Does it make any sense for the government to think long term? One agency, NASA, developed a 200-year strategic plan, at one point. They engaged futurists and science fiction writers to help develop a plan for interplanetary exploration. Maybe it makes sense for NASA, but what about other agencies? Strategic foresight is not futurist forecasting,Read… Read more »
Managing communications policy and processes for an agency is no easy task. If it’s your job to deal with the multitude of rules and executive memoranda that relate to websites, press releases, use of logos, and the like, then you know how difficult it can be to continually fulfill those various requirements. You’ve also likelyRead… Read more »
Is there a recipe for successful cross-agency relationships that are enduring? Or is each initiative so dependent on context and personalities that there is no way to offer general principles of success? With Valentine’s Day approaching, there are all sorts of advice columns about improving relationships. Well, A new IBM Center report by Dr. JaneRead… Read more »
Federal IT is in the midst of a huge transformation, driven by initiatives ranging from IT Reform and Federal Data Center Consolidation to CloudFirst, CyberFirst and FutureFirst. In May 2012, President Obama released a memo detailing new directions for Federal IT as part of the Digital Government Strategy. Moving to a 21st-century foundation for federalRead… Read more »
CIOs in both the private and public sector are under the gun to do more with less. Agency CIOs, especially, must reduce costs, as directed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in August 2011. The OMB, for its part, expected agency heads to submit budgets that cut at least 5 percent from thisRead… Read more »
Avoid bottlenecks and practice efficient governance To work, governance needs to be embedded. Sure there are a lot of other factors that come in to play and doing a good job of defining scope, communicating, and socializing your governance is important too. However, embedding your governance makes it easy for the folks who are stakeholdersRead… Read more »
How do you organize a cross-agency collaborative effort to get results no single agency could accomplish on its own? The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has developed an inventory of “mechanisms that the federal government uses to lead and implement interagency collaboration,” along with a self-assessment checklist to consider when using them. GAO’s latest study onRead… Read more »
I’ve been quiet on the Digital Government Strategy because – well, OK, I’ll be honest…while I think there’s a whole lot of good in it, I also have some problems. First, it didn’t look anything like I expected it to look, after all the issues we discussed in the National Dialog on Improving Government Websites.Read… Read more »
How do you tackle a large-scale, complex challenge that evolves over time, involves thousands of stakeholders, and where there is no clear solution? For example, is there a road map for how the Internet evolved? Could we do it again? IBM Center author David Witzel examines the evolution of the Internet over the past fourRead… Read more »
What works when developing a cross-agency collaborative network? A six-year long study of 266 existing collaborative networks of public safety organizations distills valuable lessons for how to design and sustain similar networks in other policy arenas. Professors Jane Fedorowicz and Steve Sawyer have authored a new report, “Designing Collaborative Networks: Lessons Learned from Public Safety,”Read… Read more »