One discusson, three platforms, twenty peeps

Ok, so that was a bad title, this is really just a little story of how some social media tools facilitated some fantastic dialog and ongoing discussion on real business and Human Resources issues.

Last Friday night Shauna and I did a HR Happy Hour Show about Tattoos, Piercings, and Diversity in the workplace. The show was really a discussion on company culture, and how culture is developed and perpetuated in the workplace.  It was a really fun show, and I encourage you to listen to the archive here:

 Also since there is no live show tonight, this should give you your HR Happy Hour fix until next week.

The next morning, Saturday, the culture discussion continued on Twitter among myself, The HR Maven, and Tammi Colson. We kicked around the idea of culture being a top-down, leadership driven construct versus the notion of company culture really begin driven and enforced so to speak by employees themselves. It was a pretty interesting exchange to have early on a Saturday morning, but definitely very interesting and informative

On Tuesday I blogged here about Technology and Company Culture, mostly riffing the conversation from the show and form the impromptu Twitter chat on Saturday morning. The basic question I asked was can the application of collaboration technology actually drive a change in company culture.  There was some excellent comments and discussion on the post.

And of course the debate carried over to Twitter on Tuesday night, where Beth Carvin, Kevin Grossman, Robin Schooling and I debated the whole Technology and culture issue some more.

So by my count the final tally was one radio show with about ten active participants, one blog post with about eight commenters, and two separate twitter chats involving five more people.

All great discussions, all happening in 'off hours' (heck on Tuesday night I was grilling ribeyes and having a beer during the chat), and all enabled by various social media tools.

And by the way, just some of the 'titles' represented in the various discussions - CEO, VP of HR, HR Director, and VP of Marketing among others. Look the titles don't really mean all that much to me, but I mention them to underscore the point that social media in general and Twitter in particular is not all about inane blather about what people had for lunch.

I probably learned more about company culture in the last few days, from this diverse group of people that I had in the last five years.

Carnival Time - Training Time Style

The latest edition of the often imitated, never bettered Carnival of HR is up at the Training Time blog.

Lots of great contributions as usual, some of my favorites this time are:

Your HR Guy advises not to underestimate your social media connections

The HR Bartender on why some people get desperate when faced with failure.

and Sakib Khan, of HR with Sakib Khan, on how Google Wave can improve collaboration and HR.

And thanks to Training Time for including my post on the conditions necessary for collaboration environments to thrive - Care to Share

Great job as usual on the Carnival and happy reading!

News from the HR Blogosphere

Some great Human Resources Bloggers have recently moved their blogs, and some others have jumped into the HR blogosphere for the first time.

There were a few of these this week, so I thought it good to summarize them here:

Blogs that moved

Human RaceHorses - Michael VanDervort's blog is now at www.thehumanracehorses.com, and in addition to a new web address, has a great new look.  Michael does a great job with the HR and Social Media space, and his blog is a must read.

PsuedoHR - April Dowling's blog has a new look and a new home, at www.pseudohr.com and I love her tag line 'Because HR can fake it too'. April also was a great sport and hosted a post from one of my students, Downsizing Blues.

New HR Blogs that you have to put in your Reader:

Do the Work - the new blog from Franny Oxford has a great premise, '50 Memos to the Universe'.  Franny is off to a great start, and I bet the Universe will want more than the promised 50 memos before it is all over.

HRWhisperer - The HR Whisperer is Heather Vogel, and her new blog can be found at www.hrwhisperer.com. Heather will be sharing her perspectives on the world of work and people with the vision of an experienced Organizational Development consultant.

And one more thing...

The fantastic Lisa Rosendahl is thinking of re-naming the HR Thoughts blog, pay her a visit and share some of your HR Thoughts with her. Also, it was her Birthday yesterday, so please give her a shout-out if you haven't already.

Oh, and one more thing - Shauna and I have been working on a new home for the HR Happy Hour Show, once it is ready, I will be sure to post that information here.

Did I miss any new additions or changes? If I did, let me know in the comments.

Good luck to everyone with the new homes and blogs!

I'm an HR Rock Star? Really?

Well, the Creative Chaos Consultant seems to think so. Flickr - themechanism

Head over the the CCC blog to see my interview on HR Technology, teaching HR, The HR Happy Hour Show, with a bit of barbecue mixed in.

Thanks, CCC for the interview and for putting me the the 'Rock Star' category.

Hmm, maybe I need to don the costume and makeup like Gene here from now on....

HR, Barbecue, and a Blog Conference

I am pretty much spending all my 'spare' time on two areas: HR (really HR Technology) and Barbecue. So for me it is great anytime I can combine those two interests. So a couple or quick notes on that front.

First, Heather McCulligh from Halogen Software has a great post about how HR can spice up the annual employee barbecue (and thanks very much for the shout-out Heather).

Second, Trish McFarlane from the HR Ringleader blog, Ben Eubanks from Upstart HR, Mike Owcarz, and myself and some others  have had a few conversations about creating an HR Blogger 'Un'conference.  A sort of casual, fun, 1 or 2 day event for the HR Blogger community to meet, network, and share their specific expertise to the larger group.

What does that have to do with Barbecue? Well, we are thinking of having the Unconference in Cleveland, Ohio which is in driving range of Western New York which means I can easily haul along this:

Yep, that is my baby and if we can pull of the Unconference in Cleveland I think I will try to come in a day early to fire up the Chargriller and do some brisket, ribs, and whatever else the HR Bloggers fancy.

If you are interested in the HR Blogger Unconference, shoot Trish a note or a DM, she is the mastermind behind these evil schemes or check out the HR Blog Confernece wiki site.