Customer Reviews

If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Government

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In Man on the Moon, Eggers and O'Leary have written a book that is engaging, convincing, and very important. The insights and the examples, aided by the tone and language, make the book very hard to put down. After thirty years in government, ranging from crafting the response to the first oil embargo in 1973 to a leadership role in Vice President Gore's National Performance Review, I can truly say that the authors understand both the problems and the opportunities presented by our Federal system. Today's global, national, and societal problems are complex, critical, and urgent. The way forward must include a roadmap such as this book: detailed, thorough, documented, and presented in almost handbook form. Eggers and O'Leary offer excellent suggestions for everything but the filibuster rule in the Senate!

If We Can Put a Man on the Moon is must reading for everyone who cares about government. And that should be everybody because, whether we like it or not, government makes the decisions that will affect not only our lives, but our children's.

Regardless of one's partisan leanings, most of us are tired of the competing spin that now passes for political discourse. This book gets past all that by using real-life examples to demonstrate how government succeeded in large undertakings at which it succeeded and where it went wrong when it failed. Sadly, there are far more recent examples of the latter.

Two things make the book stand out. The first is the authors' ability to focus on results by ignoring which side proposed an idea and who would get credit or blame for it. Instead, they focus on what a program's goal was, whether it got to the finish line and why (or why not).

The second attribute is how the book is written. You will not for one minute think you're reading a text book. Instead, you will find yourself engrossed in the case studies. You won't even realize that you're (gasp) learning something! I hope this book is read by all the federal and state elected officials with whom I find myself becoming increasingly disillusioned. It's a road map for how government can make the really important things work.

Eggers and O'Leary have really nailed it in this wonderfully crafted work. Any person with a remote interest in government and how to make it better, be it voters who have lost faith in our representatives' ability to deliver on big promises, to government officials looking for a roadmap to actually deliver on campaign promises and getting the most of his or her time in office, this is a must read. And I don't mean a cursory pass or having an intern provide coverage. This is a powerful book worthy of an active read with a highlighter and a handful of post-it notes. Every government official, from the local dog catcher to the senate majority leader should be required to digest Eggers' and O'Leary's modern day manifesto for getting government to do big things (and not just voicing hollow promises). This book will never be mistaken for a boring, required text reserved for freshman political science students. Rather it is a creative, thoughtful and often witty book, read easily on a tropical vacation, at your desk or on your couch. If our representative government, often mired by inefficiencies and unmotivated, life-long government workers who believe their position with the Federal government is an entitlement rather than an opportunity, is ever going to again accomplish exceptional achievements like putting a man on the moon, then this book must be an essential tool. A blueprint for delivering on the promises of reforming healthcare and addressing global warming lie in the pages of this book. Let's hope those charged with delivering on making government better have the courage to heed the words of Eggers and O'Leary.

Examining dozens of case studies on large U.S. government projects, the authors illustrate the challenges faced by government decision-makers and agencies in policy formulation, implementation, and oversight, and the extraordinary difficulty in getting the incentives right in all of these phases. Speaking as someone who has spent the past quarter-century directly supporting federal agencies and studying their large-scale projects as an academic, I believe the authors have done a superb job of capturing the essential issues that can either enable or hinder success. And refreshingly, they do it in a balanced, non-partisan way.
The only point that doesn't quite ring true is the authors' contention that program design should (and could) be addressed in more detail in the legislative drafting phase. The Congress doesn't have the time or expertise to do this in most cases. Aside from the highly visible issues that prompt 1200-page bills, the Congress often purposely leaves the details to the implementing agencies, for better or worse. The authors' suggestion that an independent "policy design review" by subject-matter experts be conducted in the legislative phase seems sensible at first, but raises many questions: Will there be time to fit this into the 2-year legislative cycle? How will the review be funded? Will partisans and interest groups be able to put undue influence on the selection of the study panel or the direction of its results?
Despite this one criticism, this is an important book that provides an informative and thought-provoking read for students and professionals alike. Each of the chapters ends with a summary reminiscent of a textbook, but the book's style is far more compelling than any textbook I remember from my school days. The final chapter is especially noteworthy, powerfully ending the book with profiles of two individuals, one a political appointee and politician, and the other a career bureaucrat. The reader comes away with a heightened appreciation for the government's potential to accomplish great things. I hope this does get used as a textbook so more students will see the possibilities and be drawn to public service.

Great read! As a public employee, the authors managed my expectations about what I can, can't, and should do in government.

"If We Can Put a Man on the Moon" reminds me of the business books I see reviewed in magazines or on store shelves more than the typical political science text. Each chapter deals with a different stage of the policymaking process, usually anchoring it with one main example and many smaller examples from the mammoth list of case studies the authors list in the back. Each chapter ends with some bullet points that list ideas and suggestions for each stage of the process.

Thinking back on the book I read just a few days ago, I remember some useful trivia more than I remember the specific bullet points. For example, JFK would leave the room during the ExComm meetings of the Cuban Missile Crisis so his advisors would feel more free to speak or London's Mayor put a publicly visible single person in charge of the traffic congestion project to make it transparent who was in charge and responsible. The book is full of interesting stories like those or how cap and trade for acid rain came about (difficult to imagine given modern politics) as well as a useful explanation of California energy deregulation.

One shortcoming I noticed with the book was its emphasis on the design phase and what could be done legislatively there. In modern government, much of the design actually occurs after passage through the administrative process. There are benefits and detriments to that approach, but it is pretty common now and allows more detailed and better design, as well as easier tweaking since it can be done administratively and does not need to be passed through a legislative body again.

Some of the discussions are also a bit inconsistent. Generally, government designed programs work well enough that they are useful even if they have some kinks. I am thinking here of social programs specifically. Where government usually runs into trouble is with the unexpected (Katrina or the oil well spill) and these events are much more difficult to prepare for. Preparation is still possible, but not in the same way a program passed by a legislature is designed. Of course the Iraq war is an example of the government having adequate time to prepare and "design," but choosing not to which is obviously something to avoid.

But the book is worth reading overall and will not take you too long to get through. If you are in government, you may benefit from copying the bullet points in the back of each chapter.

Taking Project Apollo as its launching point, Eggers and O'Leary walk us through the steps required to get any ambitious project done in government. Along the way we learn that government has become less effective since the moon landing, according do those responsible for implementing policy--and most importantly, why.

But rather than rail on what's wrong with the way things get done (or not) in government, the authors show us how to fix what's wrong. Rather than cast blame, they show us how all of us can pull together to get things done, from politicians and those responsible for implementing policy, right down to ordinary voters.

Engaging, real-life examples of successes and failures, fascinating profiles of lesser-known yet highly influential personalities, and a down-to-earth and easy-to-read style make this a compelling read for anyone concerned about where our government is taking us today.

-=Michael Belfiore, author of The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs

I've served as a public official, and this book really understands the challenges of how politics can work against getting things done. The book is fun to read, and provides a realistic picture of how bureaucracy works, and some strategies for dealing with the numerous obstacles good public employees face every day. I highly recommend it.

Eggers and O'Leary explain the trials and tribulations of our democracy in action through a series of exemplary case studies and cautionary tales. Extraordinarily well-written and entertaining - highly recommended!

In the wake of the bureaucratic breakdowns in the cases of Major Hassan and Abdul Muttalab,"If They Can Put a Man on the Moon" should be required reading for Janet Napolitano and her staff, including the incoming head of the TSA.