Weekly Roundup: February 2-6, 2026

Submitted by on Fri, 02/06/2026 - 11:15
Friday, February 6, 2026
Michael J. Keegan
Curating Articles & Insights of Interest in Public Management & Leadership for the week ending February 6, 2026.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Air Force Adopts GenAI.mil Platform.  The Department of the Air Force formally adopted the Pentagon's GenAI.mil as the enterprise generative AI platform for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force. The platform, rolled out in December 2025, provides advanced AI tools accessible on desktop systems across headquarters and military installations worldwide. Currently offering Google's Gemini and xAI for Government (both authorized for controlled unclassified information), the platform consolidates legacy AI systems. Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink stated: "We are becoming an AI-first force...phasing out legacy AI systems, simplifying our capabilities, and making every warfighter more effective." The enterprise-wide consolidation onto a single secure platform represents a deliberate strategy to operationalize AI at scale. The "AI-first force" positioning signals a fundamental shift from experimentation to integration across core mission functions.

Strategic Consideration: The enterprise-wide consolidation onto a single secure platform represents a deliberate strategy to operationalize AI at scale. The "AI-first force" positioning signals a fundamental shift from experimentation to integration across core mission functions.

Leaders face a common challenge in understanding emerging backbone of power. The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy's Michelle Giuda discussed the challenge that policymakers and engineers speak fundamentally different languages. The Tech Diplomacy Academy provides free training to bridge this gap, focusing on rapid adoption and scaling of technology to advance American and allied interests. More than 30 countries are using the Academy to upskill on technology fundamentals, industry implications, and national security collaboration. Giuda emphasized: "The imperative for us isn't to innovate. We've done the innovation...It's less about the technology and more about how do we get it adopted quickly?"

Best Practice Highlight: The recognition that deployment velocity—not technological sophistication—represents the primary challenge illustrates a fundamental shift in how government approaches emerging technology. Training programs that create shared vocabulary between technical and policy communities address a critical capacity gap.

GSA Rethinks Federal Acquisitions as AI Reshapes Contracting. As GSA overhauls the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), senior procurement executive Jeffrey Koses revealed the agency is grappling with how AI is reshaping federal acquisition processes. GSA has announced nearly two dozen OneGov deals since launching the initiative in April to streamline federal IT acquisitions, many including AI products from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, xAI, and Perplexity. Koses said GSA is evaluating how AI alters everything from solicitation design to proposal evaluation, pointing to growing risks that AI could harm acquisition integrity—including protests and filings relying on AI-generated content with fabricated cases and citations. He warned against procurement devolving into "who can write the best prompt" while rethinking solicitation strategies, evaluation methods, and timelines as AI lowers proposal costs and expands bidder pools. GSA's next step: standardizing AI-specific terms and conditions to support OneGov deals long-term.

Strategic Consideration: The emergence of AI-generated proposals with hallucinated legal citations represents a new category of procurement integrity risk requiring updated evaluation frameworks. The challenge of preventing acquisition from becoming a "best prompt" competition while accelerating access to AI tools illustrates tension between speed and rigor in technology procurement.

Cairncross Lays Out 6 Pillars of Coming National Cyber Strategy. National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross outlined six core pillars of the forthcoming national cybersecurity strategy at ITI's "The Intersect" summit. The strategy will be a "short, to-the-point document" designed to focus agencies on outcomes rather than process, released "sooner rather than later." The first pillar centers on shaping adversary behavior by reducing incentives for malicious cyber activity—moving from reactive response to proactively "denting the incentive" for adversaries to engage in cybercrime.

Best Practice Highlight: The emphasis on brevity and outcomes over process represents a deliberate departure from lengthy strategic documents. The focus on adversary incentives rather than defensive posture alone signals strategic maturity in cyber policy thinking.

Five updates on the Trump admin's cybersecurity agenda.  Trump administration officials provided cyber policy updates at the ITI Intersect Summit, including the forthcoming national strategy, landmark cyber incident-reporting rules, and a new AI security collaboration group. CISA's CIRCIA regulations—originally due October 2025—have been delayed until May 2026 to address private-sector concerns about the rule being overly broad. CISA's Nick Andersen updated on establishing an AI Information Sharing and Analysis Center (AI-ISAC) to promote sharing of AI-security threat information across critical infrastructure sectors, noting "it is an ongoing policy dialog about the best approach."

Management Implication: The continued delays in finalizing CIRCIA regulations, affecting an estimated 316,000 critical infrastructure entities, demonstrates tension between comprehensive coverage and implementation feasibility. The AI-ISAC development reflects recognition that AI security threats require specialized information-sharing mechanisms beyond traditional cyber frameworks.

DIGITAL SERVICE DELIVERY & DESIGN

Federal CIO Looks to Overhaul Metrics, Government Websites. Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia announced the Trump administration is shifting from static, point-in-time metrics toward outcome-driven ones, signaling fundamental changes to how agencies measure success and design federal websites. Speaking at the Adobe Government Forum, Barbaccia explained agencies will collect certain metrics, review them after a couple months, and change them if they don't make sense—focusing on "outcomes for the public" rather than bureaucratic processes. He emphasized designing services around user needs: "You should not need to know how the federal government is organized internally to interact with the government service." The White House has pilots running in internal sandboxes for website redesigns, with CIO.gov planned as an early example. Barbaccia's priority: design based on "the least technical user, not the most sophisticated technical user."

Management Implication: The shift from compliance-based metrics to outcome-oriented measurement represents a fundamental change in federal IT governance. The willingness to iterate and abandon metrics that "don't make sense" signals a more experimental approach that could either accelerate innovation or reduce accountability depending on implementation discipline.

National Design Studio looks to overhaul 27,000 federal websites. U.S. Chief Design Officer Joe Gebbia, working with the Department of Government Efficiency, aims to modernize approximately 27,000 federal websites through the National Design Studio. The office is pulling in "veterans of Silicon Valley" for talent and plans to deliver "major updates” including a refresh of existing federal websites by July 4. The initiative draws inspiration from the Nixon administration's 1970s beautification project that created NASA's iconic logo, national parks branding, and highway system signage. Gebbia's vision: "at some point, somebody's working at a startup and they go look at a dot-gov website to see how they did it."

Strategic Consideration: The ambition to make government websites design exemplars—rather than merely functional—reflects recognition that digital experience shapes public perception of government competence. The Silicon Valley talent recruitment strategy and July 4 deadline demonstrate high-priority political commitment.

DEFENSE INNOVATION & EMERGING CAPABILITIES

DIU Seeks New Sensors for Missile Defense. The Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is seeking commercial sensing technology to launch into space for detecting, tracking, and defeating ballistic and hypersonic threats. The "Sensors and Seekers for Fire Control" effort aims to prototype inexpensive space-based sensors providing highly accurate, real-time data for interceptor engagements. As adversaries develop intercontinental ballistic missiles and maneuverable hypersonic weapons, DIU noted "increasing need for systems leveraging diverse phenomenologies capable of high-fidelity identification, tracking and discrimination under extreme environmental conditions." The solicitation seeks modular, space-rated sensors using LIDAR, electro-optical/infrared, radio frequency, or combined modalities, prioritizing manufacturability, operational durability, and affordability versus legacy defense systems. DIU targets lab demonstrations within 6-9 months and on-orbit demonstrations within 12-24 months. Proposals due February 17.

Best Practice Highlight: The emphasis on affordability, manufacturability, and supply chain risk minimization alongside technical performance represents maturation of defense acquisition strategy. The compressed timeline—lab demos in 6-9 months, orbital deployment in 12-24 months—demonstrates how rapid prototyping models can accelerate capability development in high-priority mission areas.

Pentagon Names Six Tech Area Leaders. The Pentagon named six senior officials to lead its restructured critical technology areas (CTAs), following CTO Emil Michael's November streamlining from 14 to six categories focused on modern warfare. The six CTAs—applied artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing, contested logistics technologies, quantum and battlefield information dominance, scaled directed energy, and scaled hypersonics—now each have accountable senior leaders. Cameron Stanley (also DOD's Chief Digital and AI Officer) leads applied AI; Gary J. Vora (former Navy principal scientist for biotechnology) leads biomanufacturing; Robert Mantz (40+ years federal service including DARPA) leads contested logistics; Kevin Rudd (electronic warfare and advanced sensing specialist) leads quantum and battlefield information dominance; Christopher Vergien oversees scaled directed energy; and James W. Weber (33+ years hypersonic system development, $6+ billion portfolio) leads scaled hypersonics. Each CTA will have tangible "sprints" designed to deliver capabilities rapidly and at scale.

Management Implication: The assignment of individual senior official accountability for each critical technology area represents organizational clarity through simplified governance. The reduction from 14 to six CTAs, combined with named leadership and "sprint" methodology, signals intent to accelerate technology transition from research to operational deployment through clearer lines of authority and outcome-focused execution models.

AGENCY LEADERSHIP & IT MANAGEMENT

VA Elevates Zack Schwartz to OIT's Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary. The Department of Veterans Affairs elevated Zack Schwartz to principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Information and Technology (OIT), where he will oversee technology strategy, daily IT operations, cybersecurity, systems modernization, and service delivery. Schwartz, who joined VA OIT as senior advisor in December, brings over a decade of federal IT leadership including service as acting CIO for Commerce Department's Office of the Secretary. He works under Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence, who also serves as acting CIO and assistant secretary for information and technology. Schwartz replaces Eddie Pool, who served as acting principal deputy and acting CIO from January to November 2025. VA currently has no nominee for permanent CIO.

Leadership Insight: The continued reliance on acting leadership in critical IT positions—with the Deputy Secretary simultaneously serving as acting CIO while elevating a December-hire to principal deputy—illustrates the challenge of maintaining strategic IT leadership continuity during extended vacancy periods. The absence of a permanent CIO nominee alongside rapid leadership changes raises questions about long-term technology strategy stability in one of government's largest and most complex IT organizations.

LEADERSHIP

How to Manage an Insecure Leader. Insecure leaders—whether anxious or avoidant—are more common in organizations than most people acknowledge. Their behaviors can distort communication, undermine collaboration, and burden teams. Anxious leaders seek reassurance and may micromanage; avoidant leaders resist feedback and limit openness. In response, the people they work with overaccommodate, withdraw, or confront too directly, which reinforces the insecurity. The authors offer a three-step framework for working with such leaders: regulate emotional intensity, relate through attuned connection, and reason only once safety is established. This enables clearer dialogue, healthier decision-making, and more-functional partnerships with insecure

Strategic Insight: Conventional leadership development approaches—more data, clearer objectives, better processes—won't resolve problems created by insecurity-driven behaviors

Asking for Help When Others Look to You for Answers. Wayne Baker, professor emeritus at University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, overturns conventional assumptions about competence and self-sufficiency in leadership. Research shows that making thoughtful requests actually makes leaders appear more competent, not less—yet most people underestimate others' willingness to help and avoid asking. Organizations benefit most when leaders model asking for help, making it an expected behavior rather than a sign of weakness.

Strategic Insight: The "sage syndrome" represents a significant leadership capacity gap in government, where executives often occupy positions precisely because of their perceived expertise and self-sufficiency. This creates a paradoxical situation: the higher leaders advance, the less likely they are to seek help yet they face increasingly complex problems requiring broader knowledge networks. Baker's framework offers a practical intervention: leaders who model intelligent help-seeking don't diminish their authority. They multiply their organization's problem-solving capacity by legitimizing access to distributed expertise and making collaboration normative rather than exceptional.

CIVIL SERVICE TRANSFORMATION

Trump administration advances plan to strip job protections from career federal employees. An estimated 50,000 career federal employees will lose appeal rights and become easier to fire under OPM's final rule on "Schedule Policy/Career"—exempting employees in "policy-influencing" positions from civil service protections. The rule takes effect in at least 30 days after Friday's Federal Register publication. The regulation received over 40,000 public comments, with 94% opposed. Agencies will compile position lists for White House review, with President Trump making final determinations on which positions lose protections effective March 8.

Strategic Consideration: The systematic removal of due process protections for policy-adjacent positions represents the most significant restructuring of merit system protections since the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. Implementation challenges include defining "policy-influencing" positions consistently across agencies and managing organizational knowledge retention.

The tail wagging the dog: Snapshots of the public service a year into the second Trump administration. New OPM data reveals the Trump administration and DOGE reduced the federal civilian workforce by 9% in 2025. The Senior Executive Service declined 9.4%. Union representation dropped from 56.2% in November 2024 to 37.9% in November 2025. Among employees rated in 2025, the share receiving "outstanding" or "exceeds fully successful" ratings dropped from 64% to 48%. Geographic distribution shifted slightly, with 86.6% of federal employees now working outside Washington compared to 85.9% in fiscal 2024.

Leadership Insight: The data reveal a federal workforce undergoing rapid transformation across multiple dimensions simultaneously -- size, leadership capacity, labor relations, performance management, and geography. Managing concurrent change at this scale while maintaining mission delivery represents an extraordinary organizational challenge requiring exceptional change management capabilities.

MISSION DELIVERY UNDER CONSTRAINTS

A thinning roster at Indian Affairs leaves tribes wondering who's left to help, watchdog reports. A GAO report found Indian Affairs experienced an 11% workforce decrease from 7,470 to 6,624 employees between January and November 2025 due to voluntary separation programs. As of June 2025, six of 12 BIA regional directors were acting, 12 of 24 deputy regional director positions were acting or vacant, and some agency offices no longer had employees for agriculture, forestry, or realty programs. Tribal leaders expressed concerns about future effectiveness of law enforcement, schools, and natural resource management programs.

Operational Reality: The concentration of workforce losses in specialized program areas illustrates how voluntary separation incentives can disproportionately affect technical positions that are difficult to reconstitute. The prevalence of acting leadership compounds challenges by limiting strategic decision-making authority and institutional continuity.

APPROPRIATIONS RESOLUTION

Partial shutdown ended, as Trump signs package securing back pay for furloughed feds. President Trump signed a spending package Tuesday ending a brief partial shutdown, funding most federal agencies through fiscal year 2026 while providing a two-week continuing resolution for DHS. The package rescinds $11.6 billion in IRS modernization funds, shrinking the agency's Inflation Reduction Act funding to $26 billion from an original $80 billion. Congress must reach agreement on DHS funding by February 13.

Management Implication: Brief shutdowns require substantial administrative overhead disproportionate to duration. The IRS modernization funding cut, the fourth consecutive year of reductions, illustrates how repeated small decreases cumulatively undermine multi-year transformation initiatives.

THIS WEEK @ THE CENTER 

RECENT BLOGS

LOOKING AHEAD

The week's developments underscore several critical themes for public management:

  • AI Operationalization: The Air Force's enterprise AI platform adoption demonstrates government's pivot from experimentation to production deployment, requiring infrastructure consolidation and standardized approaches to scale AI capabilities across large organizations.
  • Technology Governance Simplification: Pentagon's reduction from 14 to six critical technology areas with named senior official accountability represents intentional simplification to accelerate capability delivery. The "sprint" methodology and clearer authority lines signal focus on rapid transition from research to operational deployment.
  • AI Acquisition Integrity: GSA's recognition that AI-generated proposals may include hallucinated citations represents a new category of procurement risk. The challenge of preventing acquisition from becoming a "best prompt" competition while accelerating technology access illustrates fundamental tension between speed and evaluation rigor.
  • Metrics Reform: Federal CIO Barbaccia's shift from static compliance metrics to iterative, outcome-driven measurement signals willingness to abandon approaches that "don't make sense"—a more experimental governance model that could either accelerate innovation or reduce accountability depending on implementation discipline.
  • User-Centered Design at Scale: The dual initiatives—Federal CIO's emphasis on designing for "the least technical user" and the National Design Studio's 27,000-website overhaul by July 4—reflect recognition that digital experience shapes public perception of government competence. The ambition to make government websites design exemplars rather than merely functional represents strategic elevation of user experience.
  • Defense Innovation Velocity: DIU's compressed timeline for missile defense sensors—lab demos in 6-9 months, orbital deployment in 12-24 months—demonstrates how rapid prototyping can accelerate high-priority capabilities when combined with explicit affordability and manufacturability requirements.
  • Tech-Policy Translation: The Tech Diplomacy Academy's focus on creating shared vocabulary between engineers and policymakers addresses a fundamental capacity gap as emerging technologies become central to governance and national security. The imperative shifts from innovation to rapid adoption and scaling.
  • Cyber Strategy Maturity: The forthcoming national cybersecurity strategy's emphasis on shaping adversary incentives rather than purely defensive posture signals evolution toward more sophisticated strategic thinking about cyber threats.
  • Workforce Architecture Transformation: The finalization of Schedule Policy/Career, combined with OPM workforce data revealing 9% reductions and declining union representation, demonstrates fundamental restructuring of the federal employment relationship with implications for institutional knowledge and organizational capacity.
  • Mission Delivery Risk: Indian Affairs workforce data illustrates how aggregate headcount targets create concentrated service delivery challenges in specialized mission areas, particularly when combined with leadership vacancies in acting status.

Federal leaders face competing pressures: move fast on innovation while keeping institutions stable, transform the workforce while delivering on mission, and pursue efficiency gains without eroding the capabilities needed for lasting success. As AI becomes embedded in everything from procurement to citizen services, government needs evaluation and accountability frameworks that largely don't exist yet. Meanwhile, the reliance on acting leadership in critical technology roles makes these challenges harder to navigate—it's difficult to execute long-term strategy when leadership itself is temporary.