Chief Learning Officer - August 2008 - (Page 26)

PROFILE Department of Homeland Security’s George Tanner E Pluribus Unum: Uniting Organizations Through Learning BY BRIAN SUMMERFIELD The Department of Homeland Security was established in 2002 to facilitate sharing of resources and knowledge among federal organizations focused on national security. In his role as CLO of DHS, Dr. George Tanner has applied this strategy to the department’s learning offerings. T he United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had a somewhat shaky start. Created during a time of alarm and uncertainty that immediately followed the 9/11 attacks, the department was plagued in early years by charges of being ineffectual (with a vague color-coded threat scale and a roundly criticized call for using duct tape as a means of defense against terrorist attacks); inefﬁciency issues (including employee misuse of government credit cards that squandered billions of taxpayer dollars); and problems with leadership (such as the botched attempt to appoint scandalplagued former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik as head of DHS). In addition to these troubles, the organization has faced serious challenges in the talent management sphere. A 2006 survey of government employees from the U.S. Ofﬁce of Personnel Management found DHS in the bottom tier of federal agencies in several people-related dimensions, including a second-to-last ranking in “leadership and knowledge management” and dead last in “results-oriented performance culture.” Admittedly, the proposed organizational structure of DHS all but guaranteed its formation would be problematic. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 fused together about 30 government entities — some of which had a history that could be measured in centuries — into a new cabinet-level department. This was, in fact, the largest change in the conﬁguration of the U.S. federal government since the Department of Defense was created in 1947. Dr. George Tanner, chief learning ofﬁcer for DHS, described this challenge by way of an explanation that originated with DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff ’s current Chief of Staff Chad Sweet, who came to the department from the private sector. “He was a mergers expert, and the Department of Homeland Security is in many ways a merger,” Tanner said. “One of the things I hear him say on a regular basis is that when a merger takes place in the private sector, it’s usually between Company A and Company B. You have to merge management, leadership, IT, mission, products and whatever else. And it often takes between ﬁve and eight years for a successful merger between two companies with more or less the same background. “Well, the Department of Homeland Security brought together about 30 agencies, departments and program areas — some similar and some dissimilar — and we’re only now hitting our ﬁve-year mark. The department is a work in progress. If you compare the department to a corporate entity, I think we’re on track.” Part of getting DHS on track was establishing the CLO role. The position was instituted in 2006 based on a suggestion from the Homeland Security Advisory Council, which was formed at the request of Chertoff shortly after he arrived at the department. “The secretary asked the Advisory Council and other senior leaders to look at the organi- 26 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • August 2008 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - August 2008

Chief Learning Officer - August 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Connections Business Impact Trends Best Practices Effectiveness High-Octane Leadership Development Leadership and Personality CLO Profile Discussion Groups: Harvesting Value from Real-World Experiences Kimpton 2.0: Discussion on the Web Learning Olympics: Development Through Competition Bypassing the Obstacles to Change Listen Up: A How-To-Guide for Podcasting University of Toyota: A Success Story in Podcast Implementation What Stinks About Webinars? Webinars for Learning Professionals Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - August 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.