Weekly Round-up: December 31, 2012

On behalf of everyone at the Center for The Business of Government, I want to wish you a happy, healthy, exciting 2013. We look back at 2012 with a mixture of relief, gratitude, amazement, and some sadness. We bid a fond and heart-felt farewell to our executive director of many years, Jonathan Breul, and shortly thereafter welcomed his successor, Dan Chenok. We published numerous reports of which we are very proud and hosted insightful guests on The Business of Government Hour. And we’ve had the great pleasure to work in a field filled with inspiring colleagues, and to which we hope we have made meaningful contributions:

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

It has proven impossible for me to limit myself to a single article by Alex Howard as his best in the past year. Though Alex and I have our disagreements, I continue to find him an engaging and indespinsible voice in Gov 2.0. Here are three of his best from 2012:

• What is smart disclosure?
• Carsharing saves U.S. city governments millions in operating costs
• Here Comes the Data Economy

Of my own work, I’m proud of the series I did for Gov.AOL, Smart Policies for Smarphones, and the continuing series I’m doing both for Gov.AOL and Gov Exec on Emerging Trends in Innovation and Social Media. I also published a prediction piece on TechPresident on Identity Management.

And, really, most of the work on GovLoop is stellar, but pay special attention to these Top-12 members.

Dan Chenok

• How good management can help save money and mitigate the fiscal cliff?
• Beyond interagency collaboration — moving to “joined up management.”
• Improving procurement efficiency through transparency.

John Kamensky

• Why ROWE Failed. Federal Times reporter Stephan Losey writes that the Office of Personnel Management director John Berry’s pilot workplace flexibility program – dubbed “Results-Only Work Environment” – failed because of managers’ inability to hold employees accountable for their work. ROWE has been used successfully in the private sector, but has yet to catch on in government.
• No Passbacks? FY 2014 Budget to be Delayed. Politico reports that agencies did not receive their traditional “passbacks” from OMB over the Thanksgiving holidays to fine-tune their FY 2014 budget proposals. The story says this is because OMB is waiting to see what happens via the Fiscal Cliff budget negotiations. This may result in the budget not being submitted to Congress by the first week of February, as stipulated by law. Fortunately, there’s no jail sentence involved for violating this, it seems.
• Smart Meters in the Army. The Army, reports Bob Brewin at NextGov, is installing “smart meters” to measure and manage energy consumption (electrical, gas, steam, water) at 20,000 locations around the U.S. The devices track, record, and report energy usage on a real-time basis, allowing immediate adjustments to consumption. Users in the private sector achieve significant savings when they use the data to modify their energy choices.
• The Big Fix. Government Executive’s Tim Clark offers an overview of a series of government reform white papers, “Memos to National Leaders” prepared jointly by the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Society for Public Administration. These papers address budget, performance, human capital, intergovernmental, and technology challenges, among others.

Michael Keegan

As this year comes to a close, we offer a handful of shows you may have missed. They offer timely insights and illustrate the important work government executives are doing. Here’s a sampling, but you can also peruse our entire archive.

• Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour – Leaders Speak on Leadership and Public Service. What makes an effective leader? Why pursue a career in public service? Over a dozen past and current government executives shared their extended reflection on the next this edition of The Business of Government Hour.
• Conversation with Authors: Dr. Phil Joyce on The Costs of Budget Uncertainty: Analyzing the Impact of Late Appropriations – How does federal budgetary uncertainty impact government agencies and other sectors? What is the effect on the efficiency and effectiveness of government? Are we facing a fiscal cliff or slope? I explore these questions and more with guest Dr. Phil Joyce, author of new IBM Center report, The Costs of Budget Uncertainty: Analyzing the Impact of Late Appropriations.
• Governing to Win Series Part 1: A Conversation with Chuck Prow and Dave Walker – What is national competitiveness? How can the nation better compete in today’s global economy? What are the federal government’s long-term cost drivers? I explore these questions and the recent IBM Center book, Governing to Win with guests David Walker and Chuck Prow on a Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour-Governing to Win Series.
• The Business of Government Magazine Spring/Summer 2012 – A Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour
• What is the National Institutes of Health (NIH) doing to advance biomedical research? How does investment in such research increase the country’s global competitiveness? I explore these questions and much more with Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D, director, National Institutes of Health (NIH)

** Wreath image courtesy of marin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net