Weekly Roundup November 14-18, 2022

Biden’s Nominee to Become Administrator of Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Goes to the Full Senate. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee reported favorably out of committee Richard Revesz’s nomination to be administrator of OIRA, which oversees the regulatory process across the government, approves government information collections, establishes government statistical practices and coordinates federal privacy policy.

White House, agencies still sorting out who will pay for cross-agency service delivery work. The White House announced plans to help Americans obtain services across agency boundaries to help cope with five specific "live experiences," such as transitioning from military to civilian life, disaster recovery, financial shock, retirement and having a child in a low-income family. Over 10 agencies are working in groups to help eliminate cross-agency friction in delivering services. But behind the scenes questions remain about funding.

Shared Services Leadership Coalition: 20th Anniversary of the E-Government Act - SSLC Kevin Landy Interview. #UpNext in the SSLC 20th Anniversary of the E-Gov Act Series, @johmarsh interviews Kevin Landy Former Chief Counsel, US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (1997 - 2010). Check out the entire series on the SSLC YouTube Channel. https://youtu.be/hGrROQEyams

Deadline looms for plan to restart economy in case of major cyberattack. Lawmakers have been urging the Biden administration to develop a strategy first mandated in the Fiscal 2021 NDAA. The fiscal 2021 NDAA directed the administration to create the new policy by Jan. 1, 2023. The White House authorized CISA to develop the plan nearly 15 months after it was included in the NDAA.

Contractors, stakeholders offer wish lists for cyber workforce strategy. A rare White House RFI solicited frank discussion from industry on the pain points on cyber workforce recruitment for both the government and federal contractors. Cybersecurity workforce stakeholders offered their insights to help inform the White House Office of the National Cyber Director’s forthcoming cybersecurity workforce, training and education strategy. The strategy is meant to address the shortage of workers (currently sitting around 769,000 job openings and push a deeper cyber awareness in the broader public.

DHS wants to deploy 'easy button' for cloud adoption. DHS is moving forward with its new indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract vehicle designed to help its 22 component agencies acquire cloud capabilities. That easy button is taking shape as a strategic sourcing vehicle for cloud infrastructure-hosting services dubbed the Enterprise CLoud Infrastructure Provider Suite, or ECLIPS. The ultimate goal of ECLIPS is to streamline the department’s approach to cloud acquisition as its spending increases.

DISA, GSA Break Down Key Cloud Decision Points. Officials from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and the General Services Administration talked about key decision points in their agencies’ move to cloud services. Moving to the cloud was a no-brainer decision for the Department of Defense (DoD) to gain information advantage over adversaries. But moving to the cloud cannot be a lift and shift affair, rather, it must be purposeful, said Sharon Woods, DISA’s Hosting and Compute Center director. DISA is currently working to transform its data centers into hybrid cloud centers. GSA’s Deputy CIO Kiloran noted that “Cloud gave us the flexibility to make changes as our mission changed. It allowed us to be secure and offered flexibility from where we work.

Make better decisions by clearly defining the problem. Before jumping to a solution, get clear on the problem you're facing, brainstorm more than two options and bring in stakeholders to help you explore all the angles you may have missed, writes Suzi McAlpine. "All of us stand to benefit from getting crystal clear on what we're working to solve, opening up more options and possibilities and varying our perspective," McAlpine writes. Suzi McAlpine

Facing a tough decision? Convene a "clearness committee". Leaders who are struggling with a decision can convene a "clearness committee" that will commit at least a couple of hours to hearing about the problem and asking honest, probing questions without injecting opinions into the mix, writes Theodore Kinni, drawing on insights from Center for Courage & Renewal co-founder Parker Palmer. "Thus, the desired outcome of a clearness committee is not necessarily a specific solution; it is clarity about the problem for the person in the problem," Kinni writes. Strategy+Business

What are the traits of an extraordinary leader? The best leaders are those who are impatient to succeed, measure their progress against their own personal best and are pushed to excel by the setbacks they have faced, writes leadership coach Bill Treasurer. "You know you're going to have to prove yourself to many others in the future -- and you're up to that challenge," Treasurer writes. SmartBrief/Leadership