GovernmentExecutive.com

Bruce McConnell over at the IBM Center for the Business of Government has a really helpful look at who the transition will impact, and how, complete with charts showing the layering of different kinds of government officials and the relative size of those pools, and graphs suggesting how the phases of the transition present different challenges.

But I think this little snapshot is most useful for focusing on the transition as a time of opportunity for new political appointees to adjust their attitudes, and for career employees to advance new plans and initiatives and to take on responsibilities that will help them when they return to their regular duties.

McConnell writes:

The more savvy civil servants have not only participated in the preparation of transition papers and plans, they have developed their own program proposals. They have paid attention to the messaging and themes of the candidates, and have aligned useful program improvements with the incoming opportunity.
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Career officials may spend considerable time acting in positions that will be taken on by politicals. This can be a dangerous but useful activity—dangerous in terms of the need to avoid overreaching, and useful in terms of understanding the pressures involved in the job.

Transitions are seismic events not just because they bring in new leadership and new policy directives from the top: they create opportunities for a thousand initiatives to bloom, and for people other than political appointees to remake their careers. Folks who are writing about what impact Susan Rice's tenure as UN Secretary will have on her future prospects should also be looking for the next leaders to emerge from the civil service ranks, as well. Their rises may not be as meteoric, but they will happen, and they will have trajectories longer than a presidential term.