The Foreign Service Journal, June 2020

20 JUNE 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL vice provision can then be redesigned to empower our diplomats, not force them to master Byzantine internal regulations. Second, leverage employees’ capabili- ties by offering them greater back-office support, such as mapmaking, visualiza- tion, research support and data analysis. We ask a lot of our people overseas to serve the demands of policymakers in Washington, D.C.; we must, in turn, provide them the support necessary to do the real work of forward-deployed diplomacy. We already have some great tools that are lightly used, not well understood or not intended to be resources. These could be reframed to aid U.S. missions overseas. For example, the Office of the Geogra- pher can support posts worldwide with maps and geographic visualizations. The Office of the Historian and the Center for the Study of the Conduct of Diplomacy can research past examples relevant to present-day challenges. The same goes for the Ralph J. Bunche Library and its research team, which already assists Foreign Service officers in finding past cables and outside research on important topics. Such support will provide context and help officers write more insightful reports. As the department offers more train- ing in data and analytics, it should also create a data team that can help gather, sort, use and visualize data to better explain the world to U.S. policymak- ers and advocate U.S. policy to foreign governments. This is a common practice in the private sector. Stanford’s centralized research sup- port team is a great example. Its trained specialists support faculty across the university, manage the procurement of datasets, supervise the storage and pro- tection of data, and do preliminary data cleaning and analysis. The team shares insights, ensures work is not replicated unnecessarily and safeguards data. All these capabilities would be force multipliers for officers in the field. The department’s new Center for Analytics could fill this role. Third, commit time and resources to training to ensure our diplomats are the best prepared in the world. This has been a perpetual refrain since the depart- ment’s founding, but resource constraints have meant that time in training for anything beyond language is scarce. In the absence of the long-sought training float, the department has made strides to offer better coursework and more flex- ible courses online through the Foreign Service Institute. It has also expanded training and exchange programs and broadened its leave without pay policy to facilitate self-directed opportunities. I am a grateful beneficiary of that change. One way to appeal for greater training resources would be to adopt a practice the U.S. military has used with great success: invite foreign diplomats to train alongside their U.S counterparts. Just as the National War Colleges host thousands of the world’s best military officers each year, the Foreign Service Institute could train the world’s best diplomats, provid- ing greater insight to our own officers and helping build connections with diplomats around the world. Beyond the training opportunities themselves, one of the greatest—and least-discussed—bars to improved train- ing is cultural. Many employees avoid long-term training for fear it harms their promotion prospects. Just as the U.S. mil- itary has done, the department needs to incentivize training to flip this narrative. If the department makes long-term train- ing a desired and promotable position, it will encourage broader participation and find itself with better trained officers. Putting Knowledge to Work While people may be the depart- ment’s most valuable asset, knowledge is the currency in which they deal. For diplomats, knowledge is power. There is much to learn from those who work in similar, knowledge-based professions, like law and consulting. Companies in these industries don’t build products but produce ideas, and offer insights on how to grow, teach, share and retain knowledge. The first step is to increase col- laboration. Perhaps the most-lauded accomplishment of former Secretary Rex Tillerson’s ill-fated redesign was the re-addition of USAID employees to the global address listing, an email lookup system that allows employees to connect with their colleagues. That was a welcome first step, but we need to go beyond names and emails. Most other organizations, especially those where collaboration is prized, have internal websites where employees are listed with pictures, previous work Imagine a world where an employee travels to a new country, arrives at a U.S. diplomatic facility and immediately gains access to the compound by swiping a global identification badge.