The leaders of government programs are just as likely as the leaders of industry to follow management fads. These are the messages that suggest there is an easy path towards organizational success–if they only apply themselves to learning X-number of steps, X-kind of actions, X concepts, etc., etc. A little know study was performed andRead… Read more »
The ability to see ahead (or even around the curve) is a requirement for leadership. Every time I get in a leader slot I am amazed by how my vision shortens. As a consultant, subordinate leader, or individual contributor I could usually make a substantial contribution, often seeing farther than the boss. When I’m theRead… Read more »
The Leadership Game is a new, recurrent feature about leadership lessons from the world of sports. Uncertainty has been a recurrent theme in the past year. The Federal government has had 3 near miss brushes with shutdown, and state and local governments have resorted to furloughs to meet budget shortfalls. Government is designed to operateRead… Read more »
Contracting-out or outsourcing in-house functions is many times viewed as a panacea to problems an organization is facing or as a sure way to reduce costs, which is not always what happens. Here are some considerations in planning to implement the contracting-out or outsourcing of an-house function. Use these considerations as a starting point; theRead… Read more »
For the last few years, I have been working with a colleague on developing a new theory of project management. We argue that the project manager is not a manager in the traditional sense but a blending of manager and leader. This has been written about before by other project management scholars but I believeRead… Read more »
A week or so ago, GovLoop started a discussion on what a government innovation lab would look like. Some great comments on how to build collaborative workspaces but I felt that the discussion missed the greater point of how to make government agencies more innovative. The major problem with innovation labs is that they mayRead… Read more »
As CIOs and Chief Knowledge Officers bring tools that have been used on the Internet – blogs, wikis, microblogs, profiles – behind the firewall, they tend to expect the same results. “We’ll have our own Wikipedia!” Or Facebook…or Twitter – you name it. Unfortunately, as many have already discovered and many more will continue toRead… Read more »
“Just as the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so too do the manifestations of man find nourishment in the visions of our solitary dreamers.” – Wayne Dyer, author of The Power of Intention Today’s aspiring government leaders find themselves too often facing impossible challenges with few resources available to help them. More thanRead… Read more »
Ken Miller has written a great book titled Extreme Government Make Over, which I am going to write about in a four part series of posts this week. Miller is the founder of the Change and Innovation Agency, a firm dedicated to helping government increase its capacity to do more good. If you are interestedRead… Read more »
Recently in my coaching sessions with several government managers, I found a reluctance to engage in conversations that would open up and potentially deal with sensitive, difficult issues. This is a common problem I see with managers and is part of learning how to effectively manage up. Part of the fear of having these conversationsRead… Read more »