A Model for State Government “Operators” - Colorado’s Governor’s Office of Operations

Unlike many other roles in a Governor’s Office, there is no real template to follow for State Chief Operating Officers (and their teams). In this session, we will share how the Colorado Governor’s Office of Operations & Cabinet Affairs has grappled with this ambiguity during the Polis-Primavera Administration and, through trial and error, landed on our model for day-to-day governing and for ensuring that the State makes the lives of Coloradans better. 

The team has ultimately become a hybrid of four archetypal COO’s office models, which we believe has led to a mutually-beneficial feedback loop. In this session, we will cover the benefits and drawbacks of each archetypal model, how we’ve approached this in Colorado, why we think it can be helpful to do all of them, and other lessons we’ve learned along the way. 

This session is designed for state and local government leaders working to improve execution and follow-through on priorities, as well as cabinet members, agency directors, and staff who want to strengthen cross-agency collaboration. It will also be valuable for public sector professionals interested in performance management and results-driven leadership, policy and program staff seeking to move from strategy to impact, and anyone curious about how governments turn vision into results and build the skills to make complex systems deliver for residents.