An Initiative For Clarity In The Federal Government

A Government Document Without the Governmentese: OPM Plan Sets Clear Goals

The Office of Personnel Management announced a "to do" list yesterday.

It released a new five-year strategic and operational plan that is strikingly clear and simple. Past OPM plans have been filled with dense text, making it difficult to figure out what the agency's goals were, or featured glossy photos and mostly rhetorical fluff. The new plan is neither.

It is a 35-page booklet, not a tome. It lists 170 objectives -- what the agency's director, Linda M. Springer , called "to do items" -- each with a deadline. The description of each objective begins with a verb -- issue, develop, set up, complete -- "an actual action we are taking," Springer said.

"It is not a political plan. It is not a director's plan," she told reporters yesterday.

That may be the case, because Springer stressed that a 50-member task force put the plan together. But it reflects the no-nonsense, down-to-earth style that Springer has brought to OPM since her confirmation last summer. She had previously served as controller at the Office of Management and Budget and has spent more than 25 years in the life insurance and financial services industries.

Springer's plan is focused on the federal workforce -- how to improve hiring, speed up background investigations, get pension payments out the door faster to retirees and roll out new benefits, such as dental and vision packages this fall.

"We didn't set ivory tower goals," she said. "They are realistic."

Some many years ago I found a book on writing for business and government that had the sub-title of "Zero-Based Gobbledygook." The designer of the OPM plan may have read that very same book and took it to heart. That's one... now let us tackle the rest of the government.