Flying regularly again so its catch up on book backlog time. Last trip: Amy Zegart’s Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11
This is about as close to the book on reform I’d write if I had the time. It does a good job of capturing the explicit knowledge about IC problems and ideas about reform that working stiffs like me know implicitly. If there is one major flaw I would say that when it comes to pointing out solutions it ignores or largely disregards one important factor: the culture of most agencies is as paramilitary as it is corporate. If leadership were serious about implementing even modest reforms, there is a certain amount of coercion that can be applied to make things happen. That that doesn’t happen speaks volumes.
In using org theory to explain that the bureaucratic nature of the IC as a whole and agencies in particular is key to understanding why reform doesn’t follow failure, but what is left dangling is the (or at least a) potential solution: eliminating negative incentives. The DMV clerk at your satellite office doesn’t help you solve your unusual license issue; for that you have to go downtown. Why? He’s got a checklist of things he is supposed to do and going beyond that is not simply a pain in the rear; it doesn’t get him anything. If he rated on how many licenses he processes, holding your hand negatively impacts what is important to him (a good performance evaluation, raise, promotion, etc.). The solution could be as simple as incentivising reform-minded factors and eliminating old ones. If the tales of woe I hear from inside are any indication, there is no major move afoot to adjust those rating bullets.
Finally, Zegart points out a damning aspect of IC management: the widespread unwillingness to get rid of dead weight. This is not a problem limited to the IC, but again, this is not just any old job or at least it should not be. It’s a horrible reflection on the field when a manager will flat out admit to cooking the books so some slacker will go on to plague some other office. If, as the book mentions, you’re spending 50% of your time as a manager dealing with a trouble-making 3% then think about the time and energy you could be devoting to more meaningful tasks over the long term if you just took a few extra hours now to manage people out? It can be done because I’ve done it. Again, it’s largely a matter of will. People who have passed their problems along to others should rightly feel bad when those people later **** up and someone dies because of it.
Aside from the fact that it reads like a thesis (she is a college professor after all) I’d recommend everyone pick up a copy.
