On Improving Government Performance

Michelle Sager is the Managing Director of the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) Strategic Issues team. She oversees work on government-wide governance, strategy, performance, and resource issues—including the High-Risk program and the annual Duplication, Overlap and Fragmentation reports. 

Overseeing Crosscutting Governance Issues: A Conversation with Michelle Sager, Managing Director, Strategic Issues Team, GAO

What is the mission of the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) Strategic Issues team? What is the goal of GAO’s High-Risk Series? What are the fiscal, management and performance challenges facing today’s government executive? Join host Michael Keegan as he explores these questions and more with Michelle Sager, Managing Director GAO's Strategic Issues team.
Broadcast Date: 
Monday, January 9, 2023 - 10:39

Weekly Roundup January 2-6, 2023

How Should Government Regulate AI? We Asked a Robot. Artificial intelligence's potential in the public sector has grown exponentially, as have questions around appropriate guardrails. This article links to an interviewed of the ChatGPT chatbot from OpenAI to see what it had to say.

NEW REPORT: Addressing Complex and Cross-Boundary Challenges in Government

These types of challenges run the gamut from the pandemic to economic dislocation, homelessness, and natural and manmade disasters. These major crises have complex causes, and the resources needed to properly address them often transcend the capacity of any single government agency. Addressing these challenges effectively requires what the National Academy of Public Administration calls “new approaches to public governance and engagement.” Such approaches necessitate collaboration or co-alignment across the efforts of multiple organizations.

Weekly Roundup December 4-9, 2022

Senate passed bill to 'stop the government speak' in agency documents. The Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan bill to override an existing law and update requirements for government agencies to write communications in easy-to-understand language. Specifically, the Clear and Concise Content Act, backed by Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chair Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Sen.

Delivering Innovative IT Solutions to Meet Mission

"The CIO's office is growing" explains Bob Costello, chief information officer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) "…We're pivoting from more of a compliance-CIO shop to an operational shop, where we're still doing that very important compliance mission, but starting to deliver services and become a true partner to the mission operators in making sure they have those solutions to interact with our partners."

Weekly Roundup November 28-December 2, 2022

Year two of the PMA; Cyber advice for Pentagon leaders; A plan for zero-emission vehicles by 2027. NEW: Academy President & CEO Terry Gerton talks with @FRoseDC on @DailyScoopPod about the progress #government has made implementing the President's Management Agenda, and what comes next. Tune in! #PMA #management

Weekly Roundup November 14-18, 2022

Biden’s Nominee to Become Administrator of Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Goes to the Full Senate. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee reported favorably out of committee Richard Revesz’s nomination to be administrator of OIRA, which oversees the regulatory process across the government, approves government information collections, establishes government statistical practices and coordinates federal privacy policy.

Weekly Roundup November 7-11, 2022

Enhancing the FITARA scorecard. Opportunities exist to enhance the FITARA scorecard to ensure its continued relevance and to keep pace with technology changes. This year, ACT-IAC created a working group of former federal technology leaders, all now successful industry executives, to evaluate the FITARA Scorecard and identify potential enhancements to ensure its relevancy and to keep pace with technology changes.

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Leadership Fellow & Host, The Business of Government Hour
IBM Center for The Business of Government
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Michael has two decades of experience with both the private and public sectors encompassing strategic planning, business process redesign, strategic communications and marketing, performance management, change management, executive and team coaching, and risk-financing.

Michael leads the IBM Center for The Business of Government's leadership research. As the Center’s Leadership Fellow, his work is at the nexus of the Center’s mission – connecting research to practice. My work at that the Center complements frontline experience of actual government executives with practical insights from thought leaders who produce Center reports – merging real-world experience with practical scholarship. The purpose is not to offer definitive solutions to the many management challenges facing executives, but to provide a resource from which to draw practical, actionable recommendations on how best to confront such issues. Michael also hosts and produces the IBM Center’s The Business of Government Hour. He has interviewed and profiled hundreds of senior government executives from all levels of government as well as recognized thought leaders focusing on a range of public management issues and trends. Over the last four years, Michael has expanded both the show’s format and reach – now broadcasting informational and educational conversations with dedicated public servants on two radio stations five times a week and anywhere at anytime over the web and at iTunes. Michael is also the managing editor of The Business of Government magazine, with a targeted audience of close to 14,000 government and non-government professionals. Additionally, he manages the Center’s bi-annual proposal review process that awards stipends to independent, third party researchers tackling a wide range of public management issues.

Prior to joining the Center, Michael worked as a senior managing consultant with IBM GBS (Global Business Services) and as a principle consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ Washington Consulting Practice (WCP). He led projects in the private and federal civilian sectors including the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, FEMA, and the Veterans Health Administration. Before entering consulting, he worked in the private sector as product development manager at a New York City based risk financing firm.

Since 2003, Mr. Keegan has been a reviewer for Association of Government Accountant’s Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting (CEAR)© program, keeping abreast of the most recent developments in authoritative standards affecting federal accounting, financial reporting and performance measurement. He is also a member of APPAM, the NYU Alumni Association, and the Data Center & Cloud Talent, USA. He holds masters in public administration and management from New York University and was the founder of its DC alumni group as well as previous treasurer of the NYU graduate school’s alumni board.