The 2016 presidential candidates may be eyeing the early primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire, but according to a few people in Washington, they should be assembling their presidential transition teams now.

"Every transition is done poorly, it doesn't have to be that way," said David Eagles, director of presidential transitions for the Partnership for Public Service.

Eagles said the key to successful transition is starting planning it as early as possible, working with the outgoing administration even before this summer's Democrat and Republican conventions.

"[Former George W. Bush Chief of Staff] Josh Bolten and his folks started in the June-July [2008] timeframe," Eagles said. "Even Josh would tell you today that that was too late.

"He would tell you that these teams need to be starting as soon as there is visibility into victory, which is sort of in that late-March, early-April timeframe. That's a big part of our sort of mandate to the public, that these transition teams need to be thinking about that stuff that early."

The Partnership is looking to identify those things to help the next administration, whoever's it might be, hit the ground running on Jan. 20, 2017. As part of its Ready to Govern series, the think tanks wants to know what worked in past transitions, what didn't and how the transfer of power can move more smoothly.

"If you start early and you start methodically, you can do much better. You can double the amount of appointees you have in place. There are a lot of these types of things that you can do."

Part of that includes a series of roundtable discussions between The Partnership and the IBM Center for the Business of Government to develop Management Roadmap for the next administration to follow in its transition.

But The Partnership also plans to pitch Congressional reforms to help codify the best practices for the transition, as well as develop preparation guides for appointees who are new to the administration process.

"It's a bit like Groundhog Day every time," Eagles said, referencing the repetition of mistakes made with every new administration.

"We reinvent the wheel every time and it doesn't have to be that way. So we are working with both parties, sort of incoming and outgoing to try and figure out how to do this better, how to plan earlier and really institutionalize it."

The National Academy of Public Administration has also formed its Transition 2016 project to examine the best practices, bringing in former Assistant Director of the Congressional Budget Office David Chu and former Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget Ed DeSeve to help guide its efforts.

Dan Blair, president of NAPA, said the inundation of information awaiting a new administration often means there's a lag for it to get a handle on operations before tackling its policy goals.

"We've come to the realization that transition teams will be drinking from the proverbial fire hose," he said. "So what they are going to need is real-time information so they can formulate that policy."

To help shave the adjustment period, NAPA has formed four panels to address what Blair called "several crosscutting management issues" that will arise in the early days of the new administration.

Specifically, NAPA will target intergovernmental operations, including working with state and local governments to deliver federal services.

The T16 team will also look at strategic foresight practices to show how a new administration can forecast its resources in both the near-term and the long-term, developing program evaluation and practices for recruiting and retaining talent.

"A new administration doesn't have to start from whole cloth," Blair said. "There are effective policies, practices and programs out there now. We need to highlight what works and maybe what doesn't. A new administration can then shape it to what their policy priorities are going to be."

Eagles said transition leadership teams should be in place the first week of April, after Super Tuesday, and by May, a full leadership team should be in place.

"Our view is that 200 days after the inauguration, you should see fundamentally different results from the administration if they do their transition correctly," he said.

So when Jan. 20, 2017 arrives, whoever is president, expect them to hit the ground running.

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