4 Times Good Government Has Done Excellent Things

• By EIG Staff
• April 26, 2013
• comments

Contrary to what a few cynics might believe, the name “Excellence in Government” isn’t meant to be ironic. Those of us who work in and write about government know that there are excellent—often times extraordinary—things happening in government everyday.

So, we unreservedly assert that good government CAN do great things—and we look forward to celebrating those achievements with the federal community May 13 – 14 at the Excellence in Government Conference in Washington, D.C.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Vice President Al Gore
• Dan Tangherlini, Acting Administrator, General Services Administration
• Beth McGrath, Deputy Chief Management Officer, Department of Defense
• Lieutenant General John Wissler, Deputy Commandant for Programs and Resources, Headquarters Marine Corps
• Rhea Suh, Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget, Department of the Interior
• Nani Coloretti, Assistant Secretary for Management, Department of the Treasury
• And many others

Join us by signing up to attend or tweet us @ExcelGov and @GovExec to share how you and your agency plan to be excellent.

Below, four examples of when good government has done excellent things:

1. March 1, 1936 – Hoover Dam Completed Two Years Ahead of Schedule

2. July 20, 1969 – Apollo 11 Lands on the ...

What Gifts Do Foreign Leaders Give The United States?

• By Brian Fung
• April 26, 2013
• comments

Visiting a friend? It's only polite to bring a little something with you.

Heads of state aren't exempt from this unspoken rule, except that every present the White House accepts from other foreign dignitaries must be logged, tagged, and stored in official archives. (For the unfamiliar, there's an excellent "West Wing" episode about this.) Gift-giving is a routine part of diplomacy, but it also makes for interesting public data. 

On Thursday, President Obama released a list of all the gifts he accepted in 2011 on behalf of the United States. For each gift, the PDF names the donor country, a description of the gift, an estimate of its value and a reason why Obama accepted it (typically something having to do with not wanting to make a scene by rejecting the present, even if they were just boring old "Witcher 2" DVDs). Faced with all this government data, there was only one thing to do with it: plug everything into a spreadsheet and see which foreign leaders outspent each other to impress the most powerful man in the world. The heat map above ranks countries according to the total value of their 2011 gifts to Obama, with ...

The 5 Best Management Tips of the Week

• By Mark Micheli
• April 26, 2013
• comments

Welcome back to Excellence in Government's weekly round up of the best management tips from around the web. This week we tell you to stop being stupid, give you tips to unlock your creativity and advise you to simply say “thank you” a little more often.

Read on…

1. Play Games to Unlock Your Creativity

Looking to get more creative with your team? Try playing the creative thinking games inventor Stephen Key writes about for Entrepreneur. Take for instance a game he calls “Mix and Match”:

What two products could be brought together for the first time to create a new one? Don't be afraid to get unconventional. Walk down the aisle of your favorite retail store and ideas abound. For example, the decision to combine a flashlight with a screwdriver was ingenious. It's now possible to work in dark areas without having to hold a flashlight. And of course, what would our phones be without a camera?

One of my students came up with the idea to combine a license plate frame with a dry erase board. People want to have their license plate reflect their interests and style and with this product, they're able ...

Being a Chinese Government Official is One of the Worst Jobs in the World

• By Lily Kuo
• April 26, 2013
• comments

Life as a Chinese government official isn’t what it used to be. Lavish, liquor-heavy banquets have been outlawed. It will soon be harder to get those handy military license plates, useful for avoiding hassle from traffic police. And these days, with China’s army of voracious and ever-watchful bloggers, every inappropriate smile, public temper tantrum, or luxury watch collection soon gets seen by the entire country.

And yet, it’s not easy being red and feeding from the iron rice bowl. Chinese officials, like political ...

8 Tips to Improve Your (And Your Agency’s) Writing

• By Colleen Blessing
• April 26, 2013
• comments

Are you frustrated that your staff’s writing isn’t consistent or clear?  Are you not sure about the difference between grammar rules and writing styles?   Need some writing tips that can make your work more accessible? 

Remember your 8^th grade teacher saying you have to write introductions to your content, paragraphs must have at least three sentences (or some number much bigger than one), and all content related to the topic sentence must be together in one paragraph?  She probably said you couldn’t split an infinitive or end a sentence with a preposition.  Fancy vocabulary words probably got you a better grade.

Balderdash, I say!  Following old-fashioned rules like these in the information-overload age leads to cumbersome, difficult-to-understand content. 

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently developed a Writing Style Guide to help our authors produce correct, consistent, understandable content. 

Here are eight tips for better writing:

1. Know your audience:  Consider your audience’s level of expertise and interest in the subject, and the tasks they will be doing with the information you provide.  Respect their time.  Put your main message/point/call to action first.  Be assured they will be skimming. Don’t stuff the beginning ...