B&G REPORT.

There are certainly justifiable reasons to be concerned about the far-reaching ramifications of artificial intelligence. Nobody really knows for sure its impact on the workplace. And in the absence of guarantees that the benefits will outweigh the flaws, fear runs rampant. But when we talk with friends about AI, they forget that this isn’t the first technology to conjure up fear and loathing. In fact, historically almost every new scientific advance has led to public concern,

Not long ago we were at a presentation by an academic about a topic that was of genuine interest to us. As is often the case, she had many interesting slides, showing all of the data she had gathered over months of research.   But when one of the members of the audience inquired about the meaning behind the data, her answer was simple. “I don’t know. I only know the numbers.”   This was frustrating to us, and we suspect other folks in the audience. But it’s been our experienc

For some years now, when driving on busy highways there are inevitable moments when we need to merge to a right-hand lane to easily get off at our exit. Maybe there’s a touch of paranoia here, but it feels to us that as soon as we signal to move from our lane to the right, the car on the other lane seems to speed up and not slow down. Our trick – and this works much of the time – is to have the one of us in the passenger seat open the window and put out a hand to signal our i

Late last year, Bill Eggers, executive director of Deloitte's Center for Government Insights, wrote on LinkedIn that "Over my decades working on government reform, my one major complaint has always been that think tanks have focused so much time and resources on policy and too little on policy execution and the nitty-gritty of government operations He was playing our song, and we’d like to add that we find the same unfortunate phenomenon doesn’t just exist in think tanks but

Last Tuesday in our Management Update Section, we announced the publication of a study titled “2025 State and Local Workforce Survey...

Over the course of years, we’ve come to rely on a number of organizations that specialize in various aspects of state and local...

For some time, we’ve been fascinated by the relationship between executive branch managers and their legislatures or city councils. Not...

We’ve never really understood the way horoscopes work. How can it be that if someone is born a minute after midnight on October 24th,...

Many states, counties and city leaders are regularly raging against “fraud, waste and abuse.” This is hardly a new issue but inspired by...

Today is the first day of Public Service Recognition Week and since much of our readership is made up by people who have devoted their...

We’re looking forward to participating in a panel at the upcoming annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration...

We were involved in a meeting the other day, in which a couple of participants were talking about agile government. We hear that term...

In conversations that we’ve had lately with people in human resources and elsewhere in government, we’ve found ourselves repeatedly...

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...

About a year ago, we wrote a B&G report titled “ Is Speedy Government Good Government? ” in which we made the case that the pressure for...

There are all kinds of variations on the theme of the three big lies that people tell in the normal course of day-to-day life. One of our...

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...

Employee surveys can provide extremely valuable information for supervisors, managers and HR officials in cities, counties, and states...

Over the years, we’ve chatted with high school and college students about the potential of careers working for state and local...

by Dr. Ellen Harpel, Founder of Smart Incentives and Randall Bauer, Director, PFM Group Consulting ​ Randall Bauer Ellen Harpel As...