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Elizabeth Ayer

@elizayer.bsky.social
643 followers 105 following 39 posts

Tacoma, WA, USA Civil servant, independent product and organizational consultant Powered by problematic levels of curiosity Primary lens on life: we’re in this together #ProductLeadership #Leadership #SystemsThinking #TeamTopologies

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Reposted by Elizabeth Ayer
Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Hello @support.bsky.team I heard from Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social that her account was suspended. Can you please look into this and reinstate her account? She’s a published author and scholar on authoritarianism. Her presence here is valuable. cc: @jay.bsky.team @aaron.bsky.team
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
This govt employee talks about his decision to leave. “Leaders seem to believe the daily indignities don’t matter, that they can erode trust and purpose to push people out, and still keep the rest motivated with a new incentive program. But that’s not how it works.” open.substack.com/pub/slowmind...
open.substack.com
From a Calling to a Calculation
Grieving What We’ve Lost in Public Service
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Christopher Whitaker @civicwhitaker.com · 03/08/2025
This Tuesday night, Nicole Dan from @floridainnovation.bsky.social will be talking about @citycamp.bsky.social at @chihacknight.org - register for the online event here! chihacknight.org/events/2025/... #civictech
chihacknight.org
Online: CityCamp 2025: A global movement of community-focused events that foster civic collaboration and innovation - Chi Hack Night
Hear about CityCamp - an “unconference” designed to bring together technologists, nonprofit leaders, and local government stakeholders to collaborate on innovative ways to improve our cities.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 31/07/2025
In other words, a robust, respected, well-paid, well-staffed bureaucracy is the key to accomplishing large-scale public works project on time and under budget. Cutting public agencies to the bone & farming out their responsibilities to the private sector *doesn't work*.
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Benjamin P Taylor @antlerboy.com · 31/07/2025
Level 7 Apprenticeship course: leading and commissioning for outcomes in complexity – convening systems change – free webinar on 20 August 2025, 12:30pm UK time stream.syscoi.com/2025/07/31/l...
stream.syscoi.com
Level 7 Apprenticeship course: leading and commissioning for outcomes in complexity – convening systems change – free webinar on 20 August 2025, 12:30pm UK time
[Apologies for cross-posting, just trying to get the word out! This programme is fully levy-funded in England until the end of the year, and – if I say so myself – will be great! –…
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Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
If you have profesh development budget and want to get better at talking to people, there is one seat left this week: www.eventbrite.com/e/presenting...
eventbrite.com
Presenting Work with Confidence!
It doesn't matter how good your work is, if you can’t present it it's going in the trash. Come learn how to present with confidence.
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Rebecca Wirfs-Brock @rebeccawb.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
This year marks the 32nd year of the PLoP conference held in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge at Skamania Lodge. Spark your creativity. Satisfy your itch to explore the potential of patterns. Submit a proposal for an Imagination Run Wild session. Feel free to ask me Qs See: plopcon.org/plop2025/
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Elizabeth Ayer @elizayer.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Hey UK friends, you know Trader Joe's is one of the US's great union busters, right? Allegations of illegal union busting were upheld by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Trader Joe's has fought back, along with fellow anti-union friends SpaceX and Amazon, claiming NLRB unconstitutional
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Alex @blangry.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Anyone (@anyaso.bsky.social maybe?) got access to an up to date flow diagram for all the stages of hell that Hansard data goes through?
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Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
"Consumer Watchdog found that the best deals were offered to the wealthiest customers—with the worst deals given to the poorest people, who are least likely to have other options." fortune.com/2025/07/16/d...
fortune.com
Delta moves toward eliminating set prices in favor of AI that determines how much you personally will pay for a ticket
The airline touted a partnership with an AI-enabled revenue system as a step on the road to fully personalized ticket pricing, part of its goal to raise profit margins long-term.
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Rebecca Williams @rebeccawilliams.info · 17/07/2025
this is awful & shouldn’t happen for anything it’s also especially awful because airlines in particular capture so much identifying data from you (full name, tsa/passport #, your face) — you can’t scalp a ticket purchased at a lower price point, they could sell your profile to other vendors, etc.
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Gregory The A'ight @gregoryaight.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
CRITICAL. Also, Unbreaking is doing a fantastic job of keeping up to date while not fumbling with a 24 hour news cycle. Everything is immaculately vetted, written, presented, and then updated. I promise this is a resource you should use.
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Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 15/07/2025
www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...
rte.ie
The legend of St Swithin and his July 15th weather forecast
Saints, witches and sin all played a part in how our ancestors predicted the weather
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
The Trump admin sent a Myanmar general a letter threatening high tariffs. Turns out, this seems to have been the first time the U.S. has recognized the military junta that took over after a coup as the rulers of Myanmar. So the general is responding to the threatening letter with effusive thanks.
theguardian.com
Shunned Myanmar leader thrilled at US contact after Trump tariff letter
Min Aung Hlaing expresses ‘sincere appreciation’ for letter from US president threatening 40% tariff
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Elizabeth Ayer @elizayer.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
If you're in striking distance of Toronto, this looks very good! Yes, an unconference is more work for participants with a less certain result... but isn't that consistent with building a participatory, inclusive future? I hope we get good at showing up and learning together in spaces like this ❤️
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James Arthur Cattell @jacattell.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
Are you a #facilitator? Maybe a #facilitation expert? Want to learn from fellow #facilitators? Then the Facilitator's Unconference (TFU) is for you www.facilitators-unconference.com 3 questions: 1. October or November for #TFU2026? 2. Birmingham, London or Manchester? 3. How should it feel?
facilitators-unconference.com
Home
Re-shape the way you think about facilitation.
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Matthew Skelton @matthewskelton.com · 10/07/2025
Agility is NOT intuitive. Very soon you hit dependencies, work queues, high cognitive load, and other things that block agility. It's vital to use shared language and mental models, including clear team boundaries that work well for value flow. ➡️ Benchmark your org: confluxhq.com/benchmark
confluxhq.com
Benchmark your Organizational Effectiveness and Alignment
Assess your current and near-future approaches and capabilities that shape effectiveness and alignment within your organization or department - in the context of fast flow
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James Arthur Cattell @jacattell.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
I'm retiring as @ukgovcamp.bsky.social deliver manager (DM). I need an individual or jobshare to volunteer 1 to 2 hours a week of your time. You'll lead the best, annual #publicsector #unconference. Reply or email james@ukgovcamp.com please. Free hoodie included 🙂 www.ukgovcamp.com/about/
ukgovcamp.com
about
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
He’s wrong but this is an incredibly common elite pathology: the belief that your voice should be held strategically in reserve, to strike at the right moment and change everything. Then they do and it’s washed away by the firehose of noise. I call it Jim Mattis Syndrome.
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Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Agentic systems in action.
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Alt18F @alt18f.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
We have some news to share with you. 🥄 Today we took legal action to challenge our termination, filing an appeal with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. We did this because we believe the elimination of 18F violated safeguards that exist to protect a nonpartisan civil service.
18f.org
18F files legal challenge
A statement about 18F’s appeal filed with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.
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Rebecca Williams @rebeccawilliams.info · 28/05/2025
This is very encouraging & written with high-energy, which is fun to read. I am curious if the Clinger-Cohen Act & E-Government Act which have been the statutory basis for USDS (& lots of OMB tech management) will be persuasive statutory authorities as this case continues to unfold.
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Elizabeth Ayer @elizayer.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
This weekend, people kept asking the poet kid who read her poem at high school graduation, "how did you get AI to do that??" Bleak indeed.
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 20/05/2025
glad that this is being written about but lol, how depressing that "the new boss came in and made sure the website was actually usable" feels revolutionary for the media in 2025
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Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
NEW: How the Pacific Northwest’s Dream of Green Energy Fell Apart @opb.org
propublica.org
Liberal Oregon and Washington Vowed to Pioneer Green Energy. Almost Every Other State Is Beating Them.
The Northwest states passed aggressive goals to decarbonize the power supply but left it to the Bonneville Power Administration to build the transmission lines needed for wind and solar. The agency ha...
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Elizabeth Ayer @elizayer.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
I trust this sign was not on the Tate Modern, which I contend is *much* better from an altered mental state.
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alix e. harrow @alixeharrow.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
love when people get caught using LLMs for some important analytical task "to save time" and then they're like "don't worry we rigorously vetted the results." man....you either saved time OR rigorously vetted the results, but i promise you didn't do both
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Gender & Family Project @genderandfamily.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Happy Non-Binary Parents Day! 💛🤍💜🖤 Celebrated on the third Sunday of April, we use this day to honor parents and guardians who exist outside of the gender binary, the children they raise, and the family they build. Art by @yallaroza 🎨 #NonBinaryParentsDay #NonBinary
How magical to redefine parenthood outside of the binary.

You are a gift!

Happy non-binary parents day!

We are just so grateful for you!!!

@yallaroza
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Elizabeth Ayer @elizayer.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Hey British friends who can remember 1998 - I clearly remember the Good Friday Agreement negotiations lasting until Easter Sunday (from BBC radio news). But I can find absolutely nothing in any online sources to confirm this! Anyone else remember this?
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sashacuerda.bsky.social @sashacuerda.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
#exploreddd was work highlight of my year! Such an open, welcoming, and thoughtful community. That said, there was some controversy when Chris Lauer and @elizayer.bsky.social explained why we have 122 weather forecast offices. Turns out the earth’s surface curves, so radar only reaches so far!
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Katie Moussouris (she/her/she-hulk/she-ra)🌻 @k8em0.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
No more CVEs assigned from the source? The downstream consequences of a pause will leave us drowning in bugs of many other names, & we won’t spontaneously sprout gills. We really don’t have time for this.
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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Bring back *everyone* who was sent from the U.S. to CECOT in El Salvador. *No one* should be sent there. ALL their rights were violated. ALL of them should come home.
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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
if you are looking for a politics that fights for the conditions in which families can flourish you are looking for feminism. if you have ended up in “pro-natalism” you have taken several wrong turns and are surrounded by racists and eugenicists. turn back immediately and reflect on what happened
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Josh Russell → @MVTFWD @joshfwd.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
🚨 deadline to register to vote at the 2025 local elections is today. www.gov.uk/register-to-... Make this go viral. If we don’t do politics, politics will do us.
gov.uk
Register to vote
Register to vote to take part in elections in the UK. Includes how to get on the electoral register and how to update your address on the register.
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Alt18F @alt18f.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Thinking of our TTS colleagues today. 💙 "DOGE has already dismantled two of the federal government’s key tech brain trusts—the U.S. Digital Service and 18F (the latter of which is housed within TTS)—and now appears to be stripping TTS itself of its resources and purpose."
fastcompany.com
DOGE just announced more layoffs at TTS, the government's vaunted tech group, sources say
Elon Musk’s group is accomplishing its goals in part by creating dysfunction and paralysis within government agencies, insiders say.
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Josh Kovensky @joshkovensky.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
For your enjoyment: here is Secretary of Education Linda McMahon talking about implementing AI in schools, but pronouncing it "A1," as in "A1 Steak Sauce" www.youtube.com/live/lxrg28z...
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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
It’s a month since the administration detained and disappeared a green card holder, a lawful permanent resident. We cannot allow this to be normalized or forgotten.
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
If you’re a North Carolinian, you can check whether your name or the names of anyone you know is on the list of the 65K voters whose votes may be tossed. You could have an opportunity to fix it if so. thegriffinlist.com
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Lainey Feingold @lflegal.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
I think we each need to read the actual words -every word- of the racist attack on truth, history, and progress that is the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order. Chilling. #Smithsonian www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
whitehouse.gov
Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.  Purpose and
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Kent Beck @kentbeck.com · 26/03/2025
You’ll notice that “test coverage” is not one of the desirable properties of tests in testdesiderata.com. Coverage by itself means nothing. Lack of coverage means something but increasing coverage doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
testdesiderata.com
TestDesiderata
Optimize the value of your tests by choosing how to tradeoff among various valuable properties.
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Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
I regret to inform you that accomplishing complex and useful things well requires getting good at meetings.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
DOGE bros present a knock-off AI. Employees: “When will the Adobe Pro be given back to us?” It is emblematic of a complete mismatch between what Musk & Co think they are doing and what employees actually need.
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Alt18F @alt18f.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
"Thomas Shedd has been at GSA since the start of the current Trump administration, where he called TTS staff 'a key source of technical talent,' only for the agency to later shutter an entire government tech consultancy under its purview, 18F." 🤔
nextgov.com
TTS director tapped to serve as Labor CIO
Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer, will continue to lead the Technology Transformation Services, a General Services Administration spokesperson confirmed.
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George Dinwiddie @gdinwiddie.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Are you interested in #DecisionQuality? That's what my next newsletter is about. See idiacomputing.com/newsletter/ to subscribe or view past issues. Scheduled to send on Thursday.
idiacomputing.com
iDIA Computing, LLC monthly newsletter
Published monthly, this newsletter is designed to offer helpful tips about effective software development, organizational behavior, and personal growth.
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Petra Molnar @petramolnar.com · 17/03/2025
🚨Event Alert! Launch of a new report: “Scanning the Horizon: The Future of Digital Rights & Resilience in the Global Majority” Join on March 20, 2:00-3:30 PM UTC for an open conversation with report author @juanof9.bsky.social and colleagues! Register: digitalresilience.network/20-mar-repor...
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Elizabeth Ayer @elizayer.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Hey friends, have any of you tried to set up a "decision group" (also known as a "truth-seeking group"), like Annie Duke recommends for improving decision quality? Curious if you did any formal chartering -- and, of course, what you ultimately thought of that decision to charter or not charter!
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Daniel Wagner-Hall @illicitonion.com · 21/02/2025
"Don't ask forgiveness, radiate intent" This (short!) blog post by @elizayer.bsky.social is the link I probably share with people the most. It has wonderful advice, both for professional interaction and life. Give it a read! medium.com/@ElizAyer/do...
medium.com
Don’t ask forgiveness, radiate intent
As simple encouragement to act, “ask forgiveness, not permission” is fair enough. But here are 4 reasons to signal your intentions:
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