I just finished reading Steven Johnson’s “Where Good Ideas Come From” and it’s an absolute must read for anyone interested in the sweet science of innovation; he’s actually got a TED talk that addresses some of these issues but it isn’t nearly as compelling as the book). I was so impressed with the book thatRead… Read more »
Way back in the early 1990s during my undergraduate business studies, we began learning about various predicted changes that were going to occur in the structure of leadership throughout corporate America, and all organizations. Sixteen years later in graduate school, I was surprised at the universal nature of most of our experiences: the majority ifRead… Read more »
Looking around at the new lay of the land, people are communicating with one another in vastly different ways. Social media, mobile devices, email, and video are the new normal, and this shift has impacted the way we interact with friends and family, in addition to the way that we work. The CEO of GovDelivery,Read… Read more »
While not every effective leader has the giftedness, skillset, mental horsepower or even the desire to be a CEO, many of the core strengths are one and the same. First and foremost, a chief executive who proves to be an effective leader must be a radical visionary. In Steve Jobs’ biography, Walter Isaacson describes visionaryRead… Read more »
Innovation and Change, a Historical Perspective A historical perspective of an organization, as those cited by Willem Mastenbroek from over a decade ago are not only interesting as an evolutionary history of organization and the firm, but also facilitate insight into early management and human behavior. The examples also give a glimpse into what hasRead… Read more »
The goal of almost all innovations is to take advantage of a predicted future trend or event. There is an entire industry and research field – futurism – devoted to predicting what’s ahead and how to capitalize on things to come. Much of government policy and services are also concerned with accurately predicting the future.Read… Read more »
Even though innovation never goes out of style, there has been a renewed interest in governmental innovation as all agencies face shrinking budgets and an uncertain economy. The Federal Digital Strategy calls for more innovation in the government’s technical infrastructure and how information is delivered to citizens. There are plenty of consultants, conferences, and groupsRead… Read more »
This was originally posted on my blog, Jennovation, which can be found here. It’s not impossible. Government CAN BE both functional and beautiful. Today the White House hosted a Champions of Change event in Washington DC highlighting thirteen local government innovators that are doing just that. According to Gov Tech, these champions have “worked toRead… Read more »
In 2005, the video game company known as Nintendo was bleeding. At that point, Sony’s Playstation 2 had demolished Nintendo’s latest console, the GameCube, in head-to-head sales, and by the end of the year Microsoft had released the popular Xbox 360. Nintendo, which had been losing market share for a full decade by this point,Read… Read more »
The point of these posts: Agile methodologies used by software (and web) developers can be adapted to provide similar value to the rest of us. Not just for techies any more! Waterfall document development. I put it to you that document development in the OPS also tends to follow a waterfall methodology. (If “waterfall methodology”doesn’tRead… Read more »