LLNL receives annual performance scores
12/20/13
The Laboratory has received the scores determined by the NNSA Fee Determination Official for fiscal year 2013, earning an overall 87 percent of the total fee, or $41.3 million.
We are pleased NNSA recognizes the Lab's continued strong performance in programs, operations and infrastructure, but we are disappointed an award term was not given. For the three program-related performance objectives (mission and science), the Laboratory earned two ratings of "very good" and one rating of "excellent." The Operations and Infrastructure Performance Objective received a rating of "very good." For the Contractor Leadership Performance Objective, the Laboratory earned a rating of "satisfactory."
Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, holds a seven-year contract to manage the Laboratory, with four consecutive one-year award terms already earned, taking the contract to 2018. Additional award terms could extend the contract through 2026.
We understand NNSA will issue a detailed report on the PER at a later date. We will address the findings of the report at that time.
-- Bret Knapp (Acting LLNL Director)
Comments
Patiz probably didn't want to deal with two searches at the same time.
The big difference? Almost zero micromanagement and interference into the internal HR and site operations by the federal employees overseeing these labs.
I am positive that the Directors of these labs would never have allowed their fed site manager to keep them from talking to "their" lab employees about the government shutdown. Which is exactly what DOE/NNSA ordered contractor leadership to do - which Parney ignored.
What is the real big difference between these labs and NNSA labs? Lincoln and JPL are run by strong "real" contractor entities (MIT and Caltec) with real cultures and strong management wills, and not by fake LLCs. If the JPL Director got into a spat with the NASA site office manager, that lab's Director is picking up his phone and call the President of Caltech, who in turn would personally be calling the NASA Administrator (or even hire) to support the Director and get the issue resolved in the lab Director's favor. Could you see Norm covering Parney's backside in a disagreement with Kim over internal LLNL operations. Yeah - not happening.
The feds at Lincoln and JPL worry about "mission" outcomes and not the inner workings of the contractor run labs. And the "true" contractors are held accountable for the mission. As Parney noted a year ago - JPL's annual federal budget is slightly more than LLNL's $1.4 Billion, yet the NASA oversight presence at this federal owned facility is a fraction of what is at LLNL.
Unfortunately and sadly, I see no chance of improvement or change as long as NNSA exists.
"...I was an EIT and EBA for a year. The week of September 16th, 2013 I asked the NNSA Livermore Field Office Manager Kimberly Davis Lebak, for an avenue for LLNS employees to submit input to the LLNS contract extension. She never returned my emails or phone calls. On September 20th, 2013, I was "dismissed" (fired) and escorted off site..."
The NNSA Livermore Employee Concern Program Manager, and his NNSA ECP attorney team both supposedly subject to DOE Order 442.1A , (I used the NNSA ECP before for basically the same chronic retaliatory concern) are now stating they have "insufficient information" to pursue my concern.... What?
Now don't get me wrong about one thing. There is some need for oversight. That's a very legitimate function. The problem is that DOE is a set of fiefdoms filled with too many people who've never done any of the things they try to oversee. The result is a bizarre set of Orders written to the lowest common denominator in an environment divorced from any real world understanding of operations. It's a made-to-order fiasco.
Basically, DOE doesn't know how to run these facilities. It hires people to do that. Then it imagines how it would run them if it knew how, details that imaginary world in poorly written regulations, and inflicts the resulting psychosis on itself and its contractors at extraordinary cost.
Any grades in such a system are meaningless. They're divorced from any rational mechanism of cause and effect.
It is one thing to not have the knowledge base to properly evaluate LLNS. It is a very different and serious problem if LLNS is allowed to self assess followed by a NNSA Livermore stamp of "evaluation" dominantly based on a LLNS self-evaluation. The NNSA Livermore Team and LLNS are not adequately separated for the NNSA Livermore Team to have meaningful objectively. How is this fair or a level playing field to other LLCs desiring the LLNL contract?
It's not a different thing at all. The NNSA Livermore's evaluation is fundamentally meaningless. If you want separation, NNSA Headquarters could do it and it would be every bit as meaningless. There's no rational criteria or competent people involved. It's all a show, and whether you agree with a given grade or not is simply a function of what prejudices you bring to the table.
The LLCs of 2006/2007 were just the first phase of NNSA's plans. The next phase will completely wipe away any part of DOE's 1st phase promise of "substantial equivalent". It will be found no where in the next round of LLC contracts when LANS and LLNL loose their hold on the labs.
In one case (NNSA oversight of LLNL), management at both NNSA and LLNL is performed for the sake of management. It is a job all unto itself. It is the end product. All technical work could stop and NNSA and LLNL still would insist on a need for management. In the other case (NASA oversight of JPL), management is considered a necessary function to achieve broader technical goals. It is not the end product.
Managers at LLNL want to be managers. That is their career objective. Managers at JPL consider themselves scientists/technical people first, and managers second. Yes, there are a few exceptions to that generalization. However, the person who was director of JPL at the time was on the 5-person committee for my PhD qualifying exam. He was a scientist first, and a manager of a large laboratory second. After his stint as JPL director, he returned to a full-time scientific position. That type of atmosphere does not exist at LLNL, although it does exist at LBNL.
Some people and organizations gravitate towards more management and micromanagement because that is what they enjoy. Other people and organizations gravitate towards less management because they would rather occupy their time with other activities.
If you are correct, and the trend line is definitely in your favor, what should LLNS employees individually or collectively do in the attempt to retain ever eroding benefits, job stability, and employment policy? LLNS "SHRM-Staff Relations" are useless for the worker bees. Is the NNSA Livermore Team an objective resource for the concerns of LLNS employees?
Both LANL and LLNL come from the background that was probably the pattern for JPL. Why are they different now? They weren't that different 20 years ago. I don't think that the LANL and LLNL gravitated toward more management because they were filled with people tat enjoyed that - quite the opposite was true.
The government drove the labs that direction. It may have started earlier, but I witnessed the descent, starting with the Admiral and his Tiger Teams. The labs are nothing if not smart, and they respond quickly and quite effectively to direction and incentives from their HQ "bosses". Once those folks were politicized, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING became a matter of documenting the fact that all requirements were met.
The poor judgement of Congress in finally taking te labs away from a public steward and making them for-profit was an inevitable outcome, though hastend by a perfect storm of idiocy.
It's hard to see how this trend will reverse. Where is Hari Seldon when you need him?
I say BS on this. If there is one thing we know is that eggheads make very bad managers. Just look at what happened with Chu. Perhaps JPL does this kind of thing but JPL would not survive in the real world. You can complain all you want about LANLs and LLNLs but this is the new reality get used to it or get out. If you want to remain a scientist drone for the rest of you life that is your problem, some people what to do something with their lives and become leaders and managers.
The point is that many organizations thrive when management and micromanagement are constrained. This includes both government laboratories and private companies in your so-called real world. Effective leaders delegate responsibility at both the macro and micro levels. Eggheads who follow this approach can be effective leaders. But when management is essentially the end result, as it is with the NNSA/LLNS/LLNL combo, then the organization is doomed to fail. I should not have to write five progress reports every month for a single relatively small project. That exemplifies the problem, not the solution.
I agree with Dec 23 @ 1:16 pm. My comment is that many of the most successful individuals at LLNL over the last 10-15 years have been those who immediately complied with dictates from above. By successful, I mean those people most likely to be rewarded and promoted by the organization. It is in this way that the LLNL management culture shifted due to the increasing burdens mandated by DOE/NNSA, congress, and others. Many of the most successful individuals have been those who excel at micromanaging others, even if it has meant deterioration of the broader organization.
December 23, 2013 at 2:42 PM
Indeed! Just look at how badly that egghead Oppenheimer screwed up the A-Bomb. My Gawd, under his so-called leadership it took 3 whole years to build a deployable weapon from scratch.
December 23, 2013 at 5:31 PM"
A copout argument. There is no way you could build something like that in three years without breaking a million rules. Back than we where at war and we did not know the safety or security issues. Oppie might have been the right man then but he is the wrong man now.
Thinks have changed so get used to it. In many ways the labs are thriving just look at the awards. Once the old workforce is gone we will no longer have this kind of griping. This whole idea of "best and brightest" has really been the disaster. It created the bad lab cultures we have heard about so much, the constant whining and big egos. I think if we just went for the "get er done and don't complain types" everything would be just fine and lots cheaper to boot. This idea in the United States that " I am so smart I am special attitude" has got to go, only the marketplace should be allowed to determine who is special and special means what you are worth in cold hard cash, no more no less. If you think you are so smart and deserve a nice salary than go out there and compete for it like everyone else. If you have a problem with LLNL than get out, shut up, or become a manager. Nuf said
This is so true. Many (the vast majority I have met over my lifetime) hold this perverse notion that somehow they are special, and that they are smarter and more creative than everyone else, when in fact, they make their careers in a bubble. You compare their resumes with someone in industry, and you see stark differences between those who have tangible accomplishments and those who "participate" in initiatives that have gone nowhere.
Bringing this back to the annual performance score, all three labs are failures in many aspects. The way they manage talent is attrocious. I personally know many cases (especially egregious at Sandia and LLNL) where exceptional talentented and creative people with a demonstrated track-record of execution and customer-delivery are routinely punished for performing at a level far above the mediocrity around them. I encourage each of them to leave. Sandia, LLNL and LANL are cesspools of mediocrity.
December 24, 2013 at 11:51 AM
Yet another whiner heard from. Where do these cry babys come from?
The analogy is people fall overboard and into the ocean. While in the ocean over the loud horn you hear they are coming for you. In the dark of night, the rescue boats pick up their favorites, while those black listed remain in the water to fend for themselves. The ship records will carefully document all loud horn communications.
December 28, 2013 at 7:04 AM
LLNL passed in all 4 contractual areas. LANL failed (49% score) in the Management and Operations (M&O) area. Based on this LLNL will receive a contract extension and LANL will not.
Who passed us and by what criteria and source? Criteria solely provided by the LLNS plantation owners? Without systematic worker bee input, its an "allegory of the cave" situation. The report card folks are assessing the shadows on the wall. If you don't like this point of view, then dump the SHRM portion of the report card and cut out all consideration for employees straight up.
Umm, no - both LANS and LLNS passed 4 out of 5 areas, so neither received a contract extension. The summary letters are here:
http://www.nnsa.energy.gov/aboutus/ouroperations/apm/perfevals