The First 90 Days in Government: Critical Success Strategies for New Public Managers at All Levels

6

Create Alliances

THE DAY Duane Robinson was sworn in as director of the state human services department, his boss, the newly elected governor, gave him a clear mandate. “Restore public faith,” Duane was told. “And do it as fast as you can.” This was a tall order. The department Duane was inheriting had come under fire during the previous governor’s administration, after media exposure of a series of questionable financial-management practices and a heavily publicized failure in its handling of several child-welfare cases.

Duane had been a senior executive at a midsize private healthcare company. He was known as an aggressive leader, someone who could move often recalcitrant bureaucracies to get things done. But he quickly began to wonder whether ...