“You’re being negative!” Recently I led a team building workshop, and that was a federal government Division Director’s reply to my questioning, “Why the ‘Front Office’ meeting had not been working?” Preceding my operational assessment a number of people noted: a) that for several months people were not bringing relevant agenda issues to the meetingRead… Read more »
How to Hold a Meeting and Survive Adam Sulewski “A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours.” – Milton Berle We all have had the pleasure of attending a poorly-run meeting. Hopefully, these experiences will motivate you to ensure your own task-driven gatherings do not earn the same evaluation. Meetings can beRead… Read more »
My colleague (and new GovLoop friend) Andrew posted a bang-up deck on measurement earlier today. I love metrics and poring over data, so I refer you to it. Good stuff. Already, organizations that are focused, proactive and disciplined about measurement are seeing good results. For example, last week, my nGenera colleague Laura Carillo presented atRead… Read more »
Happy Wednesday! Know of a government worker that deserves recognition? Nominate your favorite Fed for a Service to America Medal by the end of January and they might win up to $10,000. The Partnership for Public Service collects the nominations, selects the winners and then distributes eight “Sammies” at a big ceremony in September. There’sRead… Read more »
With the DoD lagging behind in the adoption of social media in general, to include social networking, it is not an area ripe for research. Yet, with growing interest and a handful of innovative projects picking up steam, we have a need to apply what has been done on the commercial sector without much understandingRead… Read more »
Bottom Line: you and our ideas are important. They are important to me and important to you. Ideas create tension between what we consider reality today and what will become reality tomorrow. in a perfect world, ideas tug on people’s creativity, draw criticisms and contributions from others, and help us to explore different versions ofRead… Read more »
By Lance Winslow Many countries are busy pouring money into R and D programs and yet, the United States, undeniably the most innovative and entrepreneurial nation in the world over the last century appears to be slipping a little, but one has to ask why? After all, with the abundance of freedom, liberty, and free-marketRead… Read more »
When I received an invitation to present for the Texas Certified Public Manager in San Marcos, TX, this past week, I immediately thought of Dustin Haisler. Haisler wears many hats for the city of Manor, which is a few miles northeast of San Marcos just outside of Austin. He and his colleagues are finding creativeRead… Read more »
Tonight’s episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition features Usher assisting the crew in building a home for the Scott family who lost their husband/father who was killed in an accident. In past seasons, musicians just sang. But this season the show has asked celebrities of all sorts to roll up their sleeves and pick upRead… Read more »
I just experienced an embarrassing failure. Or did I? This afternoon, I was scheduled to appear by Skype to speak on the topic of Gov 2.0 leadership. Two hours prior to the event, the onsite tech guy and I tested the connection and it worked perfectly. We could see and hear one another and theRead… Read more »