Blog
Friday, October 30, 2009
Yesterday I highlighted Jeff Zients’ testimony before the Senate Budget Committee’s Task Force on Government Performance. But there were two other witnesses who provided some interesting insights, and Senator Mark Warner offered a glimpse of where the...
Thursday, October 29, 2009
OMB Chief Performance Office Jeff Zients testified today before the Senate Budget Committee’s new Task Force on Government Performance. He laid out a set of five key principles OMB will follow in developing a governmentwide performance management system.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
OMB yesterday released its latest guidance on federal acquisition. This new guidance, Increasing Competition and Structuring Contracts for the Best Results, provides guidelines for agencies to move to more competitive and lower risk types of contracts,..
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Noted business author Tom Davenport has an article, “Make Better Decisions,” in the November issue of Harvard Business Review . He describes the prevalence, in the business world, of what he calls “decision-making disorder,” but this also has real applic
Monday, October 26, 2009
This past summer the spectacle of unruly congressional town hall meetings on health care reform played across the media. Separately, the Obama Administration has been working on an on-line approach for greater citizen engagement but found some citizen...
Friday, October 23, 2009
The Senate Budget Committee has created a new Task Force on Government Performance, according to a press release issued this morning. To be led by Senator Mark Warner, the task force “will examine the federal government’s management framework and identif
Thursday, October 22, 2009
WFED’s Jason Miller reports that the Office of Management and Budget wants to change its stripes and “move away from command and control toward a focus on collaboration.” The old National Performance Review tried do this and failed. At the time, NPR’s...
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Obama Administration is stepping up its efforts to solicit ideas from employees. In its first big effort, the SAVE Award (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency), the Office of Management and Budget encouraged employees to submit cost savings ideas.
Friday, October 16, 2009
The issue of poor performers is a perennial topic. This topic seems to continually top the list of issues the President’s Management Council – comprised of deputy secretaries – wants to address by streamlining the rules. But a new report by the Merit...
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Recovery Act guidance from OMB requires agencies to identify the risk associated with each program and develop a plan of action to reduce such risks. After all, if a program gets 3,100 % increase in funding, like the home weatherization program did,...