Steve's 12 Rules For Life

Apologies if this '12 Rules for Life' meme is a bit worn out (I confess to have only just seen it in the last week or so here and here and since I am pretty much absent on most forms of social media these days I have a feeling these kinds of things come and go and I usually don't catch them), but since it reminded me a bit of blogging say, 10 years ago when these kinds of themes were passed around in blog 'tags' and comments, I thought I would give it a shot.

So here goes - in no order of importance, relevance, research, or general applicability. 

And, there are lots of more important rules - like the ones concerning family, relationships, etc. that I have no desire to even try to offer advice, let alone rules. Consider these the most unimportant, but somehow vital 12 rules for life you will ever read. If you read them that is.

And now here goes...

1. Pick up the tab - You don't have to do this all the time, just sometimes. There is nothing more awkward than handing a server or bartender seven different credit cards to try and settle a $132 check. Pick up the tab and you just made six friends. And made a deposit in the bank of good karma. You may need that one day.

2. No talking in a public restroom - with the exception of someone in authority if they need to shout 'The building is on fire, everyone evacuate!'

3. Do whatever you can to control your schedule. Most of us will end up with some kind of job or career where bosses, colleagues, customers, clients, etc. all have some kind of claim on our time. The more you can limit the number of people who can lock up your time and the amount of time you have to be available to others, the more you will be able to focus on what you truly want to do, and I bet you will be happier overall. Call it your own 'Executive Time' if you have to, and block your own calendar.

4. Don't stress over the dessert or the third slice of pizza or the french fries or whatever you consider your dietary weakness. No one ever looks back on their life and says 'Gee, I wish I drank more water and ate more salad.' 

5. Jog/walk/move a little bit more. Sometimes when I travel I have to take two pretty long connecting flights in a row. And sometimes I see the some of the same people get off the first plane, where we had all been sitting for three hours or so, and immediately park themselves down in another seat to wait an hour just to get on another three hour flight where once again, we will all be sitting. It baffles me. And while you are at it, you don't need to find the closest parking space to the grocery store or post office or theater. Park a little farther out and walk for two minutes. It's fun. 

6. Never place a bet on any animal that can't talk. Betting on ones that can talk is also advised against, but it is fun. Except for tennis. Don't bet on tennis, it is pretty likely the match is fixed.

7. Don't spend too much time on social networks. I know, that 'rule' is everywhere. But even Zuckerberg has admitted that Facebook (heavy use of Facebook anyway), is not that great for you. Check it like you check your snail mail - a quick scan for a minute as you bring it in from the mailbox and then maybe for 15-20 minutes later as you sort out what is important, what can be trashed and what you need to read. Reading long lists on blogs is, however, very admirable and good for you. So keep doing that. Well done.

8. Sign up for TSA Pre-check. Even if you only travel a few times a year it is worth every cent. 

9. Figure out the three things or types of work that you like to do the most, (or which you want to become more proficient), and make sure you reserve time every week to work on these three things. Keep (loose) track of the time you spend on these things and do a kind a self-audit every few months to determine two things. One, are you actually making time to do the things you really want to do? And two, are you getting better at these things? I think the thing that holds us back the most at work and maybe even in life, is that we are not good or comfortable with self-examination and making an honest assessment of things. If that sounds like a bit of a confession/admission you are right.

10. Set expectations (where you can). In a project or a negotiation or even just 'normal' business, people are generally going to be happy or at least satisfied as long as they are not disappointed or surprised. If you have to, set an email auto-responder during your busy times, (maybe all the time), that lays out when people can expect to hear back from you or the time it will take for you to take some action. If you email me today, (it's a Thursday as I write this), and I auto-respond I will get back to you by Monday COB, then at least you understand not to expect a reply on Friday. This is also a confession/admission of sorts.

11. It's ok to be a snob about something, (wine, beer, cheese, movies, books, etc.) but not everything. Popular culture is called that because it's you know, popular. Lots and lots of people drink Coors Light, eat at Taco Bell, and go on Dunkin' runs. Jumanji grossed about $340M in 2017. And the people that drink Coors Light and hit the Taco Bell on the way to catch Jumanji? You have to work with them, serve them as customers, and socialize with them. You are not any better than them because you like some triple-hopped craft IPA that was brewed in someone's backyard. 

12. Don't listen to anyone's rules about how to live. Except for number 8 above. You will never regret not waiting in the 'regular' line at security.

If you decide to post your '12 Rules' somewhere let me know in the comments, or add a rule or two of your own there. 

Have a great day!

Creating a more human relationship with technology

I have been thinking and writing about the early and potential future impact of voice-enabled digital assistant technologies (like Amazon's Alexa, Google Home, and others), pretty often in 2018, so much so that I had pretty much decided to lay off the topic for a bit, as it was getting kind of repetitive.

But as keeps happening, over the weekend I read a really interesting article from the Think With Google team sharing some survey results on how people are using and perhaps more interestingly, feeling about their interactions, usage, and relationship with these digital assistants and platforms. There are two really interesting data points from the survey I wanted to share, as they both reveal something interesting and important as HR tech providers and HR practitioners and end users consider the development and application of voice enabled/driven assistants in workplace tech.

One: People who own voice activated technologies like the Echo and the Google Home are quickly incorporating them into their daily lives and routines:

 

Why that matters: Driving user adoption of workplace technologies has always been a challenge for technology developers and implementation teams. But these voice activated digital assistants are showing that new tech that is easy to access, provides value quickly and clearly, and provides a kind of fun and engaging experience while also providing value, will be readily adopted by most people.

Two - The nature of the voice interface and activation is making the relationship between users and technology much more personal, even human. 

 

Why that matters -  It seems like the nature of how these digital assistants are created, how we interact with them, (more or less conversationally), how they have names (Alexa, Siri), and how they even have some level of personality (ask Alexa to tell you a joke, or tell her 'I'm sorry' sometime), and the technology seems to become more a part of our overall way of experiencing the world, and not a separate thing or tool we have to learn how to use. The technology and capability continues to blend into the world and into the other kinds of tools and tech we use all the time - cars, thermostats, appliances, and computers. In the workplace, we need to start to think about making our HR and workplace tools and technologies ones that are just 'there' - embedded in other workplace systems, active in workplace settings like conference rooms, and accessible at all times with a simple voice command.

I continue to find the entire voice activated / digital assistant space incredibly interesting. Hope you do as well. 

The next project to work on is getting an HR Happy Hour Podcast skill/update on Alexa!

Critics

From the Wikipedia page on Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957)

Perhaps one reason Sibelius has attracted both the praise and the ire of critics is that in each of hisJean Sibelius is not hearing any of your crap. seven symphonies he approached the basic problems of form, tonality, and architecture in unique, individual ways. On the one hand, his symphonic (and tonal) creativity was novel, but others thought that music should be taking a different route. Sibelius's response to criticism was dismissive: "Pay no attention to what critics say. No statue has ever been put up to a critic."

You are either a creator or a critic.

Choose your side wisely my friends.

Have a great day!

Knowing where to optimize your talent

Over the weekend I caught this pretty interesting discussion on the Marginal Revolution site, 'Where is talent opimized?', a discussion of what industries (or more accurately job roles), have the ideal or 'best' talent suited for their roles actually doing those roles.

It makes more sense to think about this idea of talent optimization, a state where the very best people who could perform a job are actually in that job by looking at a couple of examples where the difference is pretty clear. For example, professional basketball players, who are subject to years or training, competition, evaluation, and measurable performance metrics are probably the 'optimal' group of folks to actually be playing pro basketball. Said differently, it isn't likely there is a large untapped, undiscovered group of people who really should be playing pro basketball, but for some reason (or some labor market inefficiency), they are doing some other job instead.

Compare that to a job like mid-level management or perhaps many governmental jobs. In many of these roles performance is harder to quantify and measure, compensation levels are either opaque or set on criteria other than performance, barriers to entry to the profession exist, (lots of 'referral' hiring for example), and finally many of these jobs have been closed off to under represented groups for a long time. When you think about it, it seems really unlikely that talent in these kinds of roles, in any organization, will be the 'best' or 'optimal'. It is just too hard to even figure out what 'optimal' even means I would argue. Finally, roles that once you 'get in' it is almost impossible to get removed from for poor performance or incompetence should also be added to this group of sub-optimized talent profiles.

Why is this interesting (at least to me?)

Because I think often while we know that some roles in the organization are more important/strategic to the organization than other roles, we don't always acknowledge that there also exists this difference in the ability to 'optimize' talent across different roles as well. Although the distinction may be subtle, these two are not actually the same thing.

Finally, understanding how (or I suppose if), an organization can exploit these kinds of selection/sorting inefficiencies and get 'better' or more optimal talent attracted to roles that typically are less likely to be optimized, could result in a competitive advantage through talent that is usually unrealized.

In other words, if your organization could truly have the 'best' front-line managers wouldn't that make a huge difference in business and talent outcomes?

I will leave you with this one link to think about this more - In-N-Out Managers make $160,000 annually.

Have a great week!

n = 1

1. Do for-profit organizations enact general or across the board wage/salary hikes just because more favorable tax policies will result in increased corporate profits? Or do they raise compensation for the basic and fundamental 'talent' reasons we all know about - worries about retention and attraction of people, and the need to compete more aggressively for these people? 

2. It is not just the United States that seems to want to make immigration more about merit and the need to find workers with a Liam Neeson style 'particular set of skills'. Check out this piece describing the challenge in Japan - facing a declining (and aging) native population and having difficulty recruiting high-skilled workers. If you are a mobile, highly skilled, and adventurous type, I'd say your options for traveling the world and making a great living have never been better.

3. A recent Marist poll reports that 94% of US workers think it is unlikely they will lose their jobs to automation. One of the reasons cited was 'I don't think a robot would love my job as much as I do'. But I wonder - (sorry Tina Turner), 'What's love got to do with it?'

4. Want to get a job at auto manufacturer Volvo? You may need to interview inside/with a car (see below, email and RSS subscribers may need to click through)

5. We did a fun and I think interesting HR Happy Hour Podcast this week - check out Trish McFarlane and I with our new series 'The H3 Hot 3' where we talk pay equity and fairness, leadership when the leader is always right, and why/how change and change management can be so difficult.  

6. Did your city not make the short list for Amazon's new HQ? Be careful, some losing cities are are now wallowing in an existential crisis of self-examination. My take? I think it is always good to face up to your own weaknesses and limitations. But it isn't great to dwell too long on them. And my city, (for now), will get over it. We still have the Garbage Plate.

7. Sports take of the week: I am so disappointed in how my New York Knicks are playing. But I am still excited to see HR Tech companies Infor, (Brooklyn Nets), and Ultimate Software (Miami Heat), as official NBA jersey sponsors this season, (and as I predicted way back when). Also, check out the extremely cool Heat 'Miami Vice' alternates that were unveiled this week.

8. The 2017 Oscar nominations are out. I have to this point seen 2 of the 9 movies up for Best Picture. Going to grind through the other 7 in the next few weeks to get ready for the annual HR Happy Hour Oscars Preview and Predictions show next month. Who do you like for Best Picture?

9. This was a big week in HR and HR tech for acquisitions. ADP acquired WorkMarket. Maestro Health was acquired by AXA. And in a really exciting development, LRP (the owner of the HR Technology Conference and HR Executive Magazine) has acquired Singapore based HRM Asia. I think these are just the first of what should be a busy and active year for investments and M&A in the HR and HR Tech space.

10. When does the Shamrock Shake come back? The McRib? These are the important questions that torment me.

Have a great weekend!