Please join the Public Service Research Panel, if you work in the public sector!

If you work in the public/nonprofit sectors, please join the Public Service Research Panel (http:www.PSRPanel.org) The PSR Panel is an opt-in, online community of professionals in the public and nonprofit sectors who receive occasional email invitations to participate in web-based surveys. Survey topics may include job satisfactions, decision making, technology, collaboration, leadership, and other topics.Read… Read more »

The Five Keys A Facilitator Brings

Solutions come from discussions. Strategic solutions develop from structured discussions. For strategic planning, a facilitator is like the conductor of an orchestra – does not write the music or play the instruments, but does bring it all together for the desired result. The facilitator is an asset to a critical planning session bringing their experienceRead… Read more »

Are You Making a Difference or are you Just Cutting Ham

It was Christmas Day and Suzie’s Mother arose early to start the holiday meal. Suzy heard Mom in the kitchen and ran down to join her. As Suzy watched, Mom took a large ham from the refrigerator, unwrapped it, then placed it on a cutting board. She then took a knife and cut a thickRead… Read more »

Sequestration and the Ulysses Solution

I wanted to share this recent post by my colleague Mark Nadel at the Government Affairs Institute who shares an interesting point about government leadership in difficult situations: “when individual desire is about to trump the common good, the decision maker must tie his hands behind his back to avoid disastrous results.” There are aRead… Read more »

Congress on Course to Extend Expiring Continuing Resolution

Originally posted at The Government Affairs Institute Both chambers remain on course to pass a largely uncontroversial extension of the expiring continuing resolution (CR) that will be comprised of an omnibus and probably five out of the 12 individual appropriations bills. It will set FY13 discretionary spending at $984b, equal to the sequester level, butRead… Read more »

Top 5: Topics for Small-Talk at the Office

Ahhhh…small talk. Some people just hate the concept in itself. But in reality, you need to be good at small talk in order to get things done. It helps you build rapport before meetings, between colleagues, and across functions which in the end contributes to the main goal (getting projects done in government) Personally whenRead… Read more »

SF-50 and Age Discrimination

MY SUGGESTION TO OPM—The Federal government requires a personnel action (SF-50) to be submitted when one applies for a job announcement through a merit competitive process or internal job announcement. If you are a Federal employee, you are required to submit it with your resume and other required supporting documents, if applicable. The personnel actionRead… Read more »

Celebrating International Women’s Day – and Workplace Flexibility!

Today is International Women’s Day, a holiday that originated as a way of recognizing working women and promoting fair and safe working conditions. Many women across the globe face the most basic issues with respect to the conditions in which they work. In the US, we are lucky to have made great strides in thisRead… Read more »

This is really a good idea! If all of us furloughed federal workers were to volunteer at our local food banks, homeless shelters, etc., wouldn’t that be awesome!

Sequestration – An Inordinate Waste of Time

The sequestration rollercoaster continues to chug along. “So now it’s time to buckle up.” “Now that everyone has to implement sequestration, it is taking an inordinate amount of time, because they have to figure out what it (sequestration) is, because we’ve never really done it before. And a lot people who are in charge ofRead… Read more »

Human Resources