I subscribe to a newsletter called “Now I Know.” Every weekday the author tells a story about a little known and underappreciated product or service, or recounts how something came to be that most of us would find interesting. Things like “How Much is a Buttload, Exactly?” Or, “This Is The Poem That Never Ends. It Just Goes On And …
My Bachelor degree is in statistics. Actually “Quantitative Business Analysis,” which is fancy for statistics. I loved the idea of using math to “predict” outcomes and prove hypotheses. My senior paper attempted to use a variety of statistical methods to predict the outcome of football games. I’m still not retired, so you can judge how well that analysis worked. Got …
I think the best thing you can do for a career, and for a life for that matter, is read as much as you can. And not just tweets and shampoo bottles in the bathroom. I mean good blogs, well-documented articles, top writers on Medium. And read outside your domain. Wide and far is my motto. Exposure to new ideas …
Today, if twitter is to be believed, (and there are many whom attribute gospel-like reverence to it) HR is focused on talent, technology and turnover. Throw in an employee experience or two and you’ve got the top 5 “issues” HR needs to address. I have orbited HR for over 15 years, and if I step into the wayback machine, 15 …
I’ve been thing about this since I saw the book Humanize in 2012. The book was written by Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant who run Human Workplaces. About that same time, I started blogging and tweeting using the #humanize hash tag. I thought I had started doing that before I saw their book, but memory is such an unreliable thing …
Company culture. The go-to excuse or ultimate reason for everything good or bad that happens at a company. It’s never the people – it’s the culture. It enables idiots and sinners. It encourages geniuses and visionaries. It is what makes each company different and unique. It’s also what everyone shares, making us the same. It is the ultimate paradox. It is both good and bad. It is common while still being individual. It allows you to mold it while …
As I survey the employee/employer relationship landscape, I really never see a great story. Oh, sure, there are good “anecdotes” here and there of some company (typically privately held, startup-mentality, uber-cool) doing something unique and interesting enough to get into INC and Forbes. These stories are the bloody chum consultants tweet, retweet, post and build models around (until the next …
How often do you challenge your assumptions? You know, those things that form the bedrock of your opinions, beliefs and decision making. Do you ever ask yourself if what you think you know, is really so? You should. My experience has been that many poor decisions and failed concepts can be traced back to believing some key fact or piece …
It’s time to discuss improving employee engagement. Or is it employee experience? Who knows anymore? All I know is we continue to work our butts off to find that secret sauce that will ensure employees connect with the company and pledge their eternal soul to you in HR, the department they work in, and the organization as a whole–yet nothing …
I started today’s post with the idea to riff on JTBD (that’s “jobs to be done” for those in Rio Linda), a point of view pioneered by Harvard business professor Clayton Christensen. JTBD is the idea that people don’t buy what you sell–they hire out a job to achieve an objective. Approaching your business in this way opens up additional …
