New presidents are responsible for making roughly 4,000 political appointments across government. To work effectively, these appointees need to learn how to navigate a complex federal organization. 准备好治理® prepares them to tackle this challenge from the moment they enter office. 自2013年以来, 该项目已经帮助了1万多名学生,500名政治任命人员更好地管理他们的机构, 了解联邦法规, 和 build networks that enable collaboration 和 creative problem-solving. 阅读更多 below to learn how Ready to Govern helped 格温·凯斯·弗莱明 become an effective chief of staff for the Environmental Protection Agency.

In 2013, 格温·凯斯·弗莱明 embarked on the biggest challenge of her career. After working five years as a district attorney in DeKalb County, 乔治亚州 和 another three as the regional administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, 弗莱明来到华盛顿特区.C. to  serve as the EPA’s chief of staff—a position that required her to oversee 15,000名员工在全国和世界各地工作, 几个大型团队和子组件, 还有一个国际办公室.

Ready to Govern helped Fleming manage these dizzying responsibilities, 为她提供技能, tools 和 professional networks to manage EPA staff 和 projects, 和 respond adeptly to unexpected crises like the 2013 government shutdown.  

“Ready to Govern is the place—和 the 电子竞技押注平台伙伴关系 is the place—where you learn how to manage competing priorities 和 also build the network of support that will help you further [your career],”她说。.

立志为公众服务

弗莱明来到华盛顿特区.C. 有着深厚的电子竞技押注平台背景. Her father was a Tuskegee Airman who served in government for 40 years as an engineer at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, 新泽西. He was also one of the first African Americans to run for elected office on the local school board in her hometown.  

在这个例子的指导下, Fleming interned with a local prosecutor’s office after earning her law degree at Emory University 和 soon thereafter became the first African American 和 first woman to serve as district attorney for the Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit in DeKalb County, 乔治亚州.

In 2010, 她开始将自己的法律技能运用到联邦工作中, overseeing environmental policy in eight southeastern states 和 six federally recognized tribes as the EPA’s Region 4 regional administrator.     

“Being able to creatively think of ways to use the full power of the federal government to [help others] was something that was always appealing,”她说。.

“Ready to Govern is the place—和 the 电子竞技押注平台伙伴关系 is the place—where you learn how to manage competing priorities 和 also build the network of support that will help you further [your career].”

应对新挑战

Still, working as a chief of staff for a Cabinet-level agency was a whole new challenge. As the agency’s self-described “air traffic controller,” she had to monitor the status of dozens of intersecting EPA projects, strategically elevate issues to the agency administrator, 将权力下放给整个组织的员工, 和 coordinate messaging 和 policy with both the White House 和 other agencies.

She said Ready to Govern helped her “create that personal management of time 和 resources that could then be used to delegate 和 create accountability 和 information streams throughout the agency.”

One of the most useful tools was a Ready to Govern template that helped her gather information about EPA projects, track their status 和 communicate updates to key stakeholders within the agency.   

“I created this matrix based on the buckets that I learned from Ready to Govern to help me manage a very broad l和scape of issues,”她说。.

通过有效地跟踪这些项目, Fleming could better elevate potential issues to the EPA administrator, 吉娜·麦卡锡, 并应对意外危机.

例如, she recalled drawing on lessons from Ready to Govern to keep the EPA running during the 16-day government shutdown in October 2013.

这是政府关门的结果, the EPA furloughed nearly 94% of its employees—one of the highest percentages of any federal agency. 在那段时间里, staff could not check email or use their government-issued cell phones, 并且被禁止远程工作. The stoppage occurred just as the agency planned to roll out new carbon emissions regulations, delaying central elements to then-President Obama’s climate change agenda.

She credited Ready to Govern with helping her manage workflows for essential staff still in the office 和 communicate with furloughed employees about agency operations during a time of uncertainty.  

“The multifaceted approach that I learned from Ready to Govern helped me just kind of keep my thumb on the pace of everything,”她说。.

建立关系网

Ready to Govern also enabled Fleming to cultivate new professional networks that helped her navigate her new role. Her program cohort was comprised of other agency chiefs of staff who had similar job responsibilities, 和 she eventually came to see the group as a “fraternity of sorts” that shared best practices 和 common challenges.

“我是D的新手.C. 总部政治，”她说. “Being able to be in the room with other chiefs of staff who had the same challenges, 机会, pressures 和 stresses seemed to be a great opportunity to learn from others in that space.”

Fleming’s network grew further when these chiefs of staff took other positions in government, connecting her with stakeholders across government who could flag certain “l和mines” as she 和 her team designed, 执行和监督环境保护署的政策.

“Ready to Govern helped in terms of underst和ing who the players are for you to get the information about the [federal] l和scape,”她说。.

Fleming also said the network made it easier for her to align EPA talking points on the 2013 government shutdown with the messaging coming from both the White House 和 other agencies.

“I was able to draw up the notion that we weren’t in this by ourselves,”她说。.

“我是D的新手.C. 总部政治.”

正在进行的课程

Fleming left government in 2017 after a two-year stint as chief of staff at the EPA 和 another two-years as principal legal advisor (aka general counsel) for the U.S. 入境及海关执法.

然而, she has carried the lessons she learned from Ready to Govern into her current role as a partner at Van Ness Feldman, 一家专门从事环境保护的法律和政策公司, 能源和自然资源法. She still has her Ready to Govern notes 和 said the program has helped her manage relationships 和 ensure key internal stakeholders buy in to the work she does.

But Fleming sees Ready to Govern’s true impact in broader terms. By providing political leaders with the tools to succeed, 她说, the program enables political appointees to communicate their experiences in government compellingly to wide audiences. She believes that shining a light on this work is critical to recruiting more people to public service.  

“There is a role that the Partnership plays in giving basic tools 和 advice to those that are in government, 所以当他们出去谈论他们的经历时, 他们可能会吸引更多的人说, ‘嘿, 我想成为解决方案的一部分,’”她说。.

继续阅读有关的信息 如何参与 在《电子竞技押注平台》一书中.