Weekly Roundup: Sept 30 - Oct 3, 2019
Submitted by JKamensky on Fri, 10/04/2019 - 11:28
Friday, October 4, 2019
John Kamensky
Agile Government. Federal News Network’s Jason Miller reports on federal IT policy and agile management.
Workforce Reform. Bernie Kluger, in an op-ed for Federal News Network, writes: “As a community perhaps many of us have fallen into the trap at this critical moment of focusing on tactics—hiring systems, pay scales, classification standards, the placement of organizations in the bureaucracy — which mean little outside a small circle of experts and impede wider engagement. . . . Our conversation is out of order. Tactics should be the last step in conversation. . . . What I am proposing for our community is to shift the starting point of our appeals to elected officials and candidates from tactics to a dialogue about the ultimate meaning of our civil service, which I would suggest is the opportunity for American citizens to serve their neighbors.”
2020 Class of Presidential Innovation Fellows. FedScoop reports: “The General Services Administration, which houses the tech leadership-focused program, announced on Thursday that 20 new fellows (PIFs, as they’re colloquially called) have, as of Thursday, officially started their journeys. Over the next year (or maybe longer) the group will work with a total of nine different agencies on 13 different projects ranging from helping agencies better leverage data to advising on customer experience and human centered design practices.”
State Standards of Excellence. Results for America announced: “In the 2019 Invest in What Works State Standard of Excellence (State Standard of Excellence), Results for America identified 125 examples of data-driven and evidence-based practices, policies, programs, and systems in effect as of June 2019 in 33 states across the country. . . . Overall, five states are leading the way with their use of data-driven and evidence-based practices, policies, programs, and systems. These Leading States are Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.”
Michael Keegan
USMC commandant nixes prospect of zero-based budget review. Gen. David Berger, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, said it's unlikely the service will adopt a programmatic review like the Army’s "night court" process.
5G emerges with some asterisks. Agencies and suppliers working to address emerging issues for the next-generation wireless technology.
Maybe you should re-think that big IT transformation effort. If top executives won't get personally involved in your major IT projects, "consider non-IT alternatives for achieving the policy goals."
FAS’ Thomas resigns. Alan Thomas, head of the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration, heads to the private sector.
Great insights from Scott Eblin in: Three Simple Ways to Take the Big Picture Perspective. Here are three action steps you can take to spend more time and attention on taking the big picture perspective.
Rely on a team's tacit knowledge to unearth ideas. Instead of believing you have all the ideas, take advantage of the tacit knowledge employees possess, writes Judy Sims. "Most organizations in the knowledge era are simply too complex for any single person or even team of people to fully understand," she writes.
Why your "Grand Strategy" needs some operational balance. A "Grand Strategy" that focuses on executing simple, agile plans can be like perfume -- something that makes you feel better but doesn't improve underlying practices, writes Daniel Deneffe of Hult International Business School. This approach has good qualities but is insufficient unless accompanied by an operational approach that sets strategy after "rigorously eliciting customer preferences and making bottom-up evidence-based revenue and margin estimates," he writes.
Don't waste time getting to your story. Get to the point during a speech or presentation so you can start telling stories, writes Nick Morgan. Secondly, be consistent, whether it's in using visuals or the tone you adopt.
Next Week on The Business of Government Hour: Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour – SPADE Interview Series on Military Design Thinking. What is Military Design Thinking? How is Design being used to transforming military planning process? What is the Joint Special Operations University doing to educate special operations personnel in the use of design thinking? I explored these questions and more with Hal McNair, Director of Continuing Education at the Joint Special Operation University and faculty members Ben Zweibelson and Nate Schwagler.
Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday at 11 a.m., and Friday at 1 p.m. on Federal News Network 1500AM WFED
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