On the April, 2014 Rolling Stone magazine cover, Julia Louis-Dreyfus sported a tattoo of the Constitution, but with the wrong signatories at the bottom. How many editorial eyes saw that cover from conception to publication? How was it not noticed? Have we forgotten the past, thinking it’s irrelevant; moving too quickly, our eyes on theRead… Read more »
A recent report of entrepreneurs found that the characteristic they seek most when investing in someone’s venture startup is the ability to sustain an intense effort. Michelangelo laid on his back for four years painting the Sistine Chapel. Tim Howard had 16 saves during this year’s World Cup match against Belgium. What are you goingRead… Read more »
My favorite innovation techniques, such as brainwriting, come from some key books in my personal library: Gamestorming, Back of the Napkin, Blah Blah Blah: What To Do When Words Don’t Work, creatingminds.org, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and Visual Explanations. Common to all of these resources is the concept of “visual language” or “visualRead… Read more »
In our last post on digital innovation, we set the stage for the future of the public service agency. We talked about the goals of the digital public agency: the ability to engage with constituents; the ability to simplify operations at all levels; and the ability to change and adapt to new circumstances. We alsoRead… Read more »
Today, public sector organizations at all levels are facing shrinking budgets, with some of the most severe cuts taking place in information technology and support services. But at the same time, these organizations are expected to deliver services and conduct business at the speed of technology, as citizens of all ages – from boomers toRead… Read more »
In ancient Greece, privileged countrymen consumed a sacred drink called barley wine containing barley, grated cheese, and wine. But the if drink was not kept in a constant state of movement, the contents would harden and became undrinkable. Just like the barley wine, if we settle for comfortable routines, our thinking becomes rigid and ourRead… Read more »
We can learn a lot about leadership from the men and women who fought for our country’s independence and shaped its early course through history. It’s rare these days that federal employees are called on to literally take up arms and sacrifice their lives during the daily practice of democracy – but moral conviction andRead… Read more »
In this age of email and text messaging, we often see evidence of taking short cuts and stating conflicting ideas to one another. In doing this, sometimes the spirit of the message is not understood and often interpreted a negative way. When this happens we sometimes have to spend even more time trying to explainRead… Read more »
If you’re a chief exec or a leader, you’ve probably given Twitter, blogging or even Facebook a go. Maybe you love it. But are you getting the most from it? Sometimes people tell me they’re on social media, they’re starting positive conversations about their work but they’re fed up of the same old topics croppingRead… Read more »
I once worked with a woman who created the marketing materials for a world-class tennis resort. She would spend days developing brochures, magazine ads, direct mail pieces and flyers. Each time she submitted a new piece of work for review, she’d hear nothing other than there was a typo on page three or that aRead… Read more »