For many people, top fears include spiders, heights, public speaking and crowds. For many government managers I speak to, it’s delivering criticism at performance time. It’s no wonder that delivering feedback — particularly feedback on improving — produces so much anxiety. Even under the best of circumstances, delivering feedback and coaching is difficult. But whenRead… Read more »
Last week I met with Laura Madison, a criminologist in Canada, about her research. Laura is researching how police departments across Canada, the UK, and the US are leveraging Twitter as part of their jobs. This research should act as a baseline to help police departments across these regions understand what is working, and whatRead… Read more »
Anyone that has used Microsoft Excel to develop complex models including 50+ worksheets can tell you that it is not the best way to do things. Producing such elaborate models requires you to have VBA experience, is an incredibly slow and labor intensive process and can still be very prone to human error. Not toRead… Read more »
Originally posted by Laureen Miles Brunelli, About.com Guide to Work-at-Home Moms Of course the big legislative news this week is the financial reform bill, but in other news, the House passed the Telework Improvement Act. The bill, which the Senate had already passed, calls for an increase in the number of telecommuting federal employees. PresidentRead… Read more »
Not a Govloop Member? 30 Secs & Free to Join for Great Info & Perks I’ve had a lot of bosses and there are always things I wish they did. Some were subtle and others a little broader. So here’s my top 5: Fire the Lazy Worker – Everybody knows X, Y, and Z doRead… Read more »
On 16 July Lindsay Tanner, Minister for Finance and Deregulation issued the Declaration of Open Government on behalf of the Australian Government. A fantastic job by many people with talent, foresight, courage and passion. Absolutely fantastic and a breath of fresh air for public servants and the community. Now the hard work begins to createRead… Read more »
In a recent listserv conversation, someone asked a very reasonable question: What does the literature say about how change agents are received? This was in the context of knowledge management (KM), and the inquiry stemmed from an honest attempt to understand the hostility experienced from some in the workforce upon being introduced to KM initiatives.Read… Read more »
(With Bruce Goldstein) Sales quotas are often misused when they are administered by people who misunderstand the sales and buying process. Effective sales quotas are part of a performance enhancing environment, not a blunt instrument for non-selling observers to harass the horses. Realizing that true sales professionals sell for money and recognition provides a betterRead… Read more »
I get a kick out of simple stories to explain complex ideas. So as part of my Global Business class for my Masters I was instructed to price index a Big Mac to explain the theory of purchasing power parity (PPP). The “Economist” does this annualy, but their results weren’t out for this year. IRead… Read more »
In the last posting for my featured Govloop series and Phase One Consulting Group’s “Transformation in the Federal Sector” blog, otherwise known as “jennovation”, I highlighted the major motivations for public-private partnerships. In the discussion resulting from that posting, it was clear that there was some confusion about what forms public-private partnerships can take. AreRead… Read more »