Weekly Round: June 14, 2019

John Kamensky

Using Blockchain at National Archives. Federal News Network reports:“ The National Archives and Records Administration is exploring whether blockchain technology can help records management officials keep track of their vast stores of information, following the successful rollout of the emerging technology elsewhere in government.”

MSPB Survey of Prohibited Practices. Jeff Neal writes in Federal News Network about a Merit Systems Protection Board “June 2019 Research Brief, The Perceived Incidence of Prohibited Personnel Practices,” which “compares the results of a 2016 Merit Principles Survey on the subject with the results of a similar 2010 survey.” Spoiler alert: incidents went up.

Climate Threats to Military Bases. Government Executive writes: “After a five-month delay, U.S. lawmakers can finally see which military bases are most threatened by climate change — information that arrived just ahead of a Congressional finding that the Defense Department has little idea how to prepare for these threats.”

Top Political Vacancies. Government Executive reports: “President Trump on Monday circumvented the typical temporary appointment process by naming an individual with no existing role in the federal government to be the acting head of an agency. . . . Ken Cuccinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia, will serve as acting chief of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He joins a long list of top officials at the Homeland Security Department serving in a temporary capacity, including acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan.”

Michael J. Keegan 

Agencies ramp up use of challenge competitions. White House and General Services Administration are tracking crowdsourcing along with technology challenges as paths to innovation.

NDAA pushes DOD-VA cooperation on health record modernization. The $20 billion health record modernization efforts at the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs are going to be joined a little more closely under an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act

Two Questions Every Leader Should Ask Repeatedly. As part of your leadership improvement program, it's important to ask for input. The answers and perhaps even more so people's reactions and responses to your questions offer valuable clues to where you need to strengthen your performance. 

Book Review Great Leaders Have No Rules. Here’s what Kevin says you should expect from Great Leaders Have No Rules. “This book has one purpose: to teach you how to be both the boss everyone wants to work for and the high achiever every CEO wants to hire—all without drama, stress, or endless hours in the office.”

From Adi Gaskell: 3 Reasons Why Being A Polymath Is Key In The Future Of Work. “Ever since Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, the industrial world has been enthralled with specialization. Workers have been trained from an early age to focus on a fairly narrow range of skills that they will then apply for the remainder of their careers, like compliant cogs in the industrial machine.”

Next Week on The Business of Government Hour: Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour – SPADE Interview Series on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a National Security Context. How and in what areas is AI being adopted in the national security space? What is an AI ecosystem? How can government and the military enhance their AI ecosystems? I explored these questions and more with Andrew Hunter, Director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Zach Lemnios, Vice President, Government Programs at IBM Research

Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday at 11 a.m., and Friday at 1 p.m. on Federal News Network 1500AM WFED

Anytime, Anywhere on...

https://www.podcastone.com/the-business-of-government-hour

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-business-of-government-radio-hou