Reducing the Cost of Government Contracts Starts in the Classroom
When many people think about government contracting, stories about hammers or toilet seats purchased for use by the military and costing thousands of dollars and huge project cost overruns is often what comes to mind. Are excessive costs typical? Over the last few...
Money Vs. Welfare: The Government Role
Today there are very few things money can’t buy. If we’re sentenced to a jail term in California, we can actually buy a prison cell upgrade. And in Washington, long queues form for key congressional hearings. To avoid waiting in the rain, lobbyists pay companies to...
Information Governance Insights: Part 2
In last month’s article we laid out the basic framework for understanding what Information Governance is and what we are trying to accomplish with a program. The next step in the process is for the Executive Champion to bring together the key individuals that deal...
Changing Landscape in Local Government
During a recent conversation with a peer and Master of Public Administration student, I realized there is a predicament in municipal administration. For soon-to-be MPAs, there is concern among some who would like to be city managers but are not interested in the...
Efficiency Initiatives in Local Government
In a May 2012 Wall Street Journal article, Leslie Kwoh warned that the term “innovation” was at risk of becoming cliché. To support her observation, she provided a number of examples, the most astonishing of which was a 64% increase in the number of times the word...
Hiring: Take Control
Hiring the wrong people costs too much. Here’s how to activate a recruiting process that will attract the right people to your talent bench? No business can afford a bad hire, or to retain employees who don’t perform because the cost of poor talent management...
Government Office Space Can Attract Silicon Valley Talent
It’s that time. Baby boomers are finally leaving their desks behind and signing up for AARP. A lot of these Boomers worked for the US Government and everyone knows that “government job” equals cement gray tile floors, cement gray desks, cement gray chairs, and cement...
Public-Private Partnerships: A Catalyst for Economic Development?
Most local governments have been struggling with cash-strapped budgets and forcibly cutting within agencies and programs. These tight budgets and cuts may lead to poor infrastructure, a decreased access to services and programs, and ultimately, inadequate economic...
Civic Engagement: It’s Time To Get Involved!
How many of us are fully engaged in our community? Do we simply see something wrong with our neighborhood and complain about it to our family or do we try to figure out how to get it fixed? When we hear of a law being proposed that don’t agree with (or do!) do we...
Journey to the End
When I was in college in Liverpool I was fortunate to befriend one of those people that are all too rare in the world. Everybody loved Peter Morgan. His infectious likeability became the social lynch pin of our entire year group. His pranks were both ingenious and...
Alma Mater: Your School Recognition & Your Career
As humans we are comfortable with the familiar. We like big brands and name drop with pride (consciously and subconsciously). Exclaiming, “I drive a Mercedes insured by Geico, with music synced to my iPod, while sipping a can of Coke” is much different than declaring,...
Cultural Paper Clip of Contract Management
Fact: There is a culture of contract management and acquisition within the federal government, state government and private contractor and vendor organizations, both domestic and international. But what is that culture? And, how is it defined? When you examine the...
Reach For The Stars, The Sky Is Not The Limit
We often refer to the sky being the limit. How claustrophobic says Rachel Wolchin of TheGoodVibe.co. A spacecraft landing on a meteorite shows how far to date the human race has gone beyond its extra-terrestrial ambitions since the Moon landings nearly 50 years ago....
Information Governance Insights
Information Governance has long been a major issue for governmental agencies, even before the Presidential Directive on Records Management of 2012. Information Governance Insights will be series of articles intended to provide guidance on improving or establishing...
Cybersecurity: The 801 Pound Gorilla in the Room
I must admit, the title of this article was meant to catch your attention and require a second look. Whether or not the attempt was successful, the topic and content that follows has most assuredly caught everyone else's attention. Survey after survey reveals that the...
Managing Government Employment Expectations
As a graduate student and self-professed “researcher,” I feel obligated to say first that I do not have personal empirical evidence regarding municipal human resources practices. However, I recently read the article “Determinants of Local Government Workforce...
Federal Job Application Strategies
How do you apply for a federal job? Many people go straight to USAJOBS.gov and start searching for jobs they might like. They look at the Duties section of the Vacancy Announcement and say to themselves, “I can do that.” Then they apply. These same folks upload their...
The Likability Factor
In almost every aspect of life, the term likeability is at the center of decision making. This idea holds true in political campaigns, speed dating, beauty contests, American Idol, selection of church pastors, straw polls, hand in marriages, choosing favorite foods, a...