ASMC visits: the Federal Executive Institute "on the hill".

Set atop a wooded hill in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, about a two-hour drive from Washington, D.C., is the campus of the Federal Executive Institute (FEI). The centerpiece is the Thomas Jefferson Inn, built in 1952 as a stately, columned luxury hotel far from the center of town for affluent visitors to the city.

The architecture is reminiscent of Jefferson's Monticello. Indeed, the hotel was used in the filming of the 1958 movie Giant, which stars Rock Hudson, James Dean, and Elizabeth Taylor. The swimming pool, in fact, was put in for the filming since it is rumored that some of the actors would not stay in a hotel lacking in such amenities. Today, the facility has been transformed into a bustling training center and retreat that boasts thousands of top-level federal executive alumni.

The FEI was formed in response to a 1968 letter from President Lyndon Johnson that called for the establishment of a program for senior federal executives to improve the operations of government programs. His idea subsequently was formalized in an executive order.

The Institute's flagship course offering is the four-week resident program, Leadership for a Democratic Society. Designed for personnel who are GS 15s and members of the Senior Executive Service (SES), it is conducted 10 times each year, with classes of about 70 students.

The class in residence during my visit consisted of 64 GS-15s and six Senior Executives. The four-week course is taught in two formats. The first format, given in four consecutive weeks and taught seven times per year is called Leadership for a Democratic Society. Since FEI does not receive appropriated funds, students' sponsoring agencies each pay $10,950, which covers instructional services materials, food, and lodging.

The second format, Leadership for a Democratic Society--The Applied Learning Program, splits the four weeks into two 2-week segments with a six-week break in the middle, thus giving attendees an opportunity to try out new ideas and skills before returning to report on their results. (The break also perhaps gives attendees time to attend to family responsibilities and, in some cases, gives the executives' supervisors a bit more motivation to send them to training since they won't be gone for a full month.)

The tuition for the Applied Learning Program is slightly higher ($11,450) because of increased administrative costs, such as checking the students into the program twice as well as additional faculty support given to executives during the six-week intersession while they are working on a back-home Executive Learning Project.

The following is extracted from the FEI brochure on Leadership in a Democratic Society: "The Leadership Development Team is the cornerstone of the FEI experience. Teams of 8-9 executives and a faculty facilitator build a supportive learning climate and create lasting relationships that enable executives to work with each other across organizational boundaries--both during and after the program."

According to Terry Newell, faculty coordinator for this program, FEI does not espouse any "magic bullet" solutions to leadership but, rather, trains executives in the need to adapt, to lead strategically, and to embody core values. Hence, a program is structured to meet each executive's individual needs.

The Institute employs few permanent in-house faculty members. Instead, the FEI relies on a large number of adjunct, contract faculty personnel as well as a few executives in residence on loan from their parent agencies. Of note, our own former ASMC National President, the late Mr. Neil Ginnetti, served as an executive in residence before his retirement from federal service.

Regardless of the format, the program of instruction is intensive. Hours are from 8:15 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily and--for the first two weeks--the students do not go home since instruction occurs throughout the first weekend. A typical day at FEI (if there is one) begins with breakfast from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. in the dining room, a beautifully appointed room with historic murals decorating the walls. The bill of fare, like all FEI menus, lists not only the food offerings but also the calories, proteins, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, sodium, cholesterol, and fiber associated with each food item. It is apparent that FEI takes its wellness program very seriously, and anyone working on a wellness program will have a hard time eating inappropriate menu items.

After breakfast, classroom sessions continue until noon, followed by lunch and fitness activities (wellness again) and some study time. At 3:00 p.m., either classes or plenary sessions resume until 5:30 p.m. From 5:30 to 6:00, the Institute schedules a social interaction period affectionately known as the Happy Half Hour, where the students gather in a lounge, have a beverage, and relax in preparation for dinner, which lasts until 7:00 p.m. From that time until 8:45 p.m. students participate in Leadership Development Teams, Executive Forums (sessions put on by executives themselves to showcase agency efforts or even avocational interests) or plenary sessions. This pace is maintained for the duration of the program, which occasionally includes a field trip to a courtroom or a historical site germane to the content of the individual seminars.

Upon entering the FEI, each student is given a comprehensive physical wellness evaluation, and individual programs of activities and diet are established. It is FEI's goal that wellness will become a lifelong element of each executive's schedule and behavior patterns. Indeed, wellness is taken so seriously that it is one of the major elements contained in FEI's long-term evaluations of its program's total success. The effects of the program are seen daily as students perform wellness activities about the campus and in the well-equipped fitness center. I knew an executive whose life was transformed (and probably much extended) by this element of the FEI program; he cannot give the curriculum planners enough credit for including time each day for this vital activity.

The first week at FEI is spent in a series of self-awareness activities and in a review of the constitutional basis of American government. One British executive who took the course said, "I learned more about the American Constitution than most Americans." The week also contains a review of the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, an instrument that facilitates each attendee's in-depth reflection on his or her personality and decision styles as he or she interacts with the style and personality types of others.

A 360-degree evaluation is also performed that draws on ratings obtained from each executive's supervisors, peers, and subordinates. According to one of the senior instructors, "The executives do a lot of learning in this phase, and they sometimes really get their eyes opened!" One of the attendees I spoke with about this week said, "This is the first time I ever got to spend so much time thinking about and analyzing myself. It was wonderful!"

The remainder of the instructional time at FEI is focused on building each executive's strengths based on the results of the first week's self-assessment and on preparing the Leadership Challenge, a statement formulated by the executive detailing executive plans to lead his or her organization in the future that will be implemented upon graduation from the course.

Some typical course offerings include the following:

* The Science of Leadership and the Art of Gaining Followers

* Power and Influence

* Building High Performing Organizations

* Working with Congress

* Justice and Individual Rights

* The USA and the Global Economy

FEI maintains a comprehensive inventory of top qualified, experienced resource personnel, including many who fly in to teach these courses. For example, I was privileged to sit in on a morning class in the course called "Thank you, Mr. Madison," in which it is made abundantly clear that our government is not structured simply for the convenience of its managers. (Mr. Madison stated, at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that "we have consciously engineered an inefficient government to keep men free.") The instructor was Dr. Dan Fenn, who served in the John F. Kennedy White House and ran the Kennedy Presidential Library in later years.

After working the class through the prescribed case study, he spent about an hour discussing the Kennedy management style and comparing and contrasting the Kennedy White House with those administrations that have followed. He asked if I wished to stay (since this wasn't strictly the course material). I told him that they would have to drag me out! The dialogue was fantastic; in fact, I didn't want to leave at the end of the session--and the attendees assured me that many of the instructors were equally excellent.

The Leadership for a Democratic Society course is now conducting session #293 and is still going strong. Doing the numbers, that's over 20,000 graduates. One of the reasons for such a longevity is the strong alumni bonds that are formed during the course and maintained over the years. In fact, an FEI Alumni Association (FEIAA) was formed in 1968 by a graduate of the first course. The FEIAA is now a charter member of the Public Employees Roundtable and is credited with saving the Institute when it was threatened with closure during the budget cuts of the early 1980s.

The flagship courses are only part of the services that the FEI offers. In 1996, the Center for Executive Leadership (CEL) was created to provide executive instruction in a number of creative formats. The CEL is a component of FEI and is located on the Charlottesville campus. Today, it forms approximately one-third of the instructional activity at FEI. First, the CEL offers customized instruction to meet unique needs of government agencies and as a follow-on for its graduates.

It also offers a menu of courses and seminars as well as consulting services and executive coaching services. Interagency seminars offered this year include Leading in a Virtual Work Environment, Innovating in Government, The Aspen Institute Leading Change in Government Seminar, Leaders Growing Leaders, Territorial Games: Understanding and Ending Turf Wars at Work, among others. A large part of the CEL's work can be thought of not as courses per se but as "co-created customized consulting and workshops" that help managers and leaders to effect real change in their organizations.

A partial listing of CEL clients that have received customized leadership development programs includes the Department of the Treasury, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Social Security Administration, Department of the Navy, Chief Financial Officers Council, and, most recently, the ASMC--which is partnering with the CEL to bring FEI's executive-level instruction to our forthcoming Professional Development institute in Cleveland, Ohio.

While visiting the CEL, I was delighted to sit in oil a class taught by a very talented instructor, Ms. Annette Simmons. She teaches how the power of storytelling can be used as a management tool to impart a powerful message without the need to "lecture" one's employees. The course was sponsored by US Agency for International Development. The student body consisted of international attendees.

One particularly moving story was told by a Foreign Service Officer about a colleague who did not take a particular job because of corruption rampant in that field. What made his presentation even more impressive was that his native language was French, and he had to mentally translate his words to English as he spoke. He did a beautiful job and imparted a deep sense of his respect for his colleague while demonstrating his own value system in the process.

The FEI's parent organization is the Office of Personnel Management, Center for Leadership Capacity Services. That organization also is responsible for the Eastern Management Development Center at Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and the Western Management Development Center in Denver, Colorado, as well as the Presidential Management Internship program. This grouping of programs is intended to provide for the entire spectrum of governmental leadership training needs and serves over 6,000 federal personnel each year. You may read more about the FEI on the Web at www.leadership.opm.gov/fei and about the Management Development Centers at www. leadership.opm.gov.

Author's Note: My special thanks to the Reverend Dr. Fred Copeland (my former colleague and former executive in residence who now is serving as an adjunct on the FEI staff) and to Dr Lane Hurley for their patient explanations about the FEI and for their warm hospitality during my visit to the Charlottesville campus.