How Presidential Administrations Have Shaped—Or Not Shaped—My Rapid Acquisition Mindset

I was asked how different presidential administrations have affected my rapid acquisition mindset.

The short answer is: they haven’t. I’ve always been this way.

Administrations come and go, but they’ve never affected how I think about acquisition, streamlining, or how I find my motivation to create faster, better, more efficient, and more effective ways to do things. That’s all internal. There’s no amount of money you could pay me to have a greater rapid or streamlining mindset. There’s no amount of pressure you could put on me to have a greater rapid or streamlining mindset.

Those things are just part of who I am—as an employee, as a consultant, or as a leader—and I would not, or could not, change it if I wanted to.

I performed the same kind of work with the same kind of mindset for a whopping ten presidential administrations—nine as a federal employee and one as a contractor. I have thrived during some administrations and beat my head against the wall during others. But the thriving and surviving have always been related to my local leadership: the leaders, managers, and supervisors I’ve seen on a daily basis, not the ones on the national news.

I’ve fared well under administrations led by both major parties, especially when there was a sudden resurgence of emphasis on streamlining, innovation, or acquisition reform. Of course, I would! That matches my mindset and what drives me personally.

What It Means to Be Truly Innovative

Since 2018, I think we’ve all seen people claiming to be innovators or disruptors, using those labels only as stepping stones to their next position. That’s not to say there aren’t some stellar new faces and voices out there who, in my estimation, qualify as true innovators.

I have a feeling, however, that those new innovators would be innovative even if they had never heard the word innovative.

On the flip side, I’ve seen a couple of newcomers claim that everything needed to be thrown out, but they had no understanding at all of either the strengths or the weaknesses of the current system—of what to revise, what to toss, and what to keep.

There’s a saying: bravery doesn’t mean being fearless; bravery means being scared and doing it anyway. If you’ve never known the oppression of restrictive—and downright stupid at times—processes, how do you know what to fix?

My favorite is when someone who has never worked in a Contracting office tells me that the Contracting Officer has unlimited power to do all sorts of things. I just figure they’ve never had a boss who refused to sign off on something unusual or outside their experience.

Or maybe they’ve never had a Contracting director who, to limit their acquisition ideas, forced all contract actions over $250,000 to go through the same reviews as those over $5,000,000. Or perhaps they’ve never had a boss who was scared to death of “other transactions” and restricted their use entirely.

You can call yourself innovative if you like, but if you haven’t lived the opposite, do you really know what you’re innovating against?

Some spiritual gurus refer to this as “contrast.” In other words, if you know what you don’t want, you have a much better idea of what you do want—and how to get there. If you’re starting from scratch, you can develop those green fields in your own image of “better,” but if you’re trying to remold an existing structure into something fresh, it’s harder.

How to Guide Innovation

So how do we guide people who, by nature, already have the rapid acquisition mindset?

Well, there’s market research: understanding what has come before and asking where the problems lie before trying to fix those. It’s teaching the innovator or streamliner to be an informed visionary.

Then, be encouraging rather than saying no to every idea they present. Just because you’ve tried it before—in a different era, with different technology, and under different leadership—doesn’t mean it won’t work this time.

It’s not all on them to come up with ideas—they need context as well. Likewise, it’s not up to those of us guiding or managing them to dismiss every new idea or tell them to try again without providing support.

What About the Externally Motivated?

For those who are externally motivated, it’s a bit trickier. You can mandate reform all you want, and you can lead a horse to water.

We’ve certainly seen tools mandated as the “preferred choice” within Contracting, only to be ignored with excuses that sound great—like “it won’t work for this particular program”—even though the objectors have no experience with it and no intention of gaining any.

So, how do you get these folks to adopt a rapid acquisition or innovation mindset?

1. Create incentives and recognition. Externally motivated folks thrive on rewards and acknowledgment. Give them something tangible: awards, bonuses, or even public praise for ideas that lead to real improvements.
2. Set clear expectations and goals. Don’t just say, “Be innovative.” Define measurable goals, like cutting process time by 20% or implementing a tool by a deadline. Give them a target.
3. Provide training and resources. Teach them how to think differently with workshops or certifications. A little know-how goes a long way.
4. Foster friendly competition. Challenges and contests work wonders. Innovation hackathons or workflow contests keep them engaged.
5. Assign ownership of projects. Give them a project where they call the shots. Responsibility inspires effort.
6. Pair with mentors. Let them work with someone who’s naturally innovative. Innovation rubs off when done right.
7. Showcase success stories. Share real-world examples of how innovation worked. Show them what’s possible.
8. Remove barriers. Create a safe space to fail, try again, and explore. Bureaucracy kills innovation.
9. Tie innovation to career growth. Show how innovation leads to promotions and success. Make it personal.
10. Listen and act. Ask for their feedback and act on it. Show them their voices matter.

Conclusion

At the heart of acquisition streamlining is the ability to challenge the status quo—whether that means breaking free of outdated processes, adapting to new technology, or simply rethinking the way things have always been done. But true change doesn’t happen in isolation, nor can it be forced through mandates or buzzwords.

It’s about creating an environment where ideas can flourish. For those with a natural rapid acquisition mindset, it’s about providing encouragement and context. For the externally motivated, it’s about offering the right mix of incentives and support.

Above all, fostering this mindset requires one essential element: trust. Trust in the people who propose bold ideas. Trust that experimentation, even if it fails, can lead to progress. And trust in the process of continuous improvement.

Because when people feel supported—and when they see that innovation isn’t just a word but a practice—they can rise to the challenge. And that’s when the real change begins.