Government and Business – Common Ground

We recently had a great post by Patrick Fiorenza on whether the government should be run like a business. It created lots of good discussion about the pros and cons of each viewpoint. The general consesus seemed to be that the nature of goverment services to not lend itself to business management completely, but that some good benefits could be gained from carefully barrowed tools and techniques that some businesses have used to improve themselves. Now I ask – what common ground can we find between government, business, and even nonprofits that can serve as starting points for improved effectiveness? I’ll begin with some ideas.

Leadership – no matter what an organization’s purpose, it needs good leadership to get it from where it currently is to where it want to be.

Employee Empowerment – an organization that employs people to help carry out its mission must empower them to do their jobs as best they can without burdening them with needless rules and red tape.

Dilbert – no matter what your organization does, you can bet that Dilbert has a cartoon strip that wonderfully articulates the frustrations you often encounter in your daily routines.

What other things can you think of that apply equally to business and government?

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