Donald F. Kettl > Quotes

“If we created a climate that punishes risk-taking, we are likely to get too-safe decisions that interfere with government's job done.”
― Donald F. Kettl, The Politics of the Administrative Process

“In his original draft, Jefferson indicted George III for his complicity in the slave trade: [H]e has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.… [D]etermined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.9 Of course, there was profound irony in the harsh denunciation of a king who had not personally bought or sold slaves on the North American continent, in a document whose author had.”
― Donald F Kettl, The Divided States of America: Why Federalism Doesn't Work

“government needs more flexibility to identify talent and recruit effectively for the workers with the skills it needs; it needs a pay and benefits system that is competitive with private markets; it needs a talent management system that rewards top performers and deals with poor performers, including increasing flexibility in firing those whose work is substandard. And”
― Donald F. Kettl, Escaping Jurassic Government: How to Recover America?s Lost Commitment to Competence

“What worked, GAO found, was strong leadership commitment, investment in the capacity needed to get the job done, careful monitoring of results, and a commitment to stay with the problems until they were solved. Investment in government’s capacity, and careful attention to key details, demonstrated that failure is not the only option. But success builds on people power.”
― Donald F. Kettl, Escaping Jurassic Government: How to Recover America?s Lost Commitment to Competence