Making Change Happen

Yes, I know that we have already sent you, bound into the May issue, the brochure describing the conference program. But brochures often migrate to the bottom of the pile, and so, with only a month or so until the conference begins, let me describe some of its history, highlights and objectives.

Semanticists might observe that shamelessness neither connotes-nor rules out-concurrent pride. But pride is the more apt sentiment as regards the ExcelGov conference, an enterprise carefully planned by scores of people in government and in many of the most prominent good-government groups operating at the national level.

A shorthand way of describing ExcelGov is to say it's the only conference now being held on improving management and performance of the executive branch. Management improvement is part of every administration's agenda, and this conference from the beginning has sought to bring together the ideas and the people who are leading change in the huge agencies of government. During the Clinton administration, the action was centered in the vice president's office, and many players in the reinventing government movement were participants in the conference. Now, the management reform agenda is centered in a more traditional venue-the Office of Management and Budget-and we expect to hear from and about OMB leaders and their initiatives.

We have described one of OMB's most sweeping initiatives in Brian Friel's cover story this month. Orders issued by OMB Director Mitch Daniels should accelerate and rationalize agencies' efforts to ensure that they have in place the workers they need to deliver their missions. In line with the trends of recent years, many of the workers won't be on agency payrolls, but rather those of private contractors; indeed, Daniels seeks to have at least 425,000 federal jobs put up for competition by public and private sector bidders.

You can find out more about these initiatives at the ExcelGov conference. You can learn more about the experience of the Internal Revenue Service with the comprehensive workforce restructuring it has attempted in the last three years (an effort also described in Friel's story). You can listen to leaders from agencies at the forefront of modern management practice in such areas as culture change, scenario planning, imaginative use of the Internet, strategic partnerships across all sectors of our society, and creating the conditions for innovation, and for high performance and results. And you can meet like-minded change agents among the hundreds of your colleagues who will be attending. As one attendee from the Interior Department's performance planning office said last year, "The people who show up for this event are people who are interested in ideas, making change happen and results that matter. The networking that results is priceless." Commentator David Gergen, administration leaders including Daniels and Education Secretary Rod Paige, Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki and Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, are among the speakers at the ExcelGov conference. The entire program (and a registration form) can be found at www.excelgov.com.