When you start to plan a public outreach and education campaign, a sense of humor may not be the first tool you think to reach for. You may instead focus on hard facts, thinking that logic alone will be enough to persuade people. Without some pizzazz and personality, your public outreach campaigns risk being boring and forgettable.Read… Read more »
Four years ago I posted my first GovLoop blog, shortly after the publication of my book of career memoirs. Of the 49 blogs I’ve posted in total, the first was one of the most popular. GovLoop has grown geometrically since then so I thought I would repost it as number 50 with just a fewRead… Read more »
“It is easy to be solemn, it is so hard to be frivolous.” ― G.K. Chesterton One thing I have observed about people in information technology. We are WAY too serious. This is probably why people don’t like coming to meetings with us. That, and we have almost no fashion sense. We joke less, frownRead… Read more »
I’ve been quite for a while. Time for some fun stuff. What do the Rolling Stones have to do with the State of the Union address? For me, quite a bit. In my book, Confessions of a Government Man, I told a lot of tall tales about adventures during my lengthy government career. One “confession”Read… Read more »
So now former administrator Martha Johnson has written a book about her days at GSA. More power to her. I haven’t read the book yet but I’m sure it’s a good read, especially for ex-GSA junkies like me. My comments are not intended as a knock against Ms. Johnson, but are more about the systemRead… Read more »
(Author’s Note! My comments are a bit tongue-in-cheek, although with a lot of underlying truths based on my career experiences. Please consider it fun stuff. I loved my career!) During a recent trip to Canada I noticed that each time I received change it was rounded to the nearest nickel. At first I thought itRead… Read more »
The Government Man has been quiet lately. I’m running out of things to say about the non-scandal involving my long time employer, GSA. I have plenty more to say about our dysfunctional Congress but I’ll give it a rest for a while. Feds have enough on their minds these days, given sequestration and furlough issuesRead… Read more »
Top Ten Ways Feds Can Help With the Sequester 10. As building maintenance is curtailed, chip in and bring in some cleaning products from home 9. Bathroom duty 8. Sell snacks to the people waiting for hours at the new TSA security lines 7. Offer to be a plane spotter to help the short handedRead… Read more »
Local Government Humor If GH stands for P as in Hiccough If OUGH stands for O as in Dough If PHTH stands for T as in Phthisis If EIGH stands for A as in Neighbor If TTE stands for T as in Gazette If EAU stands for O as in Plateau Then shouldn’t we beRead… Read more »
How do you communicate with someone you don’t talk to? This is some more fun stuff excerpted from my book,Confessions of a Government Man. Underlying the levity, however, was a serious personnel management issue. Have any of you faced a similar situation? * * * As a division director I was just far enough fromRead… Read more »