GUEST POST: Girl Scout Cookies, Ranked

Editor's Note: Today, in a very special event on the Steve Boese blog, we present a very, very rare guest post. 

Today's post is from none other than the mighty Matt 'akaBruno' Stollak, Professor of Many Things at St. Norbert College, father or twins, founding member of The 8 Man Rotation, and all around swell guy. Matt's past is a little less clear, some say in 1935 he ran guns to Ethiopia, and in 1936 he fought in Spain on the loyalist side. I like to think he may have killed a man, but that's the romantic in me. 

Nonetheless, and without delay, I present Matt's take on a very, very important topic: Girl Scout Cookies. Enjoy!

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Girl Scout Cookies, Ranked 

By Matthew Stollak

If you aren’t already aware, it’s Girl Scout Cookie season. If the Girl Scouts haven’t already been to your front door selling their wares, they are waiting outside your local supermarket, or a dutiful parent is pitching them at your office.

I’m on record as stating that Girl Scout cookies are mediocre, but you’ll buy them anyway. So, if you have to purchase them, here’s the definitive 2016 ranking.

12. Caramel deLites/Samoas – Controversial, I know. It has chocolate, it has caramel. But, it also contains the devil’s floss – toasted coconut. Worst!

11. Cranberry Citrus Crisps – What focus group demanded these? Is it still Thanksgiving?

10. Lemonades – There are many great icings in the world…chocolate, vanilla….yet, you choose lemon?!?!?

9. Savannah Smiles – You can try to cover the sour taste of lemon with powdered sugar, but it is still a fail. More like Savannah Frowns, I’m afraid.

8. Rah-Rah Raisins - It’s horrible to reach for a chocolate chip cookie, only to find it is oatmeal raisin. Now add yogurt and make it mass-produced, and you have something not worth cheering about.

7. Trios – Too much of everything….chocolate chips, peanut butter, oatmeal. Should work in theory, but the whole is less than its parts. (Steve here - agree, and oatmeal does not belong in cookies)

6. Toffee-tastic – Rich, buttery cookies with golden toffee bits. Add chocolate and it would move up the charts.

5. Trefoils – This is your basic shortbread cookie. Not bad, but it doesn’t wow you either.

4. Thanks-A-Lot - They take the Trefoil and add fudge to the bottom. Plus, the embossed “Thank You” is in several languages. So, not only is it tasty, it’s educational as well.

3. Do-Si-Dos/Peanut Butter Sandwich – Top 3, but could rise higher if they switched out the oatmeal cookie with the shortbread.

2. Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs – It’s a generic PB Twix. 

1. Thin Mints – What else could be at the top? Especially out of the freezer, you know you’ll eat a whole sleeve.

Steve here - Thanks Matt for weighing in on this important topic.

And as always with these 'Ranked' posts, you could disagree, but you would be wrong.

Have a great weekend!

PODCAST - #HRHappyHour 232 - Culture and Technology at Ultimate Software

HR Happy Hour 232 - Culture and Technology at Ultimate Software

Recorded Monday January 25, 2016 at Ultimate Software HQ, Weston, Fl

Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane

Guest: Adam Rogers, CTO, Ultimate Software

This week on the HR Happy Hour Show, while Trish McFarlane was on assignment, Steve Boese welcomed Adam Rogers, CTO from Ultimate Software to the show. Ultimate is a leading provider of HCM technology that has grown over the years from a few people sharing office space in a law office, to an almost 3,000 person-strong organization supporting thousands of customers in the US and around the world.

But perhaps more important than Ultimate's technology innovation is their unique culture, which reinforces their commitment to their employees, their families, the Ultimate customers, and finally, their shareholders. Ultimate has a slogan, 'People First', and once you spend some time with Ultimate people, and hear them talk about what Ultimate represents, reinforces, and values, you will walk away understanding why and how they have won so many 'Best Places to Work' awards - with the signifying banners adorning the rafters of the basketball court that is in the lobby of the Ultimate HQ.

On the show, Ultimate's CTO Adam Rogers shares his perspective and insights on the unique and refreshing Ultimate culture, how that culture informs hiring decisions, customer service and support, and even the way they approach building new and innovative HR technology solutions. Additionally, Adam shared some thoughts about the next evolution of predictive analytics technology for HR as well as some opportunities to innovate in 'commodity' solutions like payroll and employee self-service.

You can listen to the show on the show page HERE, or using the widget player below (email and RSS subscribers will need to click through).

This was an enormously fun show to do, and many thanks to Adam and the team at Ultimate for hosting the HR Happy Hour show this week.

Reminder: you can subscribe to the HR Happy Hour Show on iTunes or using your favorite podcast app for Android or iOS. Just search for 'HR Happy Hour' to add the show to your subscriptions and you'll never miss a show.

Dunbar strikes again

This recent piece on CNET, You can only really count on 4 of your 150 Facebook friends, study says, a recap of some recently published research by none other than Robin Dunbar, (of Dunbar's number), reminded me of a piece I posted here almost 5 years ago. Long story short, once again Dunbar's essential observation and conclusion about the number and strength of personal relationships that a person can have and maintain, (around 150 in total), continues to be validated even in the age of constant connectivity and ubiquitous use of social networking platforms. 

You can check out the CNET piece, and the link to the related research paper from Dunbar, and just for fun, I am going to re-run my almost 5 year old piece below as well. That Dunbar, he never stops being right it seems...

In the Jungle, or on Twitter, Dunbar Still Has You Beat

June 2011

You might be familiar with Dunbar's number - the theoretical limit on the number of meaningful and stable social relationships that one can successfully maintain. First proposed by the British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, it asserts that the actual number of social relationships one can maintain ranges from 100 to about 230, with 150 as the commonly accepted value.Should I 'unfriend' Steve?

Dunbar's original studies that led to the development of the concept of the 'number', were conducted on studies of the social activity of non-human primates, that as far as we can tell, did not have many Facebook friends or Twitter followers. Why do I toss in the social networking bit? Well, in this modern age of social networking, hyper-connectivity, and the ability to make some kind of connection, (meaningful or otherwise), with thousands upon thousands of people is now quite possible and fairly simple.

Naturally the technological and social revolutions have led many to question or even claim that modern social networking technology can indeed finally enable individuals to effectively expand the actual number of social relationships they can successfully maintain, that in the age of Facebook and Twitter and the ease with which these tools allow essentially limitless connections to be made, that Dunbar's number might no longer apply.

Recently Bruno Goncalves and a team of researchers from Indiana University set out to determine if indeed this was the case. They studies the actions and interactions and the networks of connections of over 3 million Twitter users over a period of 4 years, examining a grand total of over 380 million tweets. The researchers wanted to see if indeed among these 3 million users, they could discern patterns and evidence, (replies, conversations, sustained connections, etc.), that could prove that the long-accepted Dunbar limitation of 150 would indeed be more easily overcame, aided by the ease and speed and facilitated connection engine that is Twitter.

Their findings? (below quote lifted directly from their paper's conclusion)

Social networks have changed they way we use to communicate. It is now easy to be connected with a huge number of other individuals. In this paper we show that social networks did not change human social capabilities. We analyze a large dataset of Twitter conversations collected across six months involving millions of individuals to test the theoretical cognitive limit on the number of stable social relationships known as Dunbar's number. We found that even in the online world cognitive and biological constraints holds as predicted by Dunbar's theory limiting users social activities.

I follow about 6,000 people on Twitter. I probably interact regularly with maybe 100 or 150 of them. Which is altogether normal and expected and not at all unexpected according to our friend Dunbar, the primates he studied, and the results seen from the recent research from Indiana University.

The larger point in all this?

I suppose keeping in mind that no matter how large and diverse and important seeming these giant networks of contacts, connections, followers, and friends we build online are to us, to our businesses and our personal lives, the technology itself has yet to do much to overcome some of the apparent laws of nature and biology.

What do you think? Can you really have more than 150 'friends'?

PODCAST: #HRHappyHour 231 - Employee Financial Wellness

HR Happy Hour 231 - Employee Financial Wellness

Recorded Friday January 22, 2016

Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane

Guest: Steve Wilbourne, CEO, Questis 

Listen HERE

This week on the show join Steve Boese and Trish McFarlane as they discuss the increasingly important topic of employee financial wellness and well-being with guest Steve Wilbourne, CEO of Questis, a software and services provider of employee financial wellness technology and resources.

On the show, we discuss the issues that many employees are facing with financial planning, financial readiness in case of unforeseen expenses or challenges, and the benefits to organizations and to employees in providing more modern, personalized, and affordable tools for employees to help manage their finances.

In addition, Steve (the host Steve), made a semi-serious pitch for the return of employee pensions, Trish shared a bit of a preview for the widely anticipated HR Happy Hour Oscars show coming soon, and Steve shamelessly appealed for some big-time corporate sponsors to come on board, (are you listening Delta and Dr. Pepper?).

You can listen to the show on the show page HERE, or by using the widget player below (Emaill and RSS subscribers will need to click through)

This was an interesting and informative show about employee financial wellness, many thanks to Steve Wilbourne from Questis for joining us. To learn more about Questis, please go towww.myquestis.com.

Thanks for listening and remember to add the HR Happy Hour Show to your podcast subscriptions in iTunes, Stitcher Radio, or any of the major podcast apps. Just search for 'HR Happy Hour' to subscribe.

Announcement: The Health & Benefits Leadership Conference

Quick break from the regularly scheduled nonsense compelling content on the blog to share some information and a special discount offer for the upcoming 4th Annual Health & Benefits Leadership Conference that will take place March 30 - April 1, 2016 at the fabulous Aria resort in Las Vegas.

This event has grown into what I think is the premier conference for corporate leaders that oversee benefits, wellness, and the overall well being (health, financial, physical, emotional), of their employees. 

Don't believe me? 

Take a guick look at the agenda for the conference here. You will see dozens of sessions covering the most important, relevant, and cutting-edge topics in health, benefits, and wellness today. From current issues with health care and employer-sponsored benefits to financial wellness to important issues around work/life balance, and more - the Health & Benefits Leadership Conference offers HR and benefits leaders a tremendous opportunity to learn, network, and raise their understanding of the most important issues and potential solutions for their benefits challenges.

Just some of the health and benefits thought leaders that will be speaking at the conference include Alexandra Drane, Ron Leopold, Jennifer Benz, Carol Harnett, Fran Melmed and many more.

And your humble correspondent, (me), will once again serve as host of the wildly popular 'Ideas and Innovators' session where health and benefits innovators and provocateurs will share their most challenging and cutting-edge ideas in a fast-paced and fun format.

And more that 70 providers of services and technology, including some of the most innovative companies in the world, will be on hand in the Expo hall, where benefits pros can see, touch, and learn more about the latest technology solutions that can enhance and support their organizational benefits and wellness programs.

If you are a benefits or wellness pro, this is one event that you don't want to miss, and to make it a little easier for you to attend, blog readers can use the registration discount code BOESE16  to get an additional $75 off the current rate. Just go to www.benefitsconf.com and click on 'Register'.

Hope to see lots of readers out at the event, if you see me, make sure to day hi!