In 2007, the State Department asked BENS for help on a key management reform initiative: improving crisis management in the areas of information technology; distance learning and training; and risk assessment/management.
BENS members and their colleagues showcased for State Department officials a range of “best practices” in risk assessment and management – lessons aimed at helping the Department better anticipate and navigate global crises. Officials heard key insights from representatives of top hedge funds and investment firms who emphasized the need for human insights, judgment and on-the-ground knowledge in risk assessment. In seven sessions, officials learned how large multi-nationals decide when to pull their employees and investments out of a country and what tools the military and independent organizations use to analyze and forecast the importance of political and military events in foreign countries or regions.
BENS also hosted a two-day set of roundtables examining successful methods for distance learning. Senior staff from both the State Department’s 24/7 “Ops Center” and the Foreign Service Institute participated along with eight companies, non-profits and military commands. Firms like Cisco and Blackboard joined with U.S. Special Operations Command and the American Red Cross to help the State Department explore effective methodology and common pitfalls in educating and training their overseas missions on crisis management.
In the Information Technology arena, the State Department faced the challenge of moving its crisis management information systems to a suite of commercial IT applications. BENS worked with information resources management personnel in the Department to develop a plan for assessing how new IT tools were being implemented and suggested how State could benchmark its progress against private-sector companies using the same applications.
This project was the first between BENS and the U.S. Department of State, one of the country’s major players in the national security arena.
