Communications

6 Tips for Effective Meeting Management

Have you ever found yourself in a meeting that lacked clear direction and purpose? Perhaps it went on and on with nothing accomplished other than the need to schedule yet another meeting? Or, worst of all, did the participants do more talking over each other than collaborating and partnering in order to achieve a commonRead… Read more »

Memos, Meetings, and Memes: Communicate ALL THE WAYS

When was the last time you savored every word in a five paragraph-long email? Or managed to endure an hour-long meeting without zoning out at least three times? Just because your answers were “never” to both of those questions doesn’t mean you have an abnormally poor attention span; it means that there is a disconnectRead… Read more »

Medium: Is It The Perfect Fit for Government?

This week, the popular self-publishing platform Medium becomes officially available to federal agencies. Hold up. Medium is not just a publishing platform. It’s social media. It’s a community. It’s a writing tool. It’s a story distribution network. It’s a content management system, or CMS. It’s not a CMS. It’s journalism. It’s a blog. It’s a magazine. It’s a publication. It’s aRead… Read more »

Reframing American Politics

At the age of 33, Don Ness was elected mayor of Duluth, Minnesota. Once an industrial heavyweight on par with Detroit, Duluth had a soaring 20 percent unemployment rate. Although decline had stabilized by the time he came into office, pessimistic voices within the town defined the city’s story. “Stability doesn’t inspire,” Ness observed. HeRead… Read more »

How to Work Well with Millennials

“I am a millennial champion!” proclaimed Lee Caraher, author of Millennials and Management: The Essential Guide to Making it Work at Work, during today’s Next Generation of Government Summit. In a room filled with hundreds of millennials, this assertion got a big cheer. However, Caraher admitted that there are many people in the workforce whoRead… Read more »

Take the Unexpected Detour … and Connect

Connect. That was the word author and storyteller Greg Neri started off with this morning during the second day of the 2015 NextGen Conference here in Washington, D.C. Neri has traveled around the country and has written several books inspired by true life. He has worked with inner city middle and high school students andRead… Read more »

Networking to Build Coalitions

Do you have anyone in your life that will speak the truth to you? I’m speaking of unfiltered, unadulterated facts…Well NextGen speaker, Mary Abbajay of the Career Stone Group experienced a dose of “truth serum” when her sister explained, “ No one offers you anything because you’re not nice.” This pivotal moment became the startingRead… Read more »

The Importance of “Yes, And…” for Collaboration

We all know what improv is. It’s a form of acting where actors create scenes and characters on the spot, generally inspired by one word or a simple phrase. But how does improv relate to what you do every day at work? And what lessons can you learn from improv as a government employee? One ofRead… Read more »