How Having a Dinosaur in Your Corner Can Help With Innovation

It’s quite common for those of us on the pointy end of Government 2.0, innovation, agile and open source/open data and similar ‘progressive’ thinking to refer to people who seem reluctant and risk-averse as ‘dinosaurs’. The terminology crosses the government/corporate divide – indeed I’m hearing it now more often in reference to senior management inRead… Read more »

Work Smarter, Faster, and With Less Stress

On July 1, 2014 I was honored to be a presenter at the “Work Smarter, Faster, and With Less Stress: 20 Government Productivity Tips” webinar. I presented 21 tips from my featured blogs posts here on GovLoop. They featured productivity tips for individuals and group (meetings and the Briggs/Myers personality types). I wanted to takeRead… Read more »

It’s Not What You Say…8 Tips for Improving your Professional Writing

Do people dread having to read your reports, proposals, memos or other missives? Are your PowerPoint presentations snoozers? Improving your business-writing skills not only helps you look more professional in your industry or profession, it can also help you get more approvals for trips, staff, equipment or funding. Improving your business writing skills is anotherRead… Read more »

Seek Out Consistency In Others – A Rule for Your Success

To really be effective this rule takes knowing a little something about the person you are attempting to influence, either before you engage them, or through some probing questions. It can work without knowing anything about the person, but you will find yourself more effective when you do. Often times we experience situations in whichRead… Read more »

The Perks of Being a Government Employee

Government employees have faced a number of “downers” in recent years: sequestration and budget cuts, furloughs, and pay freezes, just to name a few. Federal employees hired today are required to contribute a greater proportion of their salaries to their pensions than those hired just a few years ago. Travel budgets have been cut downRead… Read more »

The Importance for Government of Respecting Open Source and Open Data Copyrights

An interesting situation has arisen in Italy, with the country’s Agenzia delle Entrate, the Italian revenue service and taxation authority, accused of copying OpenStreetMap without respecting the site’s copyright license. As documented on the Open Street Maps discussion list, Italy’s OpenStreetMap community discovered a little over three months ago that the maps used by theRead… Read more »

Transitmix: Design Your Perfect Bus System

On June 19th at BETA, we had the pleasure of launching the public beta of Transitmix, a sketching tool for transit planners (both professional and armchair) to quickly design routes and share with the public. Transitmix is a cross-team, collaborative project that has received contributions from eight 2014 Fellows from seven different city teams.* ItRead… Read more »

Let the NSA Do Job of Protecting USA

There is arguably no greater responsibility for the federal government than protecting the safety of Americans in general and the homeland in particular. But don’t tell that to the multitude of vociferous critics of the National Security Agency. On Sunday, the latest sensational article about the NSA appeared on the front page of the WashingtonRead… Read more »

Strategizing for NASA, Part 2: Disney and the Resources Based View

Disney and a Resources Based View (RBV) analysis illustrate the conditions under which organization-specific resources provide a sustained competitive advantage. Specifically, Disney through its beloved character Mickey Mouse shows that an organization can sustain a competitive advantage if it has available to it resources that are inimitable (unique), durable, appropriated to where the organization capturesRead… Read more »