Back in the old days – the receptionist would tell a visitor: Oh, he’s not busy – he’s on the phone! ‘Doing business’ then was meeting with others, writing correspondence, or compiling proposals and reports. Early on, the phone was more novelty than tool – it was seen by many as personal entertainment with aRead… Read more »
On a recent trip to the West Coast, I finished an interesting read entitled “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport. Cal is an interesting character – a recent MIT PhD graduate, he is an assistant professor at Georgetown University in Computer Science. On the side for years, he’s been a prolific bloggerRead… Read more »
In order to be a great leader you have to be agile and open. Those are two things that don’t lend themselves naturally to the Defense Department. The DoD is known for it’s hierarchical culture, but that is changing, because the nature of war is changing. Now the DOD is facing opponents without borders orRead… Read more »
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errsRead… Read more »
Federal & State Freedom of Information Laws (FOIL), allows citizens to obtain copies of government records. In 2009, the Buffalo News after not receiving adequate responses to several FOIL requests wrote an editorial directed to Mayor Byron Brown stating: “The law is clear. When we request city records, you must provide them, completely and inRead… Read more »
Yesterday, there was a special edition of the DorobekINSIDER Live focusing on the Digital Government Strategy, One Year Later. One year ago, federal CIO Steven VanRoekel announced the Digital Government Strategy that grew to include mobile, open data, and how to measure all of this “stuff” in this age of austerity. A full synopsis ofRead… Read more »
The partisan environment in Washington has resulted in a near paralysis of logical decision making. The sequestration is just the latest, perhaps most egregious, example. Is this the best our leaders can do? What will it take to change things for the better? How should CIOs and other Federal executives execute their missions under theseRead… Read more »
Anyone go to a graduation this weekend? If you didn’t know, it’s graduation season. Where I live near a college campus, the students are packing up and moving on to summer jobs. My favorite part of graduation – commencement speeches. When else do we have a ton of successful people, share their tips on success.Read… Read more »
Generation Y, Millennials, Generation C (for Connected), sometimes even (perhaps incorrectly), the iGeneration. These are the labels that haunt the members of my generation. The large groups of people spanning decades before me are called Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, and a wealth of other names, each with their own negative and positive attributes. “Baby BoomersRead… Read more »
In order for an agency to be innovative you have to empower your employees and leave room for failure. So which agencies are doing that effectively? Dan Helfrich is a Principal at Deloitte Consulting. The Partnership for Public Service and Deloitte’s new Best Places to Work in the Federal Government analysis found that the vastRead… Read more »