In post-9/11 world, FBI seeks new ways to manage war on terror
EVANSTON, Ill. -- At a class on leadership, a professor at Northwestern University's business school asks his students to ponder a landmark on the Chicago skyline 10 miles south.
"Walk along the lake and look downtown. You see the Sears Tower," Ranjay Gulati says. "
That they no longer do, he says, shows "what happens when the world changes around you . . . and you don't."
Some of the 30 senior FBI managers and executives stir at their desks. They're here because their employer is looking for ways to manage a still wrenching transition: Following the Sept. 11 attacks, a newly urgent mission -- disrupting terrorism before it hits the United States -- was thrust upon the bureau.
In an effort to change the famously insular organization, the FBI has sent more than 2,000 of its top agents and supervisors to management school at Northwestern. This is new training for a new FBI, or at least that is the hope.
Traditionally, FBI agents and supervisors are schooled in the nuts and bolts of law enforcement. Agents learn how to become expert marksmen and cultivate informants. Supervisors learn how to mentor new agents and follow proper procedures.
Here, they explore how large corporations have shifted their missions. If
They practice role-playing exercises aimed at instilling teamwork. They study business experiences that might help them present the FBI in the best light. They learn how
The program was started three years ago by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III .
Most of the senior headquarters staff and top agents from the 56 field offices have taken the weeklong courses, which cost the bureau about $3 million a year.
Mueller himself is an ardent student of management science. He has sought the views of successful chief executives, including former
The training has been one of Mueller's main efforts to bring fresh thinking into the bureau.
Some FBI officials at first found the idea puzzling.
"The initial response was, `We are going to go where?' " recalls Kevin Brock, a counterterrorism official who attended the program. "A lot of us did not know what we were getting into," he said. "So we were wondering, `How does this connect with putting bad guys in jail, hunting terrorists and all that stuff?' "
Management specialists say there are limits to what a government agency can learn from studying the ups and downs of companies. And there are questions about how readily the FBI has embraced the lessons.
But in being asked to fight terrorism while still solving crimes, the bureau faces a quandary that is fairly common in the business world.
"How can one organization arrange itself to do two things well? This is hardly a challenge that is unique to the FBI," said Michael Roberto , a professor of management at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., who is co-writing a case study of the FBI that Harvard Business School plans to use.
"We have no monopoly on good ideas," Mueller said in an interview, adding that he and others found the training "tremendously educating."
Mueller took a version a week or so before he testified before the 9/11 Commission in 2004. The training focused in part on how to respond to a crisis. It highlighted traits of executives who successfully handle such situations: transparency, expertise, commitment, and empathy.
At the time, the bureau was under siege and there was speculation the commission would order it dismantled because of intelligence failures that preceded the attacks.
Mueller gave a performance that drew praise from the commission, which ultimately recommended the bureau be preserved.
The classes take place in a modern conference center that caters to business.
The latest class is a seasoned one, its participants average about 20 years of experience.
They range from administrative officers to heads of some of the most sensitive investigations in recent bureau history, including the Sept. 11 attacks and the 2001 anthrax episode.
The students seem to have no illusions about the difficult task they face. The mission is akin to "building an airplane while trying to fly it," said Thomas Mahlik, a senior counter espionage official.
A major theme is creating an atmosphere where people are open to change -- no small feat for an organization that has done things the same way for generations.
