Steve's Holiday Gift Recommendation #5 - For the corporate design geeks like me

We are grinding down to the end of the year pretty quickly, and glancing at the calendar I think this will be the penultimate one of these holiday gift recommendation Friday posts. Then we can get back to the normal important things we do around here like ranking types of food and making even more connections between work and the NBA.

This week's recommedation is slightly different, in that the actual gift won't be available until the Spring, but once I heard about it and checked it out I had to include it as one of the recommendations. Maybe you can order it for that distant relative or friend you won't actually see during the holidays, but wanted to make sure you did not totally forget them. Or maybe you just want to get this one for yourself (or your favorite blogger), and won't mind the delay.

Anyway, on to the gift recommendation...

You may not know Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv by the name of their firm, but you certainly know them from their work. This is the design firm who have created dozens if not hundreds of iconic corporate logos, trademarks, and identity programs. The NBC 'peacock', the US Bicentennial branding, Chase Bank, and the still popular even though the company is no more, Pan Am Airlines are just a few of the images and brands that Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv have created since the firm was founded in 1957.

To recognize, celebrate, and commemorate the firm's 60 years at the forefront of corporate identitity and design, they have created a new book titled 'Identity: Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv' which features over 100 case studies of their work, including some of the brands I mentioned above, as well as others you know and recognize like PBS, Mobil, and the Smithsonian. The book itself will be fantastic to look at and page through, as befitting the firm's focus and commitment to the image, the book is mostly images - examples of the amazing and iconic work this one firm has produced that has had an outsized impact on workplaces and business over the last 60 years.

You can pre-order 'Identity: Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv' here and it is expected to ship in May. You can be patient. I am sure the design lover in your gift list will be happy too.

Why is this stuff important for anyone in business?

I think this quote from Ivan Chermayeff sums it up - “Symbols don’t make clear what you do; it makes it clear who you are."

Reminder, I have no affiliate relationships with any of the gift recommendations. I just think they are cool.

Have a great weekend!

Code words for 'Get ready for some layoffs', ranked

Big news on the corporate M&A front announced this morning with the news that Disney has reached an agreement to acquire substantial portions of the Fox media empire (including Twentieth Century Fox film and TV studios, a bunch of cable and international TV businesses), for approximately $52.4B in Disney stock.

While most of the coverage I read and heard this morning focused on the business and content strategy implications of the deal (basically these assets strengthen and augment Disney's content inventory for their eventual direct to consumer streaming service which will compete with Netflix), less attention was given to the inevitable 'people' costs of these kinds of transactions. Namely, the almost certain reductions in headcounts from the newly combined (and larger) entity as execs look for ways to try and pay for the huge acquisition cost, and wring more profit and efficiency from the combined entity.

And the fun part (it is not really fun, I am being sarcastic), is that when the 'people' issues are discussed in these M&A deals the word 'layoffs' is never, ever used. No, we get other, less direct and more corporate-speak words and phrases that more or less try to mask what is really going to happen to a whole bunch of people that through no fault of their own become part of the costs (ironically savings to the corporation), of these transactions. This topic will always resonate with me because a few years back I was caught on the wrong side of one of these transactions myself.

In that light then, I present my unscientific, unresearched, incomplete, subjective, and 100% accurate ranking of 'Code words for 'Get ready for some layoffs''...

5. More than one appearance in a Press Release of any of the following words - 'Nimble', 'Optimize', 'Simplify', 'Align', ''Strategic', 'Targeted', (I could keep going but you get the idea). The key is the more corporate buzzwords you see, the more you need to worry.

4. 'Refocus', 'Restructure', or for a modern spin 'Pivot to (insert something slightly different from what the company has been doing here)' - The 'Pivot to' something else one is my new favorite. Somehow most corporations equate 'trying something new' with 'get rid or everyone who was doing the old thing'

3. 'Cost savings from efficiencies' - this phrase is actually used in the Disney-Fox press release. But be certain that most of these cost savings will come from the fact that the new entity won't need separate administrative and back office functions. Running payroll for 12,000 employees isn't that much more labor intensive than running it for 9,000 employees.

2.'Rightsizing' - Ever notice that getting the company sized 'right' always means 'making the company smaller?'

1. 'Synergies'- Any time 'synergies' are mentioned anywhere in the Press Release, time to polish up your LinkedIn profile 

Of course you could disagree with these rankings, but sadly, you would be wrong.

Happy Thursday. Hope you don't get M&A'ed before the holidays.

PODCAST: #HRHappyHour 306 - New HR Tech: Connecting Employees with Trusted HR Pros

HR Happy Hour 306 - New HR Tech: Connecting Employees with Trusted HR Pros

Host: Steve Boese

Guests: Toby Hervey, Sarah Sheehan - Founders of Bravely

Listen to the show HERE

This week on the HR Happy Hour Show, Steve is joined by Toby Hervey and Sarah Sheehan, Founders of Bravely, a new HR tech startup that connects employees with trusted HR pros to help them resolve workplace issues. 

On the show, Toby and Sarah shared the reasons behind their decision to launch Bravely -  workplace environments that are more stressed and with more conflict, with many employees feeling reluctant or afraid to bring their concerns to their boss, colleagues, or internal HR resources, and an ever changing and stressful set of conditions in many workplaces.

Based on their work experiences, Toby and Sarah decided to launch Bravely - a tech-powered platform that allows a company's employees to have confidential conversations and receive advice and input from experienced and neutral HR professionals in order to help employees work towards a solution to their workplace issues. As we all know, these often difficult conversations are hard for many employees to raise, and can be ones where they feel scared to even start. Working with Bravely's vetted and experienced pros and advisors, employees usually find a way to make progress, to get past the fear of having hard conversations, and resulting in a better outcome for both the employee and the company.

You can listen to the show on the show page HERE, or by using the widget player below:

This is a really new, interesting, and important new tech, and I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

Learn more about Bravely at www.workbravely.com.

Thanks to show sponsor Virgin Pulse - www.virginpulse.com

And remember to subscribe to the HR Happy Hour Show on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app - just search for 'HR Happy Hour' to subscribe and never miss a show.

CHART OF THE DAY: When does work usually get done?

A few years ago I wrote about a study that concluded that the optimal day/time to conduct a job interview was exactly 10:30AM on Tuesday.

Back then, I wrote:

Even without data to back up that claim, it at least makes intuitive sense to me. Mondays are terrible for everything. Many folks mentally check out by Fridays. That leaves Tuesday - Thursday as options for any kind of important meeting, like a job interview. Let's automatically remove anything after lunch, as you never know how a heavy meal, quick workout, or a couple of shots and a Schlitz are going to have on the interviewer.

So that leaves Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings. Let's rule out Thursday since it is close enough to Friday to catch a little of the 'Is it the weekend yet?' shrapnel. Now we are in a tossup between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. And since even by only Wednesday, lots of folks might already be thinking 'How can it only be Wednesday, this week is taking forever?', Tuesday seems like a safer choice. As for a time - use the Goldilocks approach - not too early, not too late (and too close to lunch), which lands you at 10:30AM.

Made sense back then I guess. We (the Royal 'We', your mileage may differ), are at our peak of attention, focus, energy, and mental capacity at 10:30AM on Tuesday. So schedule that important meeting, interview, presentation - whatever you need to be at your best for, at that time and you increase your chance for success.

Remind yourself to check back on that at 10:30AM tomorrow, (assuming you read this on a Monday, which is when it is getting posted).

I came across a slightly different version of the 'When are we at our best?' question over the weekend via some research results posted on the Redbooth (a provider of project management software) blog titled 'At what time of day do people complete the most tasks?'.

Redbooth studied anonymized data from its user base - over 1.8 million projects and 28 million tasks to try and determine when does work actually get done? Take a look at the chart below that shows what they found about how much work gets done during the typical day.

Kind of makes sense, right? The day starts kind of slow, productivity begins ramping up steeply as the work day progresses and peaks at about 11AM local time (time zones of users were taken into account). Then there is a dip in productivity during the 'normal' lunch break hours that does not really recover as the rest of the day pans out. And around 4PM productivity drops off the proverbial clip and does not recover.

Again, not totally surprising like the answer to the 'When should we schedule the big meeting/interview/presentation?' question.

But a couple of things to note in the Redbooth data that might have an impact on how we plan and perform our work, (and how we manage the folks on our teams).

One, we probably should try no to interrupt our own and our people's most productive times with unnecessary meetings, interruptions, emails, and phone calls. If the sweet spot for productivity is from say 9:30AM - 12:30PM or so, then we should do just about whatever we can to keep that block of time free from distractions and other events that can cause conflicts. Take that standing 10AM Tuesday meeting and think about moving it to 3PM on Thursday, (or consider scrapping it altogether).

Two, the productivity drop is so sharp staring at about 4PM (and continuing through the night and weekends), that we all really need to be honest with ourselves about how much we and our teams are really getting done if we are the kinds that see 12 - 14 hour days and working at least some of the time on the weekends as the norm. The data from the Redbooth platform makes it pretty clear that despite whatever great work we think is getting done at 11PM on Wednesday, it does not add up to much in the data.

And finally, this data suggests or hints at something that many of us have known and research has suggested is true - sustained high productivity over such a large block of time - 8, 10, 12 hours, is really hard for most people to pull off. If we remain committed to the 'standard' working schedule that has dominated for decades, (M - F, 8 hour days, etc.), we should be thinking harder about how we architect work, tasks, meetings, interactions, etc. to try and get the most out of these long days - while not burning out ourselves and our people in the process.

Really interesting data, I think and hopefully helps us to think about how to be better at what we do and what we are trying to do.

Have a great week!

Steve's Holiday Gift Recommendation #4 - The Converse you need in 2018's Color of the Year

There are few things in life I enjoy more than some new kicks. I am not willing to admit publicly just how many pairs of sneakers I own. Let's just say it is somewhere between 'Man that's a lot of sneakers' and 'Wow, I think you have a problem with sneakers.'

But my tastes in sneakers isn't like the crazed 23 year-old sneakerhead chasing rare one-off collaborations or waiting for days in front of some pop-up shop in Manhattan to score a new release of Yeezys. I prefer the classics - Adidas Superstars, Chuck Taylors, Vans, and even some newer takes like Nike KDs or Kyries.

With that in mind, and since our pals at Pantone just announced the 2018 Color of the Year - 'Ultra Violet' - a deep, rich, blue/purple shade, I had to find something for the latest holiday gift recommendation that combines my sneaker aesthetic with 2018's on trend color.

So here you go - the classic Converse One Star Suede Low Top in a rich purple, almost Ultra Violet colorway.

Simple, clean, will go with just about anything you try and pair it with. Works for men and women, (and kids) alike. A step up in refinement from a simpler pair of Chucks but still incredibly affordable, (as I right this, they are listing for $64 on the Converse site).

I own a pair (or two) of One Stars and I can attest they are fantastic looking and exceedingly comfortable. Snagging a pair in 2018's Color of the Year for someone in your gift list, (or maybe just for you), seems like a no-brainer. 

Ok, that's it, I am out. Go shopping or sledding or something.

Reminder - I have no affiliation and receive no compensation if you purchase any of the gift recommendation items.

Have a great Sunday!