By Pete Wilson There is a lot of energy today around innovation in government. This is a good thing. Government agencies, like all large organizations, can fall into a complacent bureaucratic model that fiercely protects established structures, processes, and cultures. When they do, they can become unresponsive to the evolving needs of customers, partners, andRead… Read more »
Everyone gets thirsty. It’s easy to see thirsty folks heading to the water cooler for refreshment, be it in the traditional form, a coffee station, or by proxy via vending machines. Everyone gets bored, too.
Women face barriers in nearly every professional setting. However, some sectors of government are more challenging than others, especially when they employ a dominantly male workforce and require skillsets traditionally associated with men. Civic tech is one of those sectors. Jill Melnicki, as a technology consultant in state and local government, offers a unique perspectiveRead… Read more »
I know several people who put a lot of stock in the power of coincidence. When conversations, articles and events line up like messengers, all with the same telegram, at your door, something is trying to get through. In my world, over the last few days, there’s been a great convergence of messages stamped: “Memory.”Read… Read more »
How much do you know about EEO? Are you a subject matter expert in issues of equal employment opportunity (EEO) in the public and private sectors? If so, you should consider applying to be a presenter at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) 18th annual EXCEL Training Conference this summer in Washington, DC. TheRead… Read more »
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… Read more »
Although we’re only a mere two months into the year, a deluge of incredible books on the topics of elections and the political process — fiction and non-fiction alike — has occurred. In the words of George Mason, “The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never beRead… Read more »
I’ve always found it a bit disheartening how far-removed some government departments seem to be from any semblance of performance-based accountability. I ask, “would these folks survive a day out in the real world if there was an ounce of competition?” Considering that I work for the government as well, I have to assume that othersRead… Read more »
SharePoint can be a great collaboration tool for government teams. Its familiar Windows interface makes it intuitive for many users, and it provides a lot more functionality than a file on a shared drive. So if you’re thinking about, or in the process of, setting up a site, here are nine tips for implementing SharePointRead… Read more »
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. To see better results, some inherent part of the process must change, but it’s hard for teams to think outside the box when no new people are involved. Habits die hard, so in looking to change the status quo,Read… Read more »