Confessions Of A Civil Servant: Lessons in Changing America's Government and Military

This excellent book is a light and easy read filled with many personal stories and observations from a career civil servant who `fought the good fight' to apply common sense and effective business practices to the federal government for thirty years. Anyone with any government experience, or business experience dealing with government organizations, will enjoy this book and probably get some ideas about how to overcome government bureaucracy and over-regulation. If you are looking for new business, management, or leadership concepts, theories, or practices, you will be disappointed. What was new, and what made this book interesting and inspiring to me, was how Stone repeatedly applied sound business, management, and leadership concepts, theories, and practices to government organizations that had been institutionally insulated from such `distractions.' Stone's constant mantra of putting customers first, empowering employees, and cutting red tape helped lead many federal government organizations to a paradigm shift from a focus on regulations and violations to customers and helping them with compliance, and even the practice of federal agencies partnering with businesses to achieve mutually supporting goals. As a retired career Marine officer, I particularly enjoyed reading about his efforts in the Department of Defense. His very first chapter, "Tackling a Job When You Haven't a Clue," clearly set the tone for the rest of the book with its honesty and humility. His initial experiences in the Pentagon (where he initially did not have a clue) were very similar to many of the jobs I had during my Marine career, and now with most of the government and military projects I have supported as a contractor. The lessons at the end of this chapter, and at the end of the next thirteen chapters (of sixteen total), were `right on target' and did a great job focusing on the main points to be learned from his stories and observations.

Very few longtime civil servants write their memoirs. This book shows that this is a mistake. The author makes the every day conflicts of civil service life live and breathe and shows how they can be overcome to serve great purposes in the public interest. Introduction writer Tom Peters quotes Peter Drucker's aphorism that "Ninety percent of what we call 'management' consists of making it difficult to get things done." He produces "12 Lessons in Stone" which summarize his approaches. Stone used (1) Demos and Models; (2) Heroes; (3) Stories and Storytellers; (4) Chroniclers; (5) Cheerleaders and Recognition; (6) New Language; (7) Seekers (of change); (8) Protectors (of innovators); (9) Support Groups; (10) End Runs (around hierarchies)/Pull (from outsiders) Strategy; (11) Field/"Real People" Focus, and (12) Speed to push his goals forward. The author himself describes his goals as "decentralization, deregulation, and devolution of authority in a value-centered organization." These were goals gradually developed after years of frustration mixed with achievement in the Defense Department, to which he had been recruited by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis in 1969. He quickly clashed with the centralization of all authority for planning imposed during the seven plus years of Secretary Robert McNamara. His first work was to research the question of how big the army should be. He led successful efforts to change the evaluation formula from on tons of artillery ammunition fired times lethal area per ton to one that applied informed military judgements to the weapons on both sides, what the army dubbed the Weighted Effect Indicators/Weighted Unit Value method. The effect of this change in formulas was to demonstrate the feasibility of NATO surpassing the Warsaw Pact in effectiveness, something later accomplished in the Carter and Reagan Administrations. From this effort, the author learned the power of asking naieve questions, such as "Why? What's that mean? Says who?" The author subsequently went on to become assistant secretary of defense for installations, where he rapidly shrunk regulations and improved the quality of life for residents of military bases. This raised hackles which put him under a glass ceiling for awhile, but he recovered with the Clinton/Gore election in 1992, when he got appointed to the National Performance Review staff, and ultimately became its leader in reinventing government. This book demonstrates his struggles and his triumphs and is essential reading for anyone seeking to aid in the cause of responsive government. "Some people look for things that went wrong and try to fix them," he said. "I look for things that went right and try to build upon them." He called himself "Mr. ReGo" (Reinventing Government) and "Energizer in Chief." His critics had undoubtedly had other words for him, but this book is a very clear record of his vision and accomplishments. It is an extremely useful introdu

"This is an exhilarating book, full of spirit and spark. It vividly andpassionately describes the author's groundbreaking, bureaucracy-busting workas head of the National Performance Review. Ignited by Tom Peter's In Searchof Excellence,Stone became Al Gore's right hand in working to reinvent government. Hisbook is filled with wonderful stories of revolutionaries from every rank andlevel. It contains many great tidbits of advice and wisdom. The author usedto refer to himself as Energizer in Chief. His book is just that: anenergizer. It breathes the soul of civic revolution. It is full of fun aswell, an easy read. Stone is totally devoted to action that breaks downridiculous and often absurd barriers from getting the job done right. Butthe book is full of humanity as well, as when Stone decides to retire so hecan live closer to his young grandchildren. If you want to touch clear,decisive, humane leadership, if your soul needs a spark to re-ignite itself,run -don't walk- to get this book."

This tell-it-like-it-was gem about the author's thirty years of public service is nothing less than remarkable. Adroitly written with good humor, Stone's quiet, but dogged steadfast nature is wonderfully evident in every page and makes you count your lucky stars that people like him actually join the ranks of our government. These experiences should serve as a guide for future generations of civil servants tackling the often thankless and misunderstood job of government service. But more than that - there is a lesson plan for all of us who navigate the treacherous waters of small and big organizations alike. I for one, plan to give this book to my twenty-one-year-old college graduate to read.