EIGHT WAYS TO WRITE FOR IMPACT
Back in March, in collaboration with Donald F. Kettl professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public...
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B&G REPORT.
The B&G Report features newsy items relating to a wide variety of state and local government management topics, including state and local performance audit, state and local performance management, government budgeting, state and local human resource issues, and a variety of other public sector issues.
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greenebarrett
- 3 min
GENERATION Z: ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
In conversations that we’ve had lately with people in human resources and elsewhere in government, we’ve found ourselves repeatedly...
greenebarrett
- 3 min
AN OPEN LETTER TO ELECTED OFFICIALS
Good day, Last week we were talking to an inquisitive person who is rising in the local public sector world. The conversation turned to...
greenebarrett
- 3 min
DO YOU LOVE CITIES TOO?
We love cities. Though we moved out of Manhattan a few years ago for the little town of Bethel, Connecticut, we’ll live the rest of our...
greenebarrett
- 4 min
WHEN CORRUPTION HITS SMALL CITIES
Walter Winchell, one of America’s most popular syndicated gossip columnists and radio commentators from the 1920s through the early 1960s...
greenebarrett
- 3 min
WHY DO PEOPLE LAUGH WHEN WE TELL THEM WHAT WE DO?
When we attend social gatherings like weddings and are seated with people who don’t know us, one of the obligatory first questions...
greenebarrett
- 3 min
POTHOLES ON THE AI ROAD
We’re not scared of AI. It doesn’t take much historical memory to know that pretty much any new technology brings out fear and...
greenebarrett
- 3 min
NINE TIPS FOR IMPROVING MEETINGS
Over more than 30 years of covering state and local government, we can’t recall ever talking to a public sector manager who loved going...
greenebarrett
- 3 min
THE GRAVEYARD OF GOOD IDEAS
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote a B&G report titled “Is Speedy Government Good Government?” in which we made the case that the pressure...
greenebarrett
- 2 min
IS SPEEDY GOVERNMENT GOOD GOVERNMENT?
Not to be overly blunt, but we’ve grown sick and tired of hearing people complaining about how long it takes state and local governments...
greenebarrett
- 2 min
EMPLOYEE SURVEYS' TWO-EDGED SWORD
Employee surveys can provide extremely valuable information for supervisors, managers and HR officials in cities, counties, and states...
greenebarrett
- 4 min
THE ACADEMIC-GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS GAP
We spend a lot of time talking with government practitioners and a lot of time talking with academic researchers. We’ve often wondered...
greenebarrett
- 4 min
THE PERILS AND PRICE OF SPEEDY COMMUNICATIONS
We remember the exciting day when we bought our first IBM PC and a printer for $7,500 back in 1981. (Yes. You read that number right.) ...
greenebarrett
- 3 min
WANT TO WRITE SO THAT OTHERS CAN USE WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN? HERE’s YOUR CHANCE!
In 1799 when Napoleon was bearing down on Egypt a stone slab was discovered that came to be called the Rosetta Stone. It bore text in...
greenebarrett
- 5 min
WHY MANY STATE AND CITY RANKINGS DEFY REALITY
Back some years ago, when we first started to evaluate management capacity in states, counties, and cities for the now defunct Financial...
greenebarrett
- 3 min
TOO MUCH DATA – TOO LITTLE TIME
Typically, when we hear about a city or state choosing not to gather more potentially useful data because it’s too time consuming, we...
greenebarrett
- 3 min
FAILURE AS A KEY TO SUCCESS
We’ve just been catching up on one of our favorite podcasts, Freakonomics Radio, and came across a wonderful conversation with Samuel...
greenebarrett
- 3 min
TASK FORCES: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
A few weeks ago, we wrote an item for this website about the executive orders that were pouring out of the offices of the nine most...
greenebarrett
- 2 min
MOUSETRAPS FOR FLAWED DATA
It may seem a little heavy-handed, but for years now we’ve been writing about the endless reams of bad data that are used to manage and...
greenebarrett
- 3 min
DO YOU KNOW WHOSE ROAD YOU'RE ON?
Picture this: You’ve gotten off the interstate highway, and are trying to get to your destination of choice. Your car runs into a big...
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