An entrepreneurial group of federal executives that built a consulting business from scratch won an award honoring organizational innovation last week.
The Federal Quality Consulting Group, a team of Senior Executive Service members that provides consulting services to agencies, was honored with the 1999 George Land World Class Innovator Award by Fast Company magazine and the Innovation Network, an association of business executives. The award recognizes business innovations that lead to organizational success.
Tina Sung, director of the Federal Quality Consulting Group, accepted the award at a conference in Stuart, Fla., last week.
"The greatest thing was the reaction from the conference attendees," Sung said. "They said, 'We didn't know the federal government was doing such innovative and interesting things.' "
The consulting group emerged out of the ashes of the Federal Quality Institute, which the Office of Personnel Management closed in 1996. Sung and three other senior executives who had been on loan to the institute from other agencies decided to find a way to continue the institute's mission, which was to help agencies better manage federal programs.
The executives worked out of their cars and homes for six months. Then Vice President Al Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government gave the group some office space. Eventually, the executives convinced the Treasury Department to adopt the group as a franchise fund activity. Under the 1994 Government Management Reform Act, several agencies were permitted to set up businesses that charge other agencies for their services. The Federal Quality Consulting Group became one of those businesses.
The group now employs eight SES members, who hire themselves out to other federal agencies as consultants. Because the group is a franchise fund activity, it must drum up enough business to cover its costs.
The award honored the group for promoting innovation within its ranks. Once a month, the group holds a "Learning Day," on which its executives gather for presentations and exercises about management techniques. The group has set up an extensive library of books, videotapes, computer software and periodicals. Nearly 13 percent of the group's budget is set aside for training.
"They have a really deep commitment to continue educating themselves," said Joyce Wycoff, founder of the Innovation Network and a judge for the award program. "They're a leverage group. They share what they know with other people. So it makes sense that they really need to focus on their own continuing education. A lot of the time, people get too caught up in day-to-day client work to focus on their own education."
Rather than working in walled-off offices, the executives sit together in a cubicle area to improve communication. The group encourages its members to share both successes and failures.
The group also elects a director. All members are considered equal.
"Our organizational chart is one horizontal line," said Joe Slye, one of the group's consultants.
The Federal Quality Consulting Group's innovative approaches appear to be working: In the past year, the group has increased its client base by 38 percent and its revenue by 15 percent. The executives' work has included:
- Helping NASA develop a strategic management handbook and prepare its headquarters for ISO 9000 registration.
- Assisting the General Services Administration in reengineering the governmentwide travel and purchase card program.
- Administering an award program to help improve the quality of Veterans Health Administration hospitals.
- Improving the strategic planning process at the National Weather Service.
- Working with the Census Bureau to develop census-related performance measures.
- Helping the State Department's information resources division define performance measures and improve customer service.
"We're trusted insiders in the government," said Sung. "We don't have same the learning curve outside consultants might have. And since we've managed major government organizations, we know what it's like to deal with the difficult issues senior executives in government face."
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