A few years ago, I had the opportunity to hear the Dalai Lama speak when he was in Calgary, Alberta. At the conclusion of his talk, he took a few questions from the audience and I was fortunate enough to be able to ask him about public engagement. I asked, “What, if anything, should weRead… Read more »
In March, top Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study the causes of federal employees’ low morale. The last few years have been challenging for federal employees and leadership. With a three-year freeze on basic federal pay rates, multiple government shutdowns, and unpaid furlough daysRead… Read more »
Originally published at cpsrenewal.ca I still remember when I got my first invitation to speak. It was a Scheming Virtuously double bill in Calgary then Edmonton. I took vacation from one department while another paid my travel because it was just easier than getting approvals. I’d never done any public speaking before so I volunteeredRead… Read more »
Citizen engagement operates with a lot of fancy titles like consumer education, consumer protection, client-centered services, outreach, or prevention and preparedness. In a prior life as an independent consultant, it was called community-based participatory research, and in my current role it is dubbed Community Engagement. (I must note, “citizen” explicitly denotes a legal status thatRead… Read more »
PlaNYC What they used: Allourideas PlaNYC is a plan produced by the Mayor’s office to address the city’s long-term challenges including growing population, climate changes, a changing economy and an aging infrastructure. In 2011, the NYC Mayor’s Office centered a campaign around the question, “Which do you think is better for creating a greener, greaterRead… Read more »
How do you define generosity? Saturday evening, I attended a fundraiser to support a local animal shelter, Mutts Matter Rescue. Sunday morning, after a steaming cuppa’ Joe, I sat down to catch up on various periodicals in preparation for the business week. An article in the online Inc. Magazine caught my eye titled “How TrulyRead… Read more »
Inspired by the many conversations we had at the recent GEOINT Symposium about how geospatial data can become an ideal pivot point for an entity resolution system, the time is here to transition from When and Where to Who and What –as well as the elusive Why. Eyes On the Earth Geospatial imagery abounds. ThereRead… Read more »
Government agencies partner with local residents to solve community problems, design new projects, coordinate beautification efforts, and keep lines of communication open. As a longtime city employee, I have worked on many community “outreach” or “engagement” projects over the years. One conversation I had with a resident had a profound impact on my work perspective.Read… Read more »
Have you ever found yourself tilting at windmills, only to discover the enemy is within? The expression, “tilting at windmills” refers, as you probably know, to fighting imaginary enemies, and is taken from Don Quixote’s misconstrued view of windmills in the distance to be larger-than-life enemies: “Just then they came in sight of thirty orRead… Read more »
Have you ever found yourself tilting at windmills, only to discover the enemy is within? The expression, “tilting at windmills” refers, as you probably know, to fighting imaginary enemies, and is taken from Don Quixote’s misconstrued view of windmills in the distance to be larger-than-life enemies: “Just then they came in sight of thirty orRead… Read more »