"Policy people tend to see those who implement..."

why is it so hard to just do what I say?

Policy people tend to see those who implement the policy decisions they make as being far below them in the pecking order, perhaps even at the bottom of it. OMB was the Pinnacle of that pecking order. In other words, no, thank you, that's lowbrow stuff. That's not the kind of thing we do in powerful places in government….

The distance between tech leaders and real power speaks volumes about how little government culture values the work of implementation, technology included.

— Jennifer Pahlka, “[Re]Coding America: Why government is failing in the digital age and how we can do better”

Yesterday I shared the idea that ‘implementation’ is sexy word, the sexiest word, the key to getting shit done. Not surprisingly, not everyone agrees.