In turn, the civilian  agencies can free up resources to send civilian personnel to teach or  attend courses at Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC). As one expert explained, designing a rotation so that it is a “win-win” for  the individual participants and organizations involved is critical to its  success. Based on our analysis of program documents, interviews with program  officials, and responses to our survey of program participants and  supervisors, we found that State’s POLAD and other rotation programs  and Army’s CGSC Interagency Fellowship program incorporated or  partially incorporated most of the policies and practices that can help  achieve collaboration-related results. However, without regular feedback on  the rotations from participants and their host agency supervisors, the  agency may be missing opportunities to identify and address potential  challenges to the effectiveness of these rotations. Recommendations for Executive Action

To improve the effectiveness of the POLAD program as a tool to facilitate  interagency collaboration on national security, we recommend that the  Secretary of State direct the Bureau of Human Resources and the Office  of the Coordinator of the Foreign Policy Advisor (POLAD) Program to  take the following action:
Expand the scope of current efforts by routinely evaluating the  effectiveness of the program to determine if desired results are being  achieved for participating individuals and agencies, to identify and  build on areas of strength, and to identify areas for improvement. State generally agreed with our recommendations. GAO staff who made key contributions to this report  are listed in appendix V.

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

To better understand how to effectively design and implement  interagency rotation programs, this report addresses the following  research objectives: (1) identify desirable collaboration-related results of  interagency rotation programs in terms of individual competencies and  organizational results; (2) identify policies and practices that help  interagency rotation programs achieve collaboration-related results; and  (3) determine the extent to which interagency rotation programs we  identified in our previous report, were viewed as effective and  incorporated those policies and practices. Agency officials provided, among other things,  their perspectives on policies and practices that can either promote or  challenge the effectiveness of interagency rotation programs in improving  interagency collaboration. National Security: An Overview of Professional Development Activities  Intended to Improve Interagency Collaboration. Human Capital: A Guide for Training and Development Efforts in the  Federal Government.
Why GAO Did This Study

Federal government personnel must be able to collaborate across agencies to meet complex 21st century national security challenges. GAO found in a prior report that interagency rotations are a type of professional development activity that can help improve interagency collaboration. However, government officials, policy researchers, human capital experts, and others cite many challenges to successful rotation programs.
To understand how interagency rotation programs can be designed to address these challenges, GAO was asked to (1) identify desirable collaboration-related program results; (2) identify policies and practices that help rotation programs achieve those results; and (3) determine the extent to which three rotation programs were viewed as effective and incorporated those policies and practices.
To address these objectives, GAO reviewed the literature; reviewed rotation program documents; surveyed program participants and their supervisors; and interviewed human resources experts, agency human resources practitioners, and program officials.

What GAO Found

Effective interagency rotational assignments can achieve collaboration-related resultssuch as developing participants collaboration skills and building interagency networksbut programs must be a win-win for the individuals and organizations involved in order to be effective.
GAO found policies and practices that help interagency rotation programs achieve collaboration-related results as indicated in the figure below. The policies and practices addressed challenges to participation, and included incentives, preparation, and feedback.
Most participants and host supervisors of States Foreign Policy Advisor (POLAD) program, States other interagency rotations, and the Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) Interagency Fellowship reported that their programs were effective in contributing to improved collaboration among agencies with national security responsibilities.

What GAO Recommends

GAO is making recommendations to the Secretaries of State and Defense to direct State and Army Command and General Staff College officials to build on successful efforts by establishing program evaluation processes, among other actions. Officials from both agencies reviewed a draft of this report and generally agreed with our recommendations.