Scarcity of resources. It is a problem that individuals and organizations attempt to solve on an economic, political, and social level on a regular basis. Contentment with wealth, power, or influence can be elusive yet motivating if managed properly. For the public sector, it is typically management of scarce resources that can enhance or hinderRead… Read more »
Dating sites spout all sorts of algorithms on love. They say if you join their dating service, their computers will crunch the numbers and find you the perfect match. Sometimes it works. But when it comes to government mentorship, finding the right person isn’t so calculable. There is not a match making algorithm for mentorship.Read… Read more »
This was originally posted at cpsrenewal.ca. I recently ran across a business article about aligning your strategy with your environment. The hook was a cartoon of a man yelling “Why won’t this gigantic square peg fit in this round hole?!” Standare fare, age-old advice. Of course we should make sure that our strategies make senseRead… Read more »
Have you ever noticed how often in life signs all point in the same direction? The same issues keep coming up; the same themes keep reappearing? It’s as though the message carries such extreme importance that we are destined to sit up and take notice. If you’ve been following my blog posts over the lastRead… Read more »
Yesterday, we told you about the new Virtual Student Internship Program (VSFS) at the State Department. The idea is simple, recruit hundreds of interns from across the country to give 10 hours a week virtually, to different programs at the State Department. So far the program has yielded some amazing results. College students have beenRead… Read more »
What word springs to mind when you think of past experiences with trainers and/or consultants? Unhappy? Frustrated? Satisfied? Pleased? Assuming you’ve hired a competent trainer/consultant, do you know what the primary difference is between those that have had a negative response versus those that have been happy with the experience? Managed expectations. By managing YOURRead… Read more »
This is the second installment in a two-part series covering GovLoop and Esri’s virtual training event on open data and GIS. The first installment highlights a number of success stories at the state and federal levels. “I see the role of GIS as being able to make sense of [health] data. A lot of theRead… Read more »
This picture does not indicate a non-stop train. One would think, if one did not speak Dutch, that you boarded the train at Tilburg, and de-trained at Den Haag Centraal. (My actual origin point was Eindhoven a few hours earlier, but that’s part of the story.) To expand. If one grew up on New York’sRead… Read more »
Practice Quieting the Mind Thoughts come and go; they are the language of the brain. Thoughts are the conversations we have with ourselves; they are so prevalent we often don’t even realize we’re doing it. Sometimes in fact, we do it so much our thoughts become overwhelming. Do you enjoy inner peace or are youRead… Read more »
Interns. They are the life-blood of Washington. Every few months, a new crop descend on DC like a swarm of driven and focused locusts, hoping to make their agency just a little bit better. But at the same time, internships can be very expensive and time consuming for agencies. So how can agencies maximize internships,Read… Read more »