At the heart of every government agency is a mission. This mission defines not just the organization, but the priority objectives, short-term and long-term goals, and the precise context in which any part of that organization contributes to transforming those goals into a reality.
With government agencies becoming increasingly complex, they often require a large staff of government employees and sometimes contractors to achieve their goals. While focusing on the daily tasks, it can be easy to lose touch with the agency’s overarching mission. The mission of an agency defines priority objectives, short-term and long-term goals, and the precise context of the operation.
Developing a mission mindset is critical to keeping an organization’s mission in focus, as it is the foundation for understanding your office and agency’s goals. A mission mindset drives delivery from mission statement to task completion, which allows the individual to understand how their direct assignments contribute to realizing the mission.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created in 2003, undertook the most significant reorganization of federal agencies since the Cold War. It brought together federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies with a focus on securing the U.S. from threats in a collaborative way. DHS pulls together five complex mission areas: preventing terrorism and enhancing security; managing our borders; administering immigration laws; securing cyberspace; and ensuring disaster resilience.
Across the Federal government, agencies and programs have been tasked with building, training, and retaining the workforce needed to serve the American people. Public-sector leaders have been struggling with the right approach to this challenge, but we are now seeing more and more agencies turn to implementing private industry ’lean’ methods as a potential solution. Lean strategies aim to identify and improve an organization’s pain-points by following a set of principles and techniques focused on minimizing risk, optimizing cost and quality of processes, and engaging employees to deliver value-added benefits and improvements aligned to the organization’s mission and goals.
Mission priorities such as law enforcement information sharing, immigration modernization, cybersecurity and the insider threat, survivor-centric emergency management, and combatting human trafficking require a more strategic approach to find scarce resources to address growing threats.
Community involvement is a large part of Arc Aspicio and our culture. As a company, we organize several community service events each year to give back to our community. Community service events are much like the work we perform as consultants. They provide us the opportunity to solve problems and provide guidance and assistance, just in a different way.
Promoting gratitude in the workplace enhances employee morale, collegiality, and efficiency, which together combine to enhance productivity and satisfaction. So, how can an entity foster a culture of authentic gratitude?
From election night to inauguration day, the President Elect’s transition team has only 74 days to deliver new strategies for action. Being prepared on Day One means having a strategy that translates campaign policies into a plan for governing. The next president will inherit many challenges; lingering border security issues and cybersecurity threats are just two that stand out. How the next president meets those challenges relies heavily on managing his or her transition into office.
Mission results on major programs directly result from effective acquisitions. So how does the Government continue to innovate to drive acquisition success?
Acquisitions are the key to success in major programs of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The procurement process deploys the materials, services, and knowledge necessary to operate the DHS’ protective and preventative missions. Without timely and effective procurements, DHS could face new and avoidable challenges in their mission to prevent terrorism, manage our borders, enforce immigration laws, secure cyberspace, and act with resilience in the face of disasters.
During administration changes, agencies face the challenge of onboarding new personnel while maintaining core functions to serve the mission. Fortunately, transition cycles are usually predictable, and preparation can begin well in advance. By adopting past best practices and the latest innovative thinking, Government agencies can become more operationally resilient in the face of both scheduled transitions and unexpected leadership changes.
Hiring talent is one of the most crucial components to any organization’s success – in the Government or in consulting companies that support the Government. Often, the hiring process can be arduous and time consuming. However, new hires are critical to mission success, as they shape the culture, practices, ideas, and, ultimately, the future of the organization.
Maintaining organizational stability so the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can continue its mission during an administration change is critical to keep our nation safe. New agency leaders need access to the basics – organizational information like key policies, organizational charts, mission priorities, current strategy, and dashboards. It is critical, though, to also have access to the current mission status, key issues and risks, and a playbook that allows them to act immediately in the event of a crisis.
