Reports

Presidential transitions can only be effective if the public trusts that the people involved will honor the results of democratic elections and value the need for new administrations to prepare to govern even before taking office. The Center for Presidential Transition® conducted a nationally representative survey to understand the country’s views on the custom of presidential transfers of power. The survey found that 56% of Americans agreed a peaceful transition would take place if a different candidate wins in 2024. By contrast, 44% of Americans did not think a transfer would be peaceful or were unsure. The public’s doubt should serve as both a call to action and an opportunity. Government leaders and organizations such as the Center must support public understanding of the importance of peaceful transitions as a critical function of our democracy.

To tackle complex societal challenges and better serve the public, government agencies must collaborate internally, across agencies, with the public and with industry to take advantage of diverse expertise as well as the lived experience of the people they serve. We steadfastly believe a commitment to collaboration is foundational for significant and sustainable change. The agencies we profile here are proving that collaboration can transform procurement, and procurement innovation can lead to more equitable, effective digital government service delivery.

In collaboration with the Federal Innovation Council, we created a vision for how to build and foster a culture of innovation over the next two decades. This brief focuses on four main areas: Leadership, the workforce, the culture-building process and partnerships, all of which are integral to creating an innovative culture. The brief also addresses how to measure progress and involve key stakeholders, and it offers options for getting started.

To understand how agencies are mobilizing cloud computing for public service, the Partnership, in collaboration with the IBM Center for The Business of Government, hosted a series of events in 2022 featuring federal IT leaders. Over the course of three webinars, we heard from the Census Bureau; the departments of Agriculture, Defense and Veterans Affairs; the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the Government Accountability Office; the National Institutes of Health; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and the Office of Personnel Management.

After analyzing two years of the Partnership for Public Service's 360 Leadership data, along with interviews and a focus group from federal women leaders, we compiled a list of best practices and offer suggestions for how individuals and organizations can support more inclusive leadership. To help make this information actionable, and because a focus of our entire LeadHERship series suggests that an important area of opportunity for improving inclusion and equity exists at the leader level, we conclude each section with some questions for leaders to ask themselves as they work to support their teams, and especially women.

Different agencies and levels of government have widely varying experience with using artificial intelligence in public service delivery. Whatever their level of experience, public sector organizations must put responsible AI principles at the center of their decision-making around AI. In this report the Partnership for Public Service and Microsoft offer recommendations of questions and considerations non-technical leaders should address at each stage of the process, from their first contemplation of AI to its routine use in service delivery.

In this brief, we examine how racial and ethnic identity intersect with gender to affect federal leaders’ workplace experience. Like other research, our analysis supports the need to not just focus on gender when seeking to understand this experience, but to also explore how other social identities—especially race—influence the social perception of women leaders in government

For this report, we interviewed dozens of customer experience leaders, as well as those who design and implement services at federal agencies. We also had conversations with customer experience experts from national research institutes and universities. Additionally, our work was informed by input from our quarterly customer experience roundtables and by leading commercial practices.

In response to evolving workplace values and expectations related to COVID-19 and the Great Resignation, the Partnership for Public Service—with support from ServiceNow—examined why civil servants leave their agencies or the federal government altogether and what makes them stay. Recognizing that retention strategies should not be one-size-fits-all, our study focused on an important and often overlooked factor of employee retention: generational values and expectations. More specifically, we explored the characteristics and work motivations of Gen X and Gen Z civil servants.