Small steps can be just as important as the big ones Business process re-engineering doesn’t have to be a boil the ocean approach to transforming your business. I don’t have any scientific evidence to support this but I believe that the most missed opportunities to improve are the little ones we have in front ofRead… Read more »
The Federal CIO’s 25-Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT Management mandated that federal agencies complete progress reports and plans for data center consolidation. As a result, fiscal year 2011 brought the closure of more than 81 data centers, with more than 900 scheduled to shutter by FY2015, for a cost savings of nearly $5Read… Read more »
This is the second video in the MB&A Executive Series. It is part two of an interview with Major General Dale Meyerrose on a top-down vs. bottom-up approach to organizational transformation. Below is the transcript of this video: Josh: Thanks for being here Dale. When managing change you often hear about a top down approachRead… Read more »
If you think big and start small, you can move mountains I had a great opportunity recently to interview Major General Meyerrose (USAF-RET) on the subject of organizational transformation. Major General Dale Meyerrose is the first Senate confirmed President appointed Chief Information Officer for the intelligence community. The video and transcript of that interview willRead… Read more »
“We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us.” – From Star Trek, First Contact As a teleworking manager looking in on a traditional office environment, the dangers of the office often seem frighteningly similarRead… Read more »
According to our marketing partner –Preactive Marketing – the phrase “culture is…” generates roughly 20 million global hits. This indicates it is quite a popular topic and that people are interested in what culture is – and why having a high performance one is important. We’ll share our thoughts, though we also prefer to hearRead… Read more »
How does a leader change the culture of an organization that is resistant to change? Start by working with the existing culture, says business writers in a recent Harvard Business Review article. In this way, the culture can be an accelerator of change, not an impediment. Business writers Jon Katzenbach, Ilona Steffen, and Caroline KronleyRead… Read more »
Are there legislative options beyond (or in addition to) presidential reorganization authority that could encourage collaboration and not just move boxes? Typically, the cultural, administrative, and legal barriers to working together collaboratively inside the federal government are too high and they discourage efforts to collaborate (more on this in a future post). The Obama AdministrationRead… Read more »
Should government use Legos to inspire its reorganization approach? Structural reorganization initiatives – like the creation of the Department of Homeland Security — are slow, take an enormous amount of effort, and require years to become effective. Ultimately, the new structure becomes rigid and needs to be revisited. Many observers advocate creating more adaptable approachesRead… Read more »
Would “virtual agencies” be an effective alternative to traditional structural reorganization initiatives? If so, what needs done to make them happen? When Vice President Gore’s reinventing government team was being formed in the early 1990s, he encouraged it to not focus on reorganizing agencies and programs, but rather to fix what’s inside the agencies. HeRead… Read more »