Reader, here's what's happening in the world of government this week

• Improve your next meeting with one of these five icebreakers

• Learn the simple technique you can use to make AI more reliable

• Read about the moral support goat helping to combat a wildfire

Hot topic: great meetings and how to run them

ARTICLE

5 icebreaker themes for high-performance teams

A great meeting gets everyone engaged and thinking creatively. Try these icebreakers to spark interest, inclusion and participation.

EVENT

How to Be a Great Facilitator

🗓️ Tue 23 Jul
In less time than a typical meeting, you'll learn how to set direction, guide discussions and close them with clear decisions and next steps.

ARTICLE

The Art of Running Effective Meetings in Government

Lessons for Public Servants and Leaders

— Abdirashid Ibrahim, Former Director General

30%

of public servants wish they could borrow the playbooks of other government teams, according to Apolitical's recent poll.

THIS WEEK'S POLL

What's your meeting superpower?

New on AI in government

ARTICLE

A Simple Way to Make AI More Reliable

As organizations increasingly use AI, the real challenge is knowing when its answers can be trusted. Enter the tweedledumming technique. 

— Basil White, Senior Informaticist at USDA & Beth A. Martin, Branch Chief at Federal Innovation Council, USA

GOVERNMENT AI NAVIGATOR

How AI is improving health outcomes

Connect with the public servants behind an innovative AI-enabled system that automates phone calls to patients and flags early warning signs to healthcare teams.

— Jaime Álvarez González, Municipalidad de Renca, Chile

EVENT

Hacks for Working With Gemini

🗓️ Wed 5 Aug
Led by experts delivering AI solutions, this session explores Gemini’s most useful features for public sector work.

🌱 Take the resilience survey

Apolitical is running a short survey on how ready public servants feel for major disruptions, from cyber threats to pandemics, and what would make a real difference to the work of government.

Policy opinions worth reading

COMMUNITY POST

Why does short-term thinking keep winning?

– Karan Patel, Community Manager, Apolitical, London, UK

ARTICLE

Practice notes on testing and learning

Field notes on starting small, learning in public, and building the confidence to change. 

— Jack Strachan, Policy Analyst, Designer, Strategist, CIVICWORKS, London, UK

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And finally... 🐐

A surprise recruit stole the show as a goat named Goldie trotted alongside firefighters, boosting morale (and munching a little brush) while crews tackled a wildfire. The real heroes, though, were the Colorado Springs Fire Department and U.S. Forest Service teams, whose coordinated local response kept the blaze under control — with one very enthusiastic four-legged mascot in tow.