If We Can Put a Man on the Moon

The American people are frustrated with their government-dismayed by a series of high-profile failures (Iraq, Katrina, the financial meltdown) that seems to just keep getting longer. Yet our nation has a proud history of great achievements: victory in World War II, our national highway system, welfare reform, the moon landing. We need more successes like these to reclaim government's legacy of competence. In If We Can Put a Man on the Moon, William Eggers and John O'Leary explain how to do it. The key? Understand-and avoid-the common pitfalls that trip up public-sector leaders during the journey from idea to results. The authors identify pitfalls including: -The Partial Map Trap: Fumbling handoffs throughout project execution -The Tolstoy Syndrome: Seeing only the possibilities you want to see -Design-Free Design: Designing policies for passage through the legislature, not for implementation -The Overconfidence Trap: Creating unrealistic budgets and timelines -The Complacency Trap: Failing to recognize that a program needs change At a time of unprecedented challenges, this book, with its abundant examples and hands-on advice, is the essential guide to making our government work better. A must-read for every public official, this book will be of interest to anyone who cares about the future of democracy.

William D. Eggers is one of the country's best known authorities on government reform. An author, a columnist, and popular speaker, for two decades Eggers has built a significant following among public sector thought leaders in America and overseas. His columns in Governing and Public CIO and feature articles in Government Executive regularly reach more than 100,000 readers. He is a sought after speaker, giving close to 100 speeches a year. Currently Mr. Eggers is the Global Research Director for Deloitte's public sector practice and Executive Director of its Public Leadership Institute. He is the author of several books on government reform. John O'Leary has both government and private sector experience. An expert in business process engineering, Mr. O'Leary has been a Vice President of Operations at Scudder Kemper Investments, the Director of Business Process Reengineering at Lycos, and a consulting manager with KPMG Peat Marwick. He is a 1984 graduate of MIT and holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.