Justin Fulcher on Listening First Inside the VA

Justin Fulcher’s time at the Department of Veterans Affairs drew attention for how he approached the work. Bloomberg noted that he took a quieter approach than other staffers involved in the same reform effort, spending time interviewing people, reviewing existing programs, and asking questions before drawing conclusions about what needed to change.

Starting From What People Know

Fulcher describes that approach as the only one that made sense to him. “If you walk into a large institution looking to understand what’s working and what isn’t, the most valuable thing you can do first is listen,” he said. Justin Fulcher points to the people already working inside these systems as holding a kind of understanding no outside advisor can replicate from a briefing document alone, no matter how thorough that document might be.

That instinct, starting from operational reality rather than a predetermined conclusion, shaped how Fulcher moved through the VA’s programs during his time there. He said accountability has to follow from genuine understanding rather than precede it. “You can only hold systems to a standard if you understand what they’re actually doing,” Fulcher said, describing the sequence he tried to follow before recommending any change.

Decisions Grounded in What Is True

He frames the stakes in direct terms tied to who the VA ultimately serves. Institutions responsible for veterans, patients, and servicemembers, he said, deserve decisions grounded in what’s actually true rather than what’s expedient in the moment.

For Justin Fulcher, that principle guided the pace and method of his work at the VA, even as it set him apart from a faster, more public style adopted by some of his peers in the same reform push across the federal government. Listening first did not mean moving slowly forever, he said, only that any changes he eventually recommended needed to be grounded in what people inside the system already knew. Visit this page for more information.

More about Justin Fulcher on https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrjustinfulcher