The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2005

We’re in the advanced design stage for a significant expan- sion of the facilities at the Shultz Center. FSJ: Walking through the building today, I saw a lot of terminals in the hall- ways. KP: Yes, we’ve added quite a num- ber, although not nearly enough, I must say. That’s one wholly legitimate com- plaint, but we’re working on it. The cafeteria, as designed, isn’t quite big enough for everyone when we have full enrollment. And because we’re not within walking distance of any restau- rants, there aren’t a lot of alternatives. Students can brown-bag, of course — there are kitchenettes dispersed through all the buildings — but that isn’t necessarily practical for students on TDY. We’ve really encouraged creativity on the part of the individual schools in addressing these capacity issues. For instance, the dean of the language school went to his folks and said, “OK, we have 200 classrooms available, which isn’t enough to meet the demand we expect. How are we going to do it?” We don’t tell them how to do it, but we say: This is the outcome we’re seeking, this is how many students we need to accommodate in each course, and we let the staff take it from there. And they’ve come up with some really great ideas to maximize the use of each class- room. For example, many language courses are now offered in morning and afternoon shifts between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Finally, we’re using State annexes for some courses. We’ve found some space in SA-44, and are currently ren- ovating SA-15, part of the “old FSI” site in Rosslyn — the building in which you had A-100, Steve. When I first learned about that, by the way, I had some real flashbacks, but it’s actually going to be very nice. We also have some space at Main State. FSJ: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell placed a great deal of emphasis on professional training, in gener- al, and on leadership/management skills, in particular. How, concretely, has that emphasis been reflected in FSI’s course offerings, particularly in the Leadership and Management School? KP: Let me begin by noting that over the past several years, we’ve revamped our entire approach to professional training, begin- ning with the orientation courses and continuing through the rest of the pro- grams. The Leadership and Management School was created in 1999. It was aus- picious, I think, that [my predecessor] Ambassador Ruth Davis, had the fore- sight to do that even before Secretary Powell arrived and gave us a mandate, if you will, to focus on that real need. We’ve instituted mandatory leadership and management training for all State Department employees, during orienta- tion, at the mid-level and at the senior threshold. I should emphasize, by the way, that like other FSI training, these courses are not just intended for Foreign Service generalists, but also FS specialists and Civil Service employees, both from State and other agen- cies. The one time of the year when we do restrict the mandatory classes primarily to Foreign Service employees is during the summer transfer season, since that’s the only chance many of them have to take training. But for most of the year, enrollment is about half Foreign Service and half Civil Service. We find that having both in classes enhances the value for all the students, as they share dif- ferent experiences and perspectives. Director General [W. Robert] Pearson really wants to have strong Civil Service representation in all our courses, and he’s exhorted all the assistant secretaries to offer their Civil Service employees opportunities to enroll. We’re on track to meet our goal of getting nearly 8,000 people through the leadership courses by 2007, which is 12 per- cent above the original target of 7,000. FSJ: Is taking the mid-level leadership course required to be considered for promotion? KP: For the Foreign Service, yes. For Civil Service, taking the mid-level leadership and management training is considered mandatory as the Secretary and the Director General insist that they take it, but “promotion” is differ- ent in the Civil Service system, as you know. F O C U S 42 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 Steven Alan Honley is the editor of the Journal . Kathy Peterson