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REMARKS BY:	DONNA E, SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE:		J. F. Kennedy School of  Government Commencement Address, Boston, Massachusetts
DATE:		June 7, 2000

Faculty, parents, families and friends - and most of all to this year's Kennedy School of Government graduates: Congratulations.

I know that many of you have had successful careers in government before coming to the Kennedy School. I also know that you are a diverse class that brought talent and ideas to the Kennedy School from countries around the world. But let's face it: As long as you've been here, you've been pretty much lumped together as Wonks-in-Training. Not anymore. Today, you are full-fledged Policy Wonks - and I have the proof.

You've mastered the fine art of squeezing one simple idea into a thirty-page memo.

You were given a Wilson tennis racket for graduation - and exchanged it for the Wilson Quarterly.

You heard that pieces of the parquet floor at Boston Garden were being auctioned off at inflated prices - and you wanted to warn Alan Greenspan.

And as David Letterman might say: The number one sign that you are no longer Wonks-in-Training - your favorite book is, Deep Thoughts on Swedish Land Use Planning," by Michael Dukakis.

Today actually feels like a homecoming for me. This may come as something of a surprise since in the world of wonks - most people think of me as member in good standing of the Maxwell Mafia. I have spent almost half my professional life working for government. My deep conviction that government must protect the weak and strong alike began with President Kennedy.

His famous challenge: "Ask not what our country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," inspired me and countless others. President Kennedy saw an America that was optimistic, forward-looking and values-driven. But at that time, young men and women my age were also hearing other voices. Only five years before President Kennedy was inaugurated, Allen Ginsberg in his long poem, Howl, wrote, "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness."

Kennedy and Ginsberg were close in age - and they both understood the power of words. Yet they offered starkly different visions of our nation - and our future. One vision was shadow and despair. The other light and hope. Most of us who came of age in the 1960s - and I know that includes some of you - embraced President Kennedy's view of American leadership and values. Public service has been an integral part of my life. But it began because of the leader whose name adorns this school.

Today also feels like a homecoming because I have been a member of the visiting committee of the JFK School, and because I am back with many friends and colleagues.

I'm talking about Dean Joe Nye - whom I have known since we worked together under President Carter, and the funny, smart and incomparable Senator Alan Simpson. Bill White and Betsy Meyers - from the White House Senior Staff - are here. So too is Eric Weingarten, who was Class President my last year at the University of Wisconsin. And my former colleagues, David Ellwood and Mary Jo Bane - are here. David and Mary Jo are the finest scholar-public servants I have ever worked with. Wherever they go - they teach. Since they left Washington and HHS to return to Harvard, I have missed their wise counsel.

Finally, today feels like a homecoming because the Kennedy School of Government - and the government that I have served for many years - are two chambers of the same beating heart.

In a few moments, I'm going to talk about some of the lessons I've learned from managing large organizations. But the most important lesson requires no on-the-job training. It is simply this: Government of, by and for the people cannot survive without highly skilled managers and policy makers whose decisions are guided not only by law and experience, but by ethics and conscience.

I joked about you no longer being Wonks-in-Training. But believe me, you will always be - as I am - Moral Agents in Training. The principles of ethical government that have been sewn into the fabric of your education cannot - I repeat, cannot - lose their relevance. But they can lose your attention - if you let them. I hope you never will.

As for those other lessons I mentioned, I have to warn you - they've come at a price: I was three inches taller before I moved to Washington. Still, I'm happy to share some of my wisdom from of the school of Learning-The-Hard-Way - which is where wonks go after leaving the Kennedy School.

First: No One Gets it Right all the Time.

Our best computer programmers wrote billions of lines of code in the 60s and 70s - only to watch other computer programmers un-write them in the late 80s and 90s. HHS had to spend millions of dollars - and countless hours - making sure that when the clock struck midnight last New Years Eve nothing would happen.

And nothing did happen.

Child care vouchers were delivered. Prescriptions were still filled. Medicare reimbursements were still paid. Surveillance systems for infectious diseases were still on alert. Child support payments went out. This was not simply a matter of "dodging the bullet." We came through Y2K unscathed because of planning, hard work, leadership and investing what we needed to invest to get the job done.

However, there is a bigger lesson in our experience with Y2K. I've spent most of my adult life bouncing back and forth between making public policy and being a student of public policy. After many years of doing both, I can tell you that solutions rarely rise to the surface with mathematical precision.

That is true for problems rooted in technology - like Y2K, but it is even more true for other problems faced by government - problems that test, not hardware, but the health, economic and social environment in which people live. Like you, I've occasionally seen politicians grovel at the feet of contributors - and make lousy policy . Yet time and again, I've also seen leaders from both political parties rise to the occasion, put nation above party, and better the lives of millions of Americans and people around the world.

Second: Know the Cultures of Your Organization

I said cultures, not culture.

Organizations are usually made up of many smaller units - each with its own history, needs, culture and constituencies - but working toward a larger objective. The National Institutes of Health is as different from the Health Care Financing Administration as law schools are different from medical schools.

Unique cultures within a department can also increase credibility - because they have clear identities. That's why a cabinet secretary is not always the best salesperson for a departmental policy. In criminal investigations, the FBI is usually called on to speak on behalf of the Justice Department. At HHS, I like to let the experts speak directly to the public. The physician-scientists who head FDA, CDC, NIH and the Public Health Service - while appointed by a President - have enormous credibility. When there are outbreaks of disease or food borne illnesses - the best salespeople are not press secretaries - but heads of credible institutions in their white coats.

Third: Stitch Together a Loyal Team and Make Sure the Right Hand Knows What the Left Hand is Doing.

There's a scene in the movie Ben Hur, where Ben Hur is trying, without success, to get his four new chariot horses to run swiftly around a track. The Bedouin who owns the horses tells him that each horse has its own personality and skills, and they must be harnessed together in a way that allows them to run as a team.

The same holds true for any large organization.

The sum has to be greater than the parts. The different agendas of smaller units have to be melded or modified - and a belief in the larger team built. When we took over management of the Department, I wanted everyone to feel they were part of a team. But I also knew that my top appointees were coming to Washington with different agendas - and often without knowing much about their new colleagues.

So I encouraged a healthy debate and large meetings. I wanted the left hand to know what the right hand was doing - and for the two hands to cooperate. In other words, I wanted my top appointees to separate the HHS forest from their particular tree.

One way I accomplished that goal was by asking agency heads to participate in each other's budget hearing - and to prepare a budget for the entire Department - another is by rewarding more teams than individuals. Particularly efforts that cut across agencies.

Hiring the right people - and giving them clear authority - works. However, you can't always give clear authority. Agencies are designed and built up over many years. Issues cut across agencies. That's why, in the end, there's just no substitute for team building.

My fourth and last lesson is: Be Flexible and Don't Expect to Win Every Time

Perhaps the biggest mistake the manager of a large organization can make is to stand in one place for too long. Change comes - whether we like it or not. For the most part, I have liked it.

When we came into office, the federal budget was deeply in the red. Medicare was predicted to go bankrupt in 1999. Treatments for HIV/AIDS were few and far between. Head Start had not kept up and had real quality problems. There was no policy for closing the large gaps in health outcomes between the majority population and minorities. The FDA review process took too long. And welfare reform was only an idea.

I could go on - believe me.

At the same time, important changes were taking place throughout the country - including a titanic political debate about the size and role of government. Now, almost eight years later, I can tell you that I believe we rode the crest of change and helped direct it - shape it for good. Still, leaders must know when to declare victory, when to compromise, when to accept defeat, and when to regroup in order to fight another day.

Mary Jo's brilliant use of waivers to shape welfare reform - didn't lead to a perfect bill - but we worked hard to make corrections - and then administered it with care and sensitivity. The jury is still out on whether welfare reform is successful.

On universal health care, we accepted defeat.

But we were also flexible enough to change strategy and keep moving. We adopted a clearer approach - first expanding access by making sure that changing jobs wouldn't lead to a loss of coverage. Then we worked with states to expand access for children from low income working families. We also expanded Medicaid for children aging out of foster care. Now we're trying to convince Congress to allow former workers, 62 to 65, without insurance, to buy into Medicare - and to expand the children's health program to cover parents and to allow the disabled to take their government health insurance to work with them.

My point is: Standing on principle is not the same as standing in cement. The writers of our Constitution did not create a system where one side wins all the time. In fact, that was the last thing they wanted. What they wanted was a system where women and men of good will - although differing views - could hammer out compromises that would, over time, bring a better life to every citizen.

You are now those women and men of good will. You have the core skills to make government - on every level - the servant of people. The question you face is this: Do you have the patience, determination and courage to use those skills wisely?

It's been my experience that bright - even brilliant - people come a dime a dozen. There are lots of smart people for rent in Washington. Finding wise, caring people - with judgment and integrity - is a different matter. As public officials we must always ask: Does this policy pass the test of common sense? Does it advance the common cause? Does it make a measurable difference? Does it speak to our common humanity? Does it fit with our moral values?

In other words, crunching the numbers, drafting the rules, and selling the policy isn't enough. We also have to bequeath a better nation to our children - wherever they may live on this earth. That great goal is now in your hands. And because it is - I have never been more optimistic about public service - wherever you may live on this earth.

Somebody once asked President Kennedy how he became a hero. His answer was: "It was involuntary. They sank my boat." President Kennedy was not a modest man - but he had a wonderfully dry sense of humor. He knew being a hero takes work and courage.

At the end of WWII as President Truman reflected on all the men and women who struggled, sacrificed, prayed and perished to free the world of tyranny and terror, he settled an age old question. He said, "Individuals make history and not the other way around. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. "

Some of you will have an opportunity to be a hero - a few might make history but all of you - with your JFK/Harvard degree in hand must promise me you will work to change things for the better.

So I wish you only the very best. I wish you fulfilling careers but uncomfortable, adventurous lives and good health and love and perhaps a little soul.

Thank you. God speed.