In 1992 when some of you NextGen attendees were small, a report came out on applying entrepreneurial principles to make government more effective. Authors David Osborne and Ted Gaebler described why performance measures are important: • What gets measured gets done. • If you can’t measure results, you can’t tell success from failure. • IfRead… Read more »
By Sam Williford, Associate Consultant Recently, Governor Brown and the California legislature approved a bill that would allow local governments the option not to send out advance notice of public meetings, or provide minutes from closed sessions (known as the Brown Act, not related to the current governor), in an effort to stem the tideRead… Read more »
Michael Pilato, creator of the Penn State mural “Inspiration,” made a change to his painting Saturday, removing the halo over former football coach Joe Paterno. This visual fall from glory was preceded by the July 12 release of a damning, 267-page investigative report on the on-going child abuse scandal, compiled by former FBI director LouisRead… Read more »
For those currently working or aspiring to work in government in the area of public health, you know it is important to stay educated on the latest public health challenges. The good news is that with the spread of online education, staying up to date is easier than ever before. For the sake of educatingRead… 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 »
It’s true that negative public perceptions of Feds are more commonplace today than during prior years and decades — as discussed in Part I of my post on this topic. Therefore, some have suggested the solution is a wholescale rebranding of the Federal workforce, which appears to be a popular idea in theory. But toRead… Read more »
There has been a lot of chatter around the salaries and benefits of public servants. Like every debate, there are two sides. We recently attended a panel discussion, organized by the Coalition for Effective Change (CEC), which brought this issue to the forefront by bringing together three of the biggest players in the debate: CongressionalRead… Read more »
Http://LeonardSipes.Com After thirty-two years of speaking to the media and tens of thousands of interviews I’ve come to recognize that the most difficult part of the public affairs profession is communication honesty. It’s an observation and concern shared by many in our profession. It’s simply too tempting for many to bend the truth to theRead… Read more »
Every field has its specialized vocabulary, and public administration is no exception. There is value to this shorthand, commonly referred to as jargon. We can communicate more efficiently and readily identify kindred spirits. The disadvantages seep in when we use professional jargon for public consumption. When specialized language is used in articles or speeches writtenRead… Read more »
Does the Federal Government need to rebrand itself, as some have recently suggested, due to low public approval, politically-charged rhetoric, and negative stereotypes of Federal employees? I think not. Rather, I stipulate that: 1) Rebranding Feds is unnecessary and inadvisable at this time, and 2) There is no real “crisis” for Feds that warrants aRead… Read more »