Jack of All Trades, Master of None: Managing the Intelligence Community of the Future

Jack of All Trades, Master of None: Managing the
Intelligence Community of the Future
Corin R. Stone*
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
I. BOXES AND LINES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
II. A RECENT HISTORY OF REORGANIZATION WITHIN THE IC . . . . . . . . . . 55
III. THE IC’S UNIQUE, UNDERLYING ISSUES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
IV. SETTING THE CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE
ODNI.............................................. 56
A. Relationships and Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
B. Mission and Role Clarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
C. Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
CONCLUSION: ACHIEVING A HIGH-PERFORMING COMMUNITY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
INTRODUCTION
In the aftermath of a major crisis, everyone immediately asks: what went
wrong? And how do we make sure this never happens again? The answer to the
f‌irst question is often more apparent than the answer to the second. Def‌iciencies
and shortcomings can seem obvious, especially in retrospect, but f‌iguring out
what to do about them is another matter.
I have been a part of the Intelligence Community (IC) through major crises, includ-
ing the response to the 9/11 attacks, and I’ve seen one approach—reorganization—
tried over and over again. It is, in some ways, the solution of f‌irst resort. Are IC agen-
cies not sharing information with each other? Reorganize the IC. Is an agency not per-
forming as well as hoped? Reorganize the agency.
Reorganization is not always—or even often—wrong; it can be exactly the
right thing to do. But it should not always—or even sometimes—be the f‌irst thing
to do. Reorganization has major downsides, including its impact on the work-
force. Before taking such a step, one must do the hard work of understanding the
root causes of the crisis, wrestle with tough problems head-on, and embrace out-
of-the-box thinking to f‌igure out how to make the system better.
* Corin R. Stone is a Scholar-in-Residence in the Tech, Law & Security Program at the American
University Washington College of Law. She is on loan from the Off‌ice of the Director of National
Intelligence, which she helped stand up as an agency in 2005. She has worked for the U.S. government
since 2000 and has held numerous roles in the Intelligence Community, including Deputy Director of
National Intelligence for Strategy & Engagement, Executive Director of the National Security Agency,
and Principal Deputy General Counsel for the ODNI. All opinions expressed herein are those of the
author and do not ref‌lect the off‌icial position or views of the ODNI or any other U.S. government
agency. © 2021, Corin R. Stone.
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