Wow. Standardizing operations and streamlining business processes are rarely the topics of major government press announcements, but today’s news briefing sure got the COMPROSE Good Business Systems Squad’s attention.
Although we live and breathe standardizing operations, creating and managing good business systems, and improving operations performance, they rarely make front page news or the CNN Breaking News crawl.
Here’s the story:
Today in Washington Barack Obama announced the creation of a new White House position of Chief Performance Officer aimed at streamlining federal agencies. In a major press conference, President-Elect Barack Obama introduced Former Treasury Department official Nancy Killefer who will work with Obama’s Cabinet and others “to discuss how they can run their agencies with greater efficiency, transparency and accountability.” [ABC News, Jake Tapper]
In the press conference, Obama called Killefer “an expert in streamlining policies and wringing out inefficiencies.”
In his introductory remarks describing why he chose her for the position, Obama said:
“But Nancy also understands that at the end of the day, government services are delivered by people. That’s why she’s always worked tirelessly to empower employees to take matters into their own hands: to rethink outmoded ways of doing things, to embrace new systems and technologies, and to take initiative in developing better practices.
When Nancy was offered her first position at Treasury, she responded, “If you’re willing to embrace significant change, then you’re looking at the right person. But if you just want to keep the trains running on time, don’t ask me to do this job.”
Again we say, Wow! The terms “streamline business process” and “federal government” together as one . . . Only time will tell what the final results will be, but we certainly applaud the intent.
What would happen if every organization had a Chief Performance Officer dedicated to greater efficiency, transparency and accountability? If your organization doesn’t have one yet, maybe the time is now. Maybe the right person is you.