Round Up: The Clerk's Report, a New Community of Practice, Social Media, and more!

First, if the the column two weeks ago on the use of Twitter interested you, you may want to read this post about Governments Experimenting with Twitter c/o @davefleet. I also wanted to thank everyone who commented on it, Mike and I had an email exchange regarding the post and the comments but it was hardly rant worthy so I am not sure if sharing it will provide any value to the discussion. Let me know if you want me to post it and I will.


2 Important Reports, and a Video

The Clerk of the Privy Council released his 16th Annual Report to the PM. While I am reserving comment, others have not so feel free to check out some of the MSM coverage. I will say that I think that the best snippet is:

The business of government has become markedly more complex than in the past. Today, almost every department and agency must deal with global challenges, using new tools and asking people to work in new ways – in integrated teams, often across organizational boundaries.

Oh an while you are doing all of this reading, you mine as well also take in the Third Report of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service; or some newly minted Reports on Plans and Priorities to learn more about your department (or other departments).

I would also encourage you to watch this video that Doug found on the PCO website and head over to his blog to find some context, again I am reserving comment, but perhaps it has something to do with the hiring spree that I have heard so much about.


New Community of Practice

If you are interested in joining the new GoC Web Analytics Community of Practice there is some must read information here.


Social Media

This is a really neat piece on Social Media and History, maybe that is why the new UK primary curriculum requires children to master Twitter and Wikipedia.

Meanwhile, just to the south, the US Federal Government Signs Deal With YouTube, Flickr and Other Social Sites, and apparently are also rolling a Digg clone.


On Equity in the Public Service:

There are a couple of different sources saying that visible minorities making gains in public service and that the number of minorities in PS higher than reported. While others are reporting that there is something fishy with the data.


Letters

Here is a letter arguing that retired public servants have wisdom to offer and another arguing that Public servants should represent the ideals of a nation.

Cheers!

Update: Just wanted to share my deck from Friday

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to share the deck I used for my presentation on March 27th in Toronto to the National Managers Community, and thank everyone in attendance for the opportunity to talk to them.

Two things, the first is that some of my slides use some heavy animation so they don't translate to slideshare very well. So if you see something that looks like a bunch of overlapping graphics just ignore it for now. Second, imagine that these slides were projected onto a 25 foot screen behind me.

Without further ado, here is the deck:

Scheming Virtuously, March 27 NMC in Toronto

View more presentations from Nicholas Charney.

If you were in attendance on Friday, feel free to send me an email to follow up. But to be honest, you will probably get more out of reading the paper then just viewing the deck. If you haven't seen me deliver the presentation and are interested I am happy to try to help.

Cheers

Ps - If you haven't already read the Clerk's 16th Report, you can do so here.

Cpsrenewal.ca Weekly Column: Two Important Things to Public Servants

Although I have a whole slew of excuses for not writing a proper column this week (and a Google calendar and a loving wife that can back me up), I won't bother you with the details.

So, in lieu of providing you with a comprehensive article on a cutting edge issue, I would rather leave you with two short, but incredibly important things (selon-moi):

1. If you raise your hand (or voice) to complain, you'd better be willing to get off your ass to do something about it. Otherwise, I expect you to grin and bear it.
2. If you aren't willing to accept and celebrate small successes, then you will be met with nothing but large scale failure.

See you in Toronto today.