COSS Speech on 10/10

[judicature]

I understand the COSS had a meeting/speech with/to upper management today at SSA. Anyone care to share what might have been said?

The old board claims this site is being run by SSA/ODAR management, so surely someone knows. ;D

[odarite]

From what I gather, he talked about applying "kizen" (continuous improvement) to the SSA work process, not getting stuck in old thinking, but that he would not spend millions on consultants, workgroups, and other time and money wasters to improve processes. He expects systems improvements which will allow more and more of the initial work of the agency (taking applications and appeals, etc.) to be done online so that the district offices can spend less time on that workload. And he expects the best process improvement ideas to be bottom up, not top down: the people who do the work should have the best insight into how to improve it.

[extang]

However, it it just me, or is all we are seeing in any of the detailed proposals the usual clueless, top down, Baltimoron nonsense based on complete ignorance of what a hearing office actually does?

[odarite]

I would have said the exact opposite. He was apparently talking mostly about the operations side, but when he said that he expects the best suggestions to come from the people who do the work, that doesn't sound like an idea the Baltimorons could even get their minds around. And if there are no millions for consultants and executive action groups or whatever, they don't even have the usual opportunities to gum things up. But then, only time will tell.

[aljsouth]

He must like the sound of his own chin music, because I have a better chance of being on the cover of GQ than he does of getting this agency to listen to and incorporate suggestions of employees at the sharp end in the field.

[learnedhand]

I'm with aljsouth on this one. In fact, I have seen no evidence or just the opposite that upper management has the slightest interest in ideas from the field except for lip service.

[workdrone]

So far the COSS' talking points sound good. However, action speaks louder than words... and on the action side, hiring 150 ALJs without the necessary level of support staff and the new proposed weekly report requirement are very bad signs. So I'd give it a bit more time to see if the positive talking points will ever be translated into reality, but I wouldn't hold my breath.