Career

Federal Coach: How to Overcome Bureaucracy so You Can Innovate

I am in a federal office that places a high value on innovation, yet there are so many bureaucratic obstacles to being innovative. Are there any good models you can recommend where federal programs have been both innovative and produced valuable results? -Federal Supervisor (GS-14), Department of Homeland Security I can share plenty of examplesRead… Read more »

Lessons Learned: Making Strategic Hiring Decisions

Director‘s Perspective Lessons Learned: Making Strategic Hiring Decisions In a downsizing environment, there are steps you can take to ensure your organization is positioned well to carry out its responsibilities. In the 1990s, the Federal Government downsized a considerable portion of its workforce using such strategies as attrition, buy-outs, early-out retirements, and some reductions-in-force. ItRead… Read more »

GovExpert: James Donelson, former Chief Operations Officer for the Internal Revenue Service

GovExpert is a biweekly interview of high-level authorities on government and government practices. This week’s GovExpert is James Donelson. Mr. Donelson is a former Chief Operations Officer for the US Internal Revenue Service. As an operations officer what made your job the most difficult? The major challenge for me as IRS Chief Operations Officer wasRead… Read more »

A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 49

Day 49 APWA Tour of Concrete Products Plant Today we had an APWA luncheon meeting. And after the meeting we toured Welch Brothers – a concrete product manufacturer located in St. Charles, Ill. I knew this would be an outstanding tour because many years ago when I was in college at Iowa State, they tookRead… Read more »

Disruptive networking

I think there always were disruptive networks. In the same way that tech has enhanced so many things, proliferated and amplified them, networks are the same. The difference is perhaps the organisations the networks are in – because I am of course speaking for the public sector here. 4,000 people struggle to keep in touch.Read… Read more »

Reflecting on the Social Media Forum #DCCSMF

Last Friday was the Social Media Forum#DCCSMF. It was very well attended with over 70 people from across the council and partner organisations. It went very well, a few technical and timing issues but nothing major. Everyone wants more but better next time…so an interesting challenge. Even the Head of our Press Office attended andRead… Read more »

What you really need to know about the internet

Lovely interview with John Naughton about the themes of his upcoming book. Worth getting everyone you know to watch this! Possibly related posts: Everything you ever need to know about the internet “Kids today need a licence to tinker” What I’ve been reading Electric wok syndrome Micro-participation at ShropCamp Original post