May 12, 2017

An Exit Interview With Carolyn Colvin

     Before leaving office, then Acting Commisioner Carolyn Colvin sat down for an interview with McKinsey and Company, a huge and highly influential consulting company. 
     Colvin has had a long and distinguished career as a public servant. She made the best of a bad funding situation at Social Security. She has a lot to be proud of. However, this interview does not improve my opinion of her. It's crammed with endless Dilbertesque management buzzwords. If you're touting Vision 2025 as a major achievement, one that truly effected change, you've lost touch with reality. Vision 2025 was of no consequence at the time it was issued and has already been forgotten because it was nothing more than vapid generalities.
     I'll say this for her. If she kept a listed landline after becoming Commissioner, I don't know whether to be impressed or just amazed.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed that she told Congress that:

"We simply do not have enough staff to complete all of the work for which we are responsible, and we made strategic decisions about the areas in which we must do less with less."

Statement of Carolyn W. Colvin,
Deputy Commissioner, Social Security Administration
before the
House Committee on Ways and Means,
Subcommittee on Social Security
January 24, 2012

Anonymous said...

as a manager, she was NOT good. As someone charged with administering public funds for public benefit, she was NOT good. She did attempt to boost morale and almost all of her decisions can be viewed as catering to employees (telework for all, damn the consequences).

Anonymous said...

Yes she did catered to the employees but only to the selected many. The top two Minority groups benefited but the rest were left to eat dust and whatever left. It was thought times and might get worse with her new deputies!!

Anonymous said...

Omg those town halls. Colvin built a cult of personality around herself that was filled with sycophants all too happy to announce her presence and give her flowers (literally). She had absolutely no organizational savvy. She was merely just a character in a movie starring herself. I am so glad she is gone.

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Anonymous said...

@5:30 wins the day. 100% agreement. Those were the worst.

Anonymous said...

Did she actually say ".... the citizens do not separate, for example, the SSA, the US Postal Service, and the Department of Homeland Security in their minds." When was the last time someone when to SSA to buy stamps? I'm pretty sure people have no problem separating these, in their minds and that people are savvy enough to place incompetence on the correct agency. People are not THAT stupid!

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, as things are now, being a "yes person" and using buzzwords are the way to get ahead.