Promising Practices

How You Can Get Better at Picking Creative Ideas

"We're probably all killing a lot of our best ideas early in the creative process without knowing it."

‘Blue’ Space: Access to Water Features Can Boost City Dwellers’ Mental Health

Research into public health benefits of integrating nature into cities has focused on green spaces. New studies suggest water features are just as useful and can piggyback on other infrastructure goals.

  • Jenny Roe, The Conversation

Why When You Eat Might Be as Important as What You Eat

An NIH-funded study showed that participants who limited daily food intake to a 10-hour period lost on average 3 percent of their weight and about 3 percent of their abdominal fat.

  • Dr. Francis Collins

Feds Should Prepare Financially for Another Government Shutdown

Here are some ideas to help managers make sure employees are covered during a worst-case scenario.

  • Joel Murray

Mindfulness Could Lower Your Blood Pressure

Mindfulness can help lower high blood pressure by boosting attention control, emotion regulation, and self-awareness of both healthy and unhealthy habits.

  • Futurity

Why Workers Spend All Day at the Office

Why Americans work more than anyone else.

  • Derek Thompson, The Atlantic

Three Ways to Raise Your Decision-Making Confidence

Don’t be the bottleneck that slows everything down.

  • Scott Eblin

The False Promise of Morning Routines

Why everyone’s mornings seem more productive than yours.

  • Marina Koren, The Atlantic

You’re More Likely to Mess Things Up Without Enough Sleep

Sleep deprivation messes with our 'placekeeping' ability, which makes us make more mistakes on tasks that have more than a few simple steps.

  • Caroline Brooks, Futurity

Laboratories of Democracy in Action: Investing in What Works

The mere availability of information is not enough to get policy makers to actually use it.

  • John Kamensky

Creating the Foundation for Building an Agency Culture That Values Evidence

Here are six ideas to help you focus on what’s doable.

  • Andrew Feldman

Why Saying ‘OK Boomer’ at Work Is Considered Age Discrimination – but Millennial Put-Downs Aren’t

An employment law expert explains why you shouldn't use an age-related insult at work to demean an older colleague.

  • Elizabeth C. Tippett, The Conversation

Nearly Half of Sexual Harassers Can Go Back to Work

After getting fired for sexual harassment in the workplace, many harassers are able to come back to work because of weak company policies.

  • Caroline Brooks, Futurity
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Disaster Recovery and Resilience
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Federal Agencies Can Succeed at Leadership Development Even Amid Tight Budgets

Data on the impact of training programs will help make the case for sustained funding.

  • Bill Valdez, James L. Perry, Jenny Knowles Morrison and Gordon Abner

Leading and Succeeding Where Organizational Boundaries Are Unclear

These are the gray zones—visible an irritating to all—where authority and responsibility are muddled.

  • Art Petty

Deep Sleep Can Ease Your Anxious Brain

A sleepless night can trigger up to a 30% rise in anxiety levels. But there are several things you can do to get a deep night's sleep.

  • Yasmin Anwar, Futurity

You Learn More From Success Than Failure

Though you've probably heard a lot about learning from failure, new research finds we learn a lot more from our successes.

  • Futurity

We Have the Tools and Technology to Work Less and Live Better

Keynes was almost right about the 15-hour working week of the future: we could live as well even on half those hours.

  • Toby Phillips, aeon

A Checklist and Process to Create Daily Success at Work

It’s one way to avoid losing yourself in your organization’s maelstrom.

  • Art Petty

How to Make the Most of Your FEVS Data

It’s critical that managers selectively focus on key questions in the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

  • Robin Camarote and Beth McDonald

How Employees Pollute Their Own Office Space

Data show that people and ventilation systems greatly affect the chemistry of indoor air—possibly more than anything else in an office space.

  • Kayla Wiles, Futurity