Posts Tagged: government performance

GovReads – ReWork – Reinventing Work

So I’m a big fan of the folks over at 37signals.com – a great blog written by the designer/developers over there who have created great stuff like BaseCamp. What I like about them is they are not afraid of speaking their mind and they are often contrarian. They are purposely small, purposely advocate working less,Read… Read more »

Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What To Do Instead

This is the title of one of my favorite books on this topic, authored by Mary Jenkins and Tom Coens. Many people have strong opinions about how to do performance appraisals, what improvements we can make and whether they even work at all. One of the best management thinkers of our time said: “(The annualRead… Read more »

Kit Kat and Government Social Media – Lessons from the Nestle’ vs. Greenpeace debacle

If you follow the social media and PR news cycle you have probably heard by now about the mess Nestle’ has found itself in on its Facebook page while dealing with a coordinated campaign by Greenpeace against its use of palm oil in its products. There is already a host of blog posts and articlesRead… Read more »

Invite our customers in – at their convenience

Lunched with Mom and daughter today. We have Ladies Lunches, when all three generations of us females go out to lunch together and share sandwiches, cake and giggles. We met Mom at the mall and she looked rather harassed. She sighed, “I have this letter from the Council about my refuse collection and I don’tRead… Read more »

National Writing Examiner (NWE) 101: the art of grant writing

by Donna L. Quesinberry National Writing Examiner Writing is an art that takes on many forms. Success-driven grant writing is an art that uses a logical structure and clear arguments to secure needed funding for a potential awardee. The grant proposal is like a sales proposal (most recognized are federal acquisition proposals) in as farRead… Read more »

How To Check Out Your Supervisor

What Do You Know About Your Supervisor? Establishing a positive productive relationship with your supervisor is one of the most important factors in achieving career success. Understanding how your supervisor thinks and works is the key to building a productive partnership. The answers to the following questions may give you insight into how your supervisorRead… Read more »

Measuring Success by Your Reflection

Most discussions I’ve been part of about measurements usually involve identifying a desired outcome and looking for a numeric representation of that outcome. This makes perfect sense and there’s loads of research and supporting evidence that having metrics and measurements are an important part of most outcome-based projects. Over the years, however, I’ve come toRead… Read more »

Project of the Week: Washington State’s GMAP

“Bottom Line: No state in the nation is better at developing and sharing information than Washington.” – Governing Magazine, “Grading the States,” 2008 As government at every level is releasing raw datasets as part of the Open Government Initiative, one of the key questions being asked is, “So what do we do with all thisRead… Read more »

New times demand a new public servant

So what would a new public servant look like in the States? Last weeks Public Sector Informant published an article by Terry Fewtrell on the implications of the work done by the Gov 2.0 Taskforce. Terry is principal consultant with Yellow Edge Consulting. The article New times demand a new public servant, highlights the fundamentalRead… Read more »