Complexity
No matter how small the problem, the potential for complexity can make it something else altogether. Watch! Original post
Project Management
Source Of Praise
I’ve been working as part of a civic organization and recently noticed some illuminating behavior. One member of our team gets fairly constant praise for average work. I never thought much about it, but then as results got worse, the praise increased. It has gotten to the point where pointless adulation is a significant partRead… Read more »
I’m So Sick of Happy Hours
I’m so sick of happy hour being the universally acceptable way to socialize with your co-workers. I’ve had more than my share of experiences with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde over the years and I’m so tired of being a spectator of this transformation. Alcohol (even the tiniest bit) can change a person’s personality andRead… Read more »
Trends on Tuesday: Phone a Friend
More than half of adult cellphone owners used their phones in stores this holiday season while deciding what to buy, according to new research released by Pew Internet. They called friends for advice, looked up product reviews and even comparison shopped–sometimes skipping the in-store purchase and buying online. While these purchasing trends are not exactlyRead… Read more »
Think Like a Banker, Extending credit to customers requires strong policies
by my friend Mike Selfridge of Silicon Valley Bank: The CFOs I know don’t typically think of themselves as bankers, but a walk in wingtips would serve them well. Paramount to a bank’s success is the chief credit officer, responsible for the institution’s credit portfolio, lending practices, and overall risk management. Successful policies established byRead… Read more »
Career Tip – Go to the Growing Agency
I’ve met a lot of people in government that have hit a glass ceiling. They are doing great work but they tell me they can’t get more responsibility or a raise until someone retires. Here’s a career tip – If you find yourself in that situation, try to change jobs and go to a growingRead… Read more »
Want to Go Futher on Hydrogen?
Scientists at Berkeley Lab do. One DOE-funded project at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab takes Berkeley scientists and pairs them with expertise from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and General Motors (GM). The net result? A plan to develop a cost-effective hydrogen storage system for vehicles. The basic idea is to make aRead… Read more »
Federal CIO Requests Feedback – Shared IT Services Strategy
The U. S. CIO Steven VanRoekel issued a draft Shared IT Services Strategy in December 2011, which may be found at http://www.cio.gov/sharedservices.pdf. “Shared First” is the foundational paradigm for this Federal Information Technology (IT) Shared Services Strategy, which provides Federal agencies with guidance on the identification, implementation, and operation of shared services for commodity, support,Read… Read more »
Successful Project Managers are Great Listeners
“Ninety percent of a project manager’s work is communication.” You have probably seen this commonly quoted statistic but what you don’t see is a statistic that tells you how much of the 90% is devoted to listening. Why is that important? Because, poor communication is at least one of the three causes for failed projects.Read… Read more »
What a Twitter map can and cannot tell: The Gates Foundation Twitter network
The Twitter network below was created by Marc Smith, Social Media Research Foundation. He used it in a recent workshop on Social Media Network Analysis that I organized here at Syracuse University on January 19-20. I picked it up and posted it here on my Social Media in the Public Sector blog, because it relatesRead… Read more »