How do you get citizens to learn more about your agency? Photography. Lured by the promise of an open bar and the chance to wander the city taking pictures, I attended the GE Lights Photo Walk. Sponsored by GE and organized by iStrategyLabs, the idea was to have a couple drinks at a downtown barRead… Read more »
Did you ever get the feeling that actions are now requiring more meetings before they can start? Just a feeling I’m getting. That you keep getting stalled by “interested parties” that aren’t? Reminds me some career advice I got from a pretty good foreman many years ago. I said, “Hunh?” He said, “Hunh, hell. DoRead… Read more »
Friday, October 12th, 4:30-6:00 pm During the reception at this year’s conference, we’re excited to be holding a “D&D Showcase.” The Showcase is a high-energy activity that provides a way for about 25 people in our field to introduce their work and their ideas to the majority of conference participants. It’s a fun way forRead… Read more »
I just finished Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back by Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy which details new research in the question of how some systems recover from traumatic events. The concepts behind resilience are familiar to people who have studied complexity and systems theory. Basically, resilient systems have the following characteristics: Tight feedback loopsRead… Read more »
Dealing with the bureaucracy of government is frustrating for citizens and employees. What should be a simple task often takes months and involves multiple departments. Many government officials just accept backlogs and delays as the way things are done while others push for ways to improve how government operates. The Phoenix Arizona City Council recentlyRead… Read more »
“Everything here is negotiable…” Those are the words of a Washington Post reporter in a recent email to key sources for a coveted front page article. Included in the email was a working draft copy of the story. The news outlet Texas Observer obtained copies of the emails and broke the news…that is, the newsRead… Read more »
As noted in a recent post, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has implemented a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) pilot program to meet urgent IT budget challenges. The EEOC, a relatively small agency with scarce IT funds, by federal government standards, was one of the first agencies to launch an innovative BYOD pilot. See “BYOD andRead… Read more »
Assumptions are factors considered to be true in the planning phase. As they are not certitudes, a certain degree of risk is involved. In fact, in Risk Identification process as part of the Project Risk Management, assumptions analysis takes an important role. Also, in Qualitative Risk Analysis, assumptions are important input data. Examples of assumptions:Read… Read more »
First world problems, the rap version. (For more fun, see this musical version and the history of the #firstworldproblems meme. The intro to the latter has become a running joke with my supervisor, who actually built a private movie theatre in his house.*) * It only fits six people. Original post
One of the concerns I faced when working in government, and that I know many other people faced as well, was the currency of the web browser(s) available for use by staff. Some agencies still used Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, a ten year old browser that isn’t supported by many major websites and online servicesRead… Read more »