To be sure, the rollout of these unprecedented changes, plus the involvement of outside consultants , was not perfect. Although the Mission Centers remain, the Directorates retain power over hiring, training, and, most importantly, promotion. Practically, this puts many officers in the untenable position of either supporting the objectives of the Mission Center or doing the work necessary for advancement in their Directorate. Every industry in the world is rushing to access the increasing universe of knowable often open-source information and building big data analytics capabilities from which to draw decision-making insights.
Although the reorganization established the Directorate of Digital Innovation to address some of these challenges, CIA is still woefully behind the curve and the DA has neither the appropriate budget, staffing, or prioritization from its leadership to make the important cultural shift from an organization dominated by liberal arts majors to one replete with data scientists.
The stranglehold of convention on paths to promotion and advancement have also created gaps in the type of talent and skills necessary to ensure CIA provides a strong and compelling value proposition to customers of the future.
There are no positions for strategists, innovators, operational planners, or policy experts that can help the organization improve the way it does business.
Nearly every officer I know can point to demoralizing examples of serial sexual harassers and infamous toxic personalities being promoted into the ranks of senior management, creating hostile work environments, and holding on to their positions for years.
While other fields have certainly struggled to reject similar behaviors or actions, CIA has a terrible habit of promoting its problems.
Many case officers often view themselves as having superior standing among their colleagues, in and outside of the DO. This cultural superiority often undermines the effort of many integrated units, especially as CIA has a history of disproportionately placing case officers into general management positions.
Across the CIA, some of the most senior leaders have been with the organization for well over 30 years and most of them have never served in an integrated Mission Center. Their formative experiences are quite literally of a prior century and they lack the necessary understanding and interest in organizational change management.
I love the CIA. I was fortunate to serve there with the most elite group of intelligence officers our nation has ever assembled, during an era of enormous consequence. I want a new generation of officers to have that same experience and opportunity to have their work be valued and to make an impact. CIA, like the rest of the Intelligence Community, is back on its heels and needs to rebuild stronger and better over the years ahead.
But those efforts will be hampered if some of the fundamental challenges within the Agency itself are not addressed. Leaders from across government and private industry will continue to seek out support from consultancies and big data analytics firms to help them make sense of a world with more relevant data than they can process. CIA faces stiff competition for the attention of consumers of intelligence and can no longer assume that they have preferred standing with those customers simply because of who they are.
CIA will need to deliver. For CIA to remain indispensable, it will need to prioritize service to a more varied set of customers beyond the president, break organizational stovepipes once and for all in favor of an integrated mission-focused business model, and cultivate a new generation of leaders with the experience and temperament necessary to support these necessary evolutions.
There will be a temptation for President-elect Joe Biden to tap a long-time CIA veteran to lead the Agency and perhaps that may be useful in restoring trust between the institution and the White House.
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