The Importance of Networking

The session on networking explored interactions between political appointees and career civil servants, the role of the office of the inspector general in this environment, and the rise of informal versus formal networks. Panelists Phyllis Fong of the Department of Agriculture, Joseph Ferrara of Georgetown University, and Barry White of the Council for Excellence in Government generally agreed that networking is a key tool that political appointees (PAs), career civil servants (CSSs) and Inspector Generals (IGs) must use to resolve difficult issues and complete missions.

The panel kicked off with some general rules of Washington networks:

-All administrations change, and nothing is permanent. That extends to political control, and Republican and Democratic preeminence is always time-limited, even if it doesn’t seem that way at the time.
-Everyone comes back to Washington—and the next time they’ll be a bit more experienced than last time. For example, in 1992 the new Clinton team was the Carter team with more grey hair.
-Networking has always been extremely important. Everyone is so focused on their respective jobs that there is a real need to be able to branch out to other “specialists” in the government to get a very important job done. This reality becomes more pronounced the farther up in the ranks you go.

A key element of networking in the federal government is the interactions between political appointees (PA) and Career Civil Servants (CCS):

- Both PAs and CCSs are extremely dedicated and focused on what they do.
- In general, political appointees come to respect the know-how and good judgement that CCSs can bring to bear—especially in politically sensitive positions.
- You must be able to deal with both groups, and do it well, to survive.

Professor Ferrara advised on the best ways to establish relationships between PAs and CSSs:

- PAs must make it clear that they represent the administration, but also that they need and want the ideas of the CSSs.
- CSSs must make it clear that they have the knowledge – but that does not give them the authority to run the show.
- The debate right now in establishing the PA-CSS relationship is over whether is it better to come in with a huge agenda ready to tackle everything, or to come in with a few key ideas and a targeted agenda.
* On the one hand, the “crusader” seems to not care about the agency culture or long term experiences of the CSSs.
* On the other hand, the “smart agenda” seems to have no strategic vision.

One important function of the Inspector General (IG) is to bring together the PAs and the CSSs. The IG should:

- Inform the PAs of the ground rules and regulations, and remind the CSSs of the political sensitivity of various issues at hand. The IG often has the difficult task of making it clear who will give orders and who will take them.
- This process is inherently not efficient, but this is the nature of the checks and balances at play in this relationship.

Here are some tips on how to make the IG experience work:

- Get your PA on the same page as you are before testifying before Congress (make sure everyone has the same info and knows how it will be interpreted ahead of time).
- If both the IG and the PA are in agreement, there is usually no reason to drag out hearings on the Hill.
- This usually makes any issue at hand a “1-2 day issue instead of a 3-6 week crisis.”

One of the IGs best resources is his/her network, both formal and informal:

- Formally, there is the IG Council.
- Within the Council, there exists a system of informal networks that develops whenever an issue arises that that only concerns a select group (e.g. intelligence, foreign aid reform, etc.)
- The value of these informal networks here cannot be overstated since they often create a way to move forward on stalled issues.

While most government employees go through the bureaucracy and regular chain of command to complete a task or mission, informal networks often emerge and take over when there is a looming crisis and the normal chain of command is just not fast enough.

Another frequent cause of this is when you need to find resources that you can’t get through the normal channels. Core.gov is one indicator of the growing use of informal networking.