Beyond furnishing a framework that makes intuitive sense to people living in organizations, Mission DNA and its action-planning tools provide a road map for developing sustainable improvements to your organizational culture.
The Profiler and its associated building blocks are simple and easy to understand concepts, and can therefore serve as a foundation for a range of improvement initiatives both small-scale and large-scale.
Our clients have used Mission DNA as a foundation to improve their organizations in a variety of ways, from using the results of the Profiler diagnostic simply as a conversation-starter to broader organizational initiatives such as workforce preparation for Base Realignments.
Some examples of how Mission DNA can be applied in the Public Sector are described below:
In organizations undergoing major transformations (e.g‚ centralization‚ decentralization)‚ Mission DNA can be used not only to diagnose organizational issues‚ but also to design a new organizational model to support the transformation. Since the Mission DNA framework examines all aspects of an organization’s ability to execute‚ it can help ensure the new organization will promote lasting behavior change. The overall Mission DNA concept and its four building blocks–decision rights‚ information, motivators‚ and structure–can be used in the change management and implementation effort in such areas as workforce planning‚ training, and leadership development.
Leadership posts in government organizations routinely change hands‚ between appointments after each election‚ military rotations, and detail assignments. Mission DNA can help a newly appointed Senior Leader (e.g.‚ Chief‚ Director‚ Site Commander) with a quick assessment on pressing organizational issues and challenges so he or she can hit the ground running. New Senior Leaders–whether insiders or outsiders–have at most 100 days to align the organization behind their agenda; it’s mission critical that they know how and why the organization works‚ even before they take the job. We have seen experienced, highly successful Senior Leaders fail upon taking the helm at a new organization‚ simply because they assumed their new organization would behave like their last one. But different types of organizations have different traits and behaviors. The Mission DNA methodology provides a useful‚ easy way to get a lay of the land‚ whether you’re a new Senior Leader‚ unit head‚ or division leader.
Organisms must adapt to be able to fulfill their needs in an ever-changing environment. If they do not adapt‚ their fate is extinction. Some Department of Defense (DoD) organizations face a similar dilemma during BRAC implementation. These organizations are consolidating functions over a period of years with reduced funding in anticipation of expected efficiencies. To become adaptable and ensure mission continuity‚ they must turn to organizational design. Our organizational design approach looks at the big picture. Using Mission DNA as both a baseline and metric of the health of the new organizational structure‚ we can help your organization to design organizational structures with the appropriate units and corresponding functions‚ improved customer service‚ lower operating costs, and a streamlined organization focused on services that provide the highest value for the cost to customers.
Click here to learn more about Booz Allen Hamilton's Organizational Design support for BRAC.
Federal Human Capital Survey (FHCS) findings are primary inputs for action planning in the federal sector. The Federal Human Capital Survey yields a great deal of information about organizational strengths and weaknesses and provides a foundation for taking action to improve the health of each Federal organization. OPM provides public access to FHCS data from all federal agencies such that leaders‚ and prospective candidates‚ can see how agencies are performing relative to their industry peers‚ providing context to interpretation of survey results. As FHCS results are used to drive ‘Best Places to Work’ rankings‚ senior leaders have a vested interest in taking action to improve their rankings and‚ in turn, their recruiting and retention prospects. Further‚ employees who participate in surveys expect management to listen to their concerns and take appropriate action; lack of action may be detrimental to future climate scores.
Applying Mission DNA and its action planning tools are one method for helping federal senior leaders to screen and prioritize potential areas for post–FHCS action planning. We have married the Mission DNA framework to FHCS items to support action planning in the federal sector. Booz Allen has mapped the 73 FHCS items to the four Mission DNA bases so that a federal organization’s FHCS results can be used to diagnose its “DNA‚” leveraging FHCS results as the basis for DNA categorization without reliance on an additional assessment.
Contact us at mission_dna@bah.com or contact one of our experts for more information on this offering.
