“Let us now speak according to our natural lights.” – Blaise Pascal’ Who doesn’t, at some point, experience doubt: doubt in ourselves, in our abilities and our choices? Doubt, like stones thrown into a pond, casts ripples in our lives with even the smallest stones of doubt having far-reaching impact. This blog post isn’t aRead… Read more »
Governing Magazine featured a short article today citing a new survey by InternMatch.com, an online internship matching service. The article has a slightly gloomy tone, lamenting that only 14% of college students surveyed want to intern in government, compared to 66% who want to work in for-profit businesses and 20% in non-profit organizations. I thinkRead… 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 »
There was as time when those working in digital comms in government liked to think of themselves as pioneers, dogooders, renegades, jeans wearing, pizza eating innovators; disruptors with a start up mentality. Is this still the case? Here are some reflections… What is the evidence? Govcamp the annual get together was initially a very lowRead… Read more »
The Center for Public Integrity’s state corruption index has hit the news again this past week, giving most states terrible grades on transparency and accountability and suggesting that our states governments are corrupt. The study, completed in 2011, was put together by journalists in state capitals choosing 330 questions and was peer reviewed by manyRead… Read more »
Other bloggers have written some excellent articles on ways to improve government hiring practices including Donna Dyer’s excellent blogs. I see an issue regarding promoting people within the federal government and offer a suggestion for improvement from the state of California. Where’s the Promotion? On several occasions, my supervisor lamented the lack of easy, transparentRead… Read more »
In the first part of this series on professional use of social media in the public service, I talked about the two different approaches you can take. In part 2, I will try to untangle the issue of the social media disclaimer. It is a common sight to see social media accounts, particularly Twitter accounts,Read… Read more »
How have budget cuts affected your agency’s travel budget? Do you need travel to do your job effectively? Let’s face it: the budget climate is not pretty. I think it’s safe to say that most, if not all, of us have faced budgetary hardships over the last couple of years. While there have been aRead… Read more »
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it. Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC) The budget season of 2010 for local government was particularly brutal. Many localities were taking deep cuts and scaling back. DepartmentsRead… Read more »
It’s small, but mighty. If ignored, it gets worse. It can cause us to limp, stumble, and ultimately fail. What is it? It’s our “Achilles’ heel.” We have weaknesses. Some weaknesses, such as dishonesty, aggressiveness, or blatant disrespectfulness, are glaring. Others, though not as obvious, can be just as debilitating to a leader and theirRead… Read more »