Career

Retreat Exercises and Interventions that Changed Organizational Cultures: Unexpected Discoveries

Last week produced a “déjà vu” experience although it was definitely not the “déjà vu all over again” variety. For only the second time in my speaking career I received unanticipated feedback from participants of a workshop two or more years after the actual event. This is not trivial as one of the challenging aspectsRead… Read more »

The Federal Coach: No-Cost Leadership Training Ideas

Leadership development is an important investment in employees and a means to improve the performance of federal agencies. Considering the current budgetary constraints, there are a number of no-cost or low-cost training and development options that you can use to help educate and develop your managers and team members to fill in any gaps. AsRead… Read more »

Is Classroom Training Dying?

It seems traditional classroom training as we know it may be dying, but there are ways to bring it back to life. “Recent remarks* by Tony Bingham, CEO of ASTD, suggested that much of the formal classroom with instructor-led training has gone the way of scheduled classes, blackboards and overhead projectors. Replaced by the ‘pull’Read… Read more »

The President’s SAVE Award Website is a Treasure Trove of Ideas and a Thermometer!

I’m surprised that more government employees aren’t discussing the President’s SAVE Awards website more. There are about 5,000 ideas posted so far, of which there are about 50 good, solid ideas. Most of the other entries are simply rants/vents from a frustrated workforce, or duplicatations of other similar ideas (e.g. telework, combine agencies, go paperless,Read… Read more »

The Technology of VoltDB

VoltDB is a company fielding a technology designed by DBMS pioneer Mike Stonebreaker. It is designed to address challenges of performance limitations in existing systems, and also provides significant potential cost savings, giving it the virtuous position of having more functionality at a lower cost. In conversations with Stonebreaker I learned a bit more aboutRead… Read more »

Hacked Off?

Kent County Council is always looking to create innovative and cost-effective methods of delivering services. One way in which this can be done is through hosting local hack-days for creative students and graduates to come together, to contribute and share ideas and to try out new concepts and prototypes. Who would we invite students toRead… Read more »

25 Years of Everyday Emergencies

Recent severe weather across the southern U.S. has focused attention on communities hard-hit by tornadoes and flooding. Residents of the Alabama and Missouri towns recovering from F4 and F5 tornadoes have a long road ahead of them, as do those living along the flood plains of the Mississippi River. David Ladd, a hydrologist/GIS specialist atRead… Read more »