Last week Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra release his report on the “State of Public Sector Cloud Computing”. The report not only details Federal budget guidance issued to agencies to foster the adoption of cloud computing, but it also describes 30 illustrative case studies at the Federal, state and local government level. As statedRead… Read more »
Since I started blogging, I’ve been trying to focus on making performance management practical. I wrote some months ago about the what Fortune magazine called “The World’s Most Modern Management Idea” when companies implemented policies that focused on staff satisfaction, after research linked happy employees to investor profits. This is known as the service valueRead… Read more »
Originally published under the title “Workplace Flexibility as the New Normal” as part of “The FCW Challenge” by Anne Weissberg, William D Eggers, May 14, 2010 As William Gibson wrote in Neuromancer, “the future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” If you think that the federal government will never go to aRead… Read more »
The notion of “telework” isn’t new; it’s commonly used in the private sector for positions that involve analytical thought, professional work products, counseling, training, and the like. So why is OPM pushing it without Congressional mandate? (See FedSmith’s article titled “Telework in the Federal Government”). Unlike the profit-motivators and cost-cutting measures that stimulate this typeRead… Read more »
Why has it been so difficult to execute performance-based contracting? Certainly the complexities of modern-day service contracting play a part, but as Steve Kelman, former administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy points out, it has been a frustrating and slow moving initiative making little headway in proper execution of these methods. …There isRead… Read more »
The traditional bureaucratic leadership style, typical in governmental organizations, limits employee flexibility in the workplace. Elected and appointed officials, whose leadership styles depend heavily on bureaucratic and directive approaches, inhibit innovation and employee clarity about the expectations set for them. Senior government officials who engage in a broad repertoire of leadership styles, on the otherRead… Read more »
As we work on how to use social networking technologies in Gov 2.0, I thought this article from IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management might be of some interest to practitioners. “The Strategic Implications of Web Technologies: A Process Model of How Web Technologies Enhance Organizational Performance” answers two questions: 1) “How do Web technologies supportRead… Read more »
“New opinions often appear first as jokes and fancies, then as blasphemies and treason, then as questions open to discussion, and finally as established truths.” ~ George Bernard Shaw In a bookstore recently, I perused the books on the shelves and a spotted an intriguing title that jumped out at me: “Change Your Questions- ChangeRead… Read more »
Client management is always a challenge; there’s an implicit, ongoing challenge to forming mutual and clear expectations and partnerships from the very beginning. To achieve those expectations, one needs to learn how to lead through listening. I recall my early training in project management as an architect and later as a freelance consultant, learning howRead… Read more »
Originally published by John Kamensky of the The IBM Center for Government on 04/12/2010 While Jonathan Breul is attending the IRMCO Conference in Cambridge, Maryland, I’m attending the annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration in San Jose, California. I understand it’s sunny in Cambridge. . . it’s rainy in San Jose! Today,Read… Read more »