What Happens When Our Senior Scientists, Engineers, and Doctors Retire?

Dr. Gina Scott Ligon, along with her University of Nebraska at Omaha colleagues JoDee Friedly and Victoria Kennel, offer an answer in a new report for the IBM Center, in the context of the broader national shortage of talent in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) professions.

Spotting Top Talent

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, a veteran corporate executive search recruiter, shares his approach for talent spotting for senior executives in an article in Harvard Business Review.  He says that traditional approaches have emphasized assessing intelligence, experience, past performance, and the competencies of the individual being considered for an executive slot.

Transparency, Legitimacy, and Trust

The Open Government movement has captured the imagination of many around the world as a way of increasing transparency, participation, and accountability.  In the US, many of the federal, state, and local Open Government initiatives have been demonstrated to achieve positive results for citizens here and abroad. In fact, the White House’s science advisors released a refreshed Open Government plan in early June.

Innovation Is a Team Sport

Successful inventions often spring from the minds of individual inventors – we often think of Thomas Edison at the classic inventor. But successful innovation is a team sport, according to a new Harvard Business Review article by a team of researchers – Linda Hill, Greg Brandeau, Emily Truelove, and Kent Lineback.

 

Agency Priority Goals, 2014-2015

Agencies establish a variety of performance goals and objectives to drive progress toward key outcomes. Agencies outline long-term goals and objectives in their strategic plans, and annual performance goals in annual performance plans.

Are We There Yet? Progress on CAP Goals

These four-year goals were first announced with the release of the FY 2015 budget back in March. Cobert’s announcement accompanies the first round of statutorily-required quarterly reports on the progress of the 15 Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) goals. 

New: Progress Reports on Agency Priority Goals

The Obama Administration in 2009 directed agencies to identify a small handful of priorities that they would commit to achieving in a two-year timeframe.  This initiative was embedded into the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010.  Agencies are required to identify priority goals and report on their progress quarterly.  In late June, agency progress reports were posted on the governmentwide performance.gov website.

Assessing Trust in Cross-Agency Networks

Increasingly, addressing public management challenges requires the use of collaborative networks across a range of agencies and non-governmental organizations. For example, the Obama Administration has designated a series of projects as “cross agency priority goals” and put networks in place to manage them. A lot of literature and practical experience show that a key element of success in any collaborative effort is the ability to create and sustain trust among stakeholders.

Goal Leaders: An Innovation That Works

Background.  Early in the Obama Administration, OMB announced an initiative to create a small handful of High Priority Performance Goals in each agency, as a replacement for the Bush Administration’s

Accumulated Wisdom

Harry Hatry is legendary.  His indefatigable commitment to measuring government performance stretches back to his days as a Pentagon analyst on Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s fabled “Whiz Kids” team before joining the Urban Institute in 1968.

Pages

Emeritus Senior Fellow
IBM Center for The Business of Government

Mr. Kamensky is an Emeritus Senior Fellow with the IBM Center for The Business of Government and was an Associate Partner with IBM's Global Business Services.

During 24 years of public service, he had a significant role in helping pioneer the federal government's performance and results orientation. Mr. Kamensky is passionate about helping transform government to be more results-oriented, performance-based, customer-driven, and collaborative in nature.

Prior to joining the IBM Center, he served for eight years as deputy director of Vice President Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Before that, he worked at the Government Accountability Office where he played a key role in the development and passage of the Government Performance and Results Act.

Since joining the IBM Center, he has co-edited six books and writes and speaks extensively on performance management and government reform.  Current areas of emphasis include transparency, collaboration, and citizen engagement.  He also blogs about management challenges in government.

Mr. Kamensky is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and received a Masters in Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, in Austin, Texas.