Reengineering at USAID/Bolivia : why we did what we did

Thanks to careful planning, the Mission found the experience more positive and much less chaotic than had been anticipated. Different Missions have taken different approaches to the transition process; for USAID/B, the major practical change brought so far by reengineering is the teamwork concept. USAID/Bolivia has done everything to give teamwork a chance to work, including giving the new Strategic Objective Teams full responsibility for the entire portfolio, delegating as much authority as possible to them, and avoiding higher level micro-management. Secondly, to improve customer service the Mission applied reengineering methodologies to some internal Mission processes such as travel approval, document clearances, and others. Improvements affecting a broad range of employees have already been implemented. While not considered part of the formal Washington transition agenda, these internal efforts were extremely useful in developing credibility and enthusiasm for reengineering. The third and most important part of the USAID/B approach was a conscious effort to minimize the time investment needed to complete the transition. The Mission"s primary objective in Bolivia is to make development happen. With a downsizing plan now being implemented, the staff is more than fully occupied with that essential task. The Mission could not in good conscience allow reengineering to displace development work and become a prime occupation; USAID/B"s goal was to make reengineering work without spending endless hours in Mission-wide, soul-searching meetings. This paper describes how this was accomplished. So far the Mission"s experience with reengineering has been quite positive. However, it is still too early to confirm whether or not reengineering will fulfill its promise of improving the Mission"s ability to achieve development results. At least another year or two will be needed to make that assessment. It is hoped that this paper can be useful to other Missions and Offices that are working to manage the transition, and that readers will provide feedback on what may have been missed and what should be focused on next. An annex provides three small group exercises which were used in a core values training course. (Author abstract, modified)