Workplaces in the private sector and the public sector have many similarities. After all, objectives need to be met and daily work needs to get accomplished. Through our experience with business process management we have identified five major differences between sectors: The Election Cycle Term Limits Legislative Controls Human Resources Structures Revenue is usually notRead… Read more »
I am interested in receiving feedback on how to implement the use of process maps throughout an organization. My office has done a great job and we have process maps for every action – these have helped greatly with new hires and we constantly review for changes resulting in higher efficiencies. Other offices within ourRead… Read more »
On the 10th June I went with two of my colleagues to a meeting of the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO). They are an umbrella organisation that tries to make their contributors work more coherently. In a manner of speaking the SCVO is the ‘Improvement Service’ of the voluntary sector so hearing presentations fromRead… Read more »
The Communities of Practice (CoP) has over 1,300 UK communities and upward of 57,000 UK members, it is the largest collaborative platform for local government and so can be a daunting place for newcomers. If you begin your CoP journey as a community facilitator, however, this feeling of uncertainty is amplified as you have theRead… Read more »
This is the title of one of my favorite books on this topic, authored by Mary Jenkins and Tom Coens. Many people have strong opinions about how to do performance appraisals, what improvements we can make and whether they even work at all. One of the best management thinkers of our time said: “(The annualRead… Read more »
Over the weekend my father-in-law decided to take advantage of the Cash for Clunkers program and went car shopping. Unfortunately the Dodge dealer he went to in his home town of Paris, Illinois informed him that they had put the program on hold. Apparently they had sold five cars and had yet to be paidRead… Read more »
Ken Miller (author of “We Don’t Make Widgets” and monthly columnist for Governing Magazine) recently wrote an article discussing the impact of Lean in government. With budget constraints and travel restrictions across the board, times are tough for many federal, state and local government agencies. In these times, we need to focus more than everRead… Read more »
With the recent confirmation of the first federal Chief Performance Officer (CPO), Jeffrey Zients, a sprig of hope has emerged among the performance management and improvement crowd. The appointment marks the first time that a seasoned performance improvement leader has been selected to provide structure, vision and real, accountable results. Every administration has had aRead… Read more »
In a recent survey completed by Government Executive Magazine’s research arm, the Government Business Council, data revealed that only 66% of government managers who were aware of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) anticipated meeting or exceeding the expectations of the funding program. At the same time, only 11% of respondents of the surveyRead… Read more »
As pundits debate the effectiveness of the stimulus package, a new study released by the Government Business Council (GBC) says that agencies feel “overwhelmed” and “anxious” about the ability to successfully implement designed programs. These concerns reflect the current reality of an economy that continues to falter, with a rising unemployment rate, expected to exceedRead… Read more »