It’s been more than eight months since CNN and the Arizona Republic began reporting about veterans dying while they were waiting for medical services—in some cases, on secret lists that clinics were maintaining to hide the long delays from authorities in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Since then, Secretary Eric Shinseki has stepped down, bonusesRead… Read more »
Poor processes equals pissed off employees! Pissed off employees equals pissed off customers and constituents. We all have things that annoy us about our job. When you spend nearly 40% of your day (or more) in the office, you’re likely to find a few things frustrating. An overwhelming 60 % of people said poor processesRead… Read more »
Is telecommuting right for you and your agency? When Marissa Mayer took the reins of Yahoo! and announced that the cutting-edge tech giant was pulling back on its policy of employee telecommuting, shock waves reverberated throughout the American workplace. The discussion that followed had people taking sides based on an all-or-nothing view of telecommuting (orRead… Read more »
“I like your creativity and where this is going, but…” It doesn’t even matter what your boss says next—she’s already decided that your idea is awful. Your fate was sealed the moment she uttered ‘but.’ The praise before that dreaded conjunction does nothing to soften the blow. As the old adage goes, everything before theRead… Read more »
What do government agencies mean when they say innovation? With the term’s popularity on the rise, we took a moment to define it, identify core themes, and provide examples. To begin, here are a handful of key stakeholders you should know about: There are sixteen Government Innovation labs around the world. Several cities have ServiceRead… Read more »
Successful Bid Proposal to Product Manufacture If you operate the type of organization that requires you to bid on work, you need to know how to compete the entire process successfully from bid to engineering to manufacture. This process is as much an art as a science, and cannot be taken lightly. Just winning theRead… Read more »
How have budget cuts affected your agency’s travel budget? Do you need travel to do your job effectively? Let’s face it: the budget climate is not pretty. I think it’s safe to say that most, if not all, of us have faced budgetary hardships over the last couple of years. While there have been aRead… Read more »
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it. Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC) The budget season of 2010 for local government was particularly brutal. Many localities were taking deep cuts and scaling back. DepartmentsRead… Read more »
Last year, a fire set off a tragic explosion at a fertilizer storage and distribution facility in West, Texas. The explosion killed and injured many people and severely damaged nearby houses and other buildings, including schools. While the investigation that followed was unable to identify the cause of the initial fire, it determined that theRead… Read more »
As a student of civic technology for some years now, it’s rare that I come across numbers that stun me. I’ve grown accustomed to typical facts and figures echoed by players in the space: X engaged users, Y partner governments. Typically, you’ll see some breakouts but, like many things, most fall somewhere in the middle.Read… Read more »