Dear OPM, 

I promise that this is the last of the long messages from me (at least for now). 

Earlier in last week, I tried to outline our top-level goals. But, as with any organization, the real question is, “how will we function as a team in furtherance of those goals?” And this is where workplace culture comes into play. 

Culture is many things, but at its base, it is the operating system of a company. Culture is a set of actions companies employ to inform how they approach everyday issues. It reflects what employees do when the leader is not in the room. A clear and strong culture guides decision-making; the absence of cultural norms leaves employees without a set of over-arching principles to inform their actions. 

So, how should we think about the culture we aspire for at OPM? Here are my expectations, in no particular order. 

Start with “why”

We should act and think from first principles and consistently ask the “why” behind the “what.” That doesn’t mean we should ignore precedent, but rather that we should not be beholden to it. Just because something has been done a certain way previously is not dispositive of whether it should be done that way in the future. Be curious and exercise independent judgment. 

Teams beat individuals

We will work as a team to solve hard problems. That means talking to others across the organization – and across other agencies where we are thinking about policies that are pan-government – who can be helpful in the information gathering process. It also means we reward the sharing of information with those who can use the information to best inform decision-making, and we will not hoard information to try to play hero. 

To be clear, there is a distinction between the process of getting to a decision and the making of a decision. In an organization of this size, we simply can’t function as a holacracy; not everyone is a decision-maker and not everyone’s ideas may be adopted. Ultimately, we will make the decisions we believe are most appropriate to satisfy our objectives, but the process of gathering information, inviting feedback, and building consensus is important to the overall decision-making and implementation processes. 

And obviously, you may not agree with every decision, but, once a decision is made, it is your responsibility as an employee of the organization to help effect the decision. 

Customer-first

Everything we do is in service of a customer – candidates, employees, retirees – so we are all in the customer service business. A hallmark of that is we will make timely responsiveness and clear communication - both internally and externally - a key operating principle. Everyone with whom you interact is trying to get something done and nothing is more frustrating than feeling as though someone else is blocking you due to lack of responsiveness or that things have fallen into a black hole. We will not be the bottleneck to solving problems. If you don’t know the answer to a question, tell them that and let them know when you’ll get back to them with an appropriate solution.

 OPM = “Other People’s Money”

We spend other people’s money – the American taxpayers’ – in service of our goals; as such, we will hold ourselves accountable as stewards of those tax dollars. So, efficiency will be the North Star against which we measure our success. Efficiency doesn’t mean just cutting costs for the sake of spending less money. Rather, it means we consistently ask ourselves whether we are spending money (and time) in areas that are maximally beneficial to the American people and whether we can deliver the same (or better) quality of service at lower cost. And, yes, we may have to make some hard decisions about areas in which we cannot afford to invest efficiently, but we can do so professionally, transparently, and with respect for the individuals who may be impacted by such decisions. 

Embrace “measured” risk

As you know, I come from a world where high risk is acceptable – because there is the potential for very high reward on the other side. The government obviously can’t operate in that environment because we are dealing with critical functions – do I get paid, do I receive my retirement benefits, do I get promoted (or terminated), etc. 

However, we can innovate and take “measured” risks in our decision-making. That means we recognize we may not always score a 100 percent on the test, but rather we balance (and measure) the downside risks of moving forward with imperfect information with the upside benefits of keeping the trains moving and enabling change within the organization. Stillness, inaction, and analysis paralysis are not the way for us to best serve the American people.

As I started with, culture is not a set of words we put down on paper, but rather a set of actions we take as individuals and team members. It is up to each of us to help make this culture a reality. When we see things happening consistent with the desired culture, we should recognize and reward that. Similarly, when course correction is needed, we need to call out behavior that is inconsistent with our culture. 

A brief story in closing to impress your friends. 

Andy Grove (formerly CEO of Intel) was one of the most successful technology CEOs of our era and a real scholar of people management and culture. If you’re interested in learning more about his management insights, check out Only the Paranoid Survive – it’s a Silicon Valley cult classic. He also had a ton of success turning Intel into a dominant player in the semiconductor (semis) space in the 1990’s. 

But before Intel was in the semis business, they competed in the memory business (DRAM specifically). By the mid-1980s, however, Japanese competitors were winning this market, and Intel was in dire financial straits; Grove, correctly made the decision for Intel to exit the DRAM business and go all-in on semis. The rest is history – and a good one at that! 

My story, though, is not about strategic pivots, but rather about trash service and paperclips. 

The Intel business – whether in DRAM or semis – was a brutally competitive one, where always looking for ways to increase operational efficiency was key to success. So much so, that Andy made efficiency a core part of the Intel culture. I have no idea if this is a true story, but legend has it that to underscore the importance of efficiency, Andy changed the cleaning schedule to have the cleaners empty the trash only once per week (vs daily) and encouraged employees to re-use paperclips. 

Now obviously, in the scheme of a multi-billion-dollar business, the impact of these changes on Intel’s bottom line was negligible. But it was Andy’s way of reinforcing that it was everyone’s job to always think about ways to increase operational efficiency in the business. 

Before you run for the exits, let me be clear – I am not proposing we adopt Andy’s recommendations here at OPM! Rather, I tell you this story to help articulate the key message about culture – for it to be real, it needs to be a set of actions, not just a bunch of fancy words we write down once and file away. Each of us can help embed our desired cultural values into reality if we walk the walk and not just talk the talk. I hope you’ll sign up for the challenge.    

I look forward to your thoughts. 

Thanks,

Scott 

P.S. PLEASE call me Scott.