Government Printing Office: Cultivating Potential

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has been the federal government’s primary centralized resource for gathering, cataloging, producing and preserving published information in all its forms for all three branches for the past 140 years. Today, the GPO is at the epicenter of technology as it embraces its historic mission of printing and access to government information in a digital world. The employees of the GPO are transforming the agency into a digital information processing facility. With a clear focus on preparing the workforce for these future changes, the GPO is transforming the methods used to train its future leaders.

“Experienced managers from the executive level to staff members are critical to the success of any organization, but require very different training and development techniques,” said Steve Patrick, director of the Office of Workforce Development, Education and Training at the GPO. “At the GPO, we are planning for the future on multiple fronts, so our entire leadership team of executives, managers and team leaders needs to have the right experience and training, both in technology and innovation, as well as a working knowledge of management, leadership and human capital skills.”

With a clear plan for developing managers and cultivating those employees with potential to take on new and more challenging positions, the GPO is transforming its culture and driving significant change in its talent development through new certificate programs, educational tracks, e-learning initiatives and leadership development. With executive sponsors heavily supporting the workforce transformation, the leadership development program is required training and is initially focused on three key areas: community in the workplace, better resolution to conflict and team building.

The program is completely blended for high-potential and management development and includes a combination of classroom training and e-learning, as well as Web-based courses and simulations delivered through Ninth House. The strategy was simple: participate in the Web-based courses and exercises, read the appropriate materials and come to the classroom prepared to engage, interact and discuss what was learned.