Embracing the SAPOC Leadership Role
You are currently assigned, or planning your upcoming performance, in one of the most exciting and impactful roles within your Agency. In FY2023, OMB released Memorandum A-11 which included a directive that SAPOCs must be included in the review and approval of all new investments to ensure proper consideration and analysis of shared service options were conducted as a first source.
The SAPOC role is your opportunity to lead, influence, and advise your Agency’s leadership on Shared Service initiatives capturing their share of over $1 Trillion dollars of operational savings over the next decade.
Embracing the role of a SAPOC involves wholeheartedly committing to the responsibilities and opportunities it entails. Initially, the SAPOC must delve deeply into understanding the agency's strategic business and operational priorities, analyzing each for possible recommendations on process optimizations through shared services. The role is challenging and will require the use of all your skills, experience, and talents developed over the course of your entire career. This opportunity is up to you. This Playbook will help you make the most of it.
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What is the history and perception of Shared Services within my Agency?
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How can I deepen my understanding of the agency's strategic priorities to identify and align shared service initiatives with them effectively?
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What specific actions can I take to internalize the agency's goals and ensure that every aspect of shared service initiatives contributes to their fulfillment?
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What clear objectives can I help to establish that directly contribute to my agency's leadership goals and provide a roadmap for success for the entire team?
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What is the level of awareness and support regarding Shared Services by my Agency leadership? How can I ensure my leadership peers are motivated and supportive of my role and mission?
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What is my agency doing in regard to collecting evidence in preparation to analyze employee and citizen experience?
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What strategies can I employ to ensure regular communication and collaboration with stakeholders, maintaining alignment with agency objectives throughout the process?
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Conduct thorough research and analysis to understand the agency's strategic priorities. Access records and files of previous Shared Service initiatives. Identify whether any Agency roadmaps have been established for the future state.
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Create and enable designated access to a SAPOC Shared Service repository.
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Speak with former Agency SAPOCs. Assess past and current challenges determining the current landscape.
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Identify all Agency policies and management directives not aligned with Federal Shared Service directives.
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Develop clear and actionable objectives for shared service initiatives that align with agency goals. Objectives and goals must be broken out into Task Related Goals and Systems-Related Goals.
A. Example Task Related Goal: Employee burden hours reduction initiatives, eliminate paper processes, reduce cycle times for service delivery, etc.
B. Example Systems-Related Goals: Identify and eliminate redundant and homegrown systems or identify and eliminate siloed and end of life systems in preparation for IT modernization initiatives. -
Identify and establish a working relationship with Agency leadership. Complete the SAPOC templates provided here.
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Complete your understanding of the operational landscape by identifying and building relationships within each major Line of Business (see Federal Integrated Business Frameworks (FIBF)). Manage your shared service projects for each FIBF here.
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Connect with your Agency’s Customer Experience (CX) Officer to gauge citizenry experiences and identify shared service priorities.
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Meet your Agency’s Evaluation Officer (EO) to gauge available mission support.
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Select one or more of the available methodologies here to identify and prioritize transformative task and process efficiencies most favored by agency employees.
2 Comments
In question #5, rather than "How can I ensure my leadership peers are supportive of my role and mission?" perhaps something more action-oriented, like "What can I do to motivate my leadership peers to actively support my role and mission?"
In reply to #2
Grant, another great suggestion. We have edited the question accordingly.