I want to hate these 'Lessons Learned' but I can't

I pretty much can't stand the phrase 'Lessons Learned'.

It could be due to seeing it once too often at the end of a really dull presentation (where one of the 'Lessons' never seems to be the presenter saying 'Don't hire me again to speak'), or that even if the presentation was solid that seeing a slide called 'Lessons Learned' seems to imply that all you really need to do is remember these things and everything will be peaches and cream.

I think the 'Lessons Learned' slides usually become the framework or outline for what eventually comes to be called 'Best Practices', and we all, (or most of us anyway), know what we think about Best Practices. So for me, just like Best Practices, I generally take anyone's 'Lessons Learned' with a grain of salt (where did that phrase come from?), and normally don't put too much stock in them. Every person's or organization's background, experience, and way of viewing the world is unique - and we can get into at worst real trouble, or at best fall into dull mimicry, by taking too much stock in either 'Lessons Learned' or Best Practices.

But a week or two ago, one of the smartest list of 'Lessons', this one from legendary Wall Street investor and executive Byron Wien from Blackstone was posted on the firm's blog. Titled smply 'Blackstone's Byron Wien Discusses Lessons Learned in His First 80 Years', the list includes some really sharp, relevant, and balanced ideas or recommendations or simple bits of easily forgotten common sense that someone with the benefit of years and years of experience can offer.

You should take a few minutes to read through Mr. Wien's list - but in case you are you know - super, super busy this morning, I will cherry-pick what I think are the most cutting, insightful, and helpful ones below:

Lesson #1 - Networking

'Network intensely.  Luck plays a big role in life and there is no better way to increase your luck than by knowing as many people as possible.  Nurture your network by sending articles, books and emails to people to show you’re thinking about them.  Write op-eds and thought pieces for major publications.  Organize discussion groups to bring your thoughtful friends together.'

Lesson #2 - Be Likeable

'Younger people are naturally insecure and tend to overplay their accomplishments.  Most people don’t become comfortable with who they are until they’re in their 40’s.  By that time they can underplay their achievements and become a nicer more likeable person.  Try to get to that point as soon as you can.'

Lesson #3 - EVOLVE

'Try to think of your life in phases so you can avoid a burn-out.  Do the numbers crunching in the early phase of your career.  Try developing concepts later on.  Stay at risk throughout the process.'

Pretty great, right?

Especially the idea about staying at risk throughout your career, or at least engaging with as much risk, fear, or even unknown as you can manage. Safe is safe, and while it (sometimes) means 'secure' it often turns into 'boring'.

So yes, I still hate 'Lessons Learned'. But I made an exception for Mr. Wien's list. And I will make an exception for you too - once you hit 80 years old. 

Have a Great Week!

Work, and the Impending Robot Uprising #2

What will happen when the robots move from the factory floor or the warehouse and come much, much closer, right to where we eat and shop or even into our homes?

There have been remarkable advances in robots designed as household assistants, service industry providers, and even child and elder care aides.

What will it be like to actually interact with robots and android-type technology as a 'normal' part of day-to-day life? 

Recently two one-act plays were staged at the Japan Society in New York City that attempted to shine a bit of a light on the impending closer level of interactions and relationships between humans and robots that are surely going to be a part of the not-too-distant future. (you can see some excerpts in the video embedded below, Email and RSS subscribers will need to click through)

The two plays, "Sayonara" and "I, Worker", show robots as more than just chore completing servants - in a way they are companions or even confidants of the human characters. "Sayonara" featured an android character acting as a poetry-reciting companion to a girl suffering from a terminal illness. In "I, Worker", the robot characters were household servants working in a home in which a young Japanese couple struggles with the loss of a child and the husband's unemployment.

The brief clips from the plays in the video above, and the comments from Japan Society Artistic Director Yoko Shioya shed a little bit of light upon and raise many interesting questions about the (not really that distant) future of human-robot interactions and relations.

On one hand it can be easy and less threatening I suppose to view the relationships that we might have with these kind of advanced robots similarly to how we've always thought about technology - as tools created to perform a task, for increased efficiency, and to make our work and lives easier. Just tools - but more capable.

On the other hand, and what I think these two dramatizations suggest, is the combination of advances in robot technology, capability, and soon - proximity, might lead to a deeper, more complex kind of interaction.  

I am not really sure what the future holds, but it does seem to me there is a pretty significant difference in how we view a robot that solders parts together on an assembly line and one that we utilize to help care for a child or a sick or aged relative.

Brave new world my friends...

Have a Great Weekend!

#HRHappyHour LIVE Tonight - 'Recruiting in 2013'

The HR Happy Hour Show is back and this week we are really excited to welcome back to the show the great Gerry Crispin - an industry thought leader, influencer, and the man who has the pulse of the world of corporate recruiting. 

Gerry's influence in the world of recruting is immense - his firm CareerXRoads issues the definitive 'Source of Hire' report each year that is widely regarded as the industry benchmark.

Addtionally, Gerry is one of the driving forces behind the new Candidate Experience movement - spearheading research and awards that are pushing the recruiting community to improve and enhance how candidates are treated in the recruiting process.

This week we will talk with Gerry about some of the big-picture trends in corporate recruitng, hit upon what technologies are having the most impact, and what we can expect to see in the world of recruiting in the future.

You can catch the show in a few different ways - listen to the live stream starting at 8:00PM ET on the show page here, or using the widget player embedded below:

Listen to internet radio with Steve Boese on Blog Talk Radio

You can also listen via the call-in listener line - 646-378-1086, (if you are brave you can even join the fun).

After the show, you can access the replay anytime from the show page, or from the Apple iTunes store - just search for 'HR Happy Hour' in the podcasts area and download the show for free to your iDevice.

And just this week, the HR Happy Hour has made it on to Stitcher Radio - the leading iPhone and Android app for podcasts. Just download the free Stitcher Radio app and search for 'HR Happy Hour'.

I know it will be a fun show tonight - even if you are not a huge sports fan I think there will be some insights on how sports and HR and talent and recruiting and work are all interrelated that you will find interesting.

So this week we think you wil enjoy the conversations on all things recruiting with the great Gerry Crispin, of course also joined by the HR Happy Hour hosts - Steve Boese and Trish McFarlane.

It should be a fun show and I hope you can join us!

If the manager is so important, why does no one make it part of the ad?

I read a really interesting piece from Scott Berkun last week titled - 'Why You Should Pick Your Own Boss' where he lays out a case that the most important aspect in any job is the boss that you will be reporting to. But according to Berkun, most people don't evaluate a new job or a transfer with the 'boss' as the primary consideration, rather we think about compensation, job titles, and assignments first, (in varying orders, but these are the most important considerations), and maybe, if we can get a feel in the interview, think about the personality of the hiring manager/boss.

While I am not totally sure the boss is the most important element of a job, there is no doubt that the boss, your relationship with him or her, their talent, and probably most of all, their willingness and ability to help your development and learning is one of the critical aspects of any job, and as Berkun suggests, one that new employees and candidates often can find out the least.

External candidates can learn quite a bit about a company from reviews on Glassdoor, can examine career profiles and arcs of potential future colleagues and bosses on LinkedIn, and perhaps if they are lucky or persistent enough, talk to someone actually working at a company to learn more about the culture and the feel of a place. But rich information an details about a prospective boss - how are they as a people developer, how many of their past direct reports were promoted, how many internal people try to transfer in/out of their group, etc. - this kind of data is really difficult if not impossible to ascertain.

And, what I think is even more curious, is that if the 'boss' is such an important element for attraction, performance, retention, etc. why don't more companies actually talk about the boss in job advertisements? I mean, if your company did have a rockstar hiring manager, that everyone wanted to work for, wouldn't you want to emphasive that in the job ad? Wouldn't that be an incredible source of competitive adavantage in recruiting?

Because when you think about it, very few jobs are 'unique' in that there are not any other similar jobs at other companies. Every company has accountants, marketers, operations people - you get the idea. The differences between any of these jobs at Company 'A' v. Company 'B' boil down to tangible things like compensation, benefits, schedules; and intangible things like company culture, mission, and the personalities and talent of the actual people you will be working with and for.

But most job advertising is about 80% job duties and requirements, 15% generic pablum about the company, and maybe with 5% of the content that actually tries to distinguish the job or role from the hundreds or thousands of similar jobs at other places.

Just once I'd like to see a job ad that said something like - "Look you can get an accounting job anywhere. Take this accounting job, and you'll learn from the best Division Controller our organization has ever had, who has placed her last 4 lead accountants in bigger and better roles in the company. This gal is a star, and she will get the best out of you.''

I'd apply for a job like that, and I hate accounting.

Lessons from an Ad Man #3 - On Judgment and Research

Note: Over the holidays I finished off an old book that had been on my 'I really should read that' list for ages - Confessions of an Advertising Man by ad industry legend David Ogilvy. The 'Confessions', first issued in 1963, provide a little bit of a glimpse into the Mad Men world of advertising in the 50s and 60s.

This will be the last submission I think in the 'Ad Man' series, not because there aren't plenty more nuggets of insight from Confessions of an Advertising Man, but more that if I haven't convinced you by now you should score a copy and read it for yourself you probably never will.

I pulled this last lesson for its increasing relevance today - this new age of information, metrics, and Big Data, where we seem to be continually told, pushed, and cajoled into taking a much more analytical view of the world. Data, statistics, relationships, algorithms - these for many are the new coin of the realm and should be used to inform all kinds of decisions we make as HR and Talent pros.

Data can tell us where we should post our job ads to generate the best candidates, which of these candidates 'match' the job requirement, who might be a culture fit, what questions we should ask them in the interview, and how we should score their answers.  Even more data can tells us how much (or little) we should compensate our employees, how much we need to reward out top performers to convince them to stay, and which ones are likely to progress in the organization - making increased attention and investment in them pay off. And still more data can tell us where we should expand - what locations and markets have the 'right' supply of talent that fits our talent success profiles - and where we need to consider contingent staff or outsourcing to fill in the gaps.

In 2013 and beyond you as an HR and Talent pro will simply have to get more comfortable with data, (big or otherwise), and taking a data-driven approach to workforce planning, staffing, performance management, and rewards. This reality seems clear, and few would dispute the impact and influence that data and analytics will have on HR.

There was plenty of data back in Mr. Ogilvy's day as well. Sure, maybe not the voluminous amounts that we capture today, but still lots of data, and with the more crude tools available back then to aggregate, analyze, and derive insights - it is quite likely than business leaders of that age might also have felt they had a 'Big Data' problem.  Back then Ogilvy sensed a growing tendency for many in his field to become over-reliant on data and research - at the expense of reasoned and experienced judgment. Here is Ogilvy's take on the matter, from a section of the book subtitled 'The Image and the Brand' -

How do you decide what kind of image to build? There is no short answer. Research cannot help you much here. You have actually got to use judgment. I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post, for support rather than illumination. 

Nice shot from the Ad Man, and certainly one that will continue to resonate more and more as the available amount of data and information that will be available to us at almost every part of the talent management process will only increase.

The data, as Ogilvy suggests, has to illuminate, it has to lead us into making the best decisions and even into dreaming up brand new ideas. It can't only be a prop or a justification for a lack of imagination or of daring. If we let data and data alone drive our actions, well then we can easily be replaced by it, and by technology that can process it much faster and more efficiently than we ever could.

The data will consume us if we allow it to I think. 

Use your best judgment on this...