John Kamensky

And the governmental response to the COVID-19 pandemic seems to bear out his observation.

Over the years, he has observed that many challenges—such as responding to disasters, organizing the delivery of services to disabled individuals, and orchestrating a response to climate change—have no single organization in charge. As a result, the traditional bureaucratic institutions defined by hierarchical agencies and programs that were so successful in the past are no longer adequate for challenges today that span across organizational boundaries.

What Is Frictionless Acquisition?  Federal News Network reports: “The Office of Federal Procurement Policy’s new cross-agency priority goal isn’t about changing the acquisition rules or processes. . . . Instead, the goal of frictionless acquisition is about how contracting officers, program managers, industry and so many others view what it takes to buy a product or service. . . .

Data Failure. Don Kettl, in commentary for Government Executive, writes: “Without a standard, trusted language of COVID data collection, it’s been hard to measure the disease, track its trend, and build effective policy.  . .

Technology innovation is happening via cross-agency communities of practice and incubation hubs supported by the federal chief information officer and the General Services Administration.

[Note: This column also appears in Washington Technology. It is the sixth in a series on how the COVID-19 crisis has changed how government works. Emily Craig and Michaela Drust, IBM, are co-authors of this column.]

John Kamensky

Need Evidence, Data. Robert Shea, in commentary for Federal News Network, writes: “Government agencies must step up their arbitration of evidence about effective practices in the current crisis and in every other domain in which they have expertise. It is the perfect time to add questions about what works to agency learning agendas.”

John Kamensky

However, there are more than a few scattered pockets of innovators across federal agencies who sometimes come up with startling changes to operating models, business processes,  services, or management.  Some of these initiatives are orchestrated from the top of an agency, but many happen organically on the front lines in response to a concrete problem.  How have federal approaches to innovation evolved over the past 30 years?  Following are four of the more prominent initiatives over this period

[Note: This column also appears in Washington Technology. It is the fifth in a series on how the COVID-19 crisis has changed how government works. Emily Craig and Michaela Drust, IBM, are co-authors of this column.]

A 2016 Forester Research report, said that the federal government had a “Near monopoly on the worse experiences.” By 2019, its survey showed that customer experiences with federal services “remains weak and uneven,” even though the White House