Yearly Archives: 2012

Be Bipartisan

As the Presidential election heats up, I’ve noticed myself becoming increasingly drawn into a conversational topic that I try hard to avoid: politics. I highly encourage you to avoid it as well, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. If you do talk politics, make sure that it is out of the office first, and second, make sureRead… Read more »

The Patent and Trademark Office TELEWORK’S — to the tune of 80% — how did they do it?

Telework — let’s be honest, it feels like we have been talking about it for years and it feels like scant progress is made each year. That may be true for many organizations, but for the Patent and Trademark Office, they are widely recognized as the telework leader across government. At PTO, more than 8,000Read… Read more »

The STOCK Act get delayed — The DorobekINSIDER’s 7 Stories You need to Know

The SEVEN stories that impact your life for Monday the 6th of August, 2012 Senior executives and political appointees get a temporary reprieve from the STOCK Act. Federal News Radio says Congress has delayed by a month parts of the new law aimed at preventing high level federal officials from using official knowledge for stockRead… Read more »

Book Club Final Week: Constructive Politics as Public Work

Our summer book club on Democratizing Deliberation comes to a close this week, with Harry Boyte’s chapter “Constructive Politics as Public Work: Organizing the Literature.” Like Harry, this week’s chapter leader, Wendy Willis, is an extraordinary leader in her own right — Wendy is Executive Director of the Policy Consensus Initiative and Deputy Director forRead… Read more »

Youth Is Different Now: How 20 Is the New 30, and what that Means for Millennials, Xers, and Boomers

This article is neither rebuttal nor follow-up of Cathryn Sloan’s “Why Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25,” but an investigation into the question “are today’s young professionals different than those entering the workforce 20 years ago.” For the past decade, at least, Americans have been subject to variations of “40 is the newRead… Read more »

Neat, But Not Gaudy

Did you ever get the feeling that actions are now requiring more meetings before they can start? Just a feeling I’m getting. That you keep getting stalled by “interested parties” that aren’t? Reminds me some career advice I got from a pretty good foreman many years ago. I said, “Hunh?” He said, “Hunh, hell. DoRead… Read more »

Announcing the “D&D Showcase” at NCDD Seattle

Friday, October 12th, 4:30-6:00 pm During the reception at this year’s conference, we’re excited to be holding a “D&D Showcase.” The Showcase is a high-energy activity that provides a way for about 25 people in our field to introduce their work and their ideas to the majority of conference participants. It’s a fun way forRead… Read more »

Transformer Agencies: Using the New Science of Resilience to Reform Government Agencies

I just finished Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back by Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy which details new research in the question of how some systems recover from traumatic events. The concepts behind resilience are familiar to people who have studied complexity and systems theory. Basically, resilient systems have the following characteristics: Tight feedback loopsRead… Read more »