Inside this issue

Highlights from Spring 2008 Issue

FEATURE

Virtual Networks: An Opportunity for Government

Dan Bevarly and Jeffery G. Ulma

Today’s government relies on a broad network that extends beyond other public-sector entities to include the private sector, nonprofit organizations, community groups, and individual citizens. Government entities need to work effectively across boundaries that impede the collaboration and information sharing required to innovate and change.

“Virtualizing” these networks gives government the opportunity to extend outside its institutions and employ the resources of nongovernmental organizations and the citizenry at large. It also provides government leaders with new ways to reach deeper into their own organizations to leverage the wealth of information and ideas that reside there, stifled by the natural hierarchy of government and the “operating silos” that hierarchy has created.

This article looks at these virtual networks in general and The Collaboration Project in particular, the National Academy of Public Administration’s newly launched leadership forum that uses research, best practices, and other resources to help apply the benefits of Web 2.0 and collaborative technology in government.

Frank DiGiammarino serves as vice president for strategic initiatives and business development at the National Academy of Public Administration in Washington, DC. Lena Trudeau is program area director for strategic initiatives at the National Academy. They jointly lead The Collaboration Project.

Communication

Interagency Network of Enterprise Assistance Providers

Carroll Thomas

Less than ten years ago, twenty million small businesses across America faced the catastrophic year 2000 crisis! Y2K, as it was called, threatened computers around the world because they were based on a DD/MM/YY formula. This formula made computers believe that the year 2000 was actually the year 1900, rendering them unable to correctly calculate any information dealing with time.

Enter a fairly young public-private program—the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), headquartered at the National Institute of Standards and Technology—which focuses on assisting small manufacturers around the country. Through collaboration, MEP was able to broker a deal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Small Business Administration Small Business Development Centers. Working together, they leveraged their reach and resources to small businesses across America and helped them avert the crisis. The successful collaboration helped millions of small businesses survive, but soon thereafter the synergistic collaborative efforts between the organizations ceased.

The looming Y2K catastrophe spurred the federal agencies that serve medium and small businesses to work together, but in today’s interconnected world such collaboration needs to be routine and continuous. This article explores how in January 2006, this need led to the formation of a more formal public-private network, the Interagency Network of Enterprise Assistance Providers.

HR MANAGEMENT

Recruiting and Engaging the Federal Workforcer

Bill Trahant

The talk in government these days is about abolishing the General Schedule and replacing it with customized pay-for-performance systems. The General Schedule, however, is unlikely to disappear soon, so what can government executives and federal human capital professionals do to increase employee productivity and organizational performance under the current federal pay rules and performance appraisal guidelines?

That question was the focus of intense discussion at an October 4, 2007, seminar at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, hosted by American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation in conjunction with the Government Consulting Services practice of Watson Wyatt Worldwide. This forum, which brought together government executives and federal human capital professionals from a range of federal departments and agencies, featured presentations by James Perry, chancellor’s professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Bloomington; Toni Dawsey, assistant administrator for human capital management at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union.

This article describes the insights offered by the three speakers and how they can be used in better managing federal workers, providing them crucial (often nonmonetary) incentives, and helping them connect and identify with the goals of their organizations.

Bill Trahant is national practice leader of government consulting services for Watson Wyatt in Arlington, VA. Reach him at William.Trahant@watsonwyatt.com.

THE UNCIVIL SERVAN

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My!

Grimaldi

And the election process continues—ad infinitum, ad nauseum. But listening to all the rhetoric of the campaigns took Grimaldi to an examination of how the debate in the public sector has degenerated to something devoid of substance. Worse still, we have achieved “doublespeak,” a term often incorrectly attributed to George Orwell in 1984. And he is surely knowingly laughing from his grave about the current state of affairs due to the similarities with his vision for the future. Orwell saw a world that was very dark and dour. His future was run by all-powerful forces beyond the comprehension or control of the populace. Wait!! He is pretty much right!!

Grimaldi takes a look at how the political practice is to speak in euphemism, hyperbole, or even prevarication rather than to state the facts in a clear and concise way. And the practice is insidious.