CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Nov. 9, 2008 – 9:01 p.m.
Obama’s Transition Challenge: Hitting the Ground Running
President-elect Barack Obama has 10 weeks to build his administration, prioritize which of his many campaign promises he will tackle first, and signal to the nation and the world that he is ready to confront a litany of daunting challenges —all while making sure not to step on the toes of the current president.
With all of the challenges facing the new president — an economy in crisis, two wars, a health care system some see as overburdened — the pressures of Obama being able to hit the ground running on Jan. 20 are perhaps greater than they have been in any handover of power in recent history.
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“A smooth transition is absolutely essential for the incoming administration to get off to a fast start, and a poor one can cripple the administration’s first year in office,” says Jonathan Breul, executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government.
“Improving the performance of government is a large and complex endeavor, but the keys to success remain relatively straightforward for those wise enough to consider them when newly navigating this unique terrain.”
CQ Politics recently sat down with Breul, who co-authored two books geared toward preparing government executives on how to manage transitions: the “Operator’s Manual for the New Administration” and “Getting It Done.”
The following is a Q&A with Breul on what Obama and his team should be doing between now and Inauguration Day to ensure he is prepared to govern effectively on day one.
CQ Politics: What are the stages involved in a successful transition?
Breul: The transition is really two or three exercises simultaneously. There’s a transition of new folks and a new team into the government. There’s the exodus of the old team from the government. And there’s a major effort to retain continuity and keep things running in the meantime.
CQ Politics: Why is it so important that transitions go smoothly?
Breul: The simple reason is that management matters. The shift from campaigning to governance is a tricky business. It requires taking all of the policies and promises made on the campaign trail and translating those into an actionable agenda. And then in turn doing something about it to actually achieve results. That requires a lot of preparation. It’s not an easy matter. It requires taking people from a campaign mode to a new governing mode. And that’s what’s being done now with the new team [Obama announced last week].
CQ Politics: What does a transition team do?
Breul: There are a number of functions under way. One, of course, is to assemble lists of candidates for office and do the vetting and sorting through to present the president-elect with a list of names.
Obama’s Transition Challenge: Hitting the Ground Running
The second, I think important but not always noticed, exercise is what some call ‘parachute teams’. They will send in teams of people ahead of time to scout out each of the departments and agencies and to identify who should stay and who should leave. They will figure out the important policy issues, understand what the budget situation is, and identify any key issues that will require attention during the first 90, 120 days into the administration.
CQ Politics: Do President-elect Obama’s team and President Bush’s administration work together during this time?
Breul: Shortly after [today’s] meeting between the president-elect and the current president will be a Memorandum of Understanding. The MOU lays out who will be on these various parachute teams going into the departments, and what the rules will be with regards to access to the building, with regards to people, budget information, policy issues and intelligence.
CQ Politics: In light of the challenges he will face upon assuming office, what advice would you give to Obama during this transition period?
Breul: I think the most important thing, and we’ve laid it out in our book, is that at some point he’s got to turn around and take the promises and expectations and turn them into real concrete results. He’s got a set of challenges before him that are extraordinary. Two wars. A global financial meltdown. Some tax issues. The need for energy independence. And then there’s health care and education. The list gets rather long. They are not going to be solved simply by promises and rhetoric. It’s going to require sound policies. It’s going to require smart investments of money. And then it’s going to require smart implementation and execution to actually get the matters done. There’s got to be a shift from a policy focus toward putting in place the whole management approach to getting things done.
One of the key things we recommend is that some of these Cabinet appointees and other department heads — people responsible for policies and programs — be individuals who have had experience running large public and private organizations. They have management experience. They’re up to the challenge of change. They know how to do transformation. How to use budgets, people, technology, innovation, collaboration — all of the tools that we describe in our book to make a leader effective.
CQ Politics: What are some of the signals the American public can look for over the next two months to get a sense that the transition is going well?
Breul: There have been a lot of mistakes in the past that have been studied and understood for the benefit of future administrations. President Bill Clinton had on his transition team quite a number of individuals who were subsequently selected to be Cabinet candidates. That meant that they immediately shifted their attention to getting ready for their confirmation. That left some holes and confusion in the transition operation. But there’s no indication right now that that’s going on with President-elect Obama.
The other things we look for is the experience and the know-how of the candidates Obama selects for his administration. You’d want to look for people who have had some managerial experience and are familiar with working with big organizations. This is not a mom-and-pop operation. This is a huge world power with some very important functions; matters that are critical to the safety of the nation and security of the world. It would not be smart to have a lot of on-the-job training with some experienced hands as well.
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