While the Clinton Administration and federal agencies were busy making government cost less and work better in the near-term, the United States Air Force was regularly visualizing the competencies needed to assure the organization's long-term effectiveness. As a result of steady efforts to prepare for the future conducted under successive secretaries and chiefs of staff, the Air Force has developed a distinctive approach to strategic planning. This approach is fundamentally concerned with ensuring that the organization's future capabilities support effective performance of future tasks. Such tasks are shaped by ever-changing policy objectives and circumstances of implementation. After eight years, the Air Force has not only successfully refined its distinctive approach to strategic planning, but has also leveraged change in programmatic decisions, human resource management, and operational technologies. This study provides an inside look at how the Air Force came to formulate and declare its ""strategic intent"" for developing the organization's capabilities over a timeline of more than twenty years. Air Force strategic intent is not a plan, but a shared commitment to strengthening specific core competencies and critical future capabilities. Michael Barzelay and Colin Campbell reveal how one of the nation's most significant public organizations has reassessed its own strategic intent. Drawing lessons from the Air Force experience, this book provides a significant contribution to public management research on innovation and executive leadership. One key lesson is that preparing for the future is a responsibility that organizations can discharge effectively if they combine insights with practical knowledge of executive leadership and the dynamics of policy change. Preparing for the Future provides a fresh argument about innovation and leadership in public management, while breaking new ground in the analysis of managerial practices, such as strategic v
About the Author :
Colin H. Campbell is an independent researcher and holds a PhD from Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications.
Review :
"This is at one level a fascinating analysis of how the U.S. Air Force tries to plan for technological developments and environmental threats thirty years off. But it also analyzes the Air Force case to extract the implications for governmental organizations more generally. Both of these analyses are sophisticated, incisive, and subtle. It should be read by academics and by public managers." —Eugene Bardach, professor of public policy, Goldman School of Public Policy
|"[The authors] are experts in strategic planning theory and practice, and they are virtuosos in the case study method, a fact that is clear from their book....their work makes a major contribution to the public management research on strategic management, executive leadership, and innovation in complex organizations." —Lawrence R. Jones, Naval Postgraduate School, Public Administration Review, 11/30/2006
|"For those who continue to deliberate the advantages of strategic planning and best practices for navigating its implementation, Barzelay and Campbell have delivered a detailed and comprehensive case study well suited to illuminate the promises and pitfalls. Strategic planning is, above all, a journey that can at times be both dynamic and difficult. The authors have cogently described the U.S. Air Force's experience in planning for the 21st century —it is a valuable addition to the literature on this subject." —General Thomas S. Moorman Jr. (Ret.), former vice chief of staff, United States Air Force
|" Preparing for the Future reveals how, when, and why strategic planning can be used to transform large government bureaucracies. Barzelay and Campbell's careful attention to context, content, process, and outcomes& #151;and the interconnections among them& #151;is outstanding. The story they tell is fascinating. The emphasis on visioning, competencies, leadership, culture, and smart practices is right on target. The result is a book that will become an instant classic in the field." —John M. Bryson, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
|"This book is more than just a fascinating history of the Air Force's efforts to keep a step ahead of dizzying technologies and strategic challenges. It's also a searching examination of how public spirited career professionals can transform their agencies& #151;to use 'guided incrementalism' to improve the odds government gets where it needs to go. Preparing for the Future is a must-read for anyone interested in how government can shape the future, instead of the other way around." —Donald F. Kettl, University of Wisconsin–Madison
