Consulting Project Management: Strategy & Tactics
When I started my first professional job in Spring 2012, I had no idea that Project Management was an entire industry with certifications, academic literature, and week-long seminars. I was fortunate (or not so fortunate) to never receive this training, and instead developed an approach through trial and error, and lots of great advice and…
Equity in Capital Improvement Planning Processes
This white paper was a collaboration between myself, as primary writer and researcher, and Matt Stitt and Mike Nadol as editors and contributors. It was created as part of PFM’s work in the Bloomberg Results for America City Budgeting for Equity and Recovery program in 2021. The fully designed PDF can be viewed here. Why…
How to change behavior in advocacy campaigns
This post is a summary of work and ideas developed for a foundation in Southeastern Pennsylvania while I was employed at Message Agency in 2019. Part of my role was to conduct secondary research on models of behavior change to use in our strategy for engaging the local community. How does behavior change happen? One…
Strategies for Engaging Governments
This post was inspired by Mr. Timothy Richards, who I had the pleasure of studying under while attending the University of Pennsylvania. His graduate-level course, “Strategic Engagement with Governments,” was among my favorite I’ve taken at any academic level. Government is good I don’t think Gordon Gecko would ever say it, but even he would…
Understanding Strategy vs. Tactics
This post was inspired by Mr. Timothy Richards, who I had the pleasure of studying under while attending the University of Pennsylvania. His graduate-level course, “Strategic Engagement with Governments,” was among my favorite I’ve taken at any academic level. Whether you are reading about sport, politics, movement building, or are just mindlessly scrolling your social…
Smarter Government: Why the best strategy for governing fails
What is Smarter Government? Governor Martin O’Malley wrote Smarter Government in collaboration with ESRI in November 2019 as a capstone on his political experience. In it, Mr. O’Malley outlines his career-long pursuit of more effective government through “Stat” programs. He was initially inspired by Jack Maple and his CompStat program in New York City’s Police…
Kotter’s Model: How a change management approach improves digital projects
This post was originally written in September 2019 for the Message Agency blog. Digital projects usually seek to both decrease costs and increase efficiency through the use of technology. If the choice was “either-or,” these projects might not be as attractive to decision-makers. Most want to understand the “both-and” proposition. John Kotter spent nearly three…
Using geometry to build better strategies
This post was originally written in November 2019 for the Message Agency blog. For nearly three decades, consultant Dr. Robert W. Keidel has been asking his Fortune 500 clients somewhat of an odd question: “Is your team playing baseball, football, or basketball?” Dr. Keidel’s research revolves around strategies for organizations and how employees work together.…
Joe Buckshon 