
If We Can Put a Man on the Moon
Getting Big Things Done in Government
- 256 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
The American people are frustrated with their government-dismayed by a series of high-profile failures (Iraq, Katrina, the financial meltdown) that seems to just keep getting longer. Yet our nation has a proud history of great achievements: victory in World War II, our national highway system, welfare reform, the moon landing.We need more successes like these to reclaim government's legacy of competence. In If We Can Put a Man on the Moon, William Eggers and John O'Leary explain how to do it. The key? Understand-and avoid-the common pitfalls that trip up public-sector leaders during the journey from idea to results.The authors identify pitfalls including:-The Partial Map Trap: Fumbling handoffs throughout project execution-The Tolstoy Syndrome: Seeing only the possibilities you want to see-Design-Free Design: Designing policies for passage through the legislature, not for implementation-The Overconfidence Trap: Creating unrealistic budgets and timelines-The Complacency Trap: Failing to recognize that a program needs changeAt a time of unprecedented challenges, this book, with its abundant examples and hands-on advice, is the essential guide to making our government work better. A must-read for every public official, this book will be of interest to anyone who cares about the future of democracy.
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Information
Table of contents
- Praise for If We Can Put a Man on the Moon ...
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Table of Contents
- Preface - The Conflict Behind the Cliché
- Introduction - The Seven Deadly Traps on the Journey to Success
- CHAPTER 1 - The Tolstoy Trap
- CHAPTER 2 - The Design-Free Design Trap
- CHAPTER 3 - The Stargate Trap
- CHAPTER 4 - The Overconfidence Trap
- CHAPTER 5 - The Sisyphus Trap
- CHAPTER 6 - The Complacency Trap
- CHAPTER 7 - The Silo Trap
- CHAPTER 8 - Creating a Better Future
- Appendix A - Case Studies Analyzed
- Appendix B - National Academy of Public Administration Survey Results
- Appendix C - Senior Executive Service Survey Results
- Appendix D - Policy Execution Survey Results, Canada
- Notes
- Index
- Acknowledgments
- About the Authors