Career

Brush that Dirt off Your Bike Lanes – Social Media for Spring Cleaning

Government of the people, meet the people. With technology making our world smaller and more closely interconnected than ever before, it seems only natural that new social media like SeeClickFix.com could link citizens and government in productive dialogue about issues affecting the public space. Recently we helped bicyclists in Lansing, Michigan help clean up debris-coatedRead… Read more »

An Alternative to ‘Work-Life Balance’

Originally posted on ImprovisingMe.com Let me start by stating I HATE the phrase ‘Work-Life Balance’!!! NOTE: My apologies, in advance, to my mother, for she never liked us using the word “HATE”, but let’s just say “strongly dislike” doesn’t emphasize the point well enough in this case. ‘Work-Life Balance’ or some VERY similar phrase, getsRead… Read more »

Implementing And Operating An Open Government Organization

The President’s December 8, 2009 Memorandum on Open Government requires a new approach for many federal government organizations. It will impact the people, processes and technology of government offices. It will impact the work habits and behaviors of government employees. For Open Government plans to be successfully implemented, cultural issues will also need to beRead… Read more »

On My Transformation from Social Worker to Public Servant

I read somewhere that the (median) average age of entry into the Canadian federal public service is 34 years old. That fits me reasonably well; this is my second career. For my first 10 years of “professional” employment I was a social worker, and my speciality was child and adolescent mental health. It was theRead… Read more »

My Mother Always Told Me to Be Well Rounded: Do Employers Think the Same?

Growing up my mother made sure that I was exposed to culture, art, music, and science. I was almost as diversified as you could possibly get for being a “small-town” kid. When the time came for me to head off to college and pick a major, I followed these same adolescent teachings. Not wanting toRead… Read more »

2010 Census: The Next Reminder

Originally published on the The Director’s Blog The 2010 Census forms are being delivered by the US Postal Service Monday-Wednesday or so throughout the country. This will be the second mailing to about 120 million households from the Census Bureau. We sent last week an advance letter, which is state-of-the-art practice in survey research. TheRead… Read more »

Moving from Attention to Engagement to Participation – More World of GovCraft

Continuing my thinking on the World of GovCraft, I’ve started to think about what the real challenge is for government, various comments suggested that Government is so disconnected that it is unlikely that we will start to bridge the gap. But i’m starting to wonder whether this just an illusion and we are only creatingRead… Read more »