Biggest Problem for 1102s?
As an 1102 government contract specialist or contracting officer, what is the biggest problem, that is inside your agency, that you face? (Can’t include Congress, politics, etc.).
Leadership and Management
For over thirty years, “You manage things; you lead people” from Grace Hopper was my guide in distinguishing between leadership and management. This month I’ve had several learnings that make me want to refine that idea. While she could have been wrong, I suspect I am coming to a fuller understanding of the good Admiral.Read… Read more »
Size Matters, Especially in Retirement
Retirees are getting hit from all directions with hidden taxes, reduced purchasing power, increased healthcare, gas, food, and necessity costs. The size of our annuities, savings accounts and investments are shrinking due to a dramatically increased money supply when we truly need them to maintain our standard of living. I mentioned in my last columnRead… Read more »
Aphorism 75
If something makes sense within the organisation but sounds mad outside it, then that’s a good sign that something might be wrong with the culture. Ian Leslie Original post
Success In Government Requires Goals, Why Don’t We Have Any?
The City Council in Buffalo and the Erie County Legislature spend a great deal of time on constituent concerns and proclamations honoring various individuals and community groups. As such very little time if any is spent on setting goals and measuring the performance of government departments. In an effort to encourage big picture thinking, IRead… Read more »
The Most Important Skill: Writing?
From The Atlantic: New Dorp’s Writing Revolution, which placed an intense focus, across nearly every academic subject, on teaching the skills that underlie good analytical writing, was a dramatic departure from what most American students—especially low performers—are taught in high school. The program challenged long-held assumptions about the students and bitterly divided the staff. ItRead… Read more »
Webinar on “Shaping Our Future” Forums This Friday
We received the following announcement today from the National Issues Forums Institute‘s Patty Dineen for a fantastic webinar being held this Friday. Since this is a little last minute, I’m just going to share the whole announcement… SHAPING OUR FUTURE: WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION’S ROLE? Join Us For A Moderator Preparation Webinar on Friday, OctoberRead… Read more »
Captricity: Why We’re Coding for America
Captricity is one of the seven civic startups in the inaugural class of the CfA Accelerator. I was sure my little dream of starting a side-project, small business were going to die. Looking at a multicolor zoning map and trying to make sense of the regulatory leagalease, I was getting no where close to aRead… Read more »
Organisations need to learn how to party: why digital engagement needs to be more social
I work in digital communications. In the public sector. If there’s one obsession both disciplines share, it’s the quest for ‘engagement’. It’s often said about digital engagement that ‘we’ (organisations) need to go where people go. What that actually means to me isn’t ‘the people use Facebook so we’ll use Facebook and build a pageRead… Read more »
How should governments treat mobile apps in an age of open data?
EmergencyAUS app I had a very interesting conversation the other day regarding the challenge of government mobile apps in the age of open data. The example used was the EmergencyAUS app, which has been developed by Gridstone Pty Ltd. As an app created by a commercial entity, EmergencyAUS aggregates emergency information released by a varietyRead… Read more »