Anticipating the Transition

I spent part of this morning at a planning meeting for this year's Excellence in Government conference (which I can say with a complete lack of objectivity is going to be a fascinating set of two one-day events this year). I was interested to hear the federal folks in the room say that leaders of their agencies were really ramping up their preparations for the transition to the next presidential administration -- and not just trying to figure out how to react to whatever the next president proposes, but to provide help and information to the next set of political leaders. I hope agencies across government are taking that kind of forward-thinking approach. It will help not only federal employees, but the country as a whole if the experts in how this increasingly complicated set of structures known as the federal government actually works are fully prepared to help the next set of political appointees implement their agenda in the most effective way possible.