Shauna GrobJournal #1
More than a decade ago, I worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for two years. It was my first job after college. It feels a little strange to be back after so long. The agency has changed so much after 9-11: its headquarters location, its mission, its culture. There are many things, however, that stayed the same—many of the people are familiar, the organizational structure is the same, and many of the major projects that were in planning ten years ago are still active or recently commissioned. The first week was a little bit of a nostalgia-fest in terms of getting back in touch with people I remember fondly, getting reoriented with the facilities, etc. It was also an opportunity to realize how much I have grown and developed professionally in the ten years since I was here last.
A10-week internship does feel a little strange after having worked for 11 years before enrolling in a school. After 2 weeks, I am still trying to figure out how much I can really accomplish in such a short period. There’s a tension between knowing that there is only so much you can really learn and understand about a complex agency in such a short period of time and still wanting to feel like I am adding value. I am grappling with my previous work experience, attitudes and expectations. Furthermore, knowing that I am an intern, I’m not in a position to really help shape policy or be responsible for implementation.
On the other hand, already knowing the basics of the agency and having spent the last four years working on capital budgeting issues for the City of New York’s water supply, it helps in grasping the main issues the Port Authority will be facing over the next few years. I have been able to provide another perspective with some legitimacy, since the Port is facing many of the same constraints and conflicting priority issues that the City was tackling during my last few years there. I have been able to provide some value by offering comparisons between the two agencies and information-sharing about systems and procedures that were put into place in the City to help manage through the past several years of budget crisis. I have participated in discussions of risk assessment, prioritization, public messaging, and data integration between capital project management and budgeting systems. While I struggle with the fact that I am not the explicit owner or primary actor on any of these issues, I will hopefully continue to provide a sound perspective and some positive comparables to assist the people who are.
Journal #2
Unfortunately, the two main projects that I had been expecting to work on this summer both failed to materialize. This has been disappointing, but understandable when faced with the realities of the organization. Due to the structure of the Port Authority, there are certain tensions between operational units that each of these initially proposed projects would have exacerbated. It appears these projects would have required stepping across organizational lines that seem not yet ready to be crossed.
In place of these projects, I have, however, spent the past month working on the Port Authority’s initiation of a large-scale systems implementation for capital project management, intended to capture the status of every active and planned capital project’s scope, contracts, costs, budget, schedule, and issues. Since the operations of the Port Authority are so vast, and each operating department distinctly different, capturing all of this information across all projects is indeed a mighty feat. The agency currently captures information about its capital projects in a number of different “home-grown” systems that are owned by various sections within the organization, including the budgeting, engineering, project management, operating line departments, and capital planning divisions. Each of these units feels ownership over their own set of data. Additionally, the lack of uniformity and clearly defined and universally practiced business processes for how certain tasks are completed and reported on is a real challenge.
Considering this is a very similar endeavor to what I was working on at my job for the two years prior to starting Business School, it feels good to tread on some familiar terrain. I have tried to provide guidance and examples from my previous job and was able to organize a site visit to demonstrate the final product. I have also been able to help shape the structure and composition of the project team and define the objectives of various working groups as they focus on different aspects of the implementation concurrently. I definitely feel that I am adding value and expertise to the Port Authority through these efforts.
One draw-back is that while I feel like I am imparting helpful knowledge and sound advice, I don’t feel that I am learning as much as some of my school colleagues who are doing internships in fields very different from their previous professional experience. One of my original projects would have introduced me to the various possibilities the agency is pursuing to identify private sources of funding to finance public infrastructure investments. This is the specific area of my academic and post-graduate interest, and I regret that I did not have the opportunity to learn more about these possibilities through my internship. The flip side of feeling like I have a lot to offer the organization is that I feel like I am, in some ways, teaching more than I am learning. While this is not necessarily a bad position to be in, it does, at times, feel like a missed opportunity.
Journal #3
I ended the summer in a bit of a rush due to some personal events and have since had some time to reflect back on my summer internship. In general, it was a very good experience, but this was in some significant way due to the realizations I had about what I want for the next steps in my career. Throughout the first year of Business School, I had believed that there was a real possibility I would return directly to government after graduation, likely focusing again on public infrastructure. In fact, the reason I had decided to enroll in Business School was to help increase the level of knowledge about finance, accounting, and general management in government. However, while I truly enjoyed the people and the work at the Port Authority, I also came to realize that I had selected an internship a little too similar to my previous work experience and that perhaps Business School really is about the opportunity to try something new.
The Port Authority was in many ways quite similar to the City’s water supply; the size and breadth of operations, the established bureaucracy, and the organizational maturity of the agency. However, as a colleague this summer said, “You already know that you can manage in government. Maybe it’s time you explore something that will test you anew.” While others have said similar things about the Business School experience over the past year, it really resonated this summer when my internship relied on much of the content and skills that I had previously developed throughout my professional career.
That being said, it was rewarding to be part of the team responsible for mobilizing the rest of the agency around the data and process changes required for a new system implementation for capital project management and reporting. The need for the project was clear, and the effort was championed at the highest levels of the agency. However, the institutional barriers below the executive level, the organizational stove-piping, and just the vast history and the personal politics of the place really slowed down the movement for change. This is certainly not the only problem associated with large government agencies. Additionally, as with most, change will require plenty of patience and the revisiting of previous patterns and processes, with the “war stories” that go along with them.
I also started to long for an organization in which all the pieces weren’t so firmly in place, potentially either a start-up or a company in the early stages of growth. My strengths are administrative and operational, so I’d be looking for a company in which I could help develop more flexible management institutions and design sustainable funding sources. These thoughts had occurred to me while at my last job and during the first year of school, but the internship – likely because of the time crunch of a 10-week project – really made me feel the pressures and difficulties of changing an organization at its full maturity. I appreciate the opportunity given to me to be involved in such a critical project, and I think I was able to really help shape the roll-out and lend some sound support in introducing the initiative and shaping the objectives of the capital project management system. I am, however, most grateful for the realization that perhaps my second year at school can be used to further flesh out these thoughts on the kind of organization I want to join for the next stage of my career.
