Innovation seems to be a big deal in governments around the world. But the Australian Public Service developed a formal action plan for innovation in 2011 and is rolling out a series of initiatives that are building the use of innovation into the government’s institutional framework. The current edition of The Public Manager describes theRead… Read more »
Originally published at cpsrenewal.ca. Public services have recently been experimenting with many exercises intended to engage employees and stakeholders, which have led to many questions and discussions about what drives people to participation. I recently wrote on the Government of Canada’s internal platform, GCconnex, that the absence of technical barriers isn’t sufficient – there mayRead… Read more »
In the mobile consumer and perhaps even the enterprise world, there is no doubt that software-as-a-service (SaaS) is here to stay. On a daily basis, there are new and wonderful SaaS products and providers popping up with the likes of the 500 pound guerrillas such as Google,Microsoft and Facebook; everyone is looking to get inRead… Read more »
Two days after submitting his online application for the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® exam, Allen Matheson got a message that many exam candidates dread: he had been randomly selected for an audit. “They asked that I give them more detailed evidence of two things within the next 90 days,” said Allen, a project managerRead… Read more »
One method of teaching is the use of negative examples. To get my important point across to top management, I will turn to some real life examples. The first not-so-successful example was a financial services firm with thousands of employees. It started down the path to adopting an inclusive approach to improving operations that wouldRead… Read more »
There’s been a great deal of scrutiny of the APSC’s revised guidance on social media participation by public servants since it came into effect in early 2012 (coincidentally about the time I left the public service). Initially dubbed by some parts of the media as the ‘Jericho amendments‘ (sorry Greg!), the 2012 guidance has regularlyRead… Read more »
There are a multitude of first things that need to be done when you take over in an organization as the new person – especially if you are at the top of the org chart. When I was elected president of the board of a country club, I immediately talked with the key staff andRead… Read more »
President John F. Kennedy signed the landmark Equal Pay Act back in 1963 (pictured above in an Oval Office signing ceremony). Yet more than half a century later there remains a persistent gender-based pay gap for women workers compared to men. The good news, if any, is that female feds earn more on the dollar,Read… Read more »
According to Government Executive, the federal government lost more than 10,000 jobs last month. This downward spiral has been the case for the last two years. About 1,200 of the job losses were from my agency, USPS, because of attrition, while the rest of the combined federal agencies accounted for the rest. What does thisRead… Read more »
Last month, the White House publicly released a list of 92 priority goals that agencies have committed to achieve by the end of 2015. They also named individuals responsible for implementing these goals, as required by law. What are these goals? Who are these people? The 2010 revision of the Government Performance and Results ActRead… Read more »