The Foreign Service Journal, October 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2015 7 hose of you who worked withme inmy previous role as dean of the Leadership andManagement School at the Foreign Service Institute may well have heardme talk about what good Foreign Service leaders do when they arrive at their new job. They consult intensively with stake- holders to form an assessment (Is this ship on course, off course, or sinking?) and to forge a vision for the years ahead (What is the best we can do in this situation, with the resources we have, to deliver for the people who put us here?). The next step: rally the troops behind the vision. Then, remove obstacles to achieving the vision and align resources behind it. Finally, celebrate success and reward your people. As I write, about seven weeks after tak- ing office, we are well into the first phase of forming an assessment and refining the vision, while moving smartly into the effort to align resources behind it. As president of AFSA and chair of the Governing Board— and as a big believer in transparency and accountability as foundations of good governance—I want to share my initial assessment with you, the people who put us here. Bottom line: The state of our asso- ciation is strong. AFSA has 16,500 members, includ- ing almost 80 per- cent of all active- duty members of the Foreign Service. Our finances are sound: AFSA has just come through the annual outside audit with the highest organizational rating. Efforts by the previous Governing Board and staff improved internal AFSA governance by creating written operating procedures reflecting best practices. With nearly 40 dedicated professionals on the staff, AFSA is well positioned to deliver on the vision of making the Foreign Service stronger in fact and in reputation. That vision is undergirded by the three pillars I outlined inmy first column. While the effort to refine the vision is still under- way, I offer this update in the hope that the benefits of modeling transparency and inviting thoughtful collaboration outweigh the risks of communicating prematurely. Comprehensive workforce planning . The desired outcome is a cohesive, robust, resilient, confident Foreign Service fit to lead America’s foreign policy through the challenging decades ahead, as power becomes more diffuse (less concentrated in U.S. government hands) and the already rapid pace of change accelerates. To effec- tively advance America’s foreign policy interests in the face of these challenges, we in the Foreign Service will need to up our collective game. We are pulling together a comprehen- sive picture of our workforce and look forward to sharing that overview with you, our members—who are by definition stewards of the Foreign Service. We are simultaneously working with manage- ment to address short-term challenges in a way that delivers on the long-term goal of a strong, resilient, confident Foreign Service. Finally, to guide the effort, we are formulating a programof benchmarking to glean and then share best practices so that members of the Foreign Service can be informed and articulate about how to apply these best practices to the gover- nance of our own organization, the Foreign Service. Outreach to tell our proud story to the American people. Our goal is to increase awareness about, and favorable views of, the Foreign Service among the American people. In strategic terms, we are looking at ele- ments of the message that most resonate, and we are weighing whether to narrow our target audience to key states. In practi- cal terms, we are seeking funding to sup- port this effort, which we envision having twomajor components—a retiree-driven effort complemented by an outreach pro- gram featuring Foreign Service members on active duty. Inreach to our members. In this third pillar of work, which ties back to the benchmarking effort in the first pillar, we seek to spark and sustain a structured discussion about issues affecting our pro- fession. I want you, AFSA’s members, to be fully engaged and informed, knowledge- able about best practices and prepared to advocate for good governance in the Foreign Service. I welcome your feedback and your ideas. You can reachme at Stephenson@ afsa.org . n PRESIDENT’S VIEWS Ambassador Barbara Stephenson is the president of the American Foreign Service Association. Setting Our Course BY BARBARA STEPHENSON T