Communications

Is the Entitlement Generation Really Entitled?

Spoiled. Uncooperative. Impatient. Lazy. These are just a few words used to describe who some have deemed the “entitlement generation” – often called Millennials or Gen Y or even Generation C. Sure, with stories like the 18-year old girl who is suing her parents for financial support flying around the web, is anyone really surprised?Read… Read more »

Does Your Agency Have A Brand? – Plus Your Weekend Reads!

Branding matters. When you think of AMC, you think of movie theaters and popcorn. When you think of IKEA, you think easy to assemble furniture. When you think of Amazon, you think of online shopping. But when you think of government, is there a brand? What about at the agency level? Is there a brandRead… Read more »

Lessons Learned from an Interagency Conversation about Telework

Over coffee one winter morning, the conversation turned to the subject of teleworking. Six women from various Government agencies and contractors compared their teleworking experiences. Their perspectives encapsulate the current state of teleworking, something particularly relevant during this Telework Week. Participating in the discussion were: M from the Department of Defense. M had been forcedRead… Read more »

Follow the Data — and Follow the Money: How to Save State Taxpayers $21.5M a Year

Here’s a question. Say you are the facilities manager for a government building. How do you keep track of the operating status of all the equipment and infrastructure within the building? Would you know if a chiller was not operating at peak efficiency? Now, hold that thought… Wind the calendar back to 2008. Recognizing aRead… Read more »

Defeat Writer’s Block the WordPress Way

If you’re a writer, that first blank page can be daunting. The blinking cursor awaits. What do you have to say? Do you really have what it takes to write a whole book? Yet, the same writer, when put in front of a friendly blog interface, will immediately start writing. After all, it’s just aRead… Read more »

Is Gov The Lean, Mean, Shared Services Machine?

If you imagine government in its ideal form, it would have very few overlapping programs and departments. It would be a lean, mean, efficiency driven machine. But that government ideal is difficult to create. Our nation faces a variety of challenges: strengthening national security; protecting the environment, agriculture and natural resources; caring for Americans’ healthRead… Read more »

“You Talkin’ [about] Me?”

This is a guest post by Tom Steinberg, Director of mySociety, a not-for-profit social enterprise based in the United Kingdom. If the mayor of your city started talking about you in speeches, would you want to know? Or if the planning committee in your town started to talk quite a lot about your house, orRead… Read more »