Communications

“You Better Listen to Me Because I Pay Your Salary!”

If you’ve been employed by a government entity, the odds are that you have been assaulted by hurtful or simply ridiculous remarks. Especially when someone at a party or gathering learns for the first time that you are ‘one of them’: ‘the lazy drains on society and their personal pocketbook’. Well, I’m about to giveRead… Read more »

How You Treat Me When The Chips Are Down

“She has a million excuses for not wanting to get together with me,” she said. “Maybe she’s actually busy,” I replied. “No…it’s the same pattern, over and over again. When the chips are down, she’s never there.” Because they’ve studied marketing, so many marketers are completely blind to Branding 101. And the axiom: Our favoriteRead… Read more »

Meet GovLoop’s Featured Bloggers!

Last month, we put out a call for our third round of GovLoop Featured Bloggers – and you responded with amazing enthusiasm. Over 100 people from all walks of government and industry life sent in great ideas for posts, about everything from technology challenges in city government to using Twitter to monitor food safety in yourRead… Read more »

You, If The Walls Had Ears

“Even if nobody is home, act like the walls can hear you.” – Jewish saying The other day I went into a store with Buddhist books and Tibetan artifacts. It was empty. I wasn’t totally amazed, since we’re dealing with a worldview steeped heavily in karma and reincarnation – i.e., if you steal a book,Read… Read more »

The Last Shall Be First and the First Shall Be Last

We know the key to building inclusive work environments is to recognize and embrace differences our colleagues and customers bring to the workplace and the marketplace. We are familiar with categories of differences like race, gender, age, generation, sexual orientation, ability, culture, language and personality. There is another difference that serves as a powerful influenceRead… Read more »

The Point of Darkness is Light

We’ve been in Santa Fe observing the rich. There they are, in packs of two or three or five. They wear $3,000 cowboy boots and ski pants and fur hats. The waiters and waitresses wait on them hand and foot and I can see them spitting contemptuously when nobody’s looking. I totally hate their vibe.Read… Read more »

How Racism Begets More Racism

Amanda Blackhorse is a Diné American Indian and lives on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. She is the lead plaintiff in Blackhorse v. Pro-Football which challenges the trademark protection of the term “Washington Redskins.” She and four other plaintiffs won their case against the Washington football team in June 2014 when the Trademark Trial andRead… Read more »

The Value of Volunteering is Not About Headcount, but Headway

Earlier last week, the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) released a report on volunteering and civic life in America in collaboration with the Corporation for National and Community Service and the U.S. Census Bureau. Promisingly, surveys of 100,000 subjects found that one in four American adults volunteer with an organization and nearly two-thirds engage in activities to helpRead… Read more »

Lead With Love

There are times when you dislike a person on sight and this was one of those times. Thin, tall, beautiful, irritable. Scowled when I asked for a bit more room on the bench, to accommodate family and coats. “What a bitch,” I thought. In quotes because so loudly it seemed out loud. We shuffled andRead… Read more »