these public service awards should be bigger than the oscars. I take a lot of shots at govt because I've seen it from the inside and seen some of the low things the people in it do, but sometimes the other ones solve incredible coordination problems like the ones described.
the way for it to succeed is for projects and people involved to have shorter exits, as professionalizing public service accumulates a lot of dead wood that becomes indifferent to any given mission and success becomes the exception. the current military is a bad example of a bureaucracy, but the idea of a short duration national service would create talent pipelines and mission focus, along with national cohesion.
I imagine this is why in certain fields with a regulatory structure people pop in and out of industry - money, sadly, is that recognition, although it is recognition in the end.
one of the best teams I've worked on was in public service with other consultants who were extremely mission focused.
what made it successful was the team related the way special operations relate to regular forces. I'd bet if you went down the list of Sammy nominees, or looked at most accomplishments in public service, they were done by people who succeeded outside the mainline org reporting.
if you look at the way the military uses special forces to achieve objectives, there is probably an analogous model in public service. to some extent it's done in consulting, but there is so much partisan bloat and low-level fiefdom in it that there isn't a coherent operating model.
the 18F program that became the US Digital Service was a task force that had huge impact. there are certain whitehouse initiatives around cybersecurity that worked in a similar way. maybe the opportunity is to create a special operations doctrine for public services, where it codifies how there's a specific way to use that kind of initiative and talent, and when not to.
the way for it to succeed is for projects and people involved to have shorter exits, as professionalizing public service accumulates a lot of dead wood that becomes indifferent to any given mission and success becomes the exception. the current military is a bad example of a bureaucracy, but the idea of a short duration national service would create talent pipelines and mission focus, along with national cohesion.