Consider all Perspectives

evine needs to identify key issues, develop options and execute a game plan. At issue is Devine's loyalty to his people, organization and agency, but he risks raising false hopes if he tries to reverse the decision. The sabotage of morale is another hazard to consider, making it difficult to sustain the center's mission during the transition. Devine needs to reflect from the following perspectives:

• Bureaucratic. Make a modest attempt to overturn the decision, with a point paper via the chain of command documenting the amazing turnaround, but get on with the transition and outplacement of 1,000 people.
• Economic. Build a more robust business case for sparing the installation, comparing Devine's organization to all others and depicting the depot as a model performance-based organization.
• Cultural. Review the vision and values found in the agency's strategic plan. What do the core values say about performance? Would closing the depot violate those values? Remind closure proponents what happened to corporate giants that carried downsizing too far--going beyond cutting fat and cutting out the heart of an organization--and lost the loyalty of the remaining workers.
• Political. Look for a coalition of people who don't want the depot to close, such as local and national politicians, labor unions and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Develop a slogan: "Performance and Results Should Count." This is also the most dangerous tactic. As a civil servant, Devine has limitations on sharing information in this gray area of informal and formal political channels. The union could be his voice.

On Monday morning, hold a closed-door senior staff meeting to share the bad news. Open the floor up for discussion. Make sure to allow time for venting. Ask employees to put together a robust business case documenting the depot's success and discuss political options.

On Monday afternoon, conduct a second closed-door meeting covering the same points but expand it to include the equal employment opportunity, public affairs and human resources officials, and the union president. Devine should describe a two-pronged approach, under which the best-case scenario is winning reversal of the decision and the worst case is closing the depot in six months.

On Tuesday, schedule a short all-hands meeting to present the facts with little or no discussion. Employees should hear from Devine first. He should promise more meetings in the future and follow up with e-mail and a one-page flier.

On Wednesday, meet with supervisors to gain their support in maintaining morale, and stress the importance of taking care of their people. Remind them that people might be in a denial and anger phase and looking for someone to blame. Supervisors need to help their employees through this phase and may need to have several meetings to let them vent. Make the employee assistance program phone numbers available.

Devine should develop an outplacement plan, seek vacancy preference authority, encourage cross training and find out who is interested in moving with the work. He should establish an on-site outplacement center with free use of computers for preparing SF-171s and resumes, videos on interviewing skills, and Web access to job listings. The center should communicate with other local agencies and the community about job openings and get people into the Priority Placement Program and the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan.

A transition team should be brought in from the future site to learn the new process and augment the workforce as people leave.

If Devine plays the political card, he should distance himself from the colleagues he recruited, so their careers are not at risk. He would most likely step on toes, be considered disloyal and may be ostracized. Devine should consider this as his finest hour and do what he truly believes is right for the organization, agency and taxpayer. In the worst case, he might be retiring in six months when they shut down the depot. But after all, that is what he was thinking of doing a year ago.

Ken Guarino is a senior internal organizational development consultant at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service. He is a graduate of the Navy's Human Resources Management School and has taught graduate courses in organizational behavior and management.