Yearly Archives: 2014

Success in Government Relies on Collaboration

The problems the government faces are now bigger and more complicated than ever before. Just look at the healthcare, immigration, regulation or even the federal pay debate. No longer do problems fit nicely into one agency or department. Therefore, the need for collaboration is more apparent than ever. But how do you collaborate in aRead… Read more »

Government Must Use Technology for Real-Time Transparency — Here’s Why

Some state governments are not making it easy for their elected officials or their citizens to see where money is being spent and what results are being achieved. Consider this latest example. The actual name of the state has been omitted, as it would be a terrible embarrassment to its statewide elected leaders, its legislature,Read… Read more »

Use Self-Assessment Tests to Get Your Dream Job

As a career counselor, I get a lot of eye-rolls when I talk about self-assessment as a part of the career development planning process. And yet, when I ask my graduate students what they do best, they don’t have very descriptive words. “Multitasking” or “problem-solving” or “building strategies”—interesting concepts but not particularly useful in jobRead… Read more »

How to Be a Leader at Every Stage of Your Career

Leaders (and everyone reading this is a leader irrespective of title or duties): sweat the small stuff. Notice details and pay attention to the invisible dynamics around you. In our ever-evolving world, yesterday’s intern could be your future boss. Chuckle at your peril… Much has been written about situational leadership, including the excellent theory positedRead… Read more »

We, the People …. the Customer … the User?

Let’s put this as neutrally as possible. People interact with public services. Now, here’s a simple question: what should we call those people – and why? Perhaps it’s not such a simple question after all. They – we – are many things. We are patients, customers, passengers, swimmers, clients, taxpayers, claimants and more (as wellRead… Read more »

Talking Open Data, Big Data, and Cloud – Ajay Budhraja

There is a big push on Open Data initiatives since this enables organizations to share data with partners and also build new innovative solutions. Open data maximizes value creation built on structured and unstructured data. Open Data initiatives should be based on technologies that can collect and cleanse data in a standardized manner so thatRead… Read more »

3 Strategies to Reform Federal IT – and Save Your Tax Dollars!

Moderator Trey Hodgkins (far left) and panelists from left to right: Richard Beutel, Kevin Cummins, Aaron Wasserman and Angela Styles. “Taxpayers deserve a government that harnesses technology to better serve the people.” I would be surprised if anyone disagreed with this profound statement from former Missouri governor Matt Blunt. Citizens expect their government to spendRead… Read more »

Don’t Be Afraid To Play Ball With Today’s Hackers

They’re known as hackers, fraudsters, cheats, criminals, pirates, delinquents, crooks, and now…baseball players? One of our recent speakers in the webinar, A Smarter Approach to Counter Fraud, compared these hackers to MLB all-stars. Legend Ty Cobb holds the greatest career batting average ever with .366. That means he didn’t even hit the ball two-thirds ofRead… Read more »