One of the things that I’ve realized over the last few years is that despite the fact that I’ve gained more experience, I’ve done more formal educations, taken trainings, and built a lot of personal capabilities, I seem to have trended towards more collaborative decision making. I now spend more time talking to people aboutRead… Read more »
I spoke recently about the power of personal communication. I’m a huge believer in the value that anyone can get from taking a personal approach with somebody because it can give you flexibility to adjust the things that you say, how you present yourself, eye contact, and body language to convey a more complete story.Read… Read more »
Who do I contact about that weird gassy smell coming from the sewer? What about that barking dog that keeps me up all night? How do I get involved in solving problems in my neighborhood? There’s an app for that and its called PublicStuff. Whether you’re in Philadelphia, PA, Oceanside, CA or 200 other citiesRead… Read more »
With the high rate of recent attacks on women in secluded parking lots, especially during evening hours, the Minneapolis City Council last week approved an ordinance to establish a ‘Women Only’ parking lot at the Mall of America. All security officers, maintenance personnel and even the parking lot attendants are exclusively female so that aRead… Read more »
Golf is by far my favorite sport, meaning that Master’s week is my favorite weekend of the year. The game has taught me a lot since I was a kid just learning. There are many lessons that golf can teach you that are relevant to everyday life, especially life in the public sector. I wantedRead… Read more »
Have you ever gotten to the end of a twenty or thirty exchange email debate with somebody and really wish you had just made the phone call. Living in this digital age has made it more important to know when it is crucial to have an in person conversation with somebody. I know that IRead… Read more »
Quantity has a Quality all its own. This famous and perceptive phrase has been variously attributed to the German philosopher Hagel, Engels, Lenin, and finally Josef Stalin. Despite the largely shady cast of characters associated with it, the phrase captures an important truth: that large volumes often have characteristics far beyond the traits of aRead… Read more »
This topic has come up time and time again here on GovLoop and I felt it was time to revisit the greater discussion involving use of social/new/2.0/3.0/etc technology for the purposes of emergency response, recovery, mitigation, citizen engagement, and so forth through the optic of the PIO. To this end, an entire world-wide group ofRead… Read more »
I recently wrote on the coming of age of the “Digital Public Information Officer (PIO)” and how social media, digital volunteers, and organization is key. (Find the original posting here: Considerations for the Digital Public Information Officer) This sparked a lot of great conversation across the Social Media in Emergency Management (SMEM) community and aRead… Read more »
One of the things that is pretty interesting as you spend some time talking to people about how they look at information to make decisions and what are the things that are really important is you hear about the power of context. So to give a great example we’re working with an organization to createRead… Read more »