b'Conversations with LeadersFundamentally, this failing relates to our service delivery and a business model, if you will, that has its roots in fighting the Cold War with process and institutional approaches dating back to the 1950s. This operational model is far from agile. In the 21st century, agility powered by IT, powered by data, and powered by people is how leading players execute, differentiate, and build trust.Many of the jobs we cant fill today, nobody could have conceived of even 10 years ago, let alone 50 years ago. How we can acquire goods and services has changed with online marketplaces that provide you real-time information about both prices and activity. The way we hire and compensate hasnt kept up with what is consider commonplace today. The American people see and experience these changes and the federal government needs to catch up to meet these expectations. We need to remove structural obstacles that make it impossible for todays federal government to adapt to changing technology and workforce needs. We recognized that government must transform its outdated approaches, technology, and skill sets so that the workforce of today cana place does not necessarily give way to outside-the-box meet the needs and expectations of the public tomorrow.thinking. Sometimes this is necessary, but when you are managing the business of government we need leaders who Rather than pursue short-term fixes that quickly becomeare constantly asking questions, inquiring about how might outdated, we initially focused on investing in deep-seatedwe achieve this same objective within the construct of transformation through the PMA centering on: existing law or within the construct of new legislation. How Deliver mission outcomes do we bring new thinking to the table? How do you leverage and use innovation happening in the private sector? How do Provide excellent service you apply that innovation to a world that isnt about profit Effectively steward taxpayer dollars and loss? In government, our focus has to about mission, service, and stewardship. To move from vision to action, the administration identified the need to modernize several key drivers of transformation: During my tenure, simply asking different questions has led people to get energized and to free people up to say, if we Modern information technologyrun down a path and we find out were not able to do it that Data, accountability, and transparencyway, what is the next way? And the next way? And oh, by the way, lets document all of the paths taken: testing hypotheses, Building a modern workforcerunning them down, documenting activities, and outcomes. A test or path taken that leads to a dead end is not a failure In order to advance change across the federal enterprise, weif you document what didnt work and why. Doing this can established Cross-Agency Priority, or CAP, goals for each ofinspire new paths forward while possibly identifying better these three key areas. We have a list of priorities under each.approaches and solutions. I invite you to visit performance.gov for more detail on each of these goals as well as their priorities. There you can get a sense of what is being done and the quarterly progress madeOn Optimizing Across the Federal Enterprise under each goal.Modernizing government for the 21st century involves getting the right people in the right jobs at the right time in On Thinking Outside the Box order to focus on mission, service, and stewardship. Often Being results oriented, I believe there is always a potentialwhen we talk about personnel management in the federal solution if you just keep looking and asking questions.government, we tend to get lost in the mechanics of getting Washington, D.C., is a place of laws and regulation. Suchpeople in and out of government. Sometimes focusing on WINTER 2019 / 2020 IBM Center for The Business of Government 25'