This is my twice yearly public service blog about Restaurant Week in DC (August 15 – 21). Do you take advantage of this? Restaurant Week takes place twice a year, once in the frigid cold of the post-holidays and then again in the dog days of August. Times when diners are likely to be few.Read… Read more »
Years ago I was ‘invited’ to a weekly staff meeting at 8:00 AM Monday mornings. Eight people in a room for an hour – the equivalent of a person-day of time invested. Don’t get me wrong – the meeting had useful, even important content and we all heard it together (the donuts were fresh too).Read… Read more »
Avoid Isolation As A New Leader Authored by: Georgie Bishop, President Public Sector Consortium, www.public-sector.org Former Director Workforce Development, US EPA Observe/Inquire/Listen When you first arrive in a new organization stay as open and accessible as you possibly can particularly during the orientation phase (six months minimum). Your primary work as you learn the organization’sRead… Read more »
A few months ago I was interviewed by some very nice civil servants from BIS and CLG about how central government could help support and scale innovation in local public services. I can’t remember much of what I said, but I’m guessing that ‘get out of the way’ probably featured several times. Oh, and ‘don’tRead… Read more »
Attention all government HR/Training professionals – please take a very short survey? We want to learn more about the impact of the Telework Enhancement Act on your training programs – thank you!! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/56HXGHH surveymonkey.com
This week’s question comes from a congressional staffer who’s frustrated by the unclear policies around sick leave and vacation days. I work on the Hill so the rules on sick days and vacation days may be different from the rest of the known universe. Despite asking our chief of staff in the beginning of theRead… Read more »
I recently published a blog on 5 Ways to Make Your Training Conferences Rock! But we all know that large training conferences aren’t always the most effective training platform. In fact, if we have to have a training conference at all, the smaller conference or meeting (sounds less formal) is the best face-to-face way toRead… Read more »
I love Mozilla. Any reader of this blog knows it. I believe in its mission, I find the organization totally fascinating and its processes engrossing. So much so I spend a lot of time thinking about it – and hopefully, finding ways to contribute. I’m also a big believer in data. I believe in theRead… Read more »
The three keys to innovation are to seek out new ideas, test these ideas on a scale where failure is survivable, and constantly monitor these trials for feedback. This is according to Tim Hartford’s new book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure. Hartford argues that the world is too complex for top-down “big project”Read… Read more »
Agencies that implement an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system are typically losers-but in a good way! The whole reason to implement an ECM system is to lose the waste while gaining efficiency. Below are five things you can kiss goodbye when your ECM system comes online: Wasting Time: How much time does your current processRead… Read more »