Zombies, OMB IT, and no more ideas! CBG Round-up, 05.16.2014

Gadi Ben-Yehuda Those Kids Today! A few things: First, Lindsay Pollack deconstructs some myths about Millenials, an important read for people trying to manage them. Also, the Washington Post has a chart showing which college majors students chose now, vs. 40 years ago. The prevalence of texting has yielded another positive result: people can nowRead… Read more »

Life Lessons Applicable to the Public Sector

Collectivism is a core concept in public service. In my last post, I introduced the concept of leading without a title (insert hyperlink to that blog post). So much of our personal development happens outside the office. Our life experiences, personal lives and hobbies paint a picture of our values, ethics and interests. Reflection isRead… Read more »

open311 Use Cases

Exciting new advancements are taking place in the world of open311, which is a data standard that various applications can be built on. A number of open311-compliant open source and commercial applications allow data to be easily shared and used by each other, such as CRMs, mobile reporting apps, and other web interfaces displaying reportRead… Read more »

Protecting Public Health with Smart Data

From clean water supplies to the polio vaccine, the most effective public health interventions are typically preventive interventions and policies that help stop a crisis before it starts. However, predicting the next public health crisis has historically been a challenge. Thanks to new technologies, we innovate age-old public health workflows and methods of analysis. WeRead… Read more »

Can You Retrofit Your Colleagues for Digital?

It is a fairly standard challenge to be asked to make an organisation ‘go digital’. Or more specifically make the people working there use digital tools and engagement techniques. At an interview one of the most common question is ‘can you give an example of how you got the press office/senior management/policy officials to goRead… Read more »

The latest video communicating social media policy to public servants – Social Media Man

The Queensland Government recently introduced a new approach to communicate departmental social media policy to staff, a light and humorous video featuring ‘Social Media Man’. It’s the latest in a line of video-based tools used to communicate social media policy to public servants in Australia, following some great work from Victoria. The first, in MarchRead… Read more »

Are Private Contractors the New Federal Workforce?

Last Sunday was graduation day at Duke. In our Master of Public Policy program, over half of the graduating students are employed, and over half of those employed are going to work for government consulting firms. Their salaries are about 20% higher than those who are working in government jobs, and they have been impressedRead… Read more »

The Challenges of Current State Transparency Models

“A good set of financials tells the story of your enterprise. Transparency should do the same.” Our citizens (all of us) work hard to generate tax dollars to support government programs to improve the quality of life. If you are like me, you believe Americans have the right know where and how their tax dollarsRead… Read more »

Can We Achieve Integrated Talent Management Within the Federal Government?

Can we achieve Integrated Talent Management (ITM) within the Federal government? My answer is “Yes, we can.” In order for Federal agencies to achieve ITM, they have to do business differently than they have done in the past. One example that comes to mind is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA has achieved ITMRead… Read more »