All In the Family

Rob Brodsky and Elizabeth Newell noted yesterday that the new chief performance officer, Jeffrey Zients, comes to government by way of Corporate Executive Board and the Advisory Board, the companies founded by Atlantic Media (and by extension, Government Executive)) owner David Bradley. Rob and Elizabeth reported in their story that some outside observers are concerned about how Zients will manage the political challenges of negotiating federal management:

"To get high level focus on management at OMB, let along the White House, you need to be pretty skilled at the game of politics," Robert Shea said. "[Former OMB Deputy Director for Management] Clay [Johnson] was able to do it by virtue of his relationship with the president. And even then, he didn't always have his way."

Zients would lead the president's efforts on contracting reform, eliminating waste in the budget, building a performance agenda and enhancing the transparency of federal finances, OMB Director Peter R. Orszag said on his blog Saturday.

That's a huge brief, and one that takes on substantial culture change issues. Zients will need good briefings, but he'll also need to be willing to spend substantial amounts of time with federal employees so he understands the culture he's dealing with. Management consulting isn't the public sector. And neither is necessarily the ideal model of a workplace. But they're pretty different, and going from one to another can't be the easiest transition.