Newsletter - February 2025

I spent the bulk of my career improving quality and efficiency for a wide range of industries and functional areas. For that reason, the formation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) hits close to home.

I have seen and been a part of many successful quality improvement efforts, and have also seen and been a part of some woeful failures. Successful quality improvement efforts reduce waste and cost, while also increasing customer satisfaction. Experience has shown it's a tricky balance.

There is little debate that our government is living well beyond its means, as evidenced by the huge budget deficits we accrue on an annual basis. Meaningful cost reductions, driven by well-executed efficiency improvements, would be hugely beneficial. In a best-case scenario, efficiency improvements could eliminate as much as 60% of our annual budget deficit! Unfortunately, most efficiency or operational excellence efforts fall far short of this best-case scenario, and many ultimately increase cost and/or reduce the quality of goods and services provided to customers.

I've found that the most successful efficiency improvement efforts involve a systematic approach, where operational processes are thoroughly observed and analyzed, leveraging the expertise of those doing the work. It is also important to engage customers in these efforts to ensure their expectations are taken into account. Working with employees and customers helps "efficiency experts" resist the temptation to jump to conclusions, and prevents them from making impulsive changes that can lead to unintended outcomes.

We are the primary "customers," or benefactors, of our government and its services, so it's reasonable to expect that resulting efficiency improvements should increase our satisfaction.

I have no doubt that the Department of Government Efficiency will provide taxpayers with significant short-term savings, however, the long-term impact of their actions remains to be seen.

This recent article from The Fulcrum puts the work of DOGE into perspective and highlights some of the challenges they'll have in achieving meaningful and lasting efficiency improvements.

I am paying very close attention to the work of DOGE, and I strongly encourage others to do the same.

Here are some related resources on this topic:

• Federal spending and budget deficit

• Executive order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency

• Typical savings from Improving Operational Efficiency

• Efficiency vs. Quality

• Ten Reasons Operational Excellence Deployments Fail

• Five Mistakes to Avoid When Implementing Operational Efficiency

• Cost Cutting that Makes You Stronger

• What is Lean Sigma? Definition and Benefits

• Six Sigma and Process Improvement in Government

• Working Smart for Environmental Protection

• Improving Service Delivery in Government with Lean Six Sigma

• Transforming Government Performance through Lean Management

• Iowa Division of Data, Planning, and Improvement

• Lean Six Sigma Methodology Helps Save City $3 million in Costs

Have a great month!

Newsletter - January 2025

Happy New Year. I hope you and your family had a great holiday season. My thoughts and prayers to those that have been impacted by the horrible fires in Los Angeles.

This month's newsletter focuses on fact checking and misinformation.

Meta's recent decision to shelve its fact-checking program in favor of a "community notes" approach is a nod to free speech advocates and a nod to the current political climate. As a result, it puts more onus on users to check the veracity of posts on their own.

Here is a link to Meta's release that describes their planned change.

This article from Meta describes their discontinued fact-checking program. Key points:

• Their fact checkers were independent and certified

• Their fact checking program was independent from their community standards policy

• Meta had historically been a huge contributor to global fact-checking programs

• Although Meta previously boasted of a very robust fact-checking program, this 2020 article in the Columbia Journalism Review reinforced that fact-checking was never a panacea to the large-scale problems of misinformation on social media.

My primary concern with social media platforms moving to a community notes approach to flagging questionable content, is that social media algorithms tend to amplify and move some of the most controversial and provocative posts to our feeds. They can do this with limited fear of liability due to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. If controversial and potentially false information is going to be directed to us by the social media companies, then I believe they have some responsibility to help us identify false or erroneous information.

Regardless, it will always be a matter of individual responsibility to check the truthfulness of information we receive. However, checking the truthfulness of information can be challenging and time consuming.

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) poses additional challenges, but may also present opportunities. According to Jieun Shin, Assistant Professor, Media Production, Management, and Technology at the University of Florida, "AI tools make it easy for anyone to create fake images and news that are hard to distinguish from accurate information. From elections to wars, those with ill intentions can mass-produce and disseminate propaganda on social media."

I was curious whether AI could help empower each of us to be better fact checkers.

AI is increasingly being utilized by search engines to help summarize and distill information for us. The link I shared above about Section 230 includes an excellently produced AI summary provided by Google Chrome.

The development of advanced AI tools to make it easier to fact check information is still in the early development phase. Here are links to three articles I found on leveraging AI to help us with fact-checking:

• How close are we to an accurate AI fake news detector?

• 13 AI-Powered Tools for Fighting Fake News

• Stopping AI disinformation: Protecting truth in the digital world

Although advanced AI fact checking tools are not yet available, there are a number of free resources available to increase media literacy. Here are two resources I shared last September:

• Poynter's "Find Facts Fast" media literacy course

• Info from Temple University on how to identify and avoid false information

Ensuring voters have access to accurate and unbiased information is one of my most critical good government principles. Last March's newsletter, provides more information on this principle.

I will continue to closely monitor and share new fact-checking tools and resources in my posts and newsletters.

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Social media posts - in case you missed it:

• PolitiFact Daily on Civil Discourse

• Braver Angels - Managing Feelings and Relationships

• Ripon Society - Toxic Polarization

• Problem Solvers Caucus continues its work in the 119th Congress

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As the new administration and Congress embarks on their work, I am continuing to talk to other good government organizations to see how their work is changing, and I will continue to share work that supports my good government principles and will continue to promote collaboration and synergies to increase the effectiveness and impact of this work.

Have a great month.

Allan

How to Keep Politics Talks Civil and Productive

Here are four expert tips for keeping politics talks civil and productive. This comes from the PolitiFact Daily on November 27, 2024.

1. Set clear intentions

2. Engage in active listening

3. Be curious

4. Avoid making assumptions

Note that these tips can also be applied to any contentious topic. Also note that it's perfectly okay and sometimes better to walk away rather than creating a toxic situation that could lead to hard feelings and permanently harm important relationships.

Here's a link to the entire article.