Home of Dear Bureaucrat, the advice column for people who work in the public sector
Here are my slides on Annotated Work Instructions for the NECoPA conference at George Mason University on Nov 6
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0fUKRnu1oAhMlE3Qmc5dVhfOTA/view?usp=sharing
You can get more information about NECoPA at http://psc.gmu.edu/necopa/ and you can register for the conference at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/necopa-15-tickets-16515410036
In the tech industry, people speak of “10x” programmers, those who are ten times as productive as average. Who are the 10x public administrators?
The 10 is figurative, since there is no agreed-upon quantification of productivity in programming or public administration. And in both fields productivity includes creativity, rather than grinding through a set process. 10x is meaningful because it puts the focus on what a person can produce in practicing her craft, rather than the schools one graduated from, position in an organization’s hierarchy, years of experience, loyalty to a patron, etc.
One lesson from tech is that to see if someone is 10x, you have to Continue reading “10x Public Administrators”
Click for PDF, doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.1067.2803
Public administrators often pursue their public interest aspirations and personal aspirations by taking initiative independent of their supervisors. Rosemary O’Leary (2006) called this “guerrilla government”, and provided real-life examples ranging from whistleblowers to “a state department of transportation employee who repaired a train gate where children were playing against the wishes of his superior.” (O’Leary 2010, 12)
O’Leary examined such behavior as a predicament for supervisors—should they “nurture, tolerate, or terminate” their guerrilla employees? (2010, 8) But independent initiative is not only a predicament for supervisors, it is a vital part of the public administrator’s toolkit. Whistleblowing is one form of independent initiative, but Continue reading “Beyond Guerrilla Government: Intrapreneurs, Cuff Systems, Side Projects and Hacks”
