Jan 29, 2025 Sarah King, MPP '26 Presidential Transitions: The Ultimate Change Management Challenge Navigating profound organizational change is one of the toughest challenges leaders face, at Monday’s Batten Hour, students heard from an expert on the matter. Yohannes Abraham served as the chair of the Harris-Walz presidential transition team last fall, and previously as the executive director of the Biden-Harris transition team.“There are not a whole lot of professional transitions people in the world, so we’re really lucky to have one of them with us today,” said Phil Potter, professor of public policy and founding director of UVA Batten’s National Security Policy Center which hosted the event.Their dialogue encompassed leadership themes and organizational challenges spanning Abraham’s career including stints as the U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, executive secretary of the National Security Council, and senior advisor to the National Economic Council during the Biden and Obama administrations.“Part of being a thoughtful designer of organizations is having a ton of humility and having a real commitment to precision of what you’re trying to get done and how your tools work or don’t work to accomplish that,” Abraham told the audience of some 80 students, faculty and staff gathered in the Great Hall.“I would not start off with the premise that past is prologue,” he added, noting that transitions serve as pivot points. “I would be really hard-nosed and clear-eyed: what are the actual problems the country is facing over the next four years directly under our purview,” then look at the horizon, too.Much of the Harris-Walz transition team’s work was oriented around advancing Kamala Harris to-do list, Abraham said. As far as how typical President Donald Trump’s to-do list is, he said “it depends.” The 2024 transition is better organized than the 2016 transition, he said; from a process perspective, people are usually better at something when they’ve done it before.While some of that is attributable to the team itself, there was also an “ecosystem of groups” aligned with Trump’s vision working over the last four years, Abraham said. “Part of the flurry of activity I think we’re seeing is partially derived of a constellation of different actors who have been planning for quite a while.”Abraham told students there are many different ways to serve, and if building a career with an eye toward service as a political appointee in the executive branch or on political campaigns, “you are importing a lot of uncertainty into your own life. That should be just one of the lenses through which you think through how you want to manifest your service.”Now is one such time of uncertainty, as many of the political spheres of influence are in flux – including a federal hiring freeze, he said. Abraham offered his advice to students interested in pursuing a high-impact, but transitory, career.“It's a really bad way to live, spending every four years treading water hoping you win an election,” he said. He encouraged students to identify sources of meaning from their work and fully explore and pursue those types of opportunities in the off-cycle years. “Spending half [your life] waiting for the other half is not a particularly fulfilling way to execute a career.”With that said, he also advised students that if they ever get the opportunity to serve on a presidential transition team, they should seize the chance to make a very big difference in the world. Left to right: UVA Batten Ian Solomon, Abraham and Potter. Stay Up To Date with the Latest Batten News and Events Subscribe