I’ll be honest. The world scares me right now. I feel like we devolved into a global Lord of the Flies Netflix series that, like The Walking Dead, won’t end but just keeps mayhem on infinite repeat. It’s draining and exhausting. I know you feel it too. I also think many of us are starting to look inward to find …
Please. Go look it up. Kidding. A polymath is an individual whose knowledge spans a significant number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. The Good Old Days There was a time in HR when the list of things you had to know was fairly short. Maybe a law or two related to …
I know. Every post on the internet is now focused on how to respond to these weird and franky, unprecedented times. And as this is a predominately HR-focused site I’m sure you’re seeing all the ways HR should, could, would handle things. Nobody really knows. We are all making it up as we go along because no one has had …
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 …
