Weekly Roundup: June 24-28, 2019

John Kamensky

People First. NextGov reports: “To combat the growing skills gap metastasizing across the federal government, agency leaders should incorporate human capital strategies into their long-term strategic plans, Chris Mihm, the Government Accountability Office’s managing director for intergovernmental relations and strategic issues said in Washington Tuesday.”

How Can Behavioral Science Improve Program Outcomes? (Part I)

For years, government policymakers encouraged workers to increase their investments in tax-free retirement savings.  But they were baffled by how many workers were leaving “free money” on the table by not signing up to participate in employer-matched 401K pension plans. However, when some companies changed their enrollment process from having workers “opting in” to the program vs. automatically enrolling them (and allowing them to opt out), enrollment rates increased by 50 percent.

Weekly Roundup: June 17-21 2019

John Kamensky

Joint Governance – At Last!  Federal News Network reports: “The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs said they’ve finally settled on a joint management structure to make sure the multibillion-dollar electronic health record systems they’re buying are integrated and interoperable.”

Weekly Roundup: June 3-7 2019

John Kamensky

Data Strategy – At Last! FCW reports: “The Trump administration on June 4 released a draft of the "Year-1 Action Plan" for implementing the federal data strategy. The plan outlines 16 steps -- some agency-specific, others governmentwide -- to "establish a firm basis of tools, processes, and capacities to leverage data as a strategic asset."

Weekly Roundup: May 27-31, 2019

IDEA Deadlines. Federal News Network reports: “With deadlines fast approaching for the implementation of the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience (IDEA) Act, agency officials see a clearer path forward on making .gov websites more user-friendly and able to provide more services online to the public. . . . The IDEA Act . . .

Baltimore: From Stats to Solutions

Last year, I met Kendra Parlock, the head of Baltimore’s performance and innovation office, at a periodic informal meeting of local government performance officers in the mid-Atlantic region.  I was intrigued by her upbeat update to her fellow local government peers.  After all, in the Spring of 2017, Governing magazine raised a warning flag, questioning whether the nearly two decade-old award-winning CitiStat management system in Baltimore, installed by Martin O’Malley, was dying of

Weekly Roundup: May 20-24, 2019

GAO’s Duplication & Overlap Report. The Government Accountability Office’s ninth annual report: “presents 98 new actions for Congress or executive branch agencies to reduce, eliminate, or better manage fragmentation, overlap, and duplication and achieve other financial benefits.”

The Future of Work: An Opportunity to Learn Something New

 Interestingly, a hopeful article in Harvard Business Review concludes that in the private sector, “Employees are eager to embrace retraining” and that organizations need to take advantage of this opportunity. My guess is that this is the same in the government.

Performance Management: A Conversation with John Kamensky

Broadcast Date: 
Monday, April 29, 2019 - 08:46
Author: 

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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.