Philadelphia, PA - U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kay Coles James recently hosted the Honorable Stephen Goldsmith at the agency's Senior Executive Service strategic training session Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Goldsmith carries a long list of credentials which include being the former Mayor of Indianapolis and the current Daniel Paul Professor of Government and Director of the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

"Network governance, as Stephen terms it, is a model which recognizes the need for collaboration and strategic partnerships in order to achieve results," James stated. "It is an important concept that utilizes the strengths of all those involved, in the public and private sectors, to achieve solid results as a team. For the public sector it means leveraging other resources without surrendering the unique trust and authority citizens provide to their elected and appointed leaders."

Goldsmith also is co-author of a recently released book entitled Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector, which focuses on his new model in guiding government to be efficient and effective.

As Chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Goldsmith began by saying, "I am a federal employee." He provided an example of network governance at work, stating that in this role he "called Director James and said ‘help!' We need someone who understands human resources...we had the tools, but needed the skills." James was then able to tap her talent network to provide Goldsmith's corporation with leadership candidates that had the unique skill sets he needed.

Based on this experience and dozens of case studies across the country, Goldsmith said, "Increasingly a high percentage of federal agencies deliver their services through government by network. As we move into the 21 century, we'll be able to provide higher quality services with more public value with the limited resources available."

Goldsmith challenged those involved in the management of the federal work force to look at how the day-to-day work of an agency ties into the mission of an agency, and ensure managers are empowered with discretion to build and leverage inter-agency, public-private, and public-non-profit networks to accomplish their missions. The book provides numerous examples of this, and it suggests new leadership competencies for federal executives and employees.

"I appreciate Stephen's willingness to highlight the benefits and vision of network governance to our leadership team. His hard-hitting, practical applicable presentation set the tone of the training session and guided the discussion and planning of strategic issues we are addressing as an agency," James noted.

Our mission is to ensure the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce. OPM supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.