We can see some good thinking has been done here. In order to effectively shift the culture, among the most important things to get right starts with the CDC's vision for the future." Read our response to the CNN article.
CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, assessing that the CDC's performance in response to COVID-19 "did not reliably meet expectations," announced plans on Wednesday to remake the agency's culture with the aim of restoring public trust. "My goal is a new, public health action-oriented culture at CDC that emphasizes accountability, collaboration, communication, and timeliness." This focus points to the need for better alignment between Operations and Products - two of the four key elements of their Strategic Framework (Vision and KPIs are the other two).
Better alignment is intended to increase resilience for correcting acknowledged problems, such as releasing flawed test to public health laboratories that obscured the extent of the virus's spread for months, and issuing public health guidance that was viewed as confusing, ineffective, and late. The restructuring also pointed to the need for increased adaptability, which they hope to achieve, according to CNN, through "a new office of intergovernmental affairs - a hub where states' health departments and other federal agencies will interact with the CDC." This is a step in the right direction for strengthening important ties within their ecosystem.
We can see good thinking has been done here. At the same time, if CDC were our client, we would suggest the most important things to get right for shifting the culture starts with their Vision for the future (i.e. what overarching purpose will inspire and unite the many functions within CDC?). Next in importance are Style (what will be reinforced in the way people approach their work e.g. 'get stuff done' vs 'seek perfection'?), and Mood (i.e. fostering Ambition, Confidence, Appreciation, or Respect in everything they do with each other, their customers, and key stakeholders?). Finally, KPIs (alerts that tell them if they are tracking with desired outcomes) are critically important to define and make visible and timely.
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