Human Resources

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 »

Creating a Cadre of Cross-Agency Executives

President Obama recently proposed a new White House Leadership Development Program. The goal is to expose rising leaders to the experience of solving challenges across agency boundaries. This could ultimately lead to a new capacity in government – a cadre of experienced executives who know how to get things done collaboratively.  Cross –agency collaboration isRead… 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 »

Federal Talent Management – Overcoming the Talent Assessment Hurdle

Federal agencies are grappling with how to best move from their legacy talent management systems to what can help them with the challenges of 2015 and beyond. And while there are seemingly no shortages of choices, the truth may not be as complicated. While the talent management market has expanded significantly over recent years, in… Read more »

The Role Differences Play in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) World

We live in a VUCA world. We have elected an African American President for two straight terms. In five states, minority populations are the majority population-Hawaii, California, New Mexico, Texas and the District of Columbia. 36 states and 15 tribes recognize same sex marriage. Women can not only serve in the military but in combatRead… Read more »

What Your Agency Can Learn from NASA

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 »

Happy to Work in Gov? Survey Says No

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 »