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The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has wrapped up its cuts to federal job roles and completed its push against consulting firms. Next on the list: IT service providers supplying systems and services to federal agencies. Following a directive from DOGE, the General Services Administration (GSA) sent letters to Dell, CDW, and other IT vendors, asking for evidence that their contract pricing is competitive and that their services cant be performed by government employees. The GSA argues that federal tech needs are often less complex than what vendors deliver, and not everything needs to be outsourced. The move marks a shift toward bringing more digital services in-house. Im fully in alignment with the need to in-house government capacity and government services, says Merici Vinton, a former U.S. Digital Service official. But, Vinton adds, with the situation right now, I have not seen DOGE build anything or actually do anything in-house. DOGE may have ambitious goals, but a working model could come from an unexpected source: one of former DOGE chief Elon Musks least-favorite countries: the U.K. Before 2010, the U.K. governments digital services were fragmented. A 2010 report recommended a unified online platform. Two years later, the beta version of GOV.UK launched and has since won multiple awards. Digital is a core function of a modern state, says Richard Pope, author of Platformland and one of the original architects of GOV.UK. That’s as true now as it was in the 2010s when GOV.UK was built by an in-house GDS team. Its a model the U.S. could follow. Whether it will is another question. Ann Kempster, a U.K. consultant with experience delivering digital services both inside and outside of government, notes that while DOGE wants to mirror the U.K. model, it also laid off the very staff who could have made it work. They had things like the U.S. Digital Service and 18F, the internal consultancy, that were born out of Government Digital Service and all of the work that we did here [in the U.K.], she says. Both teams were early casualties of DOGEs cost-cutting. They had that expertise in house, and they sacked them all. You have to wonder why they’ve done that. A recent report from the Niskanen Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, echoes that concern, advising against slashing consulting contracts without first ensuring adequate in-house expertise. The U.S. is hardly alone in rethinking digital public services. It’s a pattern that’s visible around the world, says Pope, from India and Ukraine, who have been investing heavily in digital public infrastructure, to Germany and South Africa, who have recently announced similar efforts to build state digital capacity. Having governments, not outside vendors, build and maintain digital infrastructure is not just smart policy, Pope argues; its essential. To outsource digital public services and infrastructurethings like data exchange, welfare systems, and healthcareis to outsource the capacity to govern. Vinton shares that concern, pointing to the federal governments deep reliance on contractors. The vast majority of systems are built, run, and maintained by vendors, she says. I think that is a threat to our government capacity, our national security, and our economic security. Still, she cautions, bringing services in-house won’t work unless the government builds the teams to do it well.
Category:
E-Commerce
While top business leaders are increasingly investing in AI and other advanced technologies, many are not seeing anticipated returns. In fact, a survey published in May 2025 by the IBM Institute for Business Value found that only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected ROI over the last few years. This is not surprising among those who have seen their share of tech implementations. Organizations have long struggled to add and integrate the most advantageous new platforms without losing time, momentum, and often market share. Among adoptions that do come in on time and on budget, relatively few yield the intended big-picture results. Integration lapses This reflects the tendency of leaders to separate their IT and people needs into separate categories when tech adoptions require them to focus on both simultaneously. Even the most forward-thinking executives who invest in robust change management often completely delegate this responsibility, detaching themselves from their peoples implementation experiences. These lapses are becoming increasingly hazardous as individuals across generations internalize adverse views of AI and even act on them in alarming ways. For example, a March 2025 study by generative AI platform Writer found that 31% of employeesincluding 41% of Gen Z workersadmit to sabotaging their companys AI strategy by refusing to adopt AI. As a result, roughly two-thirds of executives say adoption efforts have led to tension and division within their organization, with 42% suggesting its tearing their company apart. New perspective To fully harness the power of todays most innovative tools, leaders must adjust the lens through which they view technology and recognize the outsized influence their people will have before, during, and after implementation processes. This shift in thinking will make it possible for them to fully embrace proven, though underutilized, people-first tech adoption strategies that help drive meaningful returns. These strategies include: 1. Meet your people where they are While top leaders spend extensive time and energy contemplating the wisdom of changes before driving them forward, their people are granted little such runway. Intellectually and emotionally, theyre playing catch up, and thus require patience on the part of leaders as well as highly tailored communication and direction that creates and enhances alignment. 2. Emphasize the why To help team members believe, comprehend, and appreciate the rationale behind AI and other tech implementations, leaders should deliver a compelling, authentic, consistent narrative. Done well, such effort will help employees understand the all-important why, a key first step toward internalizing, accepting, and fully utilizing new technologies. 3. Consider systemic impact While some technologies lead to groundbreaking efficiencies, many create new, unforeseen challenges, especially at the people level. Organizations should be proactive about identifying such risks, addressing potential and emerging issues through a variety of tools, from workstream design to communications and training. 4. Foster change agility The AI technology of even six months ago is very different from today, and will be different again in another six months, necessitating that leaders prepare their organizations for future and ongoing tech adoptions. This will require companies to shed legacy cultures of change resistance in favor of change agilityefforts that are especially important in historically change-adverse industries, like healthcare. 5. Stay focused on leading With countless competing priorities, its tempting for top leaders to delegate their organizations tech implementation efforts. Yet the gravity of todays AI evolution requires their active participation and leadership across all stages of the adoption work, from shaping the narrative to outlining critical success factors, to communicating the importance of the change. Keeping ahead Fundamentally, todays AI era is as rooted in people issues as it is in technology issues, necessitating human capital-oriented approaches. Leaders that internalize this reality can best harness the power of novel technologies as a means of driving transformational, profitable, and sustainable improvements, staying ahead of the competition and generating returns on AI investments.
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E-Commerce
Today, Lego is dipping its toes into a massive world of IP that it hasnt explored in nearly 100 years as a brand: anime. The company is gearing up to release a new line of sets inspired by One Piece, the popular manga and anime series thats now also a live-action show from Netflixmarking the first time Lego has adapted an anime property. The collaboration includes five unique sets inspired by Netflixs 2023 adaptation of One Piece, which was originally published as a manga comic 1997 and made into an iconic anime show in 1999. When Netflixs interpretation of the series, co-produced by Tomorrow Studios, launched its first season in 2023, it spent eight weeks in Netflixs Global Top 10 Shows list, debuting at the top of the charts in 46 countries and amassing 71.6 million views in four months. The second season is expected to drop in 2026. [Photo: Lego] It appears that Lego sees an opportunity to follow up on Netflixs success with its own win. Each of the five new sets, which range from $29.99 to $329.99, are inspired by the most recognizable locations in Netflixs One Piece. The sets are available for preorder today, and will officially become available on August 1. Lego’s foray into the anime world makes sense for a brand that’s increasingly turning its focus from open-world sets to IP-based collections. In recent years, the company has doubled down on partnerships with properties like Back to the Future, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Marvel, Minecraft, and Super Mario World, to name a few. The strategy seems to be working: In its full-year 2024 report, Lego notched year-over-year revenue growth of 13%, totaling $10.53 billion. For years, fans of both anime and Lego have waited for an eventual crossover of the two worlds; even designing their own Lego interpretations of properties like Naruto, My Neighbor Totoro, and K-On! Now, the dream is finally a reality. [Photo: Lego] A first for both Lego and ‘One Piece’ One Piece follows a young pirate, Monkey D. Luffy, and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, to find a legendary piece of treasure called One Piece. Netflix and Tomorrow Studios live-action version of the series was created in collaboration with the mangas creator, Eiichiro Oda. The crew used a combination of CGI and practical effects to mimic the cartoony aesthetic of the source material while capturing its whimsical, magic-infused settings. According to Andrew Hugh Seenan, Legos creative lead on the One Piece collection, the show has all the ingredients to make great Lego sets. Its a seafaring world of adventure with a vast range of imaginative island locations, Seenan explains. It has a great range of diverse and unique characters, both good and bad, all with their own visual style, personalities, and abilities. There is also a clear mission and call to adventureto find the legendary One Piece treasure. [Photo: Lego] The effort to adapt One Piece into Lego bricks was a two-year collaboration that involved an ongoing back-and-forth between the shows designers and creatives and Legos design team. Josh Simon, Netflixs vice president of consumer products, says it was also crucial to receive support from Oda himself. Together with Tomorrow Studios and Shueisha, we approached Oda-sensei with a vision to bring the beloved action series adaptation to life in Lego formthe first time in the history of the franchise, Simon says. In a statement posted online, Oda wrote of the collaboration, Even now, I have dozens of Lego boxes piled up at my workplace that I havent even had time to dig into. Theres no cooler toy out there!! For 25 years since the anime started, Ive been asking for a Lego toy, and finally my dream is being fulfilled with a live-action collection! [Photo: Lego]
Category:
E-Commerce
My plane had just landed. I was anxious to get to the office after the departure of our team leader, a reduction in force culling hundreds of jobs just days before, and an organizational move to an unfamiliar part of the enterprise. As my teams senior ranking member, I needed to help process everything together. I turned on my phone to a deluge of texts. Please call as soon as possible, my colleague wrote. Is everything okay? I responded. No, she replied. I called her as the plane taxied my crammed flight to the gate. Priya, she said, Ashley died. She took her own life. The words echoed in my headstrange sounds that made no sense and didnt feel real. Ashley had been a valued member of the team, a well-loved and developing leader whose deep empathy, perpetual curiosity, and strong work ethic were constant reminders of the nature and value of our role within the company. I didnt quite believe what I was hearing. Sobbing from the other side of the line pulled me back. I instantly donned the mantle of doctor. I had to help my friends and colleagues through thisand separate my own emotion from what needed to be done. It was going to be my job to tell the rest of my team. As an emergency physician, I was the one who told people their loved ones had died. I never expected to do the same in corporate America. And despite working for a healthcare company, Id soon learn Id have to do it with little support. The systems I was used to in the hospital were not in place here. Every Companys Duty We live in volatile times. Suicide rates in the U.S. spiked 36% over the past two decades, with nearly 50,000 deaths in 2023 alone. Across the country, job stability is tenuous, risking employer health insurance coverage. Mental health services are beyond capacity. Amid billions slashed in mental health funding and threats to Medicaid coverage, the situation will likely worsen. These tragedies impact the workforce, though precisely how depends on the level and caliber of systems-level organization and preparedness. Even in healthcare companies, clinical expertise and informed leadership can be systemically lacking. When I ran into this absence of coordinated systems, I used skills honed in the emergency departmentthrough treating gunshots, heart attacks, and COVID-19to help my team. But what if corporate America turned lessons from emergency medicine into a systems-level approach to suicide? We might turn tragedy into psychological safetyimproving employee loyalty, productivity, and longevityto the benefit of the business. Heres how. 1. Build a Coordinated Team and Established Process When a patient presents to the emergency department in a critical state, the team springs into action. The doctor, nurses, and emergency techs focus on the patient, while security, social work, and pastoral care workers support loved ones. In crises, everyone has a role. Under high-pressure circumstances, a single decision could result in death. Protocols such as American Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and American Trauma Life Support (ATLS) standardize our approaches and maximize opportunity for survival. Large companies should adopt crisis management protocols describing who and how theyll support employees after suicide and other workplace traumas, instead of avoiding such in hope that suicide would be a rare event. Delineating processes, roles, and responsibilities mitigates variation and disorganization while enabling prompt response and engagement. Thats fundamental because failing to quickly address a suicide can increase misinformation, distrust, and anxiety. 2. Communicate Immediately and Clearly After communicating with her family, I wanted to tell my team about Ashley face-to-face, just as I would in the emergency department. I also wanted to secure resources should anyone need support. On the cab ride from the airport, I engaged our human resources team and asked for crisis counseling on-site. I reserved a private space on campus for the entire team to gather. Out of respect and dignity not only for Ashley but also for the team as a whole, it was critical that the news was shared in a safe space from a trusted source. Hearing such through the rumor mill would undermine the honor I held central to the process. Human resources teams and leaders should model dignity and respectand not be the source of word-of-mouth spread. Death-telling is an evidence-driven process that includes a few key actions: gathering loved ones together, providing resources, and meeting people where they are, which means immediately setting context, using clear words such as died, and allowing time and space to process the information. A few hours after I got to the office, it was time. Given the recent reduction in force, I had to stave off my teams top-of-mind fear. First, I said, our jobs are secure. Then I told them Ashley had died. We dont know all the details, I said, but we know she died by suicide. I fell silent, giving space for the shock and emotion that followed, while my own heart broke for everyone. As a close-knit team, sadness shrouded all of us, settling into the room. The air felt heavier. The silence was replaced by gasps and tears. After some time, I made a simple promise: Im here for anything you need. Well get through this together. 3. Provide Visible and Tangible Support Suicide is a contagion. Exposure may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts, behaviors, and depression. In the aftermath, companies typically provide information about employee assistance programs or counseling services to help people cope with grief. But merely pointing to resources rather than providing them can make the people processing shock feel overwhelmed. They may perceive it as absent support. Postvention is a process designed to quash the contagion. It alleviates the effects of stress, helping survivors through immediate, short-term, and long-term responses. Visible and strong workplace leadership, with a willingness to discuss and serve as an ongoing resource, is effective in postvention efforts. But when leaders neither acknowledge nor offer safety following the suicide of an employee, that void can feel dehumanizing and propagate stigma. If an organization cannot talk about suicide, experts have noted, it cannot properly support those impacted by it. Silence from leaders and HR can feel deafeningfurther undermining survivors sense of psychological safety and spurring feelings of isolation and neglect. Leaders who support collective mourning, through memorials or gathering events, connect people while dispelling stigma. 4. Help Managers Through It As we began grieving, I did everything I could to give the team space and permission to care for themselves. I cleared noncritical work and nonessential meetings and absorbed parts of their workload. As a physician, I knew each person would have different needs, based on their beliefs, cultural norms, and behaviors. High-pressure postventions usually fall to direct managers, who often have minimal to no training. They may overlook their own trauma and grieving process while tending to the needs of the team and the business. While strict hierarchical structures pervade corporate culture, leaders, including those in HR, should break rank amid crises. They should reach out beyond their direct reports to support the larger team. The better trained and available HR leaders are, the more they can alleviate the pressures on any one manager. 5. Debrief, Learn, and Improve Organized debriefings with leaders to review processes, execution, and opportunities for improvement are standard practice in medicine and for first responders. This not only allows for continuous quality improvement, but also provides an opportunity for various members to voice their personal experiences. Time and space from an acute event brings clarity and refinement. Following the suicide of a colleague, an organized debriefing supports the long-term aspect of the postvention. This is a collaborative exercise, anchored in safety and humility and based in learning and a drive to improve. Through honest feedback and critical evaluation, processes can be honed and the company can benefit as a whole. Helping Employees Heal From Crisis At a time when systems across the U.S. appear to be crumbling, corporate America has a valuable opportunity to assimilate humanity and empathy. Through processes and protocols, organizations can navigate crises by nurturing compassion, vulnerability, and shared healing. Thats essential to employee wellnesswhich is, in turn, essential to engagement and productivity. But systems cant solve everything. Medicines most refined processes cant prevent the guilt that plagues most survivors of suicide. I still struggle with the questions. Had I seen Ashley in the emergency department rather than the workplace, could I have spotted a warning sign and intervened? Had I fully understood how deeply the reorganization disrupted her sense of safety, what might I have done to mitigate it? Ill never have all the answers. I have only the lessons learned from a tragedy no leader wants to endure but for which every leader must prepare. Ashley left an indelible mark on all of us, both in life and in her absence. The shock and grief may never be gone, and a disappointment in company culture may linger. But our team got through the crisis togetherjust as Id promised.
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E-Commerce
In the years following the pandemic, our workplace dress codes have become the most casual theyve ever been. For some, this shift has been welcomed with open arms. For those who enjoyed dressing up, it has felt like a departure from a wardrobe that made them feel confident and ready for their day. In the same way that some felt that pre-COVID dress codes were confining, others now feel the same kind of discomfort with an ultracasual work dress code. Our workplaces have created a new unspoken expectation of how to dress that leaves little room for personal expression. In my work as a stylist, the feedback Ive been hearing is that rejecting the dress code will alienate people from their teamwhen in reality, dressing can, and should, be another way to bring your unique perspective to the workplace. THE COST OF TRYING TO FIT IN To avoid the risk of standing out, many professionals will dress like everyone else. Go into any workplace and youll quickly see similarities in what people are wearing. In formal environments like banking, legal, or financial industries, youll be swimming in a sea of black, navy, beige, and other neutral-colored suits. When I worked in a small startup, where casual attire was encouraged, the norm was jeans (or yoga pants!), half-zip pullovers, and sneakers. I often felt out of place wearing my elevated jeans-and-blazer looks. Yet, in ad agencies or trendy direct-to-consumer brands, quiet luxury may be on trend and relevant. Over time, our desire to adhere to these unspoken rules outweighs our desire to lean into self-expression. Contrary to what weve been told, there is no one way to dress for success. Now that the dust has settled from our post-COVID phase, I believe the new norm of being comfortable in work attire isnt a rule for how to dress, but a call to dress in a way that is more authentic to who we are. What standout professionals know is that dressing to appease or fit a standard can diminish your confidence and energy. But when you dress in a way that is true to you, you show up with more determination, focus, enjoyment, and confidence. What would it look like, then, to embrace a new definition of comfort in your dress in the workplace? Here are three tips to work with the current anything-goes dress code thats individual to youwithout sacrificing comfort. Notice how your clothes make you feel If you want to leverage clothes as a tool, get in tune with how they make you feel. When you put on an outfit, does it give you energy? Does it make you feel like you want to be more social or speak up? Or does it make you feel like going back to bed and hiding under the covers? The clothes that give you an extra lift will set your day up for aligned results. In a study that has become known as the Batman Effect, we learned that children ages 4 to 6 exhibited much greater determination, confidence, and focus when they worked on a boring task while wearing a cape that made them feel like Batman. In another study, researchers Hajo Adam and Adam D. Galinsky concluded that what we wear affects how we think and behave, specifically our attentiveness and focus. This result was later coined as Enclothed Cognition. All of this points to the fact that clothes are useful for more than status symbols and trends. They are tools we can use to access a different level of ourselves in the workplace and beyond. Seek to stand out rather than fit in The mark of a great brand isnt one that seeks to fit in, but to stand out. Your clothes, which are a part of your personal brand, are no different. While wearing clothes that blend in with others in your industry may feel like the key to success (a mindset that might remind you of your high school days), the true marker of confidence is to express your most authentic self through your outfit. In fact, think of the leaders in your workplace or your industry you admire. Do they wear what everyone else is wearing? Or do they forge their own path? Think of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg decades ago when they came onto the scene wearing clothes that bucked all work norms. It made the news because we all wondered, How could someone so successful show up wearing hoodies and sneakers? Fast-forward to today: Some of my favorite female leaders who are daring to be bold and emblazon a new path with their style are Michelle Obama, Naima Judge, Rosalind Brewer, and Bozoma Saint John. By owning their authenticity, they show us its okayand actually quite powerfulto be your authentic self. Judge was recently quoted saying, It takes energy to not be your authentic self. If I can be more authentic, I can then use my energy to focus on my clients and uplift the people who report to me. I couldnt agree more. Notice what rules and beliefs are holding you back Over time, we all collect rules about what is acceptable (or not acceptable) to wear to work. These rules can be influenced by our own families or social circles but also can be defined by beliefs about dress surrounding our age, whether we have children, the industry we work in, and so on. The rulessometimes without our realizing itcan become ingrained beliefs that affect our behaviors. For example, if you work in an industry where everyone wears neutrals, you might subconsciously create a rule that neutrals are the only way to dress to be taken seriously. But if youre someone who loves color, questioning that rule might look like showing up in a teal suit that is not only professional but also showcases a part of your true self. The first step in breaking free is to identify what rules have been guiding your decisions in terms of what to where and what you buy. A clue to determine whether these beliefs are unhelpful is if theyre focused on others’ expectations, rules, standards, and unquestioned beliefs. Then, ask yourself, Is this a rule that is still relevant and true in my life? Often, simply questioning whats true is the pathway to freedom and making choices that are more aligned with your authentic self. While having less guidance on what to wear to work can feel frustrating, consider how it can also be liberating. Finallyfinally!we get to wear what makes us feel most like ourselves. And when you start to think of your clothes not just as a fashion statement but as fuel to achieve your goals, you realize the power that choosing your outfit each day holds.
Category:
E-Commerce
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