DDA MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE SEPTEMBER 27, 1974 - SEPTEMBER 29, 1974

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-00261R000200050002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 25, 2000
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 29, 1974
• Content Type: MIN

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DDA Management Conference
September 27, 1974 - September 29, 1974
Opening
The conference opened with Mr. Blake delivering a
dissertation upon his philosophy of the operation of the
Deputy Directorate for Administration. In the course of
this sharing of thoughts, he noted that the two major
problems which face the Directorate, in his opinion, were
those dealing with planning and personnel. He stressed
the need for the office directors to think constructively
but not defensively. He noted that he wanted to deal
with the Directorate as a corporate body, stressing candor
and constructive thinking. He then discussed the mutually
supportive roles of the Agency, the Directorate, and the
Office. 4r. Blake stressed the fact that he wanted to
come away from this conference with something of substance
accomplished in the areas of planning and personnel. lie
closed with four major points:
1. That the Directorate has been reacting,
not leading, in the field of administration and
that he wanted this Directorate to be innovative
and exert leadership in this field.
2. Up to now, the Directorate had been an
unfocused one. He wants to develop a corporate
sense with a strong interrelationship among the
offices.
3. He stressed informal acquisition of
knowledge and making the product of this informal
acquisition available throughout the Directorate.
4. He wanted no self protective organizations
to be established by the office directors.
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Planning
The sessions of 28 September 1974 were opened by
a discussion from Mr. McMahon dealing with long-range
planning. His take up points were the five year forward
financial planning mechanism established by the
Congressional Budget Reform Act of 1974 and the Perspectives
of Intelligence - 1975 - 1980. He noted that this latter
serves as a road map for t e future with planning mechanisms
serving to get us through the road map. At the same time,
he stressed that we could lock ourselves into five-year
projections; any planning mechanism must have some
flexibility in it. Mr. McMahon noted that he is anxious
to devise a DDA planning mechanism which looks outward to
the individual office impact upon other offices second to
other directorates. For this reason, he sees the need to
establish a mechanism for the visibility of common problems.
Such a mechanism would not involve itself in all items of
day-to-day operation, but rather would pick those major
problems and issues and track those against the five-year
plan. To do this, there must be a personal involvement
of office directors in the planning process. He noted
the need to emphasize the development of people and the
importance of the PDP in this regard. Mr. Blake then
elaborated on Mr. McMahon's comments and noted that there
is no intent to force planning down from the directorate
level to the office level. Ile stated that the first
responsibility is to identify the need for planning.
Secondly, how will we work together. Thirdly, what will
be the structure of the mechanism. And then fourthly, to
establish a general frame of reference to tie together
interoffice problems. The element of the planning
mechanisms is to: determine what demands will place upon
us; how do we identify these demands; imperical evidence,
experience factors, general guidance, and observations of
trends. As a result of the implementation of a planning
mechanism, we will have a means of better evaluating the
priority competition for resources. In those instances
where more than one office is going to be involved in a
resource problem, we will be better able to relate the
activities and roles of the subsidiary offices to those
of the prime offices. He noted we must develop our own
guidelines. In this regard he suggested that this would
involve:
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1. Formulation of assumptions;
2. development of contingency plans within
which should be alternatives.
lie closed by noting that the planning mechanism does not
replace coordination and is the responsibility of line.
It was obvious that the offices did not want to develop
a planning mechanism which would supplant any technique
in being which was effective in coordinating or providing
information. The perceived need for planning reflected
more or less directly in the extent to which the office
felt it had been burned as a result of activities generated
by other offices which they had received no advanced warning.
Mr. Blake stressed again that the need was to focus thought
at the Directorate level with adequate interdirectorate
communications to provide the early warning that had
obviously been missing. At this stage, Mr. Blake noted
that he did not want a large planning mechanism and
suggested two planning groups. One would consist of the
Offices of Communications, Joint Computer Support, and
Logistics. The second, would consist of the Offices of
Personnel, Security, Medical Services, and Training. 4r.
Fitzwater proposed using the existing planning staffs,
reporting to a management committee of office directors.
Guidelines would be approved by the DDA and action
referred back to the offices. Mr. Blake stressed that
he felt a sense of urgency in the development of such a
planning mechanism.
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The next session was an evaluation of MBO. The
consensus was one of general approval of the technique.
Some offices felt that the technique was useful primarily
because it kept the DDA advised of what was going on;
others felt that it was useful within their own offices.
The biggest advantage of the technique seemed to be the
improvement in communications and the involvement of the
DDA. The biggest problem appears to be the development
of the objectives themselves. Either these are improperly
defined or there are too many. The Office of Logistics
noted that their concern for resource constraints tends
to drive that office into an overly cautious posture
relative to objectives and the selection only of
objections which are reasonably certain to be met. The
Office of Joint Computer Support noted that one of the
major benefits they saw from the process was the enforce-
ment of the discipline which led toward an accomplishment.
OJCS also noted the need for training to develop second
generation managers of the technique of MBO.
Continuation of the discussion brought forth the fact
that several of the office directors feel inhibited in
their participation in MBO meetings by the presence of
representatives from the Comptroller's office. This
matter was not fully resolved at the conference, but will
obviously have to be taken up with the Comptroller's
representatives.
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PSAG
The next item discussed at the conference was PSAG
which inevitably involved further discussion of APP and
PDP. All of these are tools for personnel management.
Considerable cynicism has been expressed by individuals
at lower grades relative to commitment of management to
these tools. If there is no commitment and these things
fail, then our personnel development program may be set
back considerably. The discussion simply brought forth
clearly the fact that there is need for greater knowledge
on the part of the office directors of the contents and
implications of APP and PDP. Accordingly, it was agreed
that the Office of Personnel would provide briefings to
the office directors on these programs. This led to a
further suggestion that panel meetings be timed so that
they would dovetail with the PDP and APP calls and provide
input to these. Mr. Blake then noted that he would review
the personnel planning papers that had been submitted to
see if he understands them. This review will take place
on 7 October. A discussion then ensued as to whether or
not individuals identified as being on the executive
development roster should be advised. The general
consensus was negative on this. The presentations were
then made on PASG, which tied directly in with the APP
and PDP presentation. Mr.~ urged that all office 25X1A
directors commit themselves to support of passing, or it
would turn out to be a horrible failure. He described
the workings of the Senior Personnel Resources Board and
its various subgroups.
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Attitudinal Survey
Dr. Tietjen then made a presentation of the proposed
attitudinal survey which derived from a previous DDA
management conference. The proposed survey was largely
oriented in directions determined by the previous DDM&S.
The general consensus of the group was that the timing
was inappropriate for a survey now.
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Space
Mr. -Ialanickthen discussed space problems in the
Headquarters building and some of the Office of Logistics
problems in providing bodies to fill Logistics slots
overseas. This discussion proved to be serendipitious
in that while OL was having difficulty in finding bodies
to go overseas, OS was having difficulty in finding over-
seas positions for its people. Mr. Malanick and Mr. Kane
will get together to see if there can be an interchange.
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Costing
Sunday's meetings opened with the presentation by
Mr. Fitzwater on the cost-back procedures used by OJCS.
This was supplemented by brief discussions by the Office
of Communications and Logistics on the costing back
capabilities that they had. In the course of this, Mr.
Fitzwater estimated that the operation of his system
would cost $675,000 per year which might make it more
expensive than it was worth. Mr. Blake then observed
that the cost problem could be reconciled via a planning
mechanism. He noted two things: (a) that costing
methodology involves the entire Directorate, that this
can be fed back into a planning mechanism and (b) that
there will be more internally generated items to improve
Directorate cohesion, and that the planning mechanism
will provide a proper forum for this. In the ensuing
discussion, Mr. Blake proposed that all office directors
read the MBO's of all other offices in order to better
understand the problems which are facing the Directorate
as a whole.
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The next discussion was led by on EEO. 25X1A
Basically, the Office of Personnel is optimistic in terms
of commitment of DDA and the Agency to the goals of the
EEO. A problem is getting people to enter on duty.
Many of the minority group candidates fall by the wayside
for reasons which are beyond the control of the offices
concerned. This discussion led naturally into upward
mobility. Mr. Blake noted it up with nobility as a
supporting technique to various programs and proposed
that this be discussed on the last Friday in October.
In the meantime, he stated that he wants to become
familiar with APP.
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Planning
Mr. Blake then summarized his views of the conference.
He began by contrasting this conference with the 1972
conference where the need for the Directorate was
questioned. There seems to be no feeling at this
conference that the need of the Directorate is in
question. Ile stressed that he is committed to planning.
That the documents dealing with perspectives for the next
five years is the take up point for planning, that the
objectives within the MBO are another take up point for
planning. Here he again stressed the thought that each
office director should see the objectives of the other
office directors. In the initial stages of developing a
planning mechanism, the deputies and senior planning officers
would need a learning curve. They would work together
on common problems and develop a better working relation-
ship which would tend to satisfy the need for collective
action. In citing the need for collective action, he
noted the discussion between OS and OL relative to the
filling of overseas positions. He then proposed a
planning mechanism consisting of two groups. Group 1
would be Communications, OJCS, OL and OF. Group 2 would
be OP, OS, OMS and OTR. These would be chaired by the
ADDA and supported by the Plans Staff and the Assistant
for Resources. Ile thought that the initial session would
consist of both groups and that for awhile Mr. McMahon
would continue to chair both groups and that eventually
a chairmanship would pass over to the Plans Staff or the
Assistant for Resources. As he saw the planning mechanism,
once a month each group would meet individually, and every
two months both groups would meet collectively. These
groups would involve themselves in APP, PDP, 14 BO, program
calls and operating budgets, and the planning cycle would
be developed so that these items would go through the
planning groups for validation and forward looking. The
DDA overall plan consists of the overall plans of the
eight offices plus the Directorate input. The mechanism
would be aimed at more interaction within the Directorate
and would be targetted to develop a DDA five-year plan,
and the planning mechanisms would then identify the items
for the five-year plan.
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vir. Blake believes that the priorities for the next
five years are SKYLINGX and OJCS. We are going to be faced
during this period with declining sources, and it is
necessary to identify our primary priorities to protect
them from competition. The planning mechanism would
surface the resource competition early and force decisions.
A discussion then ensued in which office directors voiced
their concerns with their own roles in terms of their
office. They questioned whether or not their autonomy
as office directors would be subject to erosion by the
existence of the planning mechanism. MMir. McMahon commented
that the office directors were paid to do more than just
run their offices. They are also to assist in Agency
interdirectorate management. Dr. Tietjen noted that the
Directorate had been in existence successfully and well
for a large number of years without such a planning
mechanism. Why did it need one now. To this Mr. Blake
responded that there were few resource constraints in the
past upon either manpower or money. Those days are gone.
In addition, the present Director operates in a different
fashion and style than previous directors. sir. McMahon
noted that the DDA is developing an organization which
exists to get office input early and get away from the
"Red White says" syndrome. It will permit all offices
to understand problems and develop better decisions.
Office will participate in Directorate decision making.
In further comments upon the planning mechanism, Mr.
Blake noted that it was his intent to invite representatives
from other directorates to sit in on planning sessions in
order to provide early warning. The discussion closed
with Mr. Blake again reiterating that the concept of the
planning mechanism is to develop cohesiveness.
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Summary
Mr. Blake then summarized the conference. He noted
that the previous three sessions had concerned themselves
with the Directorate's role and a concern over image.
This was not an issue at this session. Basically, the
session was devoted to building a feeling of colleagueality
and to adjusting to a transition. lie cited four positive
accomplishments. One, the development of a planning
counsel. Two, subsequent sessions to be held with the
planning officers to simplify the MBO format. Three,
the OP session with the office directors to discuss APP
and PDP with analysis of the 1975 APP. And four, Mr.
W was to work with the offices on the problem of
i.n' tradirectorate mobility. A couple of issues were then
raised. First, would the auditorium be used for super-
grade promotions. The general consensus of the office
directors was that they favored it although two disagreed.
And secondly, there was a favorable reaction to a
continuation in the state of the directorate speech to be
given in March of 1975.
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