Want to Innovate? 4 Ways to Stimulate Creativity

• By Sarah Agan
• September 26, 2013
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Do you ever feel like that guy Fred from the 1980s Dunkin Donuts commercials?  He awakes to the shrill of an old school alarm clock:  eyes pop open and before it’s clear he’s even awake, out of his mouth comes“time to make the donuts.”  He gets up, shuffles around and continues in a mono-toned muttering “it’s time to make the donuts.”  There is another version of him leaving his house, coming home, leaving his house, coming home. He does this, day after day after day - and he makes really great donuts.

Ever feel like that?  Feel like you are doing the same thing, over and over and over?  Certainly, as the commercial portrays, there is a certain excellence that comes with mastering processes and becoming an expert in one’s field.  The ability to repeat and deliver, with consistency, a product or service is part of what creates powerful brands.  The allure of capturing the market, being the best, dominating a space is seductive.  The question is:  with the staggering pace of change, the seemingly hourly influx of invitations to try this, try that, etc. it might be a dangerous proposition to journey forward with blinders ...

Service to America Medal Finalists: The Top Public Servants in Citizen Services

• By Lara Shane
• September 26, 2013
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There are countless unsung civil servants working behind the scenes to ensure our government effectively provides critical services that meet the many needs of the American people.  

On October 3, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service will present the prestigious Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal for Citizen Services to one of the five finalists profiled below. These individuals improved customer service at the Social Security Administration, developed new firefighting techniques to save lives, employed technology to speed tax refunds, headed a rapid response to a multistate outbreak of fungal meningitis, and used technology to help agencies provide better service and information.

The members of this group are among 31 finalists honored in seven categories ranging from justice and law enforcement to science and environment. Here are the stories of the Service to America Medal finalists for Citizen Services.

Dave Broomell: Improving customer service and internal operations at the Social Security Administration

Every year, more than 40 million people nationwide visit Social Security offices to apply for benefits or resolve a problem, and many millions more have interactions with the agency through the telephone, mail and the Internet.

David Broomell, a longtime Social Security programmer and project manager ...

How Local Governments Are Cutting Burglaries by 27 Percent

• By John Kamensky
• September 25, 2013
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Police departments across the U.S. are piloting crime prevention programs that rely on a smart analysis of historical crime data in neighborhoods across their cities. And they are finding that they can cut burglaries by as much as 27 percent!

City police departments across the country are turning traditional police officers into “data detectives.”  Police departments across the country have adapted business techniques --  initially developed by retailers, such as Netflix and WalMart, to predict consumer behavior -- to predict criminal behavior.  A new IBM Center report, by Dr. Jennifer Bachner at Johns Hopkins University, tells compelling stories of the experiences three cities -- Santa Cruz, CA; Baltimore County, MD; and Richmond, VA – are having in using predictive policing as a new and effective tool to combat crime.

Predictive Analytics Reach Beyond Policing.

While this report focuses on the use of predictive techniques and tools for preventing crime in local communities, these techniques and tools are being applied to other policy arenas, as well, such as the efforts by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to predict and prevent homelessness, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s efforts to identify and mitigate communities vulnerable to natural disasters.

Dr. Bachner says that ...

The Retirement Wave You Didn’t See Coming

• By Adam Cole
• September 24, 2013
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You’ve likely heard of the impending government retirement wave.  For a decade, agency leaders have been monitoring their workforce demographics with increasing concern. Low attrition rates combined with less hiring have produced a static employee base that grows older with each passing year.

Many employees have put retirement on hold during the economic and federal budget crises. This may delay any mass exodus from federal staffs, but it will increase the size of the wave in years to come. As agencies tweak workforce plans to account for these trends, they’ve rightly planned for the departure of their oldest employees. But they also need to consider employees under age 60, whose exit represents the single biggest risk to the continuity of operations.

There are roughly 650,000 federal workers in their 50s, which is twice the size of the group that is age 60 and older. Historically, many employees in their late 50s leave the civil service soon after they became retirement eligible. Many who want to continue full-time employment use their federal pension as a financial cushion while they seek opportunities in the private sector. Before the financial crisis, employees in their 50s accounted for roughly half of ...

Being A Better Leader: The Difference Between Reliability And Trust

• By Joseph Millord
• September 23, 2013
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It’d be convenient to think that the world is a straightforward place, especially for those of us who are either in or aspire to be in positions of power in any capacity.

Whether we’re talking about a federal managers or entrepreneurs gathering a team for their next startup, we might like to think that what goes into success comes down to two things: finding people who produce good work and, as the authority, making sure things stay that way.

Author Simon Sinek, however, begs to differ. In a TED talk on leadership, he provides a compelling argument that trust is not only the lifeblood of success, but that being a leader goes well beyond simply fulfilling the expectations of a leader.

“Make no mistake of it,” Sinek says. “Trust is a feeling, a distinctly human experience. Simply doing everything that you promised you’re going to does not mean that people will trust you, it just means that you’re reliable. And we all have friends who are total screw ups and yet we still trust them. Trust comes from a sense of common values and belief.”

Sinek is the writer behind the book “Start With Why: How ...