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Teaching a Hippo to Dance
The most brilliant policies will fail if government does not attract talented people and free them to do their best work.
Four years ago, I left Silicon Valley to accept a presidential appointment as a White House fellow. After undergoing months of interviews and obtaining a top-secret security clearance, I moved to Washington, D.C., to join a class of 12 nonpartisan White House fellows and to work in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. After my fellowship ended I stayed on, caught up in the challenging work of improving the nation’s trade policies. My old business-school friends and my colleagues at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company were perplexed. Why would anyone want to serve in the federal government, the epitome of everything that is slow, bureaucratic, andopaque?
There, in a nutshell, is a major problem confronting American government in the 21st century: how to attract talented youngpeople—not just to the prestigious jobs that bring you face to face with a cabinet secretary or the president but to the line jobs that exist across the civil service. It is not just a recruiting challenge. Government will only attract the people it needs when it refashions itself so that public servants can serve the publiceffectively.
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Amy Wilkinson, a public-policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, is writing a book about the next generation of leadership.
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The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and in no way represent the views or opinions of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. This section is moderated by Wilson Quarterly staff.
Teaching a Hippo to Dance, Amy Wilkinson
Dear Amy, While only just discovering your article...I find it most timely and relevant to an extensive paper I am preparing, whose thesis is centered around the absolute need to transform the State department, as well as, the other national security agencies & departments created in 1947. Given my extensive background in leadership development through 28 years of service to my nation as a senior officer in the United States Army, qualifies me to provide substantive input. I am also intrigued with your project at the Woodrow Wilson Center. I will locate you there and speak directly with you. Great article and look forward to meeting and speaking with you about you work. Jon Harris
Posted by: Colonel Jon | 5/30/09