[Note: The first one to correctly identify where the quoted phrase comes from wins a copy of Steve Kelman's new book: Unleashing Change: A Study of Organizational Renewal in Government -- a book that's right on for the issues we've been pursuing. (I have side bets on the demographics of the winner…)]

...We had a really successful session this week on designing and implementing cross-boundary initiatives. Presenters/ presentations included:

1. Ron Rosenthal, who directs the US Navy's $1 billion SAP implementation for 500k users

2. Scott Campbell, past CIO of both Ontario and British Columbia, on Ontario's e-health initiatives, including the implementation of a common electronic medical record (lessons here for David Brailer's NHIN initiative)

3. Marty Wagner, who makes the rules for GSA's procurement efforts on behalf of one out of every three US federal employees

4. Oakland County Michigan's CIO Phil Bertolini and PMO head Janette McKenzie, on the free wifi blanket they are deploying in their jurisdiction, where one out of eight Michigan citizens live.

5. Jaques Dube, Deputy Minister in New Brunswick and the president of Service New Brunswick, the province's single window services approach that combines a new organization and funding model with an infrastructure serving walk-in, call-in, and over-the-Internet service transactions

6. Corinne Brody, who is leading a county-wide performance management system (dashboard) deployment in Dade County, Florida

7. Ivar Tallo, Director of Estonia's E-Governance Academy; Estonia's efforts are widely recognized as a global model for cross-boundary e-gov services

... And others including Gopal Kapur, Al Essa, and Warren McFarlan (with his 40-year perspective on what's changed and not change in the arena of leadership challenges).

At the Harvard Policy Group meeting that followed, we also previewed preliminary materials for a multi-media KSG case featuring Michigan CIO Teri Takai on economic development efforts there, and heard from NYC DoITT Department head Gino Menchini on some of his challenges...

The big theme as we continue into various cross-boundary futures: that our critical challenge remains judgment and leadership on the people/political dimensions of what we're doing.

Emerging from this, the project we're organizing for our November 15-16 session focuses on how political leaders (elected and otherwise) see these issues and make the judgments required for success.