Dannielle Blumenthal

Return on investment and comply with the law. Same for gov and private sector. Serve the public interest versus serve profit motive – there’s a fundamental difference. Trust bar is higher for gov, but private industry can’t exist without it, either. Not as big a difference as people say.

Phuong, I just wanted to applaud you for keeping organizational culture front and center in the ongoing conversation about improving government performance. There is no magic formula of course. As Earl rightly points out, change efforts at the VA (and elsewhere – right?) seem to be eternal.
It’s interesting, over the past few weeks I’ve been…[Read more]

This is curious to me. The military is the source of so much innovation and yet so “locked down.” How does creativity happen?

Second question, what can Millennials do to express their individuality? Nothing?

I don’t mean to sound simplistic or sarcastic. I am genuinely asking, as someone who does not know.

That is an important point. However, we are talking about apples and oranges here.
1) Diversity and Inclusion
Working with employees to accommodate differences in work style is not only good management but a Federal priority under the umbrella of Diversity and Inclusion. See below from President Obama’s Executive Order 13583:

“Our Nation derives…[Read more]

The question is what can Millennials do. My response is to work with your supervisor and adjust your attitude as appropriate. We can’t legislate everything not should we. Great performance is a partnership that does require a lot of effort from the supervisor.

In my encounters with employees of all generations I have found it helpful when they tell me what works for them. Some employees need a lot of structure, ie written guidelines. Others are annoyed by this and feel micromanaged. For another example, some employees like instant chat while others find it breaks their concentration. A third example -…[Read more]

Understand that older workers are intimidated by your skills. Try to have compassion for them rather than feeling like they look down on you.

Use your technology skills to automate everything possible, within what is acceptable to the bureaucracy – eg don’t break the rules to make a point, genuinely lift all ships.

Find the meaning in your work…[Read more]

Check out
http://www.howto.gov/web-content/governance
and
http://www.epa.gov/irmpoli8/policies/21800.pdf

I heard a story recently which echoed Bill’s point.

The bottom line: We should be putting government employees in direct contact with the customer (the public) as much as possible for a lot of good “business” reasons. (Vineet Nayar wrote a good book on these, “Employees First, Customers Second.)

Primary among them is that the interaction itself…[Read more]