Transformational Public Service by King Cheryl;Zanetti Lisa; & Lisa A. Zanetti

Author:King, Cheryl;Zanetti, Lisa; & Lisa A. Zanetti [King, Cheryl Simrell & Zanetti, Lisa A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2005-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Part III

Transforming Institutions

Story:

Transforming Bureaucracy

Douglas MacDonald

Department of Transportation, State of Washington

DOI: 10.4324/9781315698618-7

When Cheryl first met Doug, he had been the secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) for only a short time. He was already making waves, working to transform a bureaucracy steeped in an “engineering mentality” into an active, citizen-centered agency. Transportation in Washington state is a place where the rubber meets the road with regard to citizen disconnection and discontent. For most Washington citizens, nary a day goes by when they do not encounter a transportation issue, whether it is funding, gridlock (on the I-5 corridor, specifically), or maintaining rural roads. Washington state citizens, like those in other states, encounter government in the form of transportation policies and problems on a daily basis. As a result, WSDOT is a place where citizen attitudes are formed and shaped.

As secretary, one of the first things Doug did was to move his administrative office from the top floor of the WSDOT building on the State Capital Campus to the first floor, signifying his availability to the public. In addition, he began to appear everywhere, in an orange WSDOT safety vest and his hard hat. At a major accident on I-90, Doug was the spokesperson for the media, not the department’s public information officer. After a maintenance-related incident that resulted in unanticipated gridlock, Doug appeared on a Seattle radio talk show and admitted that WSDOT had made a mistake.

Doug came to this position after a successful run as the executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). Under his guidance, the MWRA transformed the management of the water supply and waste treatment systems for greater Boston. The key reasons for the success of this project, according to Doug, is that the project had a strong goal consensus; the broadest possible ownership of the project was encouraged; the work was grounded in management commitments linked to the values of transparency, collaboration, and respect and a commitment to quality and integrity; the project benefited from the delivery of a constant succession of benefits; and the project was blessed with good timing and good luck. Doug brought all of these tendencies with him to his work with WSDOT.

Doug considers himself not so much a product of his Harvard education as a product of the Peace Corps.

My university education is in the Peace Corps. That is my alma mater. I went into the Peace Corps being well suited to do what the Peace Corps did because I had a lot of interesting experiences in college that prepared me to do that sort of thing. But, I don’t feel like I am a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. I feel I happened to go to those places to get educated, but that, in fact, the Peace Corps is where my class is, where my group is. When I went to the Peace Corps’ twenty-fifth anniversary a few years ago, I felt it was the one place where the group with whom I

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