No corporate turnaround expert, walking into a struggling company, would imagine that the way to fix it was to spend a few months haphazardly firing as many employees as possible, before giving up in disgust. They’d have spent those months on a listening tour, getting the employees to explain what’s keeping them from cutting costs or delivering better services. For Musk, that might have included dropping into the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, nicknamed the Sammies — where exceptional government workers are honored for their achievements — to gather some best practices for improving service delivery.
Had he done those things, he would have understood that the fundamental problem with government isn’t the bureaucrats. It’s the incentives created by the rest of the political system.
A turnaround expert, having assessed these realities, would understand that they needed to reform the system, not the head count. They’d have gone to Congress with a package of major civil service and procurement reforms that made it easier to hire and fire workers for good cause but, more important, made it easier for those workers to do a good job. And they’d have identified a leader to implement this turnaround who can spend the years of single-minded focus it will take to build a better system, rather than giving the job to a CEO on a time-limited break from running his other companies.
Instead, Musk entered the political spotlight for a few months, started tinkering with the system before he understood how it worked, and left when the president’s attention wandered. The result was just one more failed government program.
Add new comment