Friday, January 18, 2019
The IBM Center's Weekly Roundup highlights articles and insights that we found interesting for the week ending ` January 18, 2019.

Michal J. Keegan

Defense CDO: Why market share matters in cloud.  There are only three general purpose clouds, DOD data chief Michael Conlin says. DOD is currently conducting two large-scale cloud procurements. The $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure program aims to serve warfighters, and the $8 billion Defense Enterprise Office Solutions focuses on business applications.

DOD acquisition reform panel looks to sunset Clinger-Cohen. The final report from the Section 809 Panel charged with defense acquisition reform thinks the era of the central CIO might be coming to a close.

Air Force Seeks Industry, Academic Partners for Tech Transfer Initiatives. The U.S. Air Force has asked industry to submit white papers that will detail how the service can partner with industry and academia to accelerate the development and transfer of new technology platform between the military and its partners...

Shutdown could take a toll on EIS. Agencies got extra time to prep for the transition to the $50 billion governmentwide telecom contract, but the partial government shutdown could interfere with those plans.

SEC charges nine in 2016 EDGAR hack, insider trading scheme. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged nine individuals and organizations with participating in a 2016 scheme to hack into EDGAR, the commission’s financial filing system, and profit off illegal trades.

8 Core Elements of High-Performance Teams.  As a result of working with hundreds of teams over many years, I have found that there are certain elements of High-Performance Teams that can be summarized by the acronym VIVRE FAT! This is an excerpt from Team Quotient: How to Build High Performance Leadership Teams that Win Every Time by Douglas Gerber.

John Kamensky

The History of Shutdowns. Federal News Network’s Nicole Ogrysko details the history of federal government shutdowns since they became a “thing” as a result of a 1980 reinterpretation of the Anti-Deficiency Act. Valuable context!

Bridging Two Worlds. Howard Risher, in a column for Governing, writes: “Government's administrative silos have spawned two parallel worlds centered on performance that exist independent of each other. One world focuses on strategy, priority goals, metrics and evidence-based decision-making. The other focuses on working with managers and employees to improve their performance. Both are valid and essential, and both look to the same end results. Each has its own experts, literature, jargon and conferences. But surprisingly, they rarely interact.

Less Data, More Common Sense. In a prescient article in Harvard Business Review, James Wilson, Paul Daugherty, and Chase Davenport write: “In the future . . . we will have top-down systems that don’t require as much data and are faster, more flexible, and, like humans, more innately intelligent. A number of companies and organizations are already putting these more natural systems to work. To craft a vision of where AI is heading in the next several years, and then plan investments and tests accordingly, companies should look for developments in four areas.”

OPEN Government Data Act. NextGov reports: “President Trump signed the OPEN Government Data Act into law, requiring agencies to publish machine-readable data and appoint chief data officers.”

Different Directions. NextGov reports that the House has unanimously passed a bill to elevate the federal CIO’s stature, to report directly to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. And in a different move, the Defense Acquisition Reform Panel recommends “reevaluating” the Defense Department’s top CIO as possibly being unnecessary.

Ten Things We Know About Reorg. Alan Balutis, in a column for Government Executive, writes about his experience with government reorganizations: “While much has been written about the topic in general, a search for information about the effects of reorganizations is an unrewarding task. Almost no one has asked the question: What difference have past reorganization plans and executive orders made? How have they been implemented and with what results?”

Five Bold Recommendations. Federal News Networks interviewed David Drabkin, chair of the congressionally-mandated Defense Acquisition Reform Panel (affectionally known as the Section 809 Panel): “Here are five of those bold recommendations in order of importance that you should pay close attention to over the next 12-18 months. This is not to say that all 53 new recommendations aren’t bold or worthwhile, these are just five that stood out.”

Next Week on The Business of Government Hour: Leadership Stories in Military Health, Government-wide Acquisition, and Innovation - Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour 

Leadership stories are at the core of The Business of Government Hour. Join host Michael Keegan in the first of a 2 part series exploring the leadership stories and public service of government leaders encompassing a wide range of disciplines, a diverse set of experiences, and a vast span of geographies. This edition introduces to 4 government executives leading missions and programs that include military health, government-wide acquisition, technology and innovation, and environmental protection.

Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday at 11 a.m., and Friday at 1 p.m. on Federal News Network 1500AM WFED