Mark Drapeau (Washington, DC) — A few years ago, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, a bar called The Taj opened. What was unusual about it was not so much the fact that it was the only bar in the eastern part of Afghanistan, but the method of payment: data. In brief, if Taj visitors had useful dataRead… Read more »
The connected bureaucrat faces many challenges and pitfalls in a world where what you say on Twitter, Facebook or just about any social network becomes part of the public record. As more and more public servants begin to use social networking, it is important to begin defining boundaries and addressing the life of the bureaucratRead… Read more »
An article in AZcentral.com highlights innovative efforts undertaken by local governments in Arizona: – The city of Mesa eliminated some departments and challenged the rest to rethink how they operate. One of the earliest results was a proposal from the Fire Department to stop sending large engines and four-person crews to every medical call. TheRead… Read more »
Do more with less. We’ve all heard it, and it’s great to create lean services during austerity. However, there’s a limit to lean, and a point where we need to try new things and do things differently. Chris Dorobek of the DorobekINSIDER spoke with Ron Ashkenas, Managing Partner at Schaffer Consulting, author of Simply EffectiveRead… Read more »
I recently had a midyear review with each member of my team, where we sat down for about 30 minutes, shut out the daily grind, and talked about how things were going. I know some folks, both managers and staff, don’t really like doing these reviews. I think they’re a terrific opportunity. As we talk,Read… Read more »
Social Connect via: Do we have to resign ourselves to the 9-5 grind within our cubicle walls? Do we have to accept that “business as usual” is the norm and without great organizational leadership that can’t be changed? Do we have to accept that with little to no authority we can’t change anything about theRead… Read more »
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt But all too often in government, another famous sayingRead… Read more »
After attending the Training Officers Consortium Annual Institute and the Diversity Conference this week, I noticed a lot of conversation centered on the need for innovation. A colleague of mine, Andy Beaulieu wrote this article for our blog and thought you all might enjoy it: Our initial article mentioned taking a systems perspective when itRead… Read more »
Brandon Glenn (Cleveland, OH) – Astronauts can encounter lots of potential health risks during long space flights. And those risks are exacerbated by a lack of access to physicians, limited medical supplies and a small amount of storage on spacecrafts. Add to that high costs – it takes $10,000 to launch one pound of anythingRead… Read more »
There’s a wealth of stories about what individuals learned from making mistakes, or how they recover from failures. Anyone who does not make mistakes (or admit them), will not be exposed to this expanded dimension of experience. This applies universally, regardless of sector or industry. I once had a boss who would ignore an ideaRead… Read more »