Looking back at year’s end, what themes pop out from the various blog posts written over the past year? What’s worth revisiting in 2015? Here’s a list at this link: http://bit.ly/1rveQzm (I haven’t figured out how to cut-and-paste text into GovLoop blogs without losing hotlinks, and since this is just a list of hotlinks, I’mRead… Read more »
President Obama recently proposed a new White House Leadership Development Program. The goal is to expose rising leaders to the experience of solving challenges across agency boundaries. This could ultimately lead to a new capacity in government – a cadre of experienced executives who know how to get things done collaboratively. Cross –agency collaboration isRead… Read more »
This guest post was written by Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government. This week, John Kamensky and I were privileged to attend the meeting of Senior Executives at the Washington Hilton, at which President Obama spoke as well as several agency heads. The event helped to frame whyRead… Read more »
The selection of the next Secretary of Defense is in the headlines. But there’s a new senior-level Defense position that will be important in coming years, and who is appointed will matter. Years ago, career executive David O. “Doc” Cooke was informally called the “Mayor of the Pentagon.” He was responsible for the internal administrationRead… Read more »
Hope springs eternal! Two recent reports, a new book, and a newly introduced bill in Congress all contribute to a steady momentum toward evidence-based decision making. The legislation, which is bipartisan and bicameral, could have some momentum in the waning days of a lame duck Congress. It would create a commission to strengthen the useRead… Read more »
Can leaders in a democracy think beyond the next election? This is a key question posed by a New Zealand academic, Jonathan Boston, who is studying how different countries attempt to address long-term risks to society, the environment, and fiscal sustainability. Dr. Boston, visiting the U.S. on a Fulbright Scholarship, sums up some of hisRead… Read more »
Senator Tom Coburn is retiring in a few weeks, but he leaves behind a legislative legacy of attempting to create more coherency and transparency about what the federal government does. Senator Coburn has long campaigned against the seeming incomprehensibility of the federal government’s many programs. He sponsored two pieces of legislation in 2010 to addressRead… Read more »
Does it take a crisis for government to work right? Last week, I attended a forum sponsored by the American Society for Public Administration that looked at the successes in implementing the Recovery Act and potential lessons for public administration in the future. Little did I realize that the future would come so quickly, withRead… Read more »
Champions of performance management in government are confounded. After decades of trying to integrate the use of performance information into agency decision-making, it still isn’t happening on as broad a scale as once hoped. The initial premise twenty years ago was that if performance information was made readily available, it would be used by agencyRead… Read more »
The Office of Federal Student Aid put in place the first formalized risk management framework in the federal government, starting its efforts in 2004. What does it look like? How did they do it? One former federal leader, Todd Grams, observes that agencies that ignore risk are actually creating risk. Not surprisingly, there has beenRead… Read more »