What If We Ran The GovernmentLike A Top 100 Brand?

Dannielle Blumenthal, Ph.D.

September 19, 2013

*All opinions my own.

Civil Servants Are Seen As “Fat Cats”

Photo via Ann Arbor Animal Hospital

But The Reality Is Very Different

• Put our lives at risk to enforce the law• Help people get services they are entitled to• Call out fraud, waste and abuse• Provide objective subject matter expertise• Report faithfully for unglamorous but necessary

work of every kind

The System Is Obviously Broken• Distrust: “Fewer Americans Than Ever Trust Gov't to Handle

Problems…49%” – Gallup.com, September 13, 2013• Squandered Funds: “Federal Government Continues To

Lose Billions To Waste, Fraud and Abuse…$261 billion, or 7 percent of total spending…in 2012” – Rep. Darrell Issa, cited in the Washington Post, March 13, 2013

• Demoralization: “Furloughs Only The Latest Blow To Federal Worker Morale…‘global’ job satisfaction…declined to 63 percent (in 2012).” NPR.com, May 9, 2013

• Climate of Fear: “(At the Office of Special Counsel), complaints alleging whistleblower reprisal and other prohibited personnel actions surged by 15 percent to almost 3,000).” Federal Times, September 10, 2013

Look At Us Through A Business Lens

• We don’t serve the customer well

• We don’t think strategically• We don’t link spending with

results• We don’t manage our people

properly• We utterly fail to communicate

…Top 100 Brands Do!

(Because They Know How To Run A Business.)

Screenshot via DesignBuddy.com

What If We Thought Of OurselvesIn Brand Terms?

• Mission-focused customer segmentation and prioritization• Big-picture thinking, living strategies, organizational alignment

– No more “shelfware strategies”– Conceptual targets, not numeric targets– Continuous rebalancing to adapt to external reality; everyone’s involved– Eliminate factors that are causing the ship to sink

• From “cost center” to “revenue generator”– Entrepreneurial thinking– Financial literacy– Project tracking and the “billable hour”

• “Human capital” not “human resources”– Start with the right employee and develop them over the course of a career– Isolate relevant skills and leverage, leverage, leverage

• Pervasive communication and collaboration– Leaders spend at least 50% of work day communicating – no more “silence to

CYA”– Physical visits and virtual gatherings to connect headquarters and regions– Simple and universal communication and collaboration software

There Will Always Be Naysayers

• “Business is bad, government is good.”• “You don’t understand how government works.”• “Our Agency is special.”• “You’re going to fire everyone.”• “What you’re proposing would ruin everything.”

But We Have The Best Brand In Town.We Ought To Make The Most Of It.