Dan Chenok

Lori Victor Feller, Mobile and Apple Partnership Leader, IBM Global Business Services, is the main blogger for this post.

Government leaders today have an opportunity to address serious public management issues that go to the core of effective governance and leadership, meeting seemingly intractable problems head-on.  Complex public sector challenges do not follow orderly and linear processes, and governments operate in an environment of limited resources while responsibilities seem to have increased (e.g., homeland security, home loan modifications, cybersecurity).

In 2009, the IBM Center for The Business of Government released Getting It Done: A Guide for Government Executives as a guide for new leaders, especially new political appointees. This book helped new government executives acclimate quickly to the world of public service as practiced in Washington, D.C., and it contained a series of short strategic discussions about “dos and don’ts,” along with insights about working with key stakeholders from experienced political executives. Getting It Done was revised and reissued as a second edition in 2013.

This blog was written by our guest blogger: Chris Trainor

As announced by OMB last Thursday and widely reported since then, the Obama Administration has issued an implementation strategy for IT reform over the next 18 months.  Much attention has been focused on key elements of the plan, including using budget authority to change or stop major IT systems, incentives for modular development of technology, improved communications among stakeholders across government and with industry and the establishment of program management as a profession; I

OPM leads the Federal Government's efforts to improve strategic human capital management.  OPM focuses on building a professional civil service based on merit principles, where Federal employees can effectively serve the public throughout the employment life cycle – while also receiving benefits and services from “hire to retire” that are consistent with best practices.  That effort continues today as OPM embarks on a new initiative to integrate HR offerings and HR data sets across the Government.

Experience from industry practices and industry research regarding personnel security provide interesting insights and lessons learned for government to consider.   These findings emerged from a recent roundtable discussion held in November and co-hosted by the IBM Center for The Business of Government and the National Academy of Public Administration.  The roundtable intended to help identify commercial benchmarks that can inform government choices.

We are pleased to announce our latest round of awards for new reports on key public sector challenges, which respond to priorities identified in the Center's research agenda. Our content is intended to stimulate and accelerate the production of practical research that benefits public sector leaders and managers.

We expect the following reports to be published later in 2017.  Short summaries of each report follow:

This week, FCW announced the list of winners of the 2017 Federal 100 Awards. For nearly three decades, the Fed 100 has recognized many impactful leaders who made a significant impact in federal IT during the previous year – the list highlights change agents in and with government who make a difference in how IT can drive mission performance and operational efficiency.

Blog Co-Authors:  Tim Cooke, CEO of ASI Government and Steve Kelman, Weatherhead Professor of Public Management at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.