Long-considered to be the “Oscars” of government service, the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (Sammies) celebrate the best and brightest of our civil service – men and women who perform real-life acts of heroism away from the camera’s lens. The 2012 Sammies Winners Each day, federal workers are making high-impact contributions to theRead… Read more »
The age of austerity is here and it’s here to stay. But one potential way for agencies to save is to use strategic sourcing in its acquisitions. But what is strategic sourcing and could it really work at your agency? Thomas Kuhn in a fellow with Integrity Management Consultants. He told Chris Dorobek on theRead… Read more »
Through the leadership of Mayor Thomas Menino, the city of Boston tracks an extensive amount of data in an effort to answer three questions: 1) What is City government doing?2) How well are we doing it?3) How can we do it better? Since 2010, the City of Boston has created a Performance Management Scorecard forRead… Read more »
The current brouhaha over the impending Fiscal Cliff is yet another example of a national culture that waits for crisis before taking action. The irony in this current example is that our political leaders actually created the cliff to force themselves to address this complex economic issue. In other words, because they couldn’t work togetherRead… Read more »
Some small business owners have been slow to realize many of the practices they were schooled on by the past generation are no longer viable in the age of the Internet. Often the difference between making it and breaking it as an independent business is by employing lean modern methods to limit the needless overheadRead… Read more »
I drive a 2002 Kia Rio and over the last few years I have noticed countless others driving the same vehicle. Each time I see a Kia Rio, I cannot refrain from comparing our cars. Is my car in better shape? Does their car come with power windows with extra leg room? Although I continueRead… Read more »
Creating a platform that works for you There is a lot of buzz around the word platform recently. From the source of all knowledge (Wikipedia): “Platform technology is a term for technology that enables the creation of products and processes that support present or future development.” The key word in here is enables. For companiesRead… Read more »
As a young boy I lived with my family in Cuba, where my father was stationed. We lived in a village near the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and I played with the neighborhood kids or fished off the back deck of the house (when I wasn’t in school). I have a vivid memory of aRead… Read more »
I’m not sure who got more out of our time together, Miguelito, my employees, or me. He was nine when I met him. Both of his parents were serious alcoholics. I was stationed overseas and living by myself in a modest two bedroom concrete house in the mountains. Miguelito (Spanish for “Little Michael”), like theRead… Read more »
Below is an article I wrote for ASTD on the above topic: Virtually everyone seems to agree that great organizations generally have high morale. After all, when morale is high, the employees tend to have more energy and greater focus on achieving the organization’s goals. Conversely, when morale is low, employees seem to have lessRead… Read more »