During the early 1990s, I worked in the Civilian Personnel Policy Division of the Office of the United States Secretary of Defense. We developed policies and programs, and proposed legislation for the Department of Defense’s nearly 800,000 civilians.
Each year we would ask the branches of the military if they had any proposals that would improve the way civilians were managed. Whenever this happened, I would receive a boatload of modest and minor proposals and work on them in my office over the weekend.
It was a bit overwhelming to figure out how to package these proposals. One time I remember getting to a point of deep frustration. Then I decided to set aside all of the work, close my eyes, and just listen.
