GOALS AND PRINCIPLES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00885R001001040030-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 15, 2009
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: February 27, 1984
• Content Type: MEMO

MEMORANDUM FOR: [Each Contributor to Goals & Principles Exercise]
1. Thank you for your thoughtful responses to my request for improvements
on my draft of a statement of goals, principles and standards of excellence
for our organization.
2. 1 returned on Friday, 24 February, from a trip abroad with a heavy
cold. I spent Saturday and most of Sunday in bed with 34 inches of submissions
received in response to my talk in the Auditorium and the material I circulated.
3. I got the message that the test of the value of this exercise will be
in the follow-through and not in the promulgation of a positive articulation
of our goals and principles.
4. The criticism I received on my draft was good for my soul. I thought
I was giving you a starting point, something to shoot at to provoke discussion
and criticism. If I had known it would be criticized so severely I might have
spent more time on it. The unkindest cut on my draft was: "It sort of resembles
a government regulation." The highest praise was that it was a respectable first
try.
5. I'm pleased that it apparently did succeed in generating discussion
in all corners of the Agency. I received many very good and constructive
criticisms and suggestions for improvement as well as hundreds of alternative
drafts. It is clear that the final product needs to be more pungent and
terse, more relevant to our mission, more evocative, with emphasis on objectivity
and independence, more forward-looking of what we want to be rather than
what we are, etc. It will take more time than I thought to sift and work all
these ideas into something brief and comprehensive. I am now inclined to go
for a one-page credo supplemented by a detailed statement of operating principles
and commitments. I will be getting something out to you shortly.
6. As I expected, the discussions, criticisms, expression of concerns
and specific recommendations for improvement in our procedures, communications,
and operations will be more important than the promulgation of positive goals
and principles. I attach for your information some notes I made as I read
your submissions over the weekend.
7. Again, I appreciate your efforts in leading the discussions and in
preparing your submissions. Please pass along my appreciation for the
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Notes and Ideas Extracted by DCI Personally from Hundreds of
Thoughtful Statements and Recommendations--All Those Submitted
- Satisfaction of consumers was intended as a call to meet the needs and
expectations of decisionmakers as to the scope, adequacy, breadth and depth
of our work and in no way to mean conforming our assessments to customers' hopes
and wishes or in any other way to infringe on our independence and objectivity.
- Special fund and allotment of positions for new initiative in tackling
foreign intel problems.
- Organize "go do it" task forces to get it done rather than write staff
papers to be read by other staffs. Mexico Task Force is an example for DDI
action to fill a gap. Ask for suggestions suitable for DS&T, DDO--acquire
a specific item of critical information.
- Authorization of Quality Step Increases with less time, paperwork and
high level approval. Do it to reward specific achievements on the spot. Are
cash awards possible.
- Authorize managers to specify grade levels rather than by PMCD evaluation.
- In S&T budget review no cancellations of things going on--incentives or
requirements to end marginally "profitable" operations.
- Pay and other recognition of overseas work--serious attention to
recommendations, training participation, etc., for officers returning from
overseas.
- "The truth shall make you free"--nothing wrong with that, but let's
deal with the how.
- More attention and professional status for secretaries and clerks--
journeyman status of GS-09, top members aspire to GS-13 and -14.
- Uniformity in standards for performance, time in grade, meetings of
panels.
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JtUKtI
- Move case officers and analysts and scientists along without
requiring assumption of management responsibility.
- Spiritual commitment to employees
- Management commitment to overcome recent erosion of benefits as result
of cutbacks, inflation, etc.
- Consumer contact at lower levels--IBM analyst calls on customers.
- Use of incentive awards and Quality Step Increases to offset promotion
discrimination alleged to operate against those in ops training, language
training and rotational assignment.
- Frequent call for more visibility of division and office chiefs--
more wandering around (MBWA).
- Highly critical comment on bureaucratic procedures in OPM and competence
of computer tech personnel in ODP and IMS. Call for elimination of distinction
between clinical and professional personnel.
- Move away from management by memo (CYA) and acceptance of presumed
restraints (ICBD--"it can't be done").
- Get Bob Magee's "what makes CIA unique" list.
- Not only "can do" but "can do right."
- Need for profound analytic effort on where we "are missing the boat"
in proper and effective forms of motivation.
- Public education on what we do, how and why in our contribution to
national security, and the promotion of ethical foreign policy.
- Explanation of how we work within the system.
- Relocate gym away from the dust and gas fumes of the underground garage.
- Our requirements and demands on our people should be recognized by a
special pay scale like Foreign Service provides.
- A "competitive" personnel system to replace the resource costly panel
system and to release DO personnel for intel work
- Greater effort to indoctrinate recruits and test them early on.
- More attention to recruiting CTs from within the Agency.
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- Greater effort to show subversive hand of adversaries would make public
aware of need for and value of CIA.
- Archaic promotion system--trial periods in advanced position.
- Recruit all new employees with view to future potential.
- Concerted effort to seek out those who disregard need for secrecy
and remove them.
- More training, retraining and briefings in security practices.
- More training programs and opportunities for senior clericals to enable
them to use their experience to greater advantage, i.e., from secretary to
document analyst. Analyze tasks for which secretaries and clericals can
qualify and provide training.
- Upgrade calibre of clerical recruit--bring in more from out of area.
- Greater effort to recruit talented minorities.
- Longer versus shorter version (Tab M, DO).
- Campaign to reinstill sense of pride and family in CIA.
- Task forces to supplement geographic divisions--T-72, S&T, hostile
presence, tech transfer.
- A drive to replace and trim regulations and restrictions--Marine Corps
trust and confidence program.
- Two-tiered product (CPAS/DI): (1) Simple "raison d'etre," (2) Checklist
of goals, aims and actions needed.
- Emphasis in credo on uniqueness and independence from political and
bureaucratic demands--accuracy and objectivity. Cooperation of components in
pursuit of common goals. Cohesive team operating across bureaucratic lines
to get the job done.
- Studies on if and how the use of IAs should be expanded.
- Standards section not needed--goals and principles enough.
- IS/CA of G/l of DI--measures of results and checklist.
- Most drafts represented an improvement--more pungent, more relevant
to our mission, objectivity and independence, more forward-looking--what we
want to be rather than what is.
- Analysts and collectors are heart of Agency.
 - Security too negative in approach to individuals. More emphasis on
education and expression of confidence rather than investigatory and "guilty
until proven innocent" approach.
- Personnel too cumbersome--insufficient emphasis on individual talents,
styles and performance.
- Discussion in Terrorism Branch particularly interesting and meaningful,
particularly on CA and DO/DI relations.
- Review DCI special authorities and how they might be used to redress
deficiencies in compensation, incentives, other areas.
- Clair George's six points and suggestion of small volunteer task force
in each office to critique existing office structure and practices.
- Inadequate orientation in good security practices at the office level
and of new employees on realistic prospects for mobility, on training and
development opportunities and on the work of their offices, directorates,
and the Agency at large.
- Reduce bureaucratic layering.
- George Lauder's ideas for putting philosophy into action.
- Publish a newsletter--classify it (?), devote significant resources.
Within security bounds, let everyone know who is doing what and how well.
Get copies of NSA newsletter and find out what NSA has done with it after
its acquisition under FOIA contributed to the writing of The Puzzle Palace.
What balance was struck between communications and security va ues.
administrative practices to determine what rules, regulations, approvals and
paper flows are essential and what can be eliminated.
- DCI, DDCI and Executive Director should set example in eliminating
required approvals, i.e., approvals of an assignment of a GS-15 to an SIS
position.
- Consider having promotion boards review personnel talents as they
apply to potential jobs instead of ranking one individual against the other;
select best qualified person for a particular job and automatically promote
individual to the level of the job if performance is satisfactory. Note:
assignment to jobs is not for a board but rating candidates against a job may be.
 - Employee independence, objectivity and non-partisan character of
our work product and conduct.
- Refocusing on the "holy" mission of CIA--to protect and defend US
from foreign malice by accurate and prompt intelligence and to achieve
preeminence in the development and application of the latest and the best
in technology in collecting, handling and analyzing intelligence information.
- A thorough examination of the tradeoffs of security and compartmentation
of information versus free flow of data.
- To reduce micro-management address the next senior echelon on this
issue in detail. Specify what they should not be involved in and have them
tell the next level what they should leave to those further down.
- Have Medical Services arrange annual health fair for employees, arrange
lectures in Auditorium.
- Establish task force to search for CT candidates among employees who
have exhibited values and attributes wanted in that program. Hire new people
in all areas with this in mind.
- Toleration and support of failure as a necessary concomitant of risk taking.
- A respectable first try.
- Make CIA synonymous with integrity, loyalty and excellence.
- Special recommendations on supply officer training from
and on the Agency funding process from
- Formation of a review board to scrutinize all Agency regulatory issuances
with a mandate to reduce and condense, eliminate conflicts, redundancies and
overlap, improve consistency, uniformity, clarity and effectiveness with
ultimate purpose of speeding up and enhancing performance.
- Develop a procedure to reduce the annual run on year end spending.
Award managers for saving dollars as they manage their programs or apply
savings to valuable new initiatives or improvements in lieu of a policy of
spending all of an allocated budget.
- Good checklist of recommended actions submitted by
Logistics Services.
oints in paragraph 9 of submission o1
ieven
and of Logistics Support Staff.
- Specify covert activity in purpose.
recommendations and draft (Office of Security)
 - Too many people to say No--bureaucracy as formidable as the opposition.
More reward for action and penalty for inaction.
- Bill Donnelly draft has important points--special authorities given
CIA creating imposing responsibility on all employees for honesty and integrity.
Like the specificity with which it relates objectives and standards to unique
character of CIA and its mission.
- Loss of identity as intelligence agency--employees view themselves as
personnel, communicators, logisticians rather than as intelligence officers.
Need to restore identification of all with intelligence production.
- Promptly deal with employees who do not meet minimum standards.
Downgrade employees promoted to point of incompentence--firm, but fair, as
dominant style.
- Reduction in middle management, more direct line from senior management
to staffs to focus responsibility, ensure accountability and strengthen the
feeling of belonging.
- Achieve understanding and acceptance of goals and objectives at all
levels by public and peer recognition of employees who exemplify spirit of Agency.
- Greater readiness to recruit and bring along individuals who may have
a lesser education, but have natural good judgment and intellectual flexibility.
- Good checklist material in three-page memo signed by
of Office of Communications.
- Good checklist material from
- Commo goals for checklist fri
- Good checklist ideas in statement on CIA commitments from Test Branch,
MSD/OIA.
- Suggested preface for credo--each employee, upon acceptance of employment
in CIA, agrees to abide by following goals, principles and standards. (Suggestion
by Naval Branch, Technical Systems, OIA.)
- Primary purpose to provide independent warning of events that could
affect US interests and provide President with a tool for inf iipnrinn -
national events short of using military force. (Suggested b
other good suggestions in his memo.)
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 - Complaints about too many layers of editorial review. May overlook
amount of review needed to establish and inculcate higher standards of
quality which can be scaled down when those standards are understood and
instilled.
- Like recommendations and criticisms in NESA/PG/P paper. What can be
done to step up recruiting of "more hard-charging junior officers"?
- Include "performance of other activities as directed by the President."
- Looking ahead to new capabilities and use of new technologies.
- Greater attention to anticipation of events and problems and alternative
outcomes.
- Issuance of more independent analyses and think pieces in addition to
coordinated products.
- Very good statement from SOVA particularly on premonitory thrust in
our purpose, flexibility in organization and measure of results.
- Very good detailing of objectives and operating principles for checklist
as well as good concise statement of goals by
- IRIS--Innovate, Reason, Imagine and Speculate.
- Good broad list of goals from SOVA Growth and Forecasting Branch.
- Good ideas on range of views, merging information from all sources and
input from outside and managerial habits in Statement of Objectives and Principles
following Neil Huntley memo in SOVA submission.
- Good one-pager from of SOVA.
- Advantages and disadvantages in working for CIA from OSWR.
- Good checklist material in statement of goals for CIA marked ITB/STD/OSWR.
- Emphasis on preservation of substantive knowledge, data banks and skills.
- Good one-pager from Space Systems/OSWR.
- Credo on second page of C/AVAD/OSWR.
- Advantages and disadvantages of working for CIA from OSWR/NED/NWB.
- CIA Goals and Beliefs from Life Science Branch/STD/OSWR.
- What is CIA All About--Space Missions Branch.
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- ADB suggestions for CIA Search of Excellence has good checklist material.
- A CIA credo from DEB/DSD/OSWR has good ideas and language for operating
checklist.
- Need to "turn people on and turn them loose."
- Most terrible statement about my draft--"it sort of resembles a government
regulation."
- What can we do to bring trainable young people in for lower-level tasks
or in study or developmental programs in addition to summer internships or
into reserve status in colleges or elsewhere in the outside world.
- What can be done to recapture the sense of family that some believe
has faded.
- Helene Boatner memo has very good stuff in style, concepts and counter-
poising of use and abuse of special authorities, of secrecy and standards of
ethics and honesty, of aspiration to be in forefront of our disciplines and
opportunities for learning.
- Office of Training "Thoughts and Recommendations" and note on "Quest
for Excellence" have good ideas for exploration and checklist material.
- Reasons stated for "demoralization" in Group Report #8 to Director of
Training and Education has some concerns which are not so well articulated
elsewhere and need to be addressed.
- Good ideas from) lof Office of
Finance for operational checklist, particularly on our public image and our
performance in keeping abreast of technological advances which have been
introduced in the industrial world.
- Important questions to be addressed in memo from
Chief of Audit and Certification Division.
- Review the record on reasons for departure of expe ation
and promotion to a level of incompetence as called for in memo.
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- Memo from AB/AD/OF, on personnel reduction, integration
of employee training and systems update, and education of other CIA elements on
the scope of DA's support role.
- Magee on need for more education of all CIA employees on the intelligence
mission and the links between collection, both technical and human, analysis,
production and support, and the telling of "war stories."
- structed survey of what really concerns employees suggested
in emo. The 32 inches of responses in this exercise and these
notes are a pretty good start on such an inquiry.
- Good one-pager from PMCD together with DI Branch of OP with motto
"Mindful of the past, we strive in the present to anticipate the future."
- Good items for operational checklist in Statement ,of
in OA submissions. Also in Standards of Excellence frorelating A
in Standards of Excellence from AB/CAD/OP, especially elements to
recapture of spirit of unified "family" organization and accomplishing each
assignment with sense of urgency and highest degree of professionalism.
- Good operational checklist items from
- Need for career counseling service and other items for operational
checklist in PAB Staff comments.
9
SECRET
 Putting Philosophy Into Action
A corporate strategy is only as good as action taken to implement it.
Put a task force of creative people together to work full time on an action
plan, with a short deadline. Charge them to produce goal-supportive ideas.
? Seriously consider every idea that supports the pursuit of excellence.
Groundrule: no idea is "off-the-wall" or dismissed out of hand.
Example 1: To achieve motivation and organizational pride:
+ Have a contest to pick a motto. Publicize it. Give a big
prize.
+ Adopt the motto ("In Pursuit of Truth", "The Quest for
Quality", "We Contribute to Truth", or whatever).
+ Give new employees a certificate of appointment. Put the
motto on it.
+ Buy 20,000 3-inch plastic replicas of the CIA seal. Put the
motto on it. Give everybody one.
+ Do something special for people just back from overseas.
Make a fuss over them.
+ Authorize Office Directors to grant on-the-spot Quality Step
Increases.
+ Make it administratively simple to recommend and approve
Special Achievement Awards.
+ Publish a newsletter. Classify it. Devote significant
resources to it. Put the motto on the masthead. Within security
bounds, let everyone know who is doing what and how well.
Example 2: To foster long-term excellence in Agency management:
+ Begin to teach leadership and management in formal courses,
early and at phased career points.
+ Don't look for an organizational niche to solve every
problem. Form cross-cutting, problem-solving teams for intense
periods. Support them. Use their solutions.
+ Make "rotational assignments" a reward for top performers
only. Promote them.
Example 3: To foster customer satisfaction with intelligence products:
+ Make analysts "account executives" responsible for frequent
customer contact and feedback.