Miscellaneous

How do public servants “get in the system”?

Social Connect via: Disclaimer: The story told here is purely fictional and used to illustrate my opinion, it is not a relation of personal experience but rather an observation I have heard from other public servants. What do I mean when I ask, “how do public servants get in the system”? I’m sure we areRead… Read more »

Are you going to HIMSS 2012?

I’ll be attending this years HIMSS12 Annual Conference & Exhibition. February 20, 2012 at 7:00 AM – February 24, 2012 at 2:30 PM The Venetian Sands Expo and Convention Center , Las Vegas This event requires registration: http://www.himssconference.org/?src=sm HIMSS12 is the destination for thousands of like-minded healthcare executives, health IT professionals and clinicians who areRead… Read more »

How Do You Explain Procurement’s Fundamental Value to Senior Executives?

Several weeks ago, as part of an ACT-IAC Acquisition Management Shared Interest Group (SIG) meeting, I volunteered to help figure out how our SIG could address a suggestion that was made by one of our government advisory team. The suggestion was to take a look at what value a procurement organization brings to their enterpriseRead… Read more »

Fuel Efficiency on Display in Detroit

The Detroit Auto Show will continue for a few more days, but we wanted to share some of the fuel efficient models put on display from major car makers. Above you see the latest from Ford, Chevy, Nissan and Honda. All of these vehicles have fuel efficiency credentials – high 30s and low 40s MPGRead… Read more »

Everyone Wants to Manage Us but No One Wants to Work Here!

According to the January 16th article in FedSmith titled Debating the Cost of Federal Employees, “Recent reports in the media … have sparked a debate about whether or not federal employees are overpaid at a time when the federal deficit is soaring. Federal employee unions contend that federal employees are substantially underpaid, whereas others argueRead… Read more »

Five organizing tips for a successful open government unconference

Original appearance on opensource.com. Joining the open source (and CityCamp) movement has been one of the best experiences of my life. I’ve been involved with open source for over a decade, but I never got involved in a community project in any significant way–until I found CityCamp. I haven’t submitted a single line of code,Read… Read more »

5 actions human services agencies should take now to make the most of the ACA

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will expand health coverage in the United States by more than 35 million people. This expansion requires states to take a fresh look at eligibility and customer service operations, and develop new business processes for interacting with stakeholders. Existing IT systems are outdated, and under-resourced state agencies are challenged byRead… Read more »

Do You Have To Be Narcissistic To Be An Elected Official?

Don Hambrick Professor of Management at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State has studied how damaging Narcissistic CEOs can be to their companies. Hambrick defines a narcissist as someone showing the following four personality characteristics: (1) Exploitativeness/Entitlement –> I insist upon getting the respect that is due to me; (2) Leadership/Authority –> IRead… Read more »