REPRISE: Jagger, Warhol, and another guy you've never heard of

Note: The blog is taking some well-deserved rest for the next two weeks (that is code for I am pretty much out of decent ideas, and I doubt most folks are spending their holidays reading blogs anyway), and will be re-running some of best, or at least most interesting posts from 2013. Maybe you missed these the first time around or maybe you didn't really miss them, but either way they are presented for your consideration. Thanks to everyone who stopped by in 2013!

The below post is about my favorite themes in 2013 - talent, and the threat of automation and robotics to workers and originally ran in January 2013.

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Jagger, Warhol, and another guy you've never heard of 

Check the letter below, a fairly famous one at that, written in 1969 from the Rolling Stones Mick Jagger to the artist Andy Warhol regarding Warhol's impending collaboration with the band on the cover art for their soon to be released album:

In three short paragraphs, and with 100 words give or take, Mick schools us all on the difference between the Talent - himself, the band, and of course Warhol; and the 'support' types like the unfortunate Mr. Al Steckler, who will look 'nervous' and can essentially be ignored.

I post a lot on this blog, perhaps too much, about the challenge and threat that increased automation and robot technology pose to the workforce and workplaces of the future. But I don't think that the changes and potential disruption that more powerful automation technologies, smarter artificial intelligences, and the increasing acceptance of robots in all kinds of workplace environments can be ignored. The primary challenge for many of us, and certainly for the next generation of workers, will be to find ways to ensure we can continue to create value - unique, hard to copy, and certainly hard to automate value.

This is not really a new requirement, although the pace of technological advances are making it more pressing. Back in 1969, Mick Jagger already it pegged. People like himself and Andy Warhol, well they were the creators. They were the important parts in the machine. And they'd enjoy the spoils - did you catch the line in the letter were Mick basically tells Warhol to name his price for creating the album cover art?

In 1969, for a non-creative, non-essential type like Steckler the worst think likely to happen was he'd be ignored and maybe marginalized a little. In 2013, the risks of being someone branded as a non-creative, worrying, nervous, functionary I think are far worse.  We can get a robot to handle those jobs soon enough. 

And the robots won't get nervous or bother the talent.

Have a great week all!

Tech Things to Watch in 2013

At the start of the New Year the marketing/branding/digital (I confess, I am not completely sure what exactly they do), firm JWT releases a really cool and interesting collection of '100 Things to Watch' for the upcoming year - a collection of new ideas, trends, technologies, societal shifts, etc. that are meant to stimulate thinking and generate discussion. Many of the 'things to watch' are kind of uber-trendy and destined to be largely unimportant and fleeting, (chia seeds, bee venom, and faux meat), but others, particularly the tech trends that JWT identifies have the potential to be more significant, enduring, and even influential in the design of workplaces and the nature in which work is performed. And we even had some fun talking about some of these items, 'Adult Playgrounds' in particular, on the HR Happy Hour Show last week.

The entire JWT slide presentation is embedded below, (email and RSS subscribers may need to click through), and after the deck I'll pull a few of the 'things to watch' that are likely to be more relevant and meaningful to work and workplaces.

JWT: 100 Things to Watch in 2013 from JWTIntelligence

So which of the 100 things should you as an HR and Talent pro be on the watch for?

 Here are just a few I think you should keep an eye on.

11. Biometric Authentication - As a means to combat fraud and improve information security, systems of all kinds (building access, financial, smartphones), are moving toward biometric means (iris scans, fingerprints) of authentication. For organizations with particular security concerns, we may see a shift towards making employees access data and facilities with their bodies, rather than some complex passwords they have to leave posted on sticky notes on their desks.

22. Data Scientists - The New Hotshots - So maybe you've heard of this little mega-trend known as 'Big Data' - well everyone else has too, and just about every organization is soon going to be wrestling with not just the technologies required to collect data, but with finding people with the right skill sets that can help them assess, analyze, interpret, and make 'Big Data' actionable. Have fun finding, (and affording) these geeky geniuses in 2013.

39. Geofencing - This idea, the ability to target and message consumers who are in or near a particular location using smartphone GPS information has been around for some time. But in 2013, JWT sees it growing in use and importance, particularly in retail locations. But how about for recruiting? Could a technology that dynamically messages potential candidates at a conference or career fair be all that far off? 

43. Human Centered Tech - This one is a bit related to the Biometric Authentication trend, if just a little more vague and esoteric. The basic idea is that technologies will increasingly adapt to their users, more fully, more flexibly, and by 'learning' about their users. Think about this trend in terms of HR systems you may have deployed today that have versions or interfaces for wide swaths of users, (managers, staff, executives). Going forward this trend

80. Self-service -  Wow, self-service? Really? Haven't we had self-service all over the place for ages? Well, yes - but in 2013 JWT suggesting that we will see self-service in even more applications - tagging your own bags at the airport, monitoring your own vital signs, and handling even more support and service requests on our own. And even though we've had 'self-service' applications in HR forever, in 2013 and beyond whether it is due to advances in the technology, the prevalence of mobile devices, or the increased acceptance by all employees to 'do their own HR', we should expect to plan for even more self-service applications.

What do you think? On the mark? Crazy?

Time will tell.

If you take a few minutes to have a look through the entire list, let me know what other 'Things to Watch in 2013' you think will impact the world of work.

#HRHappyHour LIVE Tonight - 'Happy HR New Year'

So are you back at it as we start 2013?

The holidays are over and you are (hopefully) back to work, back to dealing with all the drama, intrigue, and mystery of life in the modern workplace?

That description sort of makes work seem like a made for Lifetime original movie. Which would probably be more fun I suppose than real work.

Well my friends, as you start your 2013 HR and Talent journey, you are not alone. The HR Happy Hour Show is back with you as well, with our first live show of 2013, tonight, Thursday January 3rd at 8:00PM ET.

You can listen to the show live tonight at 8:00PM on the show page here - on the listener line 646-378-1086, or on the widget player below. Also, you can participate on the show backchannel on Twitter - hashtag #HRHappyHour.

Listen to internet radio with Steve Boese on Blog Talk Radio

And, if for some reason you miss the show live, you can always catch the replay on the show page, or on iTunes - just search the podcasts section for 'HR Happy Hour.'

Joining us to talk the about the upcoming year in HR will be long time friend of the show and HR executive Trish McFarlane.  We will be taking your calls about:

The biggest HR and Talent Management challenges you see for 2013

The buzzwords from 2012 that need to go away, and which ones really have legs, (I am looking right at you 'employee engagement').

What trends in HR and consumer technology might have the biggest impact on the workplace?

What industry events and conferences do you have on your calendar for 2013?

How do you plan to keep yourself educated, up to date, and challenged in 2013 - especially if you've been in HR for a long time?

These questions and more will be answered on the next episode of the HR Happy Hour Show - LIVE tonight at 8:00PM.

I hope you can join us tonight, else risk a disastrous 2013....

Some 2013 Tech Trends - Micro-networks and Human Appeal

There have already been a slew of '2013 Tech Predictions' or 'Trends to Watch for in 2013' pieces already written, and no doubt the next few weeks will see scores more.  I'll probably chime in with one myself early next year, but would prefer to hold off for a bit and employ the classic 'Fourth Bidder Strategy' from the The Price is Right.  Essentially, I want to read as many of these 'predictions' posts as I can before weighing in with mine. I bid one dollar, Bob.

In doing research for my upcoming reasoned analysis of the big trends in technology in 2013, I did find this excellent presentation, (embedded below, email and RSS subscribers may need to click through), titled '20 Tech Trends for 2013' from the San Francisco design firm Frog Design. Take a look through the deck, and I have a couple of takes about the HR, HR Technology, and Workplace implications of the trends that Frog identifies.

2013 Tech Trends from frog

Some interesting trends and takes for 2013 I think. But there are two that I specifically want to call out as I think that they are pretty accurate and they do have some direct tie-in to the work we do in HR and HR Technology.

Devices with Human Appeal (starts from Slide 7) - These trends or predictions are a few different aspects of an emerging theme that posits technology, interfaces, machine intelligences.etc. are getting smaller, more ubiquitous, and have the potential to interact with us more seamlessly and more intimately. The suggestion for workplace and HR technologies are many - equipping field and customer-facing staff with more lightweight and intelligent (learning) apps, building tools that do more than collect information, but can interpret it and make subtle workplace adjustments, and technologies that feel more like apps - not in how they are accessed but how they perform, doing one or two things only, but doing them exceedingly well.

Specialized Social Networks (starts from Slide 29) - Some interesting contexts (in health care, community organizing), that highlight the fact that as networks continue to get larger and larger, than real value and opportunity comes from exploiting the sub or micro networks that from within them. Think of any large organization, (especially ones with multiple locations), not as a collective network, but as a collection of sub-networks.  There are definitely some important implications for HR Tech I think, from designing systems for local needs, to supporting more close-to-the-front-line technologies, and to developing for more flexibility and local adaptation and adoption.

Mostly these '2013 Predictions' pieces are kind of silly, designed for page view generation and such. But I really did like the set from Frog, as instead of simply extending incrementally the things we are doing today for another 12 months, these ideas challenge us as technologists and designers of the employee/customer/user experience to think a little bolder, a little more expansively.

The truth is that 2013 will look and feel a lot like 2012. But I suppose it doesn't have to. And for the most successful organizations and people, it probably will look radically different.