Ahhhh…small talk. Some people just hate the concept in itself. But in reality, you need to be good at small talk in order to get things done. It helps you build rapport before meetings, between colleagues, and across functions which in the end contributes to the main goal (getting projects done in government) Personally whenRead… Read more »
Yesterday, I spent all day in jury duty. In the end, I didn’t get picked for the week-long trial but I found the whole process pretty fascinating. It’s great to see a truly diverse, cross-section group of individuals across the city come together to serve in government. Particularly I think there is a lot ofRead… Read more »
Last week, we held a virtual government career fair with over 6,000 registrants. During the event, I answered 100+ questions from attendees in our networking lounge and our “Ask the Expert” series. The number one question I received was: “Is the Government Still Hiring?” Most people were worried that, with budget cuts and sequestration, theRead… Read more »
Last November, I had a great opportunity to speak at PSEngage, an interesting event for Canadian public sector leaders. I’ve embedded the video of my presentation “Beyond Cats and Kardashians – How to Build Meaningful Civic Engagement” It’s a 20 minute presentation: Beyond cats and Kardashians – Steve Ressler from PSEngage on Vimeo. Favorite
This Friday and Saturday, there was a 48 hour boil notice for water in my area (City of Tampa). Pretty simple – you were not allowed to drink tap water without boiling it first otherwise there might be health issues. It affected 600,000 individuals in the area plus the trickle-down affects of restaurants, coffee shops,Read… Read more »
What’s Your Favorite Cubicle? No one talks about it but there is a huge difference between a good and bad cubicle. My worst cubicle was my first cubicle. It was probably ten years old, half falling apart, and puke color. The chair was old and I was always stuck in an awkward position all day.Read… Read more »
The Death of Meetings Everyone hates meetings. Everyone talks about how they hate meetings. Everyone at meetings usually hates them and spends the meeting on their phone. The NY Times even wrote a long article this Sunday entitled “When You’ve Had One Meeting Too Money” where they called for a Meeting Revolution. As they argue,Read… Read more »
Last week, the White House announced round 2 of the Presidential Innovation Fellows Program. While five of the 9projects were continuations from the first one, there were 4 new projects. One that caught my eye was “Innovation Toolkit” – Developing an innovation toolkit that empowers our Federal workforce to respond to national priorities more quicklyRead… Read more »
Teleworking is awesome…but there are tricks to the trade. Whether you are teleworking all the time or just 1-2 days a week, there are some common tips to being a great teleworker. Here’s the top 7 tips on teleworking: 1. Provide updates – nobody knows what you are up to so you need to provideRead… Read more »
I love the Socialbrite annual roundup of top non-profit and social change conferences. So I thought I’d do one for government. Yes I know this is probably going to be a brutal year for conferences – but I still believe there’s huge ROI in going to focused conference training on your niche as it’ll increaseRead… Read more »