The program holds three month-long sessions each year. Tuition for 2007 is $15,500 per session and includes housing and most meals. Designed for federal government employees at the GS-14 and GS-15 levels and their military counterparts, the program is used by some government agencies as a part of their Senior Executive Service candidate development programs.

Applicants must submit a recommendation from their supervisor as well as other forms available on the program’s Web site at ksgexecprogram.harvard.edu. “There’s always a wait list,” said Christine Letts, associate dean for executive education at the Kennedy School.

Michael Audino, branch chief at the Army’s Benét Laboratories in Watervliet, N.Y., wanted to attend the program to better understand diverse views and build leadership. He also knew four or five other people from Benét Laboratories who had taken the course and said it was “tremendous.”

Peter Zimmerman, faculty chair and senior associate dean for executive education at the Kennedy School of Government, describes the program’s faculty as “government-political junkies. But we sit on the sidelines,” while his students are on the front lines.

Challenges in government these days “demand what people call ‘soft skills,’ which are in no sense soft,” Zimmerman said. One of the goals of the program is to teach these soft skills such as coalition building and the capacity to see problems through to the end.

Government needs active learners and adaptive leaders, Zimmerman said. He tells his students on the first day, “Open your minds as wide as you can.”

Steve Kelman, professor of public management, said the goal of the Senior Executive Fellows program is “to get government to work better. It’s as simple as that.”