Yearly Archives: 2012

Is Michigan’s Innovation Fund a Blueprint for Success?

Chris Dorobek recently interviewed David Behen, the Chief Information Officer at Michigan’s Department of Technology, Management and Budget on the DorobekINSIDER. I’ve been following discussions on GovLoop over the past several months on whether government should fund innovation initiatives and how it could do so during tough fiscal conditions, so I was really interested inRead… Read more »

How to Grow Mushrooms in the Office

Before you think this article is one you perhaps shouldn’t be reading as a government professional, let me define office mushrooms for you. I’m not talking about the fungus, but rather the saying about how some companies treat their employees – keeping them in the dark and feeding them garbage. It’s a good way toRead… Read more »

100 Power Words for Your Resume

RedStarResume produced a list of Power Words they claim “will increase your chances of getting hired by 80%!” While I can’t attest to this claim, their list is full of action verbs that help writers paint an excellent verbal picture of their work experience; this makes it a LOT easier for those who read resumesRead… Read more »

What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. Are open standards a closed barrier? | Government Digital Service – “Fresh out of a roundtable discussion on the Open Standards: Open Opportunities consultation, Linda Humphries discusses whether open can really mean closed.” eParticipation needs to be carefully integrated into the complex world of existingRead… Read more »

What Happens When Leaders Ask ‘Why Do We Do This?’

Young children are legendary for asking Why? Why? Why? when seeking to learn. Adults, however, tend to simply do what’s been done before without asking – why do we do this? An experience to consider. When appointed as head of operations years ago, I suspended a dozen reports compiled by the accounting department without announcingRead… Read more »

An innovative fund for innovation; NASA’s opengov 2.0 plan; and the Sunshine Awards

An innovative fund for innovation; NASA’s opengov 2.0 plan; and the Sunshine Awards by GovLoop Insights On today’s program for Thursday April 12, 2012: The challenge is to be innovative. What about an innovation fund? They’re actually trying this out in Michigan. We’ll talk to the person behind it about how it works… their goals…Read… Read more »

Should Government Reorganize Itself? (Part VI)

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 »