All organizations have their own unique culture. The culture in great organizations is visible from how positive and engaged employees are between themselves and when interacting with customers. In a previous post I highlighted 7 signs of a dysfunctional organization. Steve Tobak of CBS News.com wrote an article titled 7 Signs of a High-Performance Company,Read… Read more »
There’s been a lot of chatter on GovLoop recently about government moving to video-conferencing instead of in-person meetings. Though your office may be having trouble making the move, Missouri’s 4th Judicial Circuit has installed five hi-definition video cameras which will be used mostly for juvenile justice matters, saving travel and scheduling expenses. The system mayRead… Read more »
Leadership is about somehow getting people with different views to come together and execute on goals and plans they would never agree to on their own. Clearly, that’s not happening in many local governments. Polarizing leadership and divisive management are real and entirely common issues that destroy organizational effectiveness and ultimately lead to operating failureRead… Read more »
Deltek Analyst Evan Halperin reports. On Jan. 23, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick delivered his State of the Commonwealth address to a full house chamber. Governor Patrick spoke of the great accomplishments from the previous year while pressing that Massachusetts could do even better. With the right formula of spending and cuts, and the full supportRead… Read more »
According to a study by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs, Chicago is the most corrupt city in the nation and New York State is the most corrupt state. Since 1976, 2,522 people have been convicted of federal public corruption charges in New York State (70 per year). SinceRead… Read more »
Monday City hall looks like Charlie Chaplin’s studio. It was built as part of a WPA project. Peter Koht, our city contact introduces us to everyone. They give us coffee mugs and an office in IT. We call it the fish bowl because it has windows that don’t look outside. Downtown Santa Cruz is inRead… Read more »
As the number of agencies and businesses choosing to host video-conferences rather than in-person meetings grows, so do the savings, as well as the environmental benefits. Oregon has been boosting its video-conference efforts, and has a lot to boast about regarding the benefits of the conferences. In total, it’s estimated that Oregon has saved $2Read… Read more »
A team is working on a project through the UT School of Architecture where they are building a Historical Survey wiki. The idea is that the open source software is comprehensive grassroots survey of historical resources. It is in beta stage and hasn’t had an official launch. But she is focused on recruiting and trainingRead… Read more »
Very few town board or city councils actually set goals or involve the community in goal setting and reviewing the accomplishment of goals. Bay City Michigan (population 35,000), does all of the above. As reported in the Bay City News , the City Commission invited the public to participate in a Saturday meeting to setRead… Read more »
The City of Reno Nevada (population 220,000) has created an Open Government Team, which on their web site is described below as: Open Government Team We are currently forming an internal Open Government Team led by our Web Services Manager. Team members will come from all departments and all levels, with the intention of supportingRead… Read more »