Not all introverts are shy, and you certainly don’t have to be an introvert to hate speaking up in crowds – but if I tell you that I’d both rather be home reading and also get the cold sweats when I have to talk to people, you’ll probably wonder why I’m writing a post on networkingRead… Read more »
Late last month, Robert Lavigna penned an article for the Harvard Business Review titled “Why Government Workers are Harder to Motivate.” And this is certainly a topic he’d know a lot about: Lavigna has a long history in government HR, having served as the director of the Wisconsin Civil Service System, at the GAO, andRead… Read more »
My dad loves his gadgets, especially when it comes to cooking. I couldn’t name half of the contraptions and devices he has bought that are now floating around the family kitchen. And each one seems to have a new electronic component, like his barbeque skewer that digitally conveys the temperature and other data about theRead… Read more »
Companies small and large talk often about the need to be more innovative, but progress without reflection misses a crucial component of cultural innovation. That is, how often do these companies reward top people and their projects? The EPA Innovation Team has several goals: support innovative bench science in the laboratories, demonstrate the power ofRead… Read more »
NASA has done it again. For the third consecutive year, it ranked highest among large federal agencies for its employee satisfaction, according to the 2014 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government survey. The big question is, of course, how NASA continues to do it. This is especially puzzling when overall federal employee satisfactionRead… Read more »
Over this series of Federal Insights posts, we’ve put together a checklist to help agencies make the shift to the New IP. The New IP represents the networking industry’s recognition that legacy networks, which account for a large part of the federal government’s infrastructure, can limit innovation. The New IP is an emerging networking foundationRead… Read more »
I am going to be brutally honest with you. It’s a tough time to be a federal employee. For the fourth year in a row, The Best Places to Work data showed a decline in federal employee satisfaction. The Partnership for Public Service found government-wide, federal employee job satisfaction and commitment fell 0.9 points to aRead… Read more »
In our first chapter of the IBM and GovLoop guide series, we explained how big data has fundamentally changed the way government does business. But for many institutions, understanding the applications of big data is just the start of the analytics journey. In this chapter we dive deeper and focus on how deploying a data-drivenRead… Read more »
The last moments of a Jenga round are the most suspenseful. As each player removes one block at a time, the tower becomes even shakier. It’s your turn, and the only option is a block on the bottom row. Do you dare take it? You’re forced to make your move, and the result is aRead… Read more »
Here at GovLoop, we spend a lot of time thinking about the characteristics, needs, and goals of our community. At a recent brainstorming session, we started listing some of these attributes. I noticed that a lot of our ideas—things like breaking into the boy’s club, balancing family planning with career planning, or combatting workplace sexism—wereRead… Read more »