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