The New Bureaucrat

John Bernard

The New Bureaucrat, is a serious – and sometimes not so serious – look at the inside job of transforming government. You will meet and get to know people, people like you, people who are changing how government works. We’ll talk about the struggle, the obstacles, the commitment it takes to persist. The New Bureaucrats have one thing in common, they are focused on results. Demonstrable, measurable results. Results that matter. And all of them are successfully applying business concepts, tools, and methods -- to the work government. The host, John M. Bernard, is the author of GOVERNMENT THAT WORKS, THE RESULTS REVOLUTION IN THE STATES. read less

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The New Bureaucrat, is a serious – and sometimes not so serious – look at the inside job of transforming government. You will meet and get to know people, people like you, people who are changing government. I will get inside their heads to understand what they are thinking. And I will get inside their hearts, and understand what drives them. We’ll talk about the struggle, the obstacles, the commitment it takes to persist. The New Bureaucrats have one thing in common, they are focused on results. Demonstrable, measurable results. Results that matter. And all of them are successfully applying business concepts, tools, and methods -- to the work government.

Episodes

J. Chris Bernard – Childhood Hunger, A Solvable Problem?

J. Chris Bernard – Childhood Hunger, A Solvable Problem?

J. Chris Bernard is passionate about ending child hunger in Oklahoma. The state is committed to leveraging the power of collaboration to solve hunger in Oklahoma by improving systems, policies, and practices. Chris believes that as a nation we have both the food and the money already available, but the challenge is coordinating all the pieces. Learn more about the Masterclass for Results-Driven State Government.

David Kilgore – On Being Approachable

David Kilgore – On Being Approachable

David Kilgore is a communicator. In leading his 600+ employees he spends a lot of time breaking down walls because he believes it is important to enjoy work while acknowledging the impact it has on the children and families of California. As the leader of the California Department of Child Support Services, he doesn’t hesitate to jump into a project, roll up his sleeves and work side-by-side with people at all levels of the organization. Learn more about John's MasterClass.

Bekah Christensen – Unleashing Innovation

Bekah Christensen – Unleashing Innovation

Innovation is key to state government, and California's model program, Innovation Playbook for Government Change Agents (Cal-IPGCA), is entering its 10th year. Program Chair and IPGCA founder Bekah Christensen leads the state-funded immersive experiential learning environment where trainees re-imagine enterprise-wide challenges from a whole-systems perspective and unlock elegant, innovative solutions. She's is an inspiring character in so many ways! Click this link to learn more about my MasterClass.

Justin Brown – Transformation and Poverty

Justin Brown – Transformation and Poverty

Justin Brown is an energetic, passionate innovator focused on going at the root causes of poverty. A former CEO, Justin fully recognizes new ambitions demand new capabilities and new investments in the organization. He has concluded that poverty is the root cause of many of the struggles people in his state face, and addressing it has will have significant downstream impact on the human services needed. Learn more about my MasterClass.

Kathleen Webb - From Theory to Practice at Cal DMV

Kathleen Webb - From Theory to Practice at Cal DMV

Kathleen Webb has gone from theory to practice, moving from her role as Director of Performance Improvement for the California Government Operations Agency to the state’s DMV as its Chief Deputy Director. Serving 50,000 customers the DMV was infamous for stories of day-long lines, although a strike team learned that 16% of all customers waited more than 2 hours. Today, the average wait time in 20 minutes, and it’s only going to get better. Learn more about John's Masterclass.

ECOS – Live podcast about podcasting

ECOS – Live podcast about podcasting

The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) held a session on using podcast to help tell the story of the work states are doing on the environment -- and we recorded the virtual session live as a podcast! Why not! Join me with along with Pat McDonnell, ECOS 2021 president and secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection along with Misael Cabrera, director of Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality

Doug Robinson – The Agile State CIO

Doug Robinson – The Agile State CIO

Technology during the pandemic enabled everything from working at home to vaccine distribution to rapid application of intelligent “bots” to help speed service to citizens in need. But with the escalating citizen needs of the future and the limited resources CIOs will need to increasingly agile. Check out NASCIO’s annual CIO survey. Check out my special MasterClass Offering for Team Managers.

Patrick McDonnell – The Power of Sharing Knowledge

Patrick McDonnell – The Power of Sharing Knowledge

The Environmental Council of the States is doing what the founding fathers dreamed of, making sure the collective learning of the 50 states gets shared. Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Patrick McDonnell serves as the 2021 president of the council of his peers, an organization with a long reputation for collective learning. On this episode, he shares how the council has earned its reputation.

Governor Chris Gregoire – Getting government focused on results

Governor Chris Gregoire – Getting government focused on results

Driven to spend her life making a difference, former Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire started life from humble beginnings and went on to impact tens of millions of lives not only in her home state, but across the nation. During her two terms as governor she was constantly seeking facts and drove results across state agencies through routine business reviews that dug into problems.

Misael Cabrera – The urgent need for excellence in government

Misael Cabrera – The urgent need for excellence in government

Arizona Dept of Environmental Quality has dramatically increased environmental outcomes, delivered award-winning online services, and kept agency costs flat because of a deep commitment to implementing Lean. Misael Cabrera, joined in 2011 as deputy director, became director in 2015, and has been instrumental in the success of Governor Doug Ducey’s national model the Arizona Management System. Passionate and articulate, Misael believes that excellence is every public servant's calling, and that excellence must be measurable to be real.

Bryan Snoddy – Civil Rights: Listening to the voices of the unheard

Bryan Snoddy – Civil Rights: Listening to the voices of the unheard

In the Air Force Bryan Snoddy picked up a passion for process, emerging from law school and ending up in state service in Texas, he works to take his team’s influence beyond processing complaints to changing the conversation. His vision is that the diverse voices of Texas get heard and respected by all. It’s a tall order but Bryan’s commitment is unwavering.

Henry Darwin – Leading Lean from the Top at the EPA

Henry Darwin – Leading Lean from the Top at the EPA

Henry Darwin, Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, tells his story of implementing Lean first in the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, then statewide for the Governor of Arizona, and currently for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Henry’s experience has given him a deep set of beliefs about the work of leadership in Lean-based performance transformation.

Dr. Joseph Bernard – 2020 election stress relief

Dr. Joseph Bernard – 2020 election stress relief

As our cities and nation’s capital are being boarded up for fear of violent reaction to the election, so many people are feeling the stress that experts have named it “election stress disorder.” Dr. Joseph Bernard walks through the impacts of election stress and solutions for how to process it in healthy and healing ways.

Butch Eley – Healthy people and healthy businesses

Butch Eley – Healthy people and healthy businesses

Butch Eley, Commissioner, Department for Finance and Administration, under Governor Bill Lee of the State of Tennessee, shares how the state has worked across its 95 counties to strike the right balance for protecting the health of the state’s people and the source of their livelihoods, the state’s businesses.

Adam C. Jarvis – Putting the customer front and center

Adam C. Jarvis – Putting the customer front and center

Adam C. Jarvis, Deputy Director of Governor Bill Lee’s Office of Customer Focused Government, is passionate about the inspiration that comes from being focused on seeing citizens who receive services from the state as customers. His job is to help bring that thinking to state government employees delivering the best possible service at the lowest possible cost. This has driven more services online including building an app for phones called “My Tennessee” where citizens can go to do what they need to do to work with the state. Learn more about the MasterClass.

Paul Mounds, Jr. – How people have stepped up to fight Covid-19

Paul Mounds, Jr. – How people have stepped up to fight Covid-19

Paul, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont’s Chief of Staff, stepped into the role a week before the pandemic arrived in his state. While just prior to the new role he was serving the Governor as Chief Operating Officer, Paul stepped off the ledge into the complexity of leading the most challenging health crisis in a century. What has surprised him the most is how everyone has stepped up, citizens, state and local government staff, and state leaders in neighboring states (New York and New Jersey, specifically). Paul talks openly about the need to pay attention to the mental health toll all the work, stress and uncertainty is having on people in government.

Drew Erdmann – Transformation in a time of great challenge

Drew Erdmann – Transformation in a time of great challenge

Drew, Missouri’s Chief Operating Officer, shares the stories of how earlier investments in leadership and management have accelerated the state’s ability to move quickly to address the challenges of the pandemic. Missouri started in 2017 on a series of cross-departmental initiatives in addition to large-scale engagements in management development. The skills, the tools, the approaches and the passion generated has enabled the rapid acceleration of changes demanded by COVID-19.

Kristen Cox – TOC: Which problems to ignore and which problems matter

Kristen Cox – TOC: Which problems to ignore and which problems matter

Kristen has built a reputation as a remarkably clear thinker. She articulates a way of solving problems that drives to the core of the problem based on the Theory of Constraints. Blind her entire adult life, that has never stopped Kristen from being visionary. Checkout her book, Stop Decorating the Fish, Which Problems to Ignore and which Problems Matter.

Joe Raasch -- Solve Problems, Don't Preach Lean

Joe Raasch -- Solve Problems, Don't Preach Lean

Minnesota State Government doesn’t have to worry when its director of the state’s Office of Continuous Improvement shows up at any one of its 24 cabinet-level agencies. Joe Raasch believes in solving problems as the most powerful way to make Lean valuable. So when he comes to visit, he’s there to help solve department problems on the ground not on a soap box.

Black Man/White Man, A Conversation

Black Man/White Man, A Conversation

Dr. Brown is an African American man with a highly integrated life history. I grew up in all-white Milwaukie, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. This is a conversation between one black man and one white man about the challenges we face today in this nation. Challenges that don’t have to divide us, but challenges we do need to talk about.