Tiffany L. Smith – Gov Whispering: How to be an Effective Entrepreneur in a Bureaucratic Environment

The description below has been selected as one of 12 finalists for the Next Generation of Government Training Summit Speaker Contest. To vote, simply sign in to your GovLoop account (Not a member yet? Sign up for free now!) and then click the big ‘Awesome’ button at the bottom of the post. Everyone is encouraged to vote for as many lightning speakers as they deem worthy, but only one vote is allowed per description per profile, so don’t forget to tell your friends to offer their support as well!

Personal Information: Tiffany L. Smith, Office of eDiplomacy, Department of State

Title: GovWhispering: How to be an Effective Entrepreneur in a Bureaucratic Environment

Description:

Encouraging the Federal Government’s oldest bureaucracy to be more collaborative, engaged, and focused on knowledge leadership can be challenging, but it’s incredibly rewarding. The specific work I’ve done over the past five years is related to cultivating the innovative use of technology to facilitate collaboration and the interconnection of people and information to enhance the Department of State’s effectiveness in foreign affairs. My team works toward this mission by designing, developing, and implementing a lightweight collaboration tool suite, and we also provide outreach and engagement to State Department personnel around these tools, which include Diplopedia, Communities @ State, Corridor, and SearchState. In my talk, I’d like to share how we’ve successfully persuaded State personnel to use innovative social media-based tools in an environment that can be resistant to new ways of doing business, and how participants can use the same leadership tactics to successfully influence their own agencies to innovate.

The lessons I’ve learned in institutionalizing and innovating at the U.S. Department of State can be easily applied to projects at other government agencies and in other disciplines, and I’m grateful for the potential opportunity to share them with the Next Generation of Government Training Summit.

Don’t forget to VOTE for this story by clicking the AWESOME BUTTON below.

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Check out the other finalists stories:

Andre J. Castillo – “The Making of a Government Ninja: The Story of How a 25-year-old new Federal Employee Created His Own Empire and Became ‘Famous’.“
Michael Gale – “Nature 3.0 – Using Technology to Connect People with Nature“
Michael C. Lawyer & Anthony Soriano – “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bureaucracy“
Joseph Linhart – “Rethinking the Federal Family“
Kerry O’Connor – “Lessons from an Unconventional Career – Follow Your Curiousity, Transform Your Skills and Become a 21st Century Government Innovator“
Emily Sadigh – “Put the “Action” in Your Action Plan“
Sabrina Segal – “I’m the Superhero of Information Sharing“
Teresa Shea – “A Journey Into Blindness: The Blind Professional“
Leonard Sipes – “Accomplishing Public Relations Goals Through Podcasting and Social Media: Demystifying the Process“
Tiffany Smith – “GovWhispering: How to Be an Effective Enterpreneur in a Bureaucratic Environment“
Mark Sullivan – “Working Together for Our Veterans“
Allison Wolff – “Failure is an Option“

P.S. Hope to see you at the NextGen Training Summit, 7/26-27. 500+ Gen X/Y govies, topics from workplace savviness to public speaking, speakers from OMB to Olympic medal winners.