Yearly Archives: 2013

12 Ways to Bring Silicon Valley to DC – NextGen’s Ryan Allis

How exactly do you bring Silicon Valley innovation to government? “You have to give a damn about other people. You can make a difference no matter what sector of the economy you are in. My goal is to use tech to help solve the big human challenges,” said Ryan Allis. Ryan Allis was the co-founderRead… Read more »

Veterans Seize the Day: The 33rd National Veterans Wheelchair Games

From July 13-18, the 33rd National Veterans Wheelchair Games were held in Tampa, Florida. The games are presented each year by Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with additional support from numerous corporate and community sponsors. HP is a proud sponsor of the games and connected me with MarthaRead… Read more »

The Social Media Quiz (SMQ): Assessing Sophistication

The Denovati Social Media Quiz (SMQ) has been one of the most popular SMART Resources we have created. Now approaching its fifth year of use, the third version generally represents the universe of social media sites and tools and can be used to quickly capture people’s knowledge and experience. This post provides an overview andRead… Read more »

Why Government Agencies Need to Prove Value

From the fiscal cliff to the current sequester, government agencies are operating in a period of fiscal uncertainly. At best agencies will have flat year-on-year budgets, barely keeping up with the rate of inflation. At worst agencies will face deep budget cuts. While many agencies are already reducing waste, cutting back on training, and increasingRead… Read more »

20 Inspirational Quotes from NextGen

Last week, we held the Next Generation of Government Training Summit. There were lots of big ideas, great conversations, and my favorite – pithy, inspirational quotes. Here’s my 20 favorite quotes from the event: 1) When one person does something that’s great, but when a whole community does it together — that’s real change. -AldenRead… Read more »

Where Good Ideas Go To Die

This post was originally published at CPSRenewal.ca. A year ago, I wrote a post about how and why good ideas face resistance (see: Renewal and Resistance). Today we still can’t swing a good idea without hitting a Clay Layer*, and I thought that it was about time to revisit it. The Clay Layer is thisRead… Read more »

Great Leaders are Great Storytellers: Five Tips to Improve Your Leadership Effectiveness

Article Summary: Imagine you have spent the day interviewing. You met senior leaders from every department. Your last interview is with Donald, the CEO. He graciously welcomes you into his office and offers you a seat in a comfortable-looking chair. Donald smiles and starts the same way everyone else did…“Tell me about yourself.” Will yourRead… Read more »

City Council Masters of Minutia

Buffalo City Council members meet every two weeks to take actions on the many different issues and items that come before them. Councilmembers have the ability to raise any new ideas or concerns they have by filing a resolution, which will bring the item before the full Council. As I wrote about in a previousRead… Read more »

Data & the Future of Cities

In 2012 EMC made a generous contribution to Code for America, in a joint effort to take advantage of the promise of big data for local governments. They sponsored a data science Fellow, Matt Hampel, who during his Fellowship created LocalData as a member of the Detroit team; now he and his teammates are buildingRead… Read more »