Yearly Archives: 2012

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 »

Imagine Getting A Building Permit In 24 Hours

Dealing with the bureaucracy of government is frustrating for citizens and employees. What should be a simple task often takes months and involves multiple departments. Many government officials just accept backlogs and delays as the way things are done while others push for ways to improve how government operates. The Phoenix Arizona City Council recentlyRead… Read more »

Media Relations: Shaping the Story — Part 1

“Everything here is negotiable…” Those are the words of a Washington Post reporter in a recent email to key sources for a coveted front page article. Included in the email was a working draft copy of the story. The news outlet Texas Observer obtained copies of the emails and broke the news…that is, the newsRead… Read more »

BYOD Pilot: Five Lessons Learned

As noted in a recent post, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has implemented a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) pilot program to meet urgent IT budget challenges. The EEOC, a relatively small agency with scarce IT funds, by federal government standards, was one of the first agencies to launch an innovative BYOD pilot. See “BYOD andRead… Read more »

Project Management Terms – Assumptions

Assumptions are factors considered to be true in the planning phase. As they are not certitudes, a certain degree of risk is involved. In fact, in Risk Identification process as part of the Project Risk Management, assumptions analysis takes an important role. Also, in Qualitative Risk Analysis, assumptions are important input data. Examples of assumptions:Read… Read more »

Monday Pick Me Up

First world problems, the rap version. (For more fun, see this musical version and the history of the #firstworldproblems meme. The intro to the latter has become a running joke with my supervisor, who actually built a private movie theatre in his house.*) * It only fits six people. Original post