Collaboration

We are introducing a Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour -- Leaders Speak -- focusing on human service delivery: the challenges being faced and innovations being forged in our local communities.

What does it mean to be a citizen in a Gov 2.0 world? President Obama’s FY 2011 budget is being dissected for its shift in the size and scope of government. But several initiatives in the budget, and things happening at the state and local levels, point to subtle -- but significant --shifts in the role of citizens in their government.

Most of the news media focused on the size of the budget and which agencies gained or lost. However, the budget also included an overview of the Obama Administration’s management initiatives, as well.

The overall emphasis of these initiatives is on achieving defined mission-oriented results. It de-emphasizes (but still addresses) improvements to mission-support functions and the reporting of performance information.

The latest issue of FastCompany magazine has a terrific piece by Chip and Dan Heath, “Find a Bright Spot and Clone It.” While it uses private sector examples, their insights apply equally to government.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, like HUD, is undertaking significant transformation efforts with congressional support. Its initial “Transformation 21” plan was framed around its fiscal year 2010 budget. Subsequently, more is on the way, but it has not yet been fully released.

This is the time of year for predictions of what is ahead. Here’s a compilation of various predictions. Pick those that appeal to you!

Federal News Radio: Web 2.0 is Changing Government. In an interview in late 2009, editor Dorothy Ramienski came to the now-standard conclusion that “Web 2.0 and social networking tools are changing the way the federal government does business.”

“The key to motivation turns out to be largely within your control,” write Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer in the January 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review. How? “. . . scrupulously avoid impeding progress.”

Amabile and Kramer surveyed more than 600 managers, and then asked hundreds of knowledge workers to keep daily diaries to find out what was the top motivator of performance.

(a continuation from the December 23, 2009 blog on “Managing Performance”)

(a continuation from the December 23, 2009 blog on “Managing Performance”)

Remember the YouTube phenomena, “The Evolution of Dance?” I have been reading a book, “Managing Performance: International Comparisons” by two highly-regarded foreign academics – Geert Bouckaert (a Belgian) and John Halligan (an Australian). Their book could well have been named: “The Evolution of Performance!”