Motivation is tricky. Many great blogs like Doris Tirone’s post talk about the dangers of believing a supervisor alone can motivate someone to be more efficient. External (extrinsic) motivators like money or praise are helpful, but internal (intrinsic) motivators are stronger and salient. One of the tools I have found most useful to understanding intrinsicRead… Read more »
Diabetes is a complex chronic disease, suggested to be caused by a combination of genetic, behavioral and environmental factors. According to the 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (CDC), 8.1% of the adult population of Chicago is estimated to have diabetes, a trend that has remained relatively unchanged over the past ten years. In lightRead… Read more »
Your job requires a certain level of technical proficiencies and knowledge – “hard skills” that you’ve learned in school and on-the-job trainings. But how do you develop those harder to define “soft skills” like charisma, active listening, communication skills, time management, and optimism? Soft skills complement your hard skills, and are just as crucial anRead… Read more »
We are living in a time of social and economic reinvention. I think it will be remembered as an internet powered renaissance. Jack and I spend a lot of time figuring out what is happening, exhorting each other dig further. Often when we are talking to clients and tell them what we have learned, theyRead… Read more »
How many of you are supervisors who wish you were giving more feedback and recognition to your staffs? How many of you are employees who wish you were getting more feedback and recognition from your boss? Whatever side of the question you fall on, manager and employee engagement through feedback and recognition is an essentialRead… Read more »
A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain. William James To information security professionals, having a strong chain of policy, practice and architecture is indeed, life. The human factor is always the weakest link in any information security program. Why is that? People are our greatest asset!Read… Read more »
Here in ITS, we’re reevaluating our approach to strategic sourcing by focusing on category management, which will help transform government IT acquisition and improve the value we provide to our customers. We can’t succeed without your feedback on the best ways to improve our performance. We are counting on you—our customers and industry partners—to identifyRead… Read more »
This being the third segment of the STIA Certification course and hoping to have started to convince some that system thinking could be helpful in addressing challenges facing our communities the need to be more hands on was realized. As mentioned in the previous post, a system is always of something, whether biological, social, orRead… Read more »
At Accela, we’re committed to finding ways to leverage the talents and ideas of civic entrepreneurs and open data hackers to benefit the governments we serve. That’s why we’re excited to announce the Accela App Challenge. The App Challenge offers a total of $25,000 in cash prizes to developers that build a new civic appRead… Read more »
[This is the 3rd blog in the series on ‘Exploring Government R&D Program Fundamentals’. Visit Blog 1: Keys to a Successful R&D Program and Blog 2: Setting R&D Program Goals & Principles] Want to know a sure-fire way of shooting your R&D program in the proverbial foot? Fail to engage stakeholders creatively and consistently. It’sRead… Read more »