Walking the Transition Tightrope

nyone who asserts that elections don't make a difference ought to watch what happens in the next six to nine months. As you read this, virtually every think tank and public interest group in Washington is looking to the upcoming presidential transition as an opportunity to advance its policy agenda, improve the operation of government, or both. Whether George W. Bush or Al Gore has his hand on the Bible on Jan. 20, a new President and, more important, a new team will soon be poised to take the reins of government. They will be full of energy and determined to leave their mark.

The focus on new policy directions, however, overlooks an important group-senior career officials, military and civilian, who will continue to serve regardless of which candidate wins. They will be called upon to provide continuity, to educate the incoming team, to be the instruments of new policy directions and, in many cases, to fill a temporary leadership void. The transition will find many officials ill-prepared. It has been eight years since the last true transition, and substantial turnover in the senior ranks has occurred in the interim. Thus, few managers will have experienced firsthand what it is like to greet a whole new political team, let alone sit around for weeks or months waiting for one to show up.

A small cadre of feds has been at work for more than a year worrying about the transition. They range from General Services Administration employees who must find office space for the transition team; to the Military District of Washington, which is in charge of the inaugural parade; to the congressional staffers who sweat the logistics of the swearing-in ceremony; to the National Archives and Records Administration, which has to take over the outgoing President's papers. Their jobs are highly sensitive and visible but also well understood and time-bounded.

For everyone else swept up in the transition, it is not that straightforward. Every senior career official, by this stage, should be well along in planning for the transition. Here is a checklist.

• Think defense first. The first thing your new boss will need to know, whether or not he or she knows it, is where the potential threats are. What hearings are coming up? Is anything cooking that is likely to boil over into the newspapers? Will any decisions on controversial issues be required in the first 90 days?

  Nothing builds confidence in the quality and professionalism of the career staff more than a well-crafted briefing paper on some hot issue before it hits the news. A technique that works well is a calendar of upcoming events and issues projecting out 90 to 180 days.

• Sweat the details. In most agencies, the new team will arrive with a broad agenda but will be short on details. Read everything the candidates are saying now about your program and begin to think about how you might help them implement their plans. The new appointees may not welcome your articulation of how the President-elect's program should run-they may have their own plans-but they will be grateful for a laundry list of ideas that advance the new administration's agenda.
• A word of caution: Nobody elected you. Don't expect the incoming team to trust you just because you are there. Even if this transition doesn't represent a party change, new appointees will arrive suspicious of the senior staff's loyalties. You will build confidence by the quality of your work. Don't turn political. Even if you are an avid supporter of the incoming team, be studiously nonpartisan. Speaking of the administration in the first person plural is reserved for the President and his appointees. They expect your best professional and technical support.
• Be careful of how you say "no." The popular perception of the bureaucrat is someone who has a dozen reasons why an idea won't work. Beware of reinforcing that view. Embrace change, even if it could mean a change in your job. Nevertheless, sometimes your professional duty will be to advise your new boss that some proposal he or she is advancing with great passion is seriously flawed. To deal with this situation, be analytical and factual. Reactions like "We've tried that before" won't carry the day. Rather, dispassionately point out what you know about the likely consequences of the proposals. Your boss wants to change the world; that's what elections are all about. If the proposal on the table is likely to fail, help find alternatives more likely to achieve the new team's vision.
• Be ready to lead. Those who serve in agencies and subagencies where there is a long interregnum before appointees arrive face the greatest challenge. Cabinet-level appointees tend to be confirmed quickly. But at the next level and in the independent agencies, senior officials may find themselves filling political slots for extended periods. Career executives who fill in are expected to provide vigorous leadership without stepping over the boundary between career officials and political appointees.

Despite the public cynicism about presidential campaigns, the quadrennial ritual is an important renewal of our democratic institutions. Those in the senior career ranks play an important role and have a wonderful vantage point in that process. Enjoy the view.

Franklin S. Reeder teaches, writes and consults on public management and information technology issues. He spent more than 35 years in federal service in political and career positions. While at the Office of Management and Budget, he survived five presidential transitions.