Insights

Contributors
Design (re)Thinking with the Mission in Mind

Design (re)Thinking with the Mission in Mind

In the past several years, Design Thinking has become a prominent technique to solve complex challenges in Government. Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to problem solving where empathy is a key principle, and where we strive to understand stakeholders’ goals, ambitions, motivations, needs, desires, and frustrations. It provides a structured, yet iterative and flexible process to create alternatives, and identify and then implement new ways of working to achieve mission goals.

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Arc Aspicio
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Boosting Customer Experience with Customer Data

Boosting Customer Experience with Customer Data

Collecting and analyzing Customer Data is an essential element of Customer Experience. However, using Customer Data to tailor and improve a Customer’s experience is a tricky scenario to get just right. Using too much data, or too personal of data, can make a customer uncomfortable and turned off. Suggesting a related product or service or offering help, in an authentic way, can make for a delighted customer.

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Rob O'Keefe
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Entrepreneurial Consultants in a Hybrid World – Our New Normal

Entrepreneurial Consultants in a Hybrid World – Our New Normal

In some ways, consultants have always operated in a hybrid world – working at their client sites throughout the week and then coming together with their colleagues in the office or on the phone. Since the pandemic, this has gotten even more complicated with multiple online platforms for day-to-day work, workshops, and conferences.

Thriving in this new hybrid model does not just happen – it requires clear leadership direction, investment in a collaborative culture, new soft skills in relationship building, and a workforce that desires to reach out and connect to tackle new projects and challenges.

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Lynn Ann Casey
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The SILab Transportation Security Innovation Contest: Keep Calm and Carry On:

The SILab Transportation Security Innovation Contest: Keep Calm and Carry On:

Many government agencies are adapting their responses to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), in particular, had to adapt to vetting passengers through checkpoints in a safe, effective way. Fast, practical innovation alongside the necessity for the creation of long-term solutions was critical for the agency as passenger volume increased steadily.

TSA faced a critical problem: ensuring the safety of airline passengers and Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) while prioritizing safety and security. The TSA Innovation Task Force issued a call for white papers on Innovation Demonstrations for Enterprise Advancement, focusing on solutions for safe-distance screening and reducing the spread of infectious diseases.

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Arc Aspicio
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Addressing Misconduct: Building Professional Responsibility Functions in Government

Addressing Misconduct: Building Professional Responsibility Functions in Government

Agencies are staying at the forefront of supporting their workforces by enhancing their focus on professional responsibility – the discipline of proactively reducing misconduct and harassment throughout the workforce. Focusing on addressing and even preventing misconduct and harassment – as a standalone office reporting to an agency head or as a critical function within an existing independent office – is important to the workforce and helps agencies carry out their mission more effectively. It helps agencies earn and maintain a reputation of integrity and trust from the public.

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Arc Aspicio
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What Lies Ahead: Ten Risks for the Next Ten Years

What Lies Ahead: Ten Risks for the Next Ten Years

While some days, it seems impossible to focus on any threats other than the vulnerabilities and accompanying hardship of the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that senior Government leaders take a more strategic and long-term view of all potential threats over the next four to ten years. These are threats that we can only imagine, beyond today’s reach and capabilities, but nonetheless plausible from those who intend to do us harm or from potential threats that natural or man-made catastrophes can cause. Once senior leaders are aware of the threats, they must prioritize them and make choices about where to invest in preparation and prevention.

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Arc Aspicio
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SILab Ideas: Process and Tools for Improving Organizations

SILab Ideas: Process and Tools for Improving Organizations

A great customer experience (CX) depends on efficient, compelling processes. Process improvement sounds simple enough – just identify a few bottlenecks or weak points, reroute processes, teach the new processes to your employees, and congratulate yourself on a job well done. Right?

Process improvement rarely goes this smoothly and they can be particularly difficult for the Federal Government because the size and complexities of the programs leads to processes that become firmly ingrained in day-to-day work and culture. To get it right, the Government must recognize their weak spots and develop a plan that integrates process improvement with their strategy and with organization change management techniques.

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SILab
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Enhancing Customer Experience (CX) with Behavioral Science and Strategic Communications

Enhancing Customer Experience (CX) with Behavioral Science and Strategic Communications

Citizens and customers of the government are demanding increased access to more efficient services. Covid-19 has also raised the bar on the need to provide accurate and informative data – in visualizations – to citizens who are becoming savvier about data accuracy and usefulness. Strategic communications are an essential part of raising the bar on customer experience (CX).

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SILab
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Government Innovation Is All About the Mission

Government Innovation Is All About the Mission

When people hear the word ‘innovation’ today, they often think of high-profile digital startups in Silicon Valley, impressive advances in medicine, or new tools and techniques for remote collaboration and social interaction. Private-sector organizations, with their leadership in these areas, have set a high bar for Government organizations to aspire to. So, what does innovation really mean for the Government? How can it harness the ideas in its workforce to bring innovation to life?

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Robert Thomas
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Applying Artificial Intelligence in the Government

Applying Artificial Intelligence in the Government

In recent years, government agencies have been transitioning to artificial intelligence (AI) for more efficient, accurate, and cost-friendly results. This trend will continue as technology improves and becomes more accessible and cost effective. Technology using AI, including tools that exploit data, is integral to solutions that improve agency operations and processes and data-driven decision-making.

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Arc Aspicio
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Arc Aspicio Achieves Appraisal at CMMI-Services Maturity Level 3

Arc Aspicio Achieves Appraisal at CMMI-Services Maturity Level 3

Arc Aspicio recently achieved a Capability Maturity Model Integration Services (CMMI-SVC) Level 3 Certification on October 21, 2020. CMMI is a Model that is used to guide process improvement across projects, divisions, and organizations, from Carnegie Mellon University’s CMMI Institute.

Arc Aspicio uses CMMI, a process level improvement training and appraisal program recognized for Government and commercial clients, as an indicator of high quality performance. Arc Aspicio acquired an appraisal that indicates that the company is performing at maturity Level 3 ‘defined’.

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Arc Aspicio
Arc Aspicio Continues Strategic Conversations to Counter Human Trafficking

Arc Aspicio Continues Strategic Conversations to Counter Human Trafficking

In 2020, as the 20-year anniversary of the Trafficking in Persons Act closes, Arc Aspicio commits to ongoing strategic conversations to counter human trafficking in 2021.

In November 2019, facilitators from Arc Aspicio’s Strategy Innovation Lab (SILab) and from across the Government led a conversation with a group of 30 human trafficking professionals with experience in Federal and local law enforcement, victim service advocates and providers in Government and non-profit organizations, academia, private sector, and a human trafficking survivor. This strategic conversation centered around the trends in human trafficking – both to combat it and to prevent victimization now and in the future.

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Arc Aspicio