Leadership

Another Telework Driver: Freezing the Federal Footprint

In line with its mission to ensure the careful use of Federal funds, OMB issued guidance on 5/11/12 to Federal agencies that requires them to make more efficient use of existing government real estate — in effect, “freezing the Federal footprint.” In a roundabout way, this is good news for Telework fans. By requiring agenciesRead… Read more »

How A City of 65,000 Gets By With Only 9 Employees

Weston Florida is an affluent suburb 25 miles northwest of Miami. When Weston was incorporated in 1996, its residents approved a charter that states the city must use contractors as opposed to city employees to perform traditional government services, unless four out of five councilmembers vote to make an exception. As a Governing article reportsRead… Read more »

Efficiency sucks. What we need is good work

Efficiency is the path to bigger profits. Efficiency is good. Everyone needs to be efficient. Right? Wrong! Efficiency sucks! For knowledge workers – you and me – the case against efficiency is overwhelming. ‘Efficiency’ is one of the weasel-words of management-speak, constantly misused and we are all worse off for this. In an effort toRead… Read more »

Australian Taxation Office : Awesome abusive managerial culture exposed

What is awesome – in a negative sense – about what is described in this post is the fact that abusive cultures such this are allowed to flourish in the first place. Over the past month and a half I have been working with Serene Teffaha and others as a result of disclosures that pointRead… Read more »

Really?! moments from the IG vacancies hearing

Last week, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Darrell Issa, held a hearing entitled “Where Are All the Watchdogs? Addressing Inspector General Vacancies.” The purpose of the hearing was supposed to be why there are so many vacant Inspector General positions (the Presidentially appointed, Senate confirmed ones anyway). The Project onRead… Read more »

3 takes on suspensions and debarments and say goodbye to continuous improvements?





 On Today’s Program for Tuesday May 15, 2012
 Suspensions and debarments — it is the ultimate way if there are problems with a government contractor, but it can also wreak havoc to government contracting. A panel at the ACT-IAC Excellence in Acquisition conference recently, and we’ll hear highlights…
 Do more with less — weRead… Read more »

The Politics of Capitulation

Capitulate: to surrender unconditionally or on stipulated terms; to give up resistance. When it comes to surrender, just the thought of it is chilling to a political leader on the campaign trail. Campaigns are the closest thing to war most operatives and candidates will ever experience and for the majority, they approach it with theRead… Read more »

Continuous improvement is great, but shouldn’t we innovate?

Do more with less. We’ve all heard it, and it’s great to create lean services during austerity. However, there’s a limit to lean, and a point where we need to try new things and do things differently. Chris Dorobek of the DorobekINSIDER spoke with Ron Ashkenas, Managing Partner at Schaffer Consulting, author of Simply EffectiveRead… Read more »

Why Not?

Have you ever come up with a new idea and someone immediately lists the million things that could potentially go wrong? I think that energy is negative – it’s focused in the wrong direction. It is stifling creativity, conversation and, quite possibly, game-changing solutions. In some government organizations, we hear “that’s how we have alwaysRead… Read more »

Zuckerbergs Hoodie Stirs Controversy on Wall Street – They Just Don’t Get It…

Some on Wall Street were up in arms recently as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wore his signature hoodie to meet with potential investors on the verge of Facebook’s initial public offering. Others rushed to defend the young CEO, going so far as to point out that he likely does not — and should not —Read… Read more »