As change agents in government, there’s no shortage of things we want to accomplish and things to make happen. Lining up your goals strategically is important to ensure that you have a steady stream of progress and achievement to show to ace your performance reviews and earn trust from your colleagues, while still focusing on a big-picture vision. I love to teach this simple method of balancing short- and long-term objectives that you can complete in only a few minutes.
Set up your matrix
Draw a 3 x 4 grid like the image below. Across the top, label the columns: 1) quick win, 2) one year, 3) long-term. Down the left, label the rows: 1) practice, 2) program, 3) policy, 4) technology.
Sort your project plan into the matrix
Take your current list of goals and projects and sort them into this grid, based on the type of change (e.g., practice, technology) and the time horizon for completion. In government, it’s fair for a “quick win” to take months, but I’d focus this column on things that can be accomplished in under one year.
Identify and fill gaps
What boxes are empty or nearly empty? What projects or goals could you work on to fill those gaps? For example, if you’re focused on a long-term technology transformation, are there also short-term wins you could complete in the next six months (however small)?
We all know that certain things in government can take multiple years, whether it’s securing a budget, updating a rule, getting a form change approved, or influencing a future year’s strategic plan. This causes most people to never start these tasks, which means they never get done.
But as the saying goes: “The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago. The second best time is today.” Your future self and/or future colleagues will thank you if you dedicate time and energy to starting on that multi-year task right now. Even if you know you’re in your role for a short time, such as in a fellowship or detail, setting the stage for long-term change leaves behind a legacy of which you can be proud.
Consider if you can break up larger projects into smaller goals
Plenty of project management frameworks suggest breaking up larger projects into smaller steps, and I’m not here to belabor that point. But for whatever goals you do have: Do you have something concrete in each box? Breaking up a larger project into chunks can help you spread progress and effort across these areas and time horizons.
Marina Nitze, co-author of Hack Your Bureaucracy, is currently a partner at Layer Aleph, a crisis engineering firm that specializes in restoring complex software systems to service. Marina is also a fellow at New America’s New Practice Lab, where she works on improving America’s foster care system through the Resource Family Working Group and Child Welfare Playbook. Marina was the Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs under President Obama, after serving as a Senior Advisor on technology in the Obama White House and as the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the U.S. Department of Education.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.