Executive Branch Archives

President Obama’s Management Agenda

The Obama administration will overhaul the Bush administration’s methods of evaluating program performance of federal agencies according to recently released budget documents. Contained in the section, “Building a High-Performing Government” of the analytical perspectives volume of the fiscal 2010 budget, the Obama administration set forth its plan to replace the Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART) with a new performance improvement and analysis framework.
This framework will switch the focus from grading programs as successful or unsuccessful to requiring agency leaders to set priority goals, demonstrate progress in achieving goals, and explain performance trends.

In developing this approach, the administration will engage the public, Congress, and outside experts to develop a better and more open performance measurement process that improves results and outcomes for federal government programs while reducing waste and inefficiencies.

As stated in the analytical perspectives, the administration will work with agency leaders and the Program Improvement Council (PIC) in the coming months “to develop options for:

Establishing a comprehensive program and performance measurement system that shows how Federal programs link to agency and Government-wide goals;
Reforming program assessment and performance measurement processes to emphasize the reporting of performance trends, explanations for the trends, mitigation of implementation risks, and plans for improvement with accountable leads;
Streamlining reporting requirements under GPRA and PART to reduce the burden on agencies and OMB;
Improving the communication of performance results to Congress, the public, and other stakeholders through better data display in agency reports and the ExpectMore.gov website; and
Launching a comprehensive research program to study the comparative effectiveness of different program strategies to ensure that programs achieve their ultimate desired outcomes.”

SOURCE: Government Executive.com, “Obama Team Outlines Its Management Agenda” by Elizabeth Newell, May 11, 2009.

If you would like to learn more about these reform efforts, TheCapitol.Net offers “Advanced Federal Budget Process: Integrating Performance and the Budget.” See www.BudgetProcess.com for more information.

Also see "The Age of Debt: Barack Obama's first budget promises 'fiscal responsibility'--and delivers the opposite."

From Political Math

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May 18, 2009 05:27 PM Link Comments (0)

"Lobbying and Advocacy," by Deanna Gelak

Lobbying and Advocacy: Winning Strategies, Resources, Recommendations, Ethics and Ongoing Compliance for Lobbyists and Washington Advocates is now available.

Lobbying and Advocacy
By Deanna Gelak

Lobbying and Advocacy is the comprehensive guide for lobbyists and Washington advocates. This 11 chapter publication provides practical tips and resources, as well as step-by-step guides for communicating with policymakers in every venue. The complete Table of Contents is available here as a 16-page pdf. PDF

What others are saying:

"There are lots of books on lobbying, but, until now, none has provided a comprehensive treatment of what lobbyists do and how they can best do it. Deanna Gelak’s Lobbying and Advocacy exhaustively covers the basics of lobbying history, legal framework, congressional processes, and ethics. But the strength of this volume is in its practical advice, checklists, and collection of best practices covering direct advocacy, media relations, grassroots organizing, and coalition building. It is a unique volume and should be on the bookshelf of both beginning lobbyists and senior government relations executives. College and law school professors also now, for the first time, have a single textbook for lobbying courses."
-- Thomas M. Susman, Director, Governmental Affairs Office, American Bar Association
"Lobbying and Advocacy provides both practical guidance and social and historical context, and is a unique illumination of the mechanisms of power in Washington."
-- John Wonderlich, Sunlight Foundation

"Lobbying is as American as apple pie. Benjamin Franklin lobbied in London for Pennsylvania and other colonies, and the Constitution recognizes our right 'to petition the government for a redress of grievances.' Deanna Gelak provides in Lobbying and Advocacy an invaluable guide for all citizens interested in exercising this constitutional right."
-- Michael Barone, Senior Writer, U.S. News & World Report; Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; Co-author, The Almanac of American Politics

The Lobbying and Advocacy Sourcebook is the companion volume to Lobbying and Advocacy by Deanna Gelak

December 17, 2008 09:07 AM Link Comments (0)

Influential Management Thinkers

The Thinkers 50 2005 provides a completely new ranking. Produced by Suntop Media in association with the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), it is the definitive bi-annual guide to which thinkers and ideas are in - and which have been consigned to business history.

The Thinkers 50

Here are the top 12:

Michael Porter

Bill Gates

CK Prahalad

Tom Peters

Jack Welch

Jim Collins

Philip Kotler

Henry Mintzberg

Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale

Charles Handy

Richard Branson

Scott Adams

Two of our favorites are on this list: Henry Mintzberg and Scott Adams. Scott Adams said,

My first reaction was to feel sorry for the poor bastards who ranked 13 through 50. I imagine they would have felt pretty good about making the list until they were topped by the guy who wants to adopt a frozen embryo, name it Amy and keep it in the fridge.

I’m not entirely sure who I’m influencing with my world-class management thinking, but it can’t be a good thing.

"We Influential Management Thinkers," Dilbert Blog, December 22, 2005