The Foreign Service Journal, December 2008

C hange, change, change. As I write these words, the glob- al financial system is going up in flames and most of the large-economy govern- ments are nationalizing banks and/or propping up their financial systems. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, theU.S. presidential transition is underway. After suc- cessfully completing the “on-the-job training” to win the election, the new executives must try towin over the bureaucracy. The incoming administration has just a fewdays to select thousands of political appointees, develop policies and hit the ground running. Wewould probably agree that life itself (personal relationship repair, car repair, house repair, educational repair, physical repair, etc.) ismostlyOJT. Sowhybother towriteabout it? For one thing, it is not the most time-efficient approach. Consider language: bab- bling along with your parents (and Barney, Dora and Sponge Bob) can only get you so far. Then follow many long years of classes, practice and more classes. All of that so you can have the OJT to learn to remove all adjectives, adverbs and anything remotely interesting from your reporting cable. We need a more thoughtful approach to career development and corporate (in our case, agency) culture. In the past, FAS hired young agricultural economists, had themspend a few years in FAS/Washington and then shipped themoverseas as junior officers. There was very little training at all. While that might have worked when the primarymission of our overseas offices was to sendmonthly agricultural production, supply and distribution data toWashington, it won’t help us prepare for future chal- lenges. Today, however, inaddition to theFoodandAgricultureOrganization, there aremany private-sector companies preparing PS&D-type reports on a wider range of agricultur- al commodities than FAS ever envisioned. While data crunching will never totally dis- appear fromour careers, it is nowonly aminor part. But, rather than saywe need train- ing inhot topics like “WorldTradeOrganizationdispute settlement”or “bio-nano-cloned whatevers,”whatwe reallyneed is abetter corporate culturewitha commitment tocareer- long training. In short, we need anFAS versionof theA-100 (“welcome to your newcareer”) class, annual regional conferences, a Foreign Service career development office andmonthly conference calls/webcasts/DVCs tokeepeveryone informed. Right nowtheweekly “Notes to the Field” e-mail is trying to cover too much — both the day-to-day, running-the- office information as well as the highlights of key developments inWashington. AdministratorMichael Yost andAssociateAdministratorConstance Jacksonare reach- ing out andhave started to tacklemany of these concerns. Unfortunately, changing cul- tures anddeveloping an environment supportive of career development take a long time. Wewill still learn themajority of our job fromOJT, but with a shared vision of what is important, we shouldn’t have to flounder as much. I offer to teach a short segment on “Labor-Management Relationships.” I’ve not had any formal training on that topic, but I suspect we will all get lots of OJT over the next year(s) aswe renegotiate our contract, address theWashingtonPlacement Plan, andwel- come a new set of “interim,” then “new” administrators to FAS. Fasten your seat belt and enjoy the OJT. 62 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / DE C EMB E R 2 0 0 8 A F S A N E W S V.P. VOICE: FAS BYHENRYS. SCHMICK Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of “On-the-Job-Training” AFSA NEWS BRIEFS AFSA Scholarship Applications Now Available, Due Feb. 6, 2009 Tax-dependent children of AFSA and AAFSW members and Foreign Service employees (active-duty, retired or deceased) are eligible to apply for aca- demic and art merit awards (for high school seniors only) and need-based college scholarships (for undergradu- ates only). Go to www.afsa.org/ scholar/ for eligibility details, applications and instructions, or contact Lori Dec at dec@afsa.org or (202) 944-5504 or 1 (800) 704-2372, ext. 504. Scholarship Renewal Foreign Service officer Stephen Hubler graciously has renewed the AFSA schol- arship he first established in September 2005 with another generous gift. This will be bestowed in the 2009-2010 school year as a financial aid scholarship in honor of his parents, Alice and John Hubler. Hubler, whose father is a retired FSO, explains that he is living by the values his parents instilled in him: “Repay kind deeds in kind, and share the generous blessings we enjoy with others.” Mr. Hubler is funding part of this scholarship with a State Department award he received for advancing U.S.- E.U. relations in Macedonia.