Notes From The Field

To do any job, it’s important to be creative. We might think of the creative industries (film, music, writing, the arts, design) as the sole place where fostering a sense of imagination is important to your career path. However, any profession I can think of benefits from being innovative and thinking outside the box. For… Read more »

Washington, DC, USA - October 10, 2012: Memorial to Dr. Martin L

Career Advice from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Authentic blue grunge vintage seal isolated on white

The Beauty in Being Authentic

When I found out I had been selected to participate in the GovLoop Blogger program, I was pleased, excited and slightly puzzled. What was I going to write about that the GovLoop audience would want to read about … every week? One of the first things I did was look through the website to see… Read more »

Linchpin: The Handbook for the Public Service

The public service needs more linchpins. More what? Exactly.

General Alexander’s Strategy for Effective Cybersecurity

Today, I’m attending Microsoft’s Federal Executive Forum 2015. The day is focused on applying technology solutions to many government challenges, particularly in the area of cybersecurity. But before we dove into the devices, systems, and solutions available to agencies, we heard from General Keith Alexander, former Commander of US Cyber Command, Director of the National Security Agency… Read more »

Lying? Rear view of man in formalwear keeping fingers crossed behind his back while three people sitting on background

Workplace Lies: What Do They Cost?

As a little girl, I was taught not to use the word lie. It was a bad word in my world. My mother told me to use untruth instead. And so I did…until I transitioned to the workplace; I began to use ‘fabricate’ to replace untruth. Today, telling an untruth is simply deemed a lie… Read more »

Ready to Retire?

Last week, I talked to a friend about a major home improvement project costing thousands of dollars that I have to have done. My friend said she had another friend who delayed her federal retirement because she had to do the same project. My heart dropped because I would be distraught if I had to delay… Read more »

Reality TV and Accessibility Have a Lot in Common

How many times have you heard people say, “I hate reality TV! I want real shows. I wish they’d make something else.”? I don’t understand why people remained glued to reality TV shows despite their professed hatred of them. “But there’s nothing else on,” people say. “I’ve gotta watch something!” Hold out, I say, hold… Read more »

Please Don’t Talk About THAT

Many times, I hear people say things like: “you can talk about this and can talk about that, but please don’t talk about that.” I remember when I was a little girl and whenever a controversial subject came up my mother used to say “shhh” and her mother used to say “shhh” and my other… Read more »

Put People First And Let Technology Do the Rest

Much has been made lately about digital services in government. Better technology. More efficient software. Increasingly agile IT. Better digital services and better technology in government are absolutely important. But technology can only take your organization so far. There is a continued importance of having people actually working and dedicating their time to do the… Read more »

Why Sometimes You Should Say “I Don’t Know”

When you’re the manager, the last thing you want to do is appear uninformed or incompetent when someone asks you a question – but even worse can be the damage caused by guessing at the answers. Yet it’s often our first impulse to spin out conjecture rather than simply saying, “I don’t know.” The risks?… Read more »

Businessman's table Planning Business Issue

4 Pointers for Getting Your Conference Proposals Accepted

A mentor of mine once told me about an important distinction when deciding how to spend one’s finite work time. A focus on the day-to-day fixing of issues, meeting with clients, and delivering the deliverables was spending time “in the business.” Getting your head up out of the weeds to see where you were headed,… Read more »

The Intersection of Knowledge Management and Learning

I’ve never worked in knowledge management, but I do work in learning and development, and it’s always fun to find new applications for the Pareto principle. You know, the one where 80% of outputs are the result of 20% of the inputs…or something like that. In learning applications, Lombardo & Eichinger’s 70-20-10 rule is often cited… Read more »

Are Your Meetings “Garbage”?

If I asked you to think through your career and remember notable meetings you attended, ones where ideas were flowing, decisions were made and you left feeling like you and your team really accomplished something…how many come to mind? Now, what if I asked you to recall meetings where no decisions or very little progress… Read more »

9 Awesome Project Management Schedules

There are so many moving pieces that go into project management, that of utmost importance in keeping everything together is having all of the information about dates, deliverables, assignments, costs, etc. in one place. Here, I provide some of my favorite templates for government project schedules to help keep you sane. A variety of state… Read more »

Put People First And Let Technology Do the Rest

Please Don’t Talk About THAT

Ready to Retire?

Transfer of Knowledge: Your Role

Reality TV and Accessibility Have a Lot…

Collaboration is Broken and We Need to…

How to Build an Active Community of…

Training

Resources

Notes From The Field

Career Advice from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Beauty in Being Authentic

Linchpin: The Handbook for the Public Service

General Alexander’s Strategy for Effective Cybersecurity

Workplace Lies: What Do They Cost?

Ready to Retire?

Reality TV and Accessibility Have a Lot in Common

GovLoop

Newsletter

150k+ Members

Discussion

IBM invests in innovation with 2015 plan!

Calling all Project Managers - I need your Pro Tips!

Training Officers Consortium Annual Awards Nominations OPEN NOW!

Calling all Project Managers - I need your Pro Tips!