Without knowing the context, when the New York Times quoted Yankees general manager Brian Cashman saying, “We’re trying to build a more perfect beast,” it’s unlikely the average person would know he was talking about nutrition. Yet the Yankees are not the first team in Major League Baseball to bring a nutritionist onto the roster.Read… Read more »
How do you create a performance-and-results culture in your agency? Background. Over the past two decades, the performance movement has made steady progress. It has resulted in a focus on performance and results via strategic and annual operating plans, a supply of performance information to track progress of these plans; a demand for performance informationRead… Read more »
Think back to the ‘olden days’, when we had no iPhones, Internet, or even simple programs like word processing and electronic filing systems. Sounds like the Stone Age by now, doesn’t it? Digital government opens up a world of possibilities for government efficiency and innovation. President Obama issued a memo in May 2012 calling uponRead… Read more »
In early February, I shared my alarm over the public’s apparent lack of trust in their public servants. As reported in a U.S. Conference of Mayors/Zogby Analytics national survey, people trusted small business owners and young persons fresh out of grad school, in that order, to guide them through the challenges of the 21st Century.Read… Read more »
I started commuting by bike just after college, when I lived on Capitol Hill in Seattle and worked in the Seattle Center. Any time I drove meant circling for 30 minutes to find parking within a quarter mile of my apartment, and walking the two miles home was often faster than waiting for the bus.Read… Read more »
TWD offers a harsh view of the world. It is not, as most people think, about preparing to survive an imagined future apocalypse. It is a morality tale about navigating life as it is RIGHT NOW. It is a show that knows its own significance. * Takes itself as an object to beRead… Read more »
User experience is greatly affected by the devices people use: phones, game consoles, TVs, ‘phablets’, tablets, desktops, and now, wearables. Recognizing the importance of mobile devices, Google seeks to make the Web friendlier for mobile users, and it recently announced that: “Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a rankingRead… Read more »
You can read part 1 of this blog series here. Once you’ve generated your ideas, the next step is to evaluate them and select an idea/s to take forward for further development. 1. Put ideas and solutions to the test Force field analysis. Draw a line down the middle of the page and put the ideaRead… Read more »
If evidence-based decision-making is all the rage in government these days, how do agencies develop the skills to conduct such analyses? And how do agencies create a culture to support this management approach so it isn’t just another flavor-of-the-month fad? New Jersey’s child welfare system may have cracked the code. A new report for theRead… Read more »
Over the past eleven years, I’ve worked in a communications capacity for five federal agencies. Chaired a best practice group for federal communicators across the government. And interacted with colleagues on task forces, working groups and listservs. They’re just as smart and capable as their private-sector counterparts. I’ve talked with many of them personally, too.Read… Read more »