Bob Behn is a lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is the faculty chair of the Kennedy School's executive education program on Driving Government Performance: Leadership Strategies that Produce Results. He also conducts custom-designed executive programs for public agencies.

His latest book is Rethinking Democratic Accountability, published by the Brookings Institution Press. His two most recent articles are "Why Measure Performance? Different Purposes Require Different Measures" and "The Psychological Barriers to Performance Management: Or Why Isn't Everyone Jumping on the Performance-Management Bandwagon."

Bob served on the staff of Governor Francis W. Sargent of Massachusetts, as a scholar in residence with the Council for Excellence in Government, and on the faculty of the Harvard Business School and Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. From June 1993 to January 1998, Bob wrote the Management column for Governing.

Behn’s suggestions | Readers’ responses | Previous dilemmas

Merging Two Agencies

Carla Mays isn’t happy. She thought she would be the deputy secretary of West Dakota’s new Department of Environmental Preservation and Natural Resources. George Herman isn’t happy either — and for precisely the same reason. So, as the person who did get the appointment, you face not only the management challenge of merging two departments. You also have to cope with two people who think they have been demoted.

Although each of Bob Behn’s Manager’s Choice dilemmas is set in a particular public agency and deals with a particular problem, each is intended to provide a specific context for a common management challenge — one that might just as easily come up in a different kind of agency facing a similar problem but with different specifics. All Governing.com visitors are invited to draw on their experience and submit suggestions.

And, in a sense, they have. Last fall, the West Dakota legislature — hoping to create some productive synergies among two organizations with similar missions — merged the Department of Environmental Preservation with the Department of Natural Resources. Then, in January, when Emily Leonard was sworn in as governor, she appointed Woody Joseph to be the secretary (who, in West Dakota, has the “outside” political responsibilities) and you to be the deputy secretary (with the “inside” management job). Further, she selected Mays (who had been deputy secretary of the old Department of Natural Resources) to be director of the new Division of Natural Resources, and Herman (the deputy secretary of the former Department of Environmental Preservation) to be the director of the new Division of Environmental Preservation.

Each could view this as a promotion. Neither is a deputy anything anymore. Each now has a title suggesting that she or he is the big kahuna. In reality, each has less operating authority than before, and each knows it. Still both have proven to be effective managers and have acquired significant expertise in the environmental and natural-resources field.

The governor, however, chose you to produce the promised synergies. What does this mean? It isn’t clear. During the legislative debate, the word “synergy” was used almost as frequently as “efficiency” and “money-saving.” If no one knows what it means, however, you have a shot at defining it.

Thirty years ago, the legislature removed the Environmental Regulation Division from the Department of Natural Resources and created the (then-new) Department of Environmental Preservation. Thus, although the two departments began with identical administrative systems and similar cultures, they have drifted apart. Originally, they were housed in the same building downtown in the capital, Zenith City. In the 1980s, however, the Department of Natural Resources moved to the suburbs. Consequently, if this synergy thing is to mean anything, you have to figure out how and where to co-locate the two divisions.

Furthermore, the synergy concept means nothing if the new department consists of two independent divisions. That’s why the legislature gave the governor reorganization authority. Before the July 1 deadline, you have to recommend to Leonard a new administrative structure.

Finally, you and Secretary Joseph face several major issues — policy questions on which neither of you is an expert. The nastiest concerns snowmobiles. Many citizens love driving through the snow in the state’s parks and forests. Others detest the noise and the pollution. In early April, the legislature will hold hearings on this issue, and Joseph has asked you to develop the department’s position.

You wanted a management challenge. You’ve got it.

What should you do?

For Bob Behn’s approach to this month’s public management dilemma — or to post your own ideas — click here.

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