OPM

 Interestingly, a hopeful article in Harvard Business Review concludes that in the private sector, “Employees are eager to embrace retraining” and that organizations need to take advantage of this opportunity. My guess is that this is the same in the government.

Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen was superb at handling big, complex challenges that reach across agency boundaries.  He led the evacuation of lower Manhattan during 9/11.  He took over the Katrina rescue operations after they floundered.  He led the U.S. response to the Haiti earthquake, and the Gulf Coast BP Oil Spill.

Before Allen retired, I asked him “Where does the government find the next one hundred Thad Allens?”  He didn’t have a good answer.  But answering that question becomes more critical as the government finds itself increasingly facing cross-agency challenges.

Four years ago, the IBM Center for The Business of Government released a book to guide new government executives, especially new political appointees. The goal of the book was to quickly acclimate new government executives to the world of public service as practiced in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Gina Scott Ligon, along with her University of Nebraska at Omaha colleagues JoDee Friedly and Victoria Kennel, offer an answer in a new report for the IBM Center, in the context of the broader national shortage of talent in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) professions.

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, a veteran corporate executive search recruiter, shares his approach for talent spotting for senior executives in an article in Harvard Business Review.  He says that traditional approaches have emphasized assessing intelligence, experience, past performance, and the competencies of the individual being considered for an executive slot.

Gadi Ben Yehuda

State Tech Magazine publishes an article by Lindsay Crudele, Boston's digital engagement director for in their Department of Innovation and Technology, "Why Governments Should Adopt a Digital Engagement Strategy"  Related: In FCW, Colby Huchmuth asks: "Beyond BYOD: Who oversees the apps?" 

John Kamensky Fix, Don’t Kill Telework. Eyebrows have been raised over perceived misuse of telework at the Patent and Trademark Office. But Jeffrey Neal, a former chief human capital officer at Homeland Security, tells Federal News Radio that “Rather than attempting to reverse telework programs, we should be working on fixing the problems. Nothing I have experienced, heard from people currently in government, or read tells me telework and other workplace flexibilities should be killed. . . .

Cross –agency collaboration is a critical element to solving many of the hardest challenges that government faces in providing effective services to citizens.  In his report, “The Next Government of the United States,” noted public administration scholar Don Kettl writes that “effective 21^st century government requires new mechanisms for coordinating government agencies to ensure they can connect organically as they seek to solve the manifest problems they confront.”