what made it successful was the team related the way special operations relate to regular forces. I'd bet if you went down the list of Sammy nominees, or looked at most accomplishments in public service, they were done by people who succeeded outside the mainline org reporting.

if you look at the way the military uses special forces to achieve objectives, there is probably an analogous model in public service. to some extent it's done in consulting, but there is so much partisan bloat and low-level fiefdom in it that there isn't a coherent operating model.

the 18F program that became the US Digital Service was a task force that had huge impact. there are certain whitehouse initiatives around cybersecurity that worked in a similar way. maybe the opportunity is to create a special operations doctrine for public services, where it codifies how there's a specific way to use that kind of initiative and talent, and when not to.