The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) met recently with the Obama transition team for Social Security. The SSAB's written materials for this meeting are available on the SSAB website.
I hardly know how to describe the SSAB comments. They seem mostly to describe problems and issues at Social Security, but to provide few suggestions on what to do about them. Mostly, the comments suggest that Social Security needs to solve its problems by doing some sort of very smart reorganization. The SSAB has no idea what this very smart reorganization would look like, but Social Security has problems, so management at Social Security must come up with a very smart reorganization to solve the problems. There are vague hints at the possibility that SSAB thinks that the agency might just possibly need a few more warm bodies to get the work done, but these hints are submerged in a sea of this sort of thing:
I hardly know how to describe the SSAB comments. They seem mostly to describe problems and issues at Social Security, but to provide few suggestions on what to do about them. Mostly, the comments suggest that Social Security needs to solve its problems by doing some sort of very smart reorganization. The SSAB has no idea what this very smart reorganization would look like, but Social Security has problems, so management at Social Security must come up with a very smart reorganization to solve the problems. There are vague hints at the possibility that SSAB thinks that the agency might just possibly need a few more warm bodies to get the work done, but these hints are submerged in a sea of this sort of thing:
SSA needs to develop a vision and focus on the integration of processes, investment in a modern technology platform, and development of a highly skilled and creative workforce. This is not merely tinkering around the edges—by addressing fundamental organizational change in these three areas—process, platform, and people, the agency has the potential to make the administration of the Social Security programs more effective in meeting the public’s demand for service.This sort of drivel -- it sounds like something out of the comic strip Dilbert -- makes it hard to justify the continued existence of the SSAB.
I'm no fan of the SSAB but your characterization as a reorganization is pretty weak. The thrust is there is a need for a business process redesign unfettered by existing organizational constraints. They are right.
ReplyDeleteNo business process redesign has any relevance without the injection of massive numbers of new employees.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Charles on this one. Buzz words never adjudicated a claim, and the SSAB has been adrift in buzz words for years now.
ReplyDeleteSome of us who worked on the legislation making SSA independent were pretty skeptical about creating an "Advisory Board," but two of the three panel members were in favor and here we are.