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Speaking Socially, What Is Influence? #TChat Preview

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Written by Crystal Miller

Just for kicks, I keep a running list of “industry buzzwords” that make me laugh (or groan) because they are often misunderstood on the application level.  “Influence,” especially as it relates to the world of #SocialMedia, has long since been on my list.  “WHAT IS INFLUENCE?”

If you asked my 14-year-old, she’d answer that influence pretty much comes with popularity.  Come to think of it, in the compulsory school setting, that’s probably true… but in the World of Work, we navigate different jungle gyms than the ones we did during our earlier education. .. Don‘t we?  While who you know, who you spend your time with and how you’re perceived certainly still holds influential relevance; what you contribute, do, and can do for others become primary factors in achieving influence… offline & in a social media setting.   Social media influence tools such as Klout, SocialIQ, and Booshaka seem to back this up… but, as with any system, if it can be ‘gamed,’ can it be fully trusted?

When you do achieve ‘influence,’  what does it do for you, anyway??  In the World of Work it’s generally accepted that influence opens doors, strengthens relationships, and builds credibility.  People tend to trust the recommendation of their friends over the advertisement they saw during the Superbowl; no matter how catchy it might be.  Facebook took that concept all the way to the bank with their “Like” thumbs-up; and now we can tumbl, stumble, and +1 any article, brand, business, or product that catches our eye.

Of course, just as Uncle Ben explained to Peter Parker in Spiderman “With great power comes great responsibility.”  Influence is, to a degree, power – so those who wield it do face the potential landmine of dealing with the responsibility that goes along with it.  In the world of Social, this often means promoting the causes and agendas of others.  This is not an inherently bad thing; but it does require the ability to balance those requests with our own needs & work.  Actually, that statement probably applies to the world of Social Media in general.  To gain and keep “social influence” online requires a time investment that must be balanced against our business and personal objectives/responsibilities; yet another potential landmine to navigate.  Yes, the connections & engaging conversations you have online may drive up your Social IQ score – but that’s going to be of little comfort if you lose your paycheck in the process… so know your end-goal objectives going in.

This week, we’ll be looking at what social “Influence” really means and how important is it within the World of Work?  Join us in our conversation TONIGHT 9/14 with our moderator @MeghanMBiro, along with Co-Hosts @KevinWGrossman and @TheOneCrystal  from 7-8 p.m. (Eastern) via @TalentCulture and @Monster_Works as we explore how we go about being ‘professionally influential’ and all that goes with it… plus, we’ll take a peek at social influence meters like Klout, too!

Questions & Recommended Reading for the #TChat Discussion:

1.       What does “influence” mean to you?    Does it matter?

Read:  “Measuring Influence is About More Than Boosting Your Ego” on Klout by Joe Fernandez

 2.       What goes into creating influence?  How does one become ‘influential?’

Read:  “Outside-the-Box Engagement Tools” on WeKnowNext by Matt Charney

Read: “The One Essential Key to Developing Your Social Media Influence” on Social Media Today by Joshua Leatherman

 3.       What are some of the most significant ways “influence” impacts the world of work?

Read:  “How Social Influence Impacts Consumer Behavior”  by David, Search Engine Marketing Group

 4.       Are there any potential downsides or landmines associated with having influence?

Read:  “What are Pros & Cons of Social Media Marketing” on Social Media Today by Matt Ambrose

5.       Do current tools like Klout accurately reflect influence?  Can “influence” be quantified in the first place?

Read:  “Is Klout a Good Judge of Your Social Media Influence”  on Social Media Examiner by Elijah Young

6.       What impact does social media and emerging technologies have on our perceptions of influence or influencing our behaviors?

Read:  “Quality vs. Quantity Online Relationships” on PullNotPush by Justin Cambria

If Work isn't Fun, You're Doing it Wrong: #TChat Recap

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Also known by the less fun title of:  The Business Heresy of Uninterrupted Power Supplies….

Are we having fun yet?

On Tuesday of this week at the fourth annual National Clean Energy Summit, Vice President Joe Biden said, “Our country has a choice — what kind of country are we going to be? Are we going to rise to the challenges, like our grandfathers and grandmothers did? Or are we going to be a follower? It’s sad that we’re having this debate [about investing in clean tech initiatives] — in the past America has always led.”

And then a day later, in the heart of innovation-leading Silicon Valley, solar panel manufacturer Solyndra shut its doors and laid off all 1,100 of its employees, without any severance packages. This isn’t a political post either way; fierce global competition continues to knock the wind out of manufacturing in this country, and losing money on every solar panel you sell isn’t the way to stay in business, regardless of how much investment you’ve received.

In the past America has always led…

There are times when it’s hard for me to listen to the passionate Zappos social media hippie lovefest of culture-centric companies that focus on the customer and strive to create an emotional connection between product/service and consumer.

[Chuckle] Hey, if it isn’t fun, you’re doing it wrong. Tell that to the millions of professionals out of work and scrambling to reinvent their relevancy in a world looking more and more like the surface of Mars.

However, there is life on Mars. According to the latest ADP jobs report, 91,000 new private sector jobs were created in August. It won’t move the unemployment needle, but there’s still a heartbeat out there. The ADP report said the majority of the job gains in August came from small business. Employers with under 50 workers added 58,000 jobs.

Thankfully many of us are reinventing our relevancy; sparks of innovation are flying all over the world like lighting bugs at dusk. The new lovefest of business leaders are helping to rebuild a world where culture and human connectivity are queen, and recombined business models of sustainability are being applied to industries new and old.

Of course not everyone’s going to make it. Businesses will fail and the lights will go out. Those that do keep the power on want self-powered and empowered employees who help drive the business from the top down, the bottom up and side to side like power lines stretched from here to…

Mars maybe. Or at least the UK, since Borri UPS Systems starting following me on Twitter today, manufacturer and distributor of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).

We can use more of that business heresy.

A very special thank you to 12 Most for being our special guests last night, including Ted Coine, Chris Westfall, Sean McGinnis, Steve Woodruff, Anthony Iannarino and Daniel Newman. 12 Most is a business and social media blogger collective of amazing credentials and savvy. And thank you to our very own Matt Charney for rounding out the special guest list as well.

You can catch the #TChat precap here as well as relive last night’s 2nd #TChat Radio show, The Realities of Business Heresy.

The #TChat Twitter chat and #TChat Radio are created and hosted by @MeghanMBiro @KevinWGrossman and powered by our friends and partners @TalentCulture @Monster_WORKS @MonsterCareers and of course @Focus.

Separating ‘Business Heresy’ From Reality: #TChat Preview

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Originally posted by Crystal Miller on MonsterThinking Blog

It’s something we’ve probably all heard at some point in our lives, one of those aphorisms that’s morphed into a truth: “It’s not supposed to be fun; if it were fun, it wouldn’t be called work.”

But are the concepts of work and fun truly mutually exclusive?  For those of us lucky enough to be practitioners of our passion, we know that work, fundamentally, can be fun, and that when it comes to business and pleasure, it’s not an either/or.

After all, satisfying both interests comes down to personal edification and fulfillment, but is the onus for making work fun really up to the individual?  Or is it the company, or job function, or maybe a little of both?

To try to disprove that age old maxim and find out how it can be work if it’s also fun, I thought I’d ask the experts from the #TChat and 12Most communities to weigh in.  Here’s what they had to say:

“It may be the word work that throws things off.  Your career should be fun and you should be working towards something meaningful … the bottom line is you should pursue passion.  If you are working towards a goal and doing something you are passionate about, changes are more times than not you will be enjoying what you do.”

–Dan Newman, Co-Founder of 12most and CEO of United Visual

“The most important question in business is ‘who does it serve?’  Obviously, companies have a responsibility to their shareholders…and they know it.  Economists Michael Jensen and William Meckling kicked this off back in 1976, and Jack Welch ultimately decided you can’t just seek to serve shareholders – it’s a flawed strategy.

On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world.  Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy … your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.”

–Ted Coine, author, blogger & leadership expert

“The challenge is developing a culture that fosters that kind of interaction where new ideas are developed and engaged in the spirit of greater innovation, greater efficiency and (ultimately) greater profitability.”

–Chris Westfall, Business Category Editor, 12Most

But the larger question remains: if driving culture is the challenge for leadership today, what’s the answer?  How can we create a workplace and work-life that’s not only fun, but also rewarding – to shareholders, employees and our clients and customers?

We’ll be exploring these questions and more Wednesday at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT for our monthly #TChat radio series, sponsored by Focus.  To find out more or to register, check out the event site on Focus and let us know you’re listening.

As always, we’ll still be continuing the conversation on Twitter using the #TChat hashtag; if you’re new to #TChat or want more information, check out “What is #TChat” from our partners @TalentCulture.

#TChat Questions & Recommended Reading (08.31.11)

To help prepare, and inform, your participation in this week’s #TChat dialogue, here are the questions we’ll be covering this week, along with some recommended reading that, while not required to participate in #TChat, will help you prepare for this week’s topic: “The Realities of Business Heresy.”

Hope you can tune in at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT as we kick off the discussion with the thought leaders and influencers behind 12most.

Here’s what we’ll be talking about:

Q1: Is it true if work isn’t fun, you’re doing it wrong? Why or why not?

Read: Why Fun at Work Matters by Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher

Q2: Who does your business really serve and why?

Read: The Lifeblood of Your Business by Chris Westfall

Q3: Should the leader steer company culture or should the culture steer leaders?

Read: 7 Critical Leadership Lessons by Daniel Newman

Q4: It’s important to act with certainty in business, but is it okay to laugh sometimes as well?

Read: 10 Tips for Using Humor in the Workplace by Drew Tarvin

Q5: In business, should you surround yourself with diverse opinions? Why or why not?

Read: The 12 Most Irrefutable Laws of Business Heresy by Ted Coine

Q6: If you really want the best talent, do you have to always pay for it? What else is there?

Read: The 12 Effective Morale Builders that Don’t Cost a Cent by Mike Lehr

Visit www.talentculture.com for more great information on #TChat, as well as other great resources on careers and hiring.

Monster’s social media team supports #TChat’s mission of sharing “ideas to help your business and your career accelerate — the right people, the right ideas, at the right time.”

We’ll be joining the conversation at our new time this Wednesday night as co-hosts with Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman from 7-8 p.m. (Eastern) via @MonsterCareers and @Monster_Works.

Career Existentialism And Its Affect On Organizations

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On my blog I’m constantly encouraging leaders to build and develop their people. It’s an absolute essential to create a positive culture that is engaging and profitable. It positions organizations to become an employer of choice which attracts the top talent during recruiting initiatives. Developing others also minimizes turnover which improves your bottom line and keeps productivity at a maximum. There is, however, a dark side to career development.

Career development is best served when it is symbiotic in nature. When both parties approach the affair with the understanding “This will help me as well as the other party.” Organizations develop people and the person being developed wins because they are gaining valuable skills for their profession. The organization gains a more qualified and capable employee that contributes to its overall objectives. The moment this symbiosis is taken out of balance, it ceases to be effective.

The most common imbalance we think of is when an organization just focuses on achieving its overall objectives. It’s a selfish position that usually fosters a command-and-control leadership style that is riddled with micro-management. Turnover increases, productivity decreases and no one comes out a winner. The other side of this coin gets less air time, but it is equally damaging to an organization. When the employee is solely focused on gaining experience for themselves with little to no regard for the organizational objectives, it negatively impacts the organization as well. It’s what I call career existentialism.

The employee becomes such a professional navel gazer that they can only focus on that which defines and justifies their very existence. We’ve all worked with at least one person like this. It’s like they should be wearing a t-shirt that reads “Welcome to the future. Population = 1.” as if they do life in some bubble. The affects this type of mentality can have on an organization can be dreadful. Morale suffers. Productivity decreases. Turnover increases. Sound familiar? It has the same affect as when the organization is the selfish jerk.

Here are 4 ways to avoid the rise of career existentialism in your organization.

  1. Purposeful language – Make sure you include language in your values that pull away from the development of career existentialism. This can shift the conversation from hair splitting over “preferred” actions to values alignment. Values dictate culture and purposeful language is the best way to reinforce values and culture.
  2. Reward intelligently – Many organizations have some form of rewards and recognition program. Use this as leverage to discourage career existentialist behavior. Tie bonuses to more than just individual performance. Include group dynamics such as teamwork and collaboration. Each organization will be different, but it should be obvious what is negatively affected by the career navel gazer.
  3. Don’t exemplify existentialism – It’s easy to look deep into an organization, but what about leadership? How do things work at the top? If there is constant political jockeying over trivial things as a means to play the alpha role, you’re setting the example to have others do that in your organization. If it creates havoc in the smaller numbers of senior leadership, what impact do you think it will have with larger numbers in the employee ranks?
  4. Address issues quickly – Your accountability structure is your best ally. If you need to re-write some role descriptions to minimize the temptation for people to be career existentialists in your organization, then do so. When people begin to adopt this position, it MUST be addressed right away. If you have properly crafted your values, it becomes much easier to address this problem. Otherwise, it turns into this gray area where there is a tug-of-war around interpretation.

Leaders Dive Into The Workplace Cloud

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I only sometimes talk about technology here. Yes, my inner nerd is still alive and well for those of you wondering what I’ve been up to lately. I’ve been hanging out in the clouds pondering this enormous topic. I assume, like 90% of us, it is there, meeting my needs, and don’t worry overmuch about marketing labels. Leaders have a way of offloading (ignoring?) many of the technical details as we hurry about our over-scheduled days.

“The Cloud” is one of those technology marketing terms which represents a shift in the way technology is delivered; after all, you’d have to really be tuned out to not hear the word ‘cloud’ at least once every 15 minutes.

Oddly enough, though, cloud computing is the ultimate it’s-been there-a-long-time technology. And it is forcing leaders and HR practitioners to sit up and take notice. Why?

At its core, ‘cloud’ is really about optimizing the effectiveness of IT and systems in the workplace. Cloud computing is the successor of distributed computing, client-server and utility computing, a model where defined services depend on standardization and customer satisfaction depends upon optimization of those defined services.

Furthermore, as concepts go, it’s an abstract one, and as most tech stars will tell you, every problem in computer science can be solved by adding a layer of abstraction.  So, if you’re a techie, you know cloud is just a way to deliver computing resources.

If you’re an end user, you may think cloud is a way to get the computing resources you want without necessarily having to understand, or pay for, the ramifications of your decisions.

For those of us less technical Luddites, there are a couple of areas where the eventual impact of cloud seems greatly underestimated.  I’m speaking, of course, about  HR, especially recruiting and job search, as well as leadership, particularly as it relates to human capital management.

But when it comes to the cloud, what do leaders need to know?  Here are a couple critical cloud questions for organizational leaders & talent managers:

1) What does cloud mean for hiring and managing people?

2) What do leaders need to know about the cloud?  Are leaders struggling with any misconceptions?

Chances are most leaders will answer “no” for #1; for #2, most will likely not be sure of their answer.  But while the concept of cloud computing, like leadership, is a complex one, it underscores a far simpler truth:

The cloud is already in your workplace.

All that recruiting and HR software you use, delivered via the Software as a Service (SaaS) model? It’s cloud. Online networking and career sites like Facebook and Monster? Delivered via the cloud.

Do you use Gmail to connect with prospects? On some level this could be translated as Cloud. Store your resume online, or keep files in Box.net? Cloud. And so on.

As you can see – It’s everywhere – including your organization.

For users, the changes may be subtle. Many leaders perceive these changes strictly as benefits, and there are many – no servers to buy, no on-site IT guy to worry about. But there are also – especially in HR – areas of concern, like security, multi-tenancy (shared services within the cloud) and reliability/availability (there have been some spectacular, recent cloud crashes).

Here are 3 common misconceptions about cloud computing and what leaders really need to know:

Security in the cloud is one of the challenge areas where misconceptions abound. At its most basic, security in the cloud is the same as security in an enterprise data center: policies and processes must be in place to ensure uptime, adequate resources must be provisioned, reliable and proven backup and disaster recovery procedures must be in place – and audited, and security must be in any contract you sign with a cloud provider.

In fact you must be able to define your requirements for data security. Part of the discussion should be which applications or data to put in the cloud, because not all data and applications should be in the cloud. Quiz – no, grill – your cloud provider about the security of its offering and the practices it employs to keep your data secure.

Multi-tenancy is a bit different. There are three general forms of clouds – public, private and hybrid – and three ways in which cloud services are provided: IaaS, or infrastructure as a service; PaaS, or platform as a service, and SaaS, software as a service.

If you choose multi-tenancy because it’s less expensive, you must also realize that your data and apps will be sharing space with someone else’s data and apps. You’ll be a tenant among tenants. One of your security safeguards will be gone. Just something to think about, and negotiate.

Reliability (also known as availability) is the stuff of Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Make sure to set requirements – SLAs – for uptime, reliability and availability, and negotiate penalties into your contract in the event they’re breached. Don’t accept a contract that lacks a financial penalty or for which the remedy is a service ‘credit’. This is your business, after all. It’s your data.

So leaders, go to the cloud by all means, but go with your eyes open. Ask hard questions. Cloud is an innovation that promises massive efficiencies. Make sure you’re on the right side of those promises. Protect you business, your data, your people.

In IT adding a layer of abstraction may help solve problems; chances are, in HR, an added layer of abstraction will just make it harder to know who’s doing what to whom, and if it’s really the desired outcome.

So go to the cloud, but remember: be careful out there.

Also posted by Meghan M. Biro on MonsterThinking Blog

Facebook & the Strange Engagement Arrangement: #TChat Recap

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Just because I like you, doesn’t mean we’re friends. At least on Facebook.

I’m talking about the strange engagement arrangement between companies, associations, non-profits, clubs, professional groups, other groups, events — and their followers. Or, more appropriately, their fans who “like” them by clicking on a thumbs-up tab and then getting streams of information from those groups. Maybe even posting a comment or two at times on those group pages.

It’s not really a town hall meeting, or an intimate community even, although there are sporadic bursts of interactivity, but Facebook is a universe unto itself — and the over 750 million active users.

Consider these statistics from Facebook:

  • People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.
  • The average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events.
  • More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.
  • About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States.
  • More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, including over 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites.
  • There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.

And the Facebook valuation — what is it now, $100 billion? — doesn’t go without being noticed by a wealthy contingent of investor “friends.” A new study shows that 46% of online users with investible assets of $1 million or more are members of Facebook, up from 26% a year ago. The survey, by Spectrem Group, showed that millionaire’s use of Twitter has declined, from 5% to 3%.

Guess they aren’t participating in #TChat, are they. At least not yet!

Then there’s the revenue streams for Facebook — the advertising, the gaming, the recruiting. The recruiting that’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger. LinkedIn may be the granddaddy career management network with a sweet recent IPO, but I’m hearing more and more how companies are using Facebook to source and recruit applicants. There’s danger in using Facebook to hire, but that doesn’t stop the vast majority of savvy recruiting and hiring managers. There are also dozens and dozens of recruiting apps plugged into Facebook, two of which include BeKnown and BranchOut.

750 million active users. You do the math.

Then there’s my grand fenceless Facebook experiment I wrote about yesterday. There are those who maintain lists, streams, groups, circles, buckets, sandboxes, canyons, firewalls — you name it. And for good reason: cyber warfare, hacking, identity theft, online bullying and child predators are much bigger problems today than they were 10 years ago while the ability for some of us to control our impulses is tenuous, running around our houses naked with the curtains drawn and shades pulled up committing various unseemly, even unlawful acts.

Then there are folks like me. Call me crazy, but my head and heart can’t separate my work and personal worlds; I just can’t fence them off. My grand social media experiment has worked so far for me because I feel I’m connecting with more people as a person, regardless of our connections initially — the great virtual melting pot. What’s interesting is that at a time when I can’t even get my next door neighbors to have a block party, I can connect, collaborate and commiserate virtually with anyone (and any entity) anywhere in the world. But, if anyone doesn’t want to “buy what I’m selling,” then they can turn me off, just like they can turn off other companies and “brands.”

No harm, no foul.

Who knows where Facebook will go in the next 5 to 10 years, but odds are we’ll be more and more assimilated into its universe — mainlining the strange engagement arrangement straight into our veins every minute of every day. Right on.

Wait, what’s Google+ again?

You can read the Facebook #TChat preview here and here were the questions from last night:

  • Q1: What are some interesting or innovative ways businesses are using Facebook effectively?
  • Q2: Do you engage with brands or companies on Facebook?  Why or why not?
  • Q3: Where does Facebook fit into job search and recruiting/hiring?  Is it an effective tool for recruiting?
  • Q4: What are some important reminders for organizations when creating a Facebook presence?
  • Q5: Many think Facebook will replace e-mail.  What other business applications might it augment or replace?
  • Q6: What does the future of Facebook look like in 5 years?  10?  How will it impact businesses and careers?

We’re still filling out the roster, but the second #TChat Radio episode is titled “The Realities of Business Heresy” — based on a recent 12 Most post by Ted Coiné — and welcomes the business leaders of 12 Most. Please join us on 8/31/11!

The #TChat Twitter chat and #TChat Radio are created and hosted by @MeghanMBiro and @KevinWGrossman, and powered by our friends @MattCharney and @CatyKobe, and partners @TalentCulture, @Monster_WORKS, @MonsterCareers, @12Most and of course @Focus.

The Professional Future of Facebook: #TChat Preview

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Originally posted by Matt Charney, on MonsterThinking Blog

The short history of social media is littered with tools and technologies that were, for a brief moment, the “next big thing” for business, the proverbial ‘killer app’ that would justify, and expand, the investment of brands and organizations in the social web.

From MySpace to SecondLife and a thousand other already obsolete platforms in between, only Facebook, so far, has proved a legitimate contender for the title, as ensconced in popular culture as it is in public consciousness.

After all, Facebook has effectively joined the US Military, SportsCenter and the White House in the pantheon of venerable, timeless institutions, at least if Aaron Sorkin’s filmography is any indicator.  And while right now Google+ may hold the mantle of “the next big thing,” but so too, at one point, did Google’s Buzz and Wave (remember them?), and unless you’re in Brazil, you’re probably not on Orkut, either.

While Twitter tweaks its business model (which has, frankly, a long way to go as promoted tweets are about as organic to consumers as Google’s sponsored results), Facebook is, for now, the undisputed king of all social media, quickly becoming a category defining brand in the same vein as Kleenex, Xerox or Coke.

Whether its reign can continue over the long term, of course, remains a critical question, and one that, like all businesses, lies completely in the hands of its customers and the rapidly shifting sands of consumer taste.  But so far, it’s survived, and thrived, through evolutionary progress that would leave Darwin befuddled, its loyal community expanding from a cadre of elite colleges to, well, just about everyone this side of the Great Firewall of China.

With its global reach and highly engaged user base, Facebook isn’t the only entity with a stake in its long term success; its implications – and possibilities, extend to all brands, personal and professional (of course, on Facebook, those aren’t mutually exclusive unless, of course, you’ve heard of this pretty kick butt app called BeKnown…)

Facebook at Work: #TChat Questions and Recommended Reading (08.17.11)

We hope you can join us Wednesday night at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT for this week’s #TChat: “Facebook at Work: The Professional Future of Your Personal Network.” Invite your friends and get ready for wall-to-wall conversation about what Facebook means for the evolving world of work – and life.

It’s sure to be a lively discussion with some great ideas and insights (and maybe, just maybe, we might find out what exactly the purpose of “poking” someone is…).

Here are the questions we’ll be covering, along with some recommended reading to help prepare, and inform, your involvement in this week’s #TChat.

We hope you “like” it!

Q1: What are some interesting or innovative ways businesses are using Facebook effectively?

Read: 20 of the Most Innovative Facebook Campaigns Ever by Niall Harbison and Lauren Fisher

Q2: Do you engage with brands or companies on Facebook?  Why or why not?

Read: Online Networking for Beginners by Charles Purdy

Q3: Where does Facebook fit into job search and recruiting/hiring?  Is it an effective tool for recruiting?

Read: Recruiters Turn to Facebook to Find Candidates by Joe Light

Q4: What are some important reminders for organizations when creating a Facebook presence?

Read: Don’t Rely on Facebook for Your Social Media Marketing by John Jantsch

Q5: Many think Facebook will replace e-mail.  What other business applications might it augment or replace?

Read: Company Branding and Employee Social Networks: A Social Media Win-Win by Emily Bennington

Q6: What does the future of Facebook look like in 5 years?  10?  How will it impact businesses and careers?

Read: The Future of Facebook is GooglePlus by Josepf Haslam

Visit www.talentculture.com for more great information on #TChat, as well as other great resources on careers and hiring.

Monster’s social media team supports #TChat’s mission of sharing “ideas to help your business and your career accelerate — the right people, the right ideas, at the right time.”

We’ll be joining the conversation at our new time this Wednesday night as co-hosts with Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman from 7-8 p.m. (Eastern) via @MonsterCareers and @Monster_Works.

Going Global: Workers Without Borders: #TChat Preview

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Originally posted by Matt Charney on MonsterThinking Blog

The History Channel recently rolled out a series called, “How States Got Their Shapes,” a topic so complex that it warranted a serial treatment so intricate it would make Ken Burns blush.

But, Adams-Onis treaty aside, Laurie Ruettimann pretty much summed up the key geopolitical takeaway of history in this recent post on the Cynical Girl blog:

“States — NY, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Illinois, California — are so arbitrary…. We are now loyal to imaginary boundaries and self-contained hamlets. Preferences and cultural divisions emerge, but it’s so stupid to display loyalty to a geography that can’t love you back.”

The arbitrary nature of borders extends to all territories, foreign and domestic, and while we’ve become adept at handling intrastate commerce, but when it comes to global business, the boundaries are more than arbitrary: they’re engrained into the fabric of most organizations.

Historically, many companies have, for reasons ranging from taxes to supply chain efficiencies, separated out the operations of their international business into a complex structure that’s separate, but rarely equal to, the home country, and business culture, which each respective company calls home (or, more commonly, ‘headquarters’).

While many global companies divvy up territories and regions like they’re hashing out the Treaty of Paris, the increased interconnectedness, not to mention economic interdependence, of today’s workplace necessitates a new approach to the challenges of international business.

This is particularly true when it comes to recruiting and retaining top talent, whose skills, experience and expertise transcends borders; international teams and work groups are not only becoming an increasing reality, but an important consideration in today’s talent and diversity strategies.

While, as Ruettimann pointed out, “preferences and cultural divisions emerge,” these, like any comprehensive recruiting strategy, are differences easily bridged, both through technology and the shared experience, and desires, shared by workers everywhere.

Concepts like stability, the opportunity for growth, the chance to earn a decent living and so forth might mean different things to different people, but that’s got less to do with location than personal preference, and it’s that preference that creates the only cultural division that really matters anymore: that of corporate culture.

And while, as Ruettimann suggests, “it’s stupid to display loyalty to a geography that can’t love you back,” when it comes to the world of work, it’s that loyalty, and engagement, that create a company’s most significant competitive advantage.

Going Global: Workers Without Borders

#TChat Questions & Recommended Reading (08.10.11)

This week, #TChat moves to its new day and time Wednesday nights at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT, but it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere, and we’re excited to kick off our new time slot with a topic that’s truly as big as the world of work.

While our #TChat community comes from around the globe, it’s our shared passion for career and talent management, leadership and workplace culture that keep the conversation going.  We hope  you can bring your international perspective this week; no matter where you are, this week’s topic is truly universal.

To help prepare, and inform, your participation in this week’s #TChat conversation (or if you can’t make it!), here are this week’s questions along with some recommended reading that’s not required, but provides some great background and insight about where global business is at – and where it’s going.

See you Wednesday (that’s August 10 on your calendars) night at 7 PM ET!

Q1: How is globalization changing the world of work?

Read: Gear Up to Compete in A Global Economy by Rusty Weston

Q2: What lessons can US workers & leaders learn from their international colleagues?

Read: 5 Best Practices for Engaging With A Multinational Team by Kevin Sheridan

Q3: What role does workplace or business culture play when working internationally or with global teams?

Read: Global Recruitment: How to Make Your Company A Magnet For Young, Global Talent by Rob Salkowitz

Q4: What can leaders do better to meet the needs of a global or international business?

Read: Is The CEO the new Chief Talent Officer? by Sanjay Modi

Q5: How is technology or social media influencing the rise of global business?

Read: Global Technology Stepping Up Collaboration in the Workplace by Daniel Newman

Q6: What are the biggest opportunities for organizations going global?  Biggest drawbacks?

Read: 7 Tips to Help Your Business Take on the World by Anne Field

Visit www.talentculture.com for more great information on #TChat, as well as other great resources on careers and hiring.

Monster’s social media team supports #TChat’s mission of sharing “ideas to help your business and your career accelerate — the right people, the right ideas, at the right time.”

We’ll be joining the conversation at our new time this Wednesday night as co-hosts with Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman from 7-8 p.m. (Eastern) via @MonsterCareers and @Monster_Works.

Crowdsourcing Prospective Candidates: Impossible?

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Written by Omowale Casselle

Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community (a “crowd”), through an open call (Wikipedia). In theory, the internet should be a great enabler of being able to put a call for talent out to a community and in return receive a great group of qualified candidates that meet the needs of your organization. In reality, this is much easier said than done.

There are great examples of communities that rely on crowdsourced principles:

1.  Threadless is a community-centered online apparel store. Members of the Threadless community submit t-shirt designs online; the designs are then put to a public vote. A small percentage of submitted designs are selected for printing and sold through an online store. Creators of the winning designs receive a prize of cash and store credit.

2. Local Motors is an open source automobile company. They co-create vehicles with their community of auto designers, engineers, enthusiasts and customers.

3.  InnoCentive is an “open innovation” company that takes research and development problems in a broad range of domains such as engineering, computer science, math, chemistry, life sciences, physical sciences and business and frames them as “challenge problems” for anyone to solve them. It gives cash awards for the best solutions to solvers who meet the challenge criteria

From t-shirt design to automobile to R&D, these communities have shown that crowdsourcing can be utilized in a wide variety of fields for both very simple and extremely complex problems. So, what are these companies doing that is enabling them to leverage a large group of people to develop creative solutions to difficult problems?

Aligned Incentives

In each of these crowdsourced communities, there is some type of reward that is offered to those who develop a winning solution to the problem. Whether it is the most creative t-shirt or a well-designed, all-terrain defense vehicle, those who come out on top receive a clearly designed reward for their efforts.  As a result, each person who takes part in the challenge is focused on doing their best work so that they might be selected for the reward.  The company also knows that because so many people have submitted their work that the quality of those submissions which bubble to the top should be pretty fantastic. One of the clearest ways to align incentives within the recruiting environment is to offer a referral bonus. If someone within your community connects you with the right person, let them know that you’ll pay them a nice reward.  Everyone implicitly understands that every candidate referred will not necessarily be the right fit. But, for the one that is, there will be a great reward for the individual that helped you connect with him/her.

Multiple Opportunities to Get Involved

While there are plenty of people who are focused on winning the big reward, there are an equal number of participants supporting the community along the way. From the members who vote on the submissions to those who ultimately purchase the product, these communities excel at making everyone feel like they have an important role to play.  In social media and social networking, most of your community is not necessarily going to have a direct connection with the right candidate. But, with careful management of your community, they may be willing to share your hiring need through a status update on Facebook or a retweet on Twitter. By helping spread the word and thanking people for their participation in achieving your ultimate goal, you create the type of environment in which many people want to be a part of.

Clearly Defined Problems

In order to develop a meaningful solution, the problem must be well understood. So, these communities place a heavy emphasis on letting you know upfront what they are looking for. There is then the expectation that the creativity of the individual, supported by the broader community, will take over to find a path from the problem definition to an elegant solution that will be appreciated by many. In recruiting, this is no different. If you want to get the right slate of qualified candidates, it is important to properly define what you are seeking in terms of experience, skills, and expected roles/responsibilities. By getting this right, you give the community a much better opportunity of finding the right person.

Although social media and social networking have helped digitally bridge the gap among internet users locally and globally, many community building efforts are challenged to truly reap the benefits. While there is still a way to go before we see a scalable, repeatable, crowdsourced recruiting solution, key elements can be incorporated into individual communities being created on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to increase the participation and ultimate results achieved. What ways has your organization sought to leverage your community to meet your hiring needs?

Everybody's Story Matters: #TChat Recap

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“Everybody’s story matters.”

That sentiment is from an amazing interactive storybook we’ve been watching with my older daughter on the iPad. It’s called The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and it’s all about the importance and power of reading books and stories.

Everybody’s story, including yours and yours and yours.

As I wrote Monday, when TalentCulture founder Meghan M. Biro and I launched #TChat last November, we had no idea it would take off like it did. It’s been an amazing journey and we are more inspired more than ever to keep the conversation moving forward.

To now keep the stories moving forward and to actually elevate 140 character Twitter texts into the spoken word every now and again. And the fact is, stories were told aloud for thousands of years before they were Tweeted and read.

We launched #TChat Radio last night and you can listen to the replay if you missed it. A special thank you to all our guests and to everyone who dialed in and listened as well as participating on the #TChat Twitter channel.

We’ve nurtured a fantastic online community of professionals and enthusiasts that we hope to continue to deliver value and grow relationships with our World of Work audience. This eclectic group of fabulous talent is comprised of leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, HR, career pros, recruiters, business consultants, marketers, public relations and social media enthusiasts, bloggers, job seekers, and a variety of eclectic innovative passersby.

The stories we share are all about re-imagining how we lead, acquire, empower and retain our workforce today, with emotional connectivity and global cultural inclusivity. It’s about the intersection of Talent + Culture, the wickedly wonderful World of Work.

Businesses will come and go. Jobs will come and go. The economy will ebb and flow.

But everybody’s story matters. Thank you for yours.

Look for our next #TChat Radio show on Tuesday, August 30. We’ll be back next week with our usual #TChat Twitter Chat.

The #TChat Twitter Chat and #TChat Radio are created and hosted by @MeghanMBiro and @KevinWGrossman, and powered by our partners @Monster_WORKS, @MonsterCareers, @HRmarketer, and @Focus.

Is Employer Branding Best Practice or BS? #TChat Preview

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Originally posted by Matt Charney on MonsterThinking Blog

The average worker today has more brands to deal with than a Texas cattle rancher, but one that most never really give a whole lot of thought to, at least compared to the ubiquitous (if ambiguous) concept of “personal brand” is that of employment branding.

Which makes sense; after all, many talent acquisition and HR professionals don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it, either, with many companies often outsourcing or ignoring this brand management function.  By contrast, other employers spend millions of dollars a year building and managing carefully crafted and focus group tested campaigns that look more like a Super Bowl ad than a classified employment listing.

With practitioners seemingly split on the importance, or even existence, of employment brand, it begs a few questions: which side are you on?  What side should your company be on?  And, most importantly: does it matter to the workers to whom these efforts are targeted in the first place?

We’ll be exploring these questions, and their implications for the evolving world of work, in tonight’s #TChat: “Is Employer Branding BS?” No matter which side of the fence you’re on (or, like most, neutral or undecided), if you’ve ever visited a company career page or read an industry blog (like this one), you’ve been exposed to employer branding – that is, if it really exists.

Join moderator Meghan M. Biro (Twitter: @meghanmbiro) of @talentculture along with #TChat co-hosts @kevinwgrossman @monsterww @monster_works and @focus tonight at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT and let us know: is employer branding B.S.?

#TChat Questions & Recommended Reading (07.12.11)

To help prepare, and inform, your participation in tonight’s conversation (or even if you can’t make it), here are the questions we’ll be discussing, along with some recommended reading designed to give you background – and perspective – on employer and company culture branding.

Tonight’s sure to be a lively discussion; we look forward to seeing you (and your brand) for #TChat at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT!

Q1. What’s your definition of company or employer brand?

Read: The Employer Brand Experience by Dr. Jesse Harriott & Doug Hardy

Q2. How does employer brand differ from a consumer brand?  Personal brand?

Read: Why Employer Branding Matters More Than Ever by Bob Kelleher

Q3. What makes a strong employer brand?  A weak one?

Read: The Taylor Guitar Story: Fine Tuning A Successful Corporate Brand by Bob Taylor

Q4. How does employer brand play into talent acquisition?  Retention?

Read: Attract the Right Candidates With Consistent Company Branding by John Rossheim
Q5. What effect does social media have on employer branding?

Read: How to Use Social Media To Build Your Brand by Susan Kuchinskas

Q6. Who controls employer brand: the company, employees, public, etc.?

Read: Tactical Corporate Transparency: Build Your Brand From The Inside Out by Shel Holtz & John C. Havens

Visit www.talentculture.com for more great information on #TChat, as well as other great resources on careers and hiring.

Monster’s social media team supports #TChat’s mission of sharing “ideas to help your business and your career accelerate — the right people, the right ideas, at the right time.”

What Diversity Really Means

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There was a pretty fantastic Twitter conversation happening last week on #TChat; it was about diversity. Be sure to check out the preview on MonsterThinking and the #TChat recap.

It was during this conversation that I was reminded of how much I hate the word diversity.

Picture an HR professional being called “personnel” by his or her new CEO and that pretty much captures my reaction.

The word diversity conjures up recollections of:

  • Lame Diversity Day potlucks where departments prepare food from another culture.
  • Feeling proud of a parent company’s sponsorship of the NAACP Image Awards only to discover a judge ordered them to do so because of a class action discrimination lawsuit.
  • A ridiculous attempt to make a newly hired, employee with MS feel “welcome” by telling her peers they have to walk around with a cane for a day.
  • The Diversity Department encouraging gay employees to come out to their coworkers without regard or preparation for the potential fall out and devastating emotional impact that could, and did occur. (Not to mention the resulting drop in productivity, team interventions, EAP referrals and leadership coaching that had to be done after.)

These are all true stories by the way.

It’s these kind of well-intentioned, but poorly planned and executed programs that at best, cause leaders to roll their eyes and at worst, cause them to become more entrenched in their resistance.

So should we give up? Should we stop trying to influence corporate cultures to recognize the importance and value of differences? Absolutely not!

But we need to be realistic about what it takes to change culture and mindset.

The core of diversity lies in understanding that we are better performers, better leaders, better service providers and better people when we surround ourselves with those who are different from us. However, the reality is that most adults are more comfortable with people who are just like them.

Our role is to help leaders move beyond their opposition to contradictory perspectives. It’s to help them move from valuing individuality to valuing what each individual contributes to a team. Our role is to help the highly analytical and highly creative to work together harmoniously instead of a perpetuating an adversarial relationship. This is what having a diversity mindset is all about.

A freakin’ pot luck isn’t going to fix that people.

The language we need to use with executives is relatability to consumers, innovation, increased sales, improved stock prices for shareholders and more profits. These are all natural outcomes of a diversity mindset. The mistake most HR leaders and diversity directors make is talking about this topic in terms of race, gender, age, sexual preference and the EEOC. When we bombard leaders with that language, we relegate this hugely important initiative to the realm of legal imperative instead of business necessity.

Let me conclude by addressing those of you who are going to call me a jaded, former HR professional. You’re right. I am. More importantly, I care deeply about the ethical success of American business; small and large, public and private.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?

When HR is About the Biz and Embraced by It: #TChat Recap

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When HR is truly about the business, embraced by the business, then they should manage all of people management, from beginning to end.

And it’s getting there for many HR executives. Yet still for others, not so much. No matter the title you give Human Resources, those “business partners” I know in the space are the ones who manage the internal talent economy.

That doesn’t mean that the HR executive does the day to day tactical of recruiting, training, reviewing and all the minutia of compliance and administrative tasks. However, to all my recruiter friends out there, no need to throw rocks; I’m not discounting recruiting to basic tactical work. But I am saying that whether you call it VP of HR, VP of Talent, Chief Human Resource Officer, Chief Talent Officer, Chief People Officer, you name it, and you work for a company of any significant size, usually over 2,500 employees, you more than likely have a specialized team working for you.

Again, when HR is truly about the business, embraced by the business, then they should manage all of people management, from beginning to end.

But as I’ve written before, if someone says “seat at the table” one more time, I’m gonna blow (and many others along with me). I’ve talked with many HR practitioners of late who are part of their company’s executive business strategy, but unfortunately the dissing “buzz” of disservice continues. The good news is that smart CEOs who want growth have strong talent management, which means they have smart people management who understand the business, what drives growth and how to keep the workforce in order to get there.

And what better way to check on the business of HR than to take the shuttle bus at SHRM 2011. On one such ride I struck up a conversation with the nice woman next to me and find out she’s VP of personnel and talent acquisition at a large company in the Midwest back from the brink of death (and yes, she used the word personnel — add that to the VP list above).

So I start asking her questions, and she tells me things like:

  • We have no mainstream HR or talent management software deployed. Our systems are home grown, tedious and temperamental. But, we have no plans to dump them any time soon because we’re just getting our life back. (But that will be on the priority list soon…)
  • We still had net employee losses last year, but this year we plan on hiring a few thousand before the end of 2011.
  • We’re in the midst of developing a broader scope succession plan that includes not only upper management but middle management and line managers as well.
  • We’re going to be cross-training management across lines of business, including those of us in personnel and HR.
  • We’re in the midst of developing a social media strategy that includes establishing employee guidelines (meaning loose ones — we want folks to participate now), employment branding, recruiting, marketing, you name it. That’s a far cry from the traditionally conservative world we’ve been living in for a long time.
  • In fact, when I came across Glassdoor.com for the first time recently I was horrified of what I saw written about us and other companies. It’s time to participate in the conversation and rebuild our brand.

Human resources and workforce management is maturing and businesses along with it. The above example is just one of many stories I’ve heard recently. Remember, we may still be on the front end of “the business of HR” mainstream, but the next 5-10 years I believe will be amazing.

You can read the #TChat preview here and here are the questions from this the big #SHRM11 #TChat:

  • Q1: What does HR do? Is that different from what they’re supposed to do?
  • Q2: Why should HR be responsible for all talent management and recruiting? Why not?
  • Q3: What are the common misperceptions other departments have about HR and why?
  • Q4: What’s HR getting right in today’s world of work and business?
  • Q5: HR pros: What can employees do differently to better partner with HR?
  • Q6: What does the future of HR look like? Does it have one?

A very special thank you @mattcharney @Monster_WORKS and @MonsterWW for all you did at #SHRM11 for #TChat. We do appreciate it!

Happy 4th of July everyone! We’ll be back on July 12 with an all new #TChat — Employer branding, Talent Acquisition and Company Culture.

And don’t forget — #TChat Radio starts on July 26! Details soon…

What Your Workers Really Think About HR: #TChat Preview

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Originally posted by Charles Purdy on MonsterThinking Blog

If you’re in an HR or recruiting position, you likely interact with a lot of job seekers and employees, and  you may believe that you already know everything you need to know about their mindsets and attitudes.  After all, you’re in the people business.

Plus, you’re busy! You’ve got an inbox full of resumes and a calendar full of meetings and interviews, and you think you’re making things easier by applying an unchanging checklist to the job seekers you have to sort through.

It’s time to think again. Preconceived notions can hurt you and your business, because they may be leading you to reject top talent before you can discover it.

At Monster, we talk to job seekers every day; like with #TChat, we know conversation counts.  Because, after all, that’s the ultimate goal of connecting.  And here are just a few of the commonly held recruiting notions that today’s worker – who, statistically speaking, is likely also a job seeker – want HR pros to know:

5 Job Search Myths and The New Recruiting Realities

MYTH #1: Currently employed candidates are preferable

You don’t still ignore “active” candidates in favor of “passive” ones, do you? The line between people who are actively looking for a career change and people who aren’t has blurred — Monster polls have found that a considerable majority of employed people would jump ship for the right opportunity. (As a side note, this makes employee engagement very important right now — what are you doing to keep your current employees engaged?)

MYTH #2: Gaps in employment make a candidate undesirable

Times have been tough, right? Great workers have been laid off and had a hard time finding new employment. Rejecting candidates for gaps in employment means you reject a lot of great talent out of hand. Look into “gaps,” and you’ll see that many candidates have been filling downtime with personal-development activities that make them better hires, not worse.

MYTH #3: It’s all about salary

This just isn’t true for today’s workers. It’s no longer about throwing money at great candidates — especially for younger workers, quality-of-life issues can trump monetary compensation. Want to make your company more attractive to talented people? Look into adopting flex-time and flex-space policies. Provide on-the-job learning opportunities (and make sure that all employees, even “entry-level” ones, are treated with respect and shown how they contribute to company success). And think about how your company can promote its green and social-good efforts — corporate responsibility is becoming more and more important to workers.

MYTH #4: “Overqualified” people are unacceptably risky hires

That “overqualified” worker has the expertise your company needs. Instead of rejecting him or her outright, find out why he or she wants to head in a new career direction. As with salary, many great candidates are now less interested in titles and more motivated by other concerns.

MYTH #5: Over 50 means over the hill

Now more than ever, age is just a number. People are living longer and putting retirement off for later — not only because they need income, but also because they want to stay engaged with their careers (or begin a new one). Like “overqualified” workers, Baby Boomers are a great untapped employment-market and expertise resource.

#TCHAT Questions (06.28.11)

What recruiting myths are you challenging? Have you uncovered any other outdated recruiting mindsets? What can HR do about it?  Tonight’s special #TChat Live! from SHRM 11 will focus on the current state of affairs with regard to talent management and HR leadership.

If you’re at SHRM 11 this week, stop by ARIA Resort & Casino’s Bluethorn Meeting Room #3 for our meet-up today. Food and drinks will be available. You don’t have to be in Vegas to follow the action. Search for hashtag #TChat on Twitter or your favorite Twitter client and join the conversation.

It’s sure to be a lively discussion, so we hope you can join us at 8 PM ET/5 PM ET on Twitter for #TChat!

Q1: What does HR do? Is that different from what they’re supposed to do?

Q2: Why should HR be responsible for all talent management and recruiting? Why not?

Q3: What are the common misperceptions other departments have about HR and why?

Q4: What’s HR getting right in today’s world of work and business?

Q5: HR pros: What can employees do differently to better partner with HR?

Q6: What does the future of HR look like? Does it have one?

Visit www.talentculture.com for more great information on #TChat, as well as other great resources on careers and hiring.

Monster’s social media team supports #TChat’s mission of sharing “ideas to help your business and your career accelerate — the right people, the right ideas, at the right time.”

We’ll be joining the conversation this Tuesday night as co-hosts with Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman from 8-9 p.m. (Eastern) via @MonsterCareers and @Monster_Works.

Get Creative: Take Your Organization Off-Road

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A recent Articles.com piece notes that unorthodox recruiting styles may actually pay off. Looking in unique places and creating a non-traditional way of recruiting can be an alternative to the tried and true.

But how do we push beyond our boundaries? HR folks and leaders typically attend many of the same conferences and seminars, so much of what is being done becomes somewhat incestuous. Learning what has worked with others is great, but don’t let that limit your options.

Many leaders may be okay with taking a new approach to how things are done. What really gets feathers ruffled is when structure and processes are approached with the same sense of flexibility. Difficult to argue against words like “quantifiable”, “metrics”, “strategy” and others of a similar ilk begin getting thrown around. Out of fear, loyalty and “good business sense” is questioned and the feral uprising is summarily squashed.

Leadership, regardless of level and department, requires things quite different than what was necessary or effective say 10 years ago. The latest catch phrase, 21st century leadership, has some merit behind it (at least until it gets used to death). A post on The Customer Collective makes a great point.

Leaders of the future will also have to be emotionally efficient. They will promote variation, rather than promoting people in their own likeness. They will encourage experimentation and enable people to learn from failure. They will build and develop people.

If we look at many of the most successful and growing organizations, they all have at least one thing in common: Taking their organization off-road in some way. It’s incredible how the success rate of doing this seems to have little to no bearing on those still humming along in the granny lane.

Going off the map isn’t comfortable for anyone, but when given the choice between the anxiety of venturing into the unexplored and the anxiety of wondering about future viability, I’ll take the former any day of the week. I think if leadership were painfully honest, they would feel the same way.

Here are some tips to help you put on some honkin’ mudder tires and have a go with going off-road with your organization.

  • Ease into it – Nothing says you have to have your entire organization jump in with both feet and throw caution to the wind. Choose an area that could result in a significant change and get you toes a bit wet. People don’t respond well to the revolutionary dynamic of sudden and drastic changes, so don’t think you have to do everything at once.
  • Find your adventurers – Every organization has a group of them. Those who are free spirits and are quick to adopt new things out of mere curiosity. They typically get excited about trying something different just because it’s different. It will be like handing the key to the chicken coop to the fox. They will most likely drool the moment they have the opportunity to develop an alternative option than the status quo.
  • Support the effort – As with any initiative, there must be support from leadership. Consider having a member of the C-Suite, or at least the VP level, act as a sponsor so there is a little more chance of things having the freedom to succeed.
  • Give it a fair chance – It’s going to be ugly, awkward and uneasy at first. Manage your expectations. Don’t approach it from a right/wrong perspective, but rather one of “what worked, what didn’t work?” Nothing wrong with piecing together a solution.

Diversity Still Matters in Today’s Workplace? #TChat Preview

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Originally posted by Joe Gerstandt on MonsterThinking Blog


Intersections baby, its all about the intersections…

The majority of the work that we do around diversity and inclusion as HR professionals is focused on identity diversity, which is differences in our social identities…things like age, gender, race, ethnicity, orientation, physical ability, etc.

I think that there are probably some interesting discussions to be had  about how effective this work has been and currently is, but I think we can at least agree that there is a lot of work still to be done.

I would suggest that, not only do we need to be more aggressive and more innovative with this body of work, we need to do a better job of integrating other kinds of difference into the conversation as well.  Differences in who we are and where we come from certainly do matter; as do differences in what and how we think, or cognitive diversity.

The ability to leverage cognitive diversity is becoming critical to the success of our organizations, yet it still has not received much serious attention.

“Cognitive diversity is the extent to which the group reflects differences in knowledge, including beliefs, preferences and perspectives.” -Miller, et al (1998) Strategic Management Journal

Regardless of the organization or industry, decision making, problem solving and innovation are increasingly important competencies and opportunities for competitive advantage and all of these things are all fed by cognitive diversity.

With all the talk there is about innovation and creative problem solving, you would assume that our understanding of the mechanics involved exists on the level of common sense, but that is obviously not the case.

While we work very hard in this profession to get good at figuring out how to find and hire the right person…we seem to care little about building the right kinds of teams. Hiring the person with the right education or grades or certifications does not necessarily mean that we are building the right kind of team.

The fact of the matter is that groups of really, really smart individuals can collectively be very dumb.

“Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers.“ – Lu Hong, Scott Page

Not only do we need to get better at understanding the value of thinking differently, we need to make sure that we are not being wasteful with the cognitive diversity that we already have on board.  Teams, whether they are work teams or leadership teams often are not terribly good at disagreeing with each other.

In some organizations disagreeing is seen as counterproductive or even disrespectful.  While it needs to be done respectfully, disagreeing is incredibly important; if we are not able to do that we are wasting any and all cognitive diversity that we have access to.

“Groups often fail to outperform individuals because they prematurely move to consensus, with dissenting opinions being suppressed or dismissed.” -Hackman & Morris, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology

For more on driving innovation through cognitive diversity, make sure to check out Joe’s SHRM 2011 presentation, “Great Minds DO NOT Think Alike! Putting Cognitive Diversity to Work For Your Organization,” June 28, 2011 from 2:15-3:30 PM at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

#TChat Questions and Recommended Reading: 06.21.2011

We hope you can join us tonight at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT for this week’s #TChat: “Does Diversity Still Matter in Today’s World of Work?“ We’ll be discussing the current state of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, what employees and employers really think about diversity initiatives and taking a look at opportunities – and challenges – of building and maintaining a diverse workforce in today’s evolving world of work.

It’s sure to be a lively discussion, so we hope you can join us at 8 PM ET on Twitter for #TChat.

Here are tonight’s questions, along with some related posts on leadership and talent  we think are worth checking out.  This background reading isn’t mandatory to get in on tonight’s joint #TChat action, but we suggest checking out these articles by top diversity and inclusion thought leaders before the chat (or if you missed it):

Q1: What Does “Diversity” Mean to You in 140 Characters or Less?

Read: What Affirmative Action, Diversity and Inclusion Mean to Workers

Q2: What role does diversity plan in an employer’s bigger talent picture?

Read: Why Organizations Struggle With Diversity Recruiting Initiatives

Q3: Has anything changed about the way employers and employees look at diversity?

Read: Diversity’s Three Legged Stool

Q4: How can organizations benefit from building and maintaining a diverse workforce?

Read: Diversity and Inclusion: From Corrective Action to Competitive Advantage

Q5: What are some of the biggest myths or misconceptions about diversity in today’s workplace?

Read: Stop Stereotyping: Overcome Your Worst Diversity Enemy

Q6: What role should leaders play in diversity and inclusion?

Read: To Achieve Workplace Diversity, Go Beyond Good Intentions

Q7: Does diversity still matter in today’s world of work?  What’s the future of diversity look like?

Read: The New Diversity of Workplace: The Diversity of Thought?

Visit www.talentculture.com for more great information on #TChat, as well as other great resources on careers and hiring.

Monster’s social media team supports #TChat’s mission of sharing “ideas to help your business and your career accelerate — the right people, the right ideas, at the right time.”

We’ll be joining the conversation this Tuesday night as co-hosts with Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman from 8-9 p.m. (Eastern) via @MonsterCareers and @Monster_Works.

Break the Mold: Improve Leadership Development

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When it comes to Leadership Development, we tend to want to let our system dictate the direction of where things should go. HR loves to have performance management systems that keep things in check.

We have “annual” cycles for checking in with people to make sure they get their yearly dose of feedback.  Employees begrudgingly participate and Supervisors take a passing look at the process to fill out the endless forms and force rank their staff.

People then set goals that aren’t really development goals. They are “goals” to shore up your weaknesses, because development continues to be focused on filling the gaps in what you don’t do well.  We all agree that this is the best path for the employee, and then everyone files the review away until one day before the next annual cycle. Then, it gets dusted off and people hastily fill out the next form to make sure it’s complete for HR . . . and development NEVER occurs !!

We need to break out of this never ending death spiral and do the one thing that we refuse to do – treat development individually vs. collectively.

It amazes me when companies state that people are their #1 asset, but they won’t spend one hour with them A YEAR.

Recently, I’ve been trying this individual approach with our Executive Leadership, and it works.  It has allowed us to truly take the time to look at the fantastic strengths they bring every day to work and we are focusing on how to leverage them.

Also, the challenges that they all face can be addressed through their strengths. We aren’t taking the approach that most HR functions take by continuing to list the factors that will continue to be challenges for people. We want to reduce the challenges by making sure that they are reviewed, addressed and given a chance to improve.

The other very different approach is that there is no set cycle or annual schedule. We’re meeting with people one-on-one monthly to see how their development is going. We’re looking to provide resources and, most importantly, we’re being intentional. This isn’t the “next trend” or “best practice.” This is an intentional decision to take the time to develop our leaders so that they, in turn, will continue to drive our company forward.

So, break the mold. Quit following the collective. Highlight the individual. It’s worth the time!

Leaders Create Solutions, Not Dysfunction: #TChat Recap

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There’s a scene in the movie The Company Men where a laid-off executive (Tommy Lee Jones) confronts his old CEO (Craig T. Nelson), who happens to be his partner with whom he started the now struggling shipping business.

The fired exec taunts his CEO about all the recent lay offs and his selfish focus on shareholder value. The CEO fires back “this is a business, not a charity.” And when the CEO reveals that the company was bought out at $X per share for a lucrative return, the fired exec says, “Good for you.”

Then the CEO asks his old partner pointedly, “How many shares did you have?”

I won’t spoil the plot any further with what happens next, but the story tells of the divergence in leadership choices, business and personal lives, and the ultimate impact of those choices. We’ve seen this plot play-out in reality again and again – through boom years – and most recently through the protracted bust.

The reality is that business leaders are responsible for growing a business, which means they have an important hand in selecting who helps them do just that, which means their employees must be a partner in that if they want to share in any success, but not at the expense of all our humanity and our very livelihoods.

That sentimental gibberish used to get you shot in the executive washroom, but these times they’ve been a-changin’, again, with corporate social responsibility taking center stage in many early-stage ventures, start-ups and growing SMB’s with the focus on the talent that makes it all happen, as opposed to the focus making it all happen at the expense of the talent.

These new business leaders, and those of the reformed nature, understand that they need to work with their “talent” acquisition and development teams to align business strategy with needed competencies/skills and a splash of authenticity, transparency, salt and pepper to taste and bam! We’ve got the new age of talent management. Today’s street-smart business leaders know not everyone can be a complete “right” fit, but they’re smarter if they work with those with promise, actually welcoming them into the fold and talking with them directly about the business and their new role. Business leaders today also need the “crystal ball” insight into their talent with predictive workforce analytics, so then workforce planning can take promising shape. Without direct involvement and detailed insight, organizations are just flailing in the dark.

And as Matt wrote in his #TChat preview, “when it comes to attracting and retaining talent, active, engaged and innovative leaders provide a key competitive advantage. After all, it’s that magnetism they possess which creates a powerful draw for potential workers (and customers), not to mention providing a potent, and public, voice for communicating with both internal and external stakeholders.”

And as a leader, if you’re not part of the talent solution from the beginning, then you’re probably part of the self-serving dysfunction that destroys businesses and lives in the end, regardless of how much you cash in. Conservative and progressive leaders alike and all in between, if you’re not of mindful presence and high emotional intelligence, then as far as I’m concerned you shouldn’t be leading anything except a 12-step program. Everyone’s a leader of self and Me, Inc., but that doesn’t mean it’s at the expense of building and growing a company.

Inspire your team to own it as you do, baby. That’s the truest form of success.

Again, you can read the #TChat preview for the first ever, and highly successful, joint #TChat and #LeadershipChat last night. A very special thanks to Lisa Petrilli and Steve Woodruff from #LeadershipChat! Here were the questions we explored:

  • Q1: What is the role of a leader when it comes to making talent decisions?
  • Q2: What should a leader consider when addressing “talent alignment?”
  • Q3: How can a leader show genuine authenticity to new recruits and current employees?
  • Q4: How does being a genuine leader impact a workplace culture brand?

Magnetic Leadership Attracts Top Talent: #TChat Preview

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Originally posted by Matt Charney, one of #TChat’s moderators, on MonsterThinking Blog

The CEO of today looks a lot different than  the company man of previous generations, increasingly likely to have traded  in the gray wool suit for shorts and flip-flops, their secretaries for smart phones, and corporate branding with personal branding.

One only has to look as far as Steve Jobs’ black turtleneck, or Bill Gate’s bifocals, or even Undercover Boss to see the impact that leaders have on the way clients, and candidates, perceive and interact with an organization.  Tony Hsieh has made Zappos as recognizable for its corporate culture as its corporate product; likewise, Donald Trump is his corporate product.

The close correlation between leadership and talent extends far beyond these high profile examples, two concepts that have long been inexorably intertwined.  Influential lists like Fortune’s annual 100 Best Companies to Work For or a company’s Glassdoor.com ratings, rely heavily on workers’ perceptions of leadership and management within their organizations.

Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that executive and managerial communications and engagement are among the primary drivers for employee satisfaction and, subsequently, retention.  Satisfaction with leadership plays a similarly prevalent role in worker productivity, with magnetic leaders adding more to the bottom line than can be reflected on a balance sheet.

When it comes to attracting and retaining talent, active, engaged and innovative leaders provide a key competitive advantage.  After all, it’s that magnetism they possess which creates a powerful draw for potential workers (and customers), not to mention providing a potent, and public, voice for communicating with both internal and external stakeholders.

Tonight’s combined #TChat and #LeadershipChat recognizes the critical correlation between talent and leadership, and that’s why we’re partnering up to discuss some of the most critical challenges – and opportunities – confronting leaders and the workers who rely on them every day.

We hope you can join us tonight at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT for what’s been jokingly called “Twitter Chat M&A” as our communities come together for a conversation on magnetic leadership and how it fits in with the bigger talent picture.

To follow along or to join the conversation, remember to use both the #LeadershipChat and #TChat hash tags; for more background on #LeadershipChat, click here.

It’s sure to be a lively discussion, so we’re only including four questions tonight instead of our regular seven to keep the conversation flowing while keeping it focused on the issues, and ideas, that matter most.

#TChat + #LeadershipChat Questions and Recommended Reading: 06.14.2011

Here are tonight’s questions, along with some related posts on leadership and talent  we think are worth checking out.  This background reading isn’t mandatory to get in on tonight’s joint #TChat #LeaderChat action, but we suggest checking out these articles by top leadership and talent-management thought leaders before the chat (or if you missed it):

Q1: What is the role of a leader when it comes to making talent decisions?

Read: How Successful Companies Attract and Retain Employees by Connie Blaszczyk

Q2: What should a leader consider when addressing “talent alignment?”

Read: 5 Things Every CEO Should Know About Talent Alignment by Lisa Petrilli

Q3: How can a leader show genuine authenticity to new recruits and current employees?

Read: Starbucks Wakes Up and Smells the Coffee (And Buzzes Back Up the Leader Board) by Allen Adamson

Q4: How does being a genuine leader impact a workplace culture brand?

Read: 5 Authentic Keys to Attracting Top Talent by Meghan M. Biro

Visit www.talentculture.com for more great information on #TChat, as well as other great resources on careers and hiring.

Monster’s social media team supports #TChat’s mission of sharing “ideas to help your business and your career accelerate — the right people, the right ideas, at the right time.”

We’ll be joining the conversation this Tuesday night as co-hosts with Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman from 8-9 p.m. (Eastern) via @MonsterCareers and @Monster_Works.

5 Activities to Strengthen Your Career Muscle

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Planting words on my MacBook Pro stimulates me emotionally and intellectually as I sow client career stories from bud to blossom. This focused, brain-powered activity, though invigorating, is physically sedentary and potentially unsustainable if not combined with the appropriate amount of physical activity.

In Joe Lavelle’s recent post, “Exercise Like a CEO,” he underscores the importance of exercising your body. He asks, “What do you do routinely to exercise your body … to maintain mental acuity?” For many, the addition of a new or enhancement of an existing exercise routine will work wonders to add muscle to a soft career or even jump-start a stalled career.

A selection of other energy- and focus-boosting activities that will both propel your productivity and strengthen your career muscle follows:

1) Simplify Your Space

Simplifying your space may mean unwrapping yourself from a visual security blanket of ‘clutter.’ Doing so can free your mind and emotional energy to concentrate on individual projects and goals – the task at hand, if you will, versus the distractions all around you.

You may consider de-cluttering your primary work area into a clean, open, airy space that includes soothing paintings, memorabilia and perhaps even a desk-top water fountain to cultivate calm and inspiration. If you must express your clutter, identify a behind-closed-doors nook and, within these boundaries, go wild!

2) Big-Picture Your Schedule

Though your talent in creating calendars, check lists and project action steps shines, you also may find that you feel yourself drowning in a sea of details and deadlines, particularly as your career and business initiatives grow. If this describes you, consider big-picturing your schedule.

White-boarding your projects-in-progress as well as crafting a two- to three-month running whiteboard calendar of meetings and deadlines may quickly quell calendar chaos by creating a bird’s-eye view snapshot of your overarching initiatives.

Remember, project ‘detail-collecting’ within the associated project lists and files will provide the information you need to deep-dive into the specifics of your big-picture initiatives when needed. By maintaining this glimpse-able overview, you can better manage existing tasks and respond to new requests to which you commit your time and energy. With a quick glance at your calendar/project whiteboards, you can quickly accept or decline new projects.

3) Recognize That Little Choices Matter

Choosing a glass of water instead of sweet tea may be the linchpin to stay within you daily caloric intake parameters. As well, with business communications, that latest email, Tweet, Facebook message or LinkedIn invitation typically does not require your immediate absorption.  If you must, take a five-minute break every couple of hours to simply confirm receipt of new communications without fully partaking of a communications swap until a later, scheduled time.

And when faced with that emotionally-wrought virtual request for you to “drop everything and help me now,” remind yourself of the adage, “Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.”

4) Make Peace With Perfectionism

Though your next project for your boss or your customer may mean the difference between a promotion or a career-defining sales deal, most of the time this is not the case. When you single out and assess your initiatives, you likely will find that the results of your next deliverable, though important to the recipient, will not require you overextend and go that extra 10 miles to prove you are the #1 Sales Producer, Human Resources Leader, Marketing Manager or <fill-in-the-blank>.  Stop placing so much pressure and importance on yourself at every given moment of the work day.

Instead, allot yourself a reasonable number of minutes, hours or days to achieve the project goal, and then deliver!  You likely will be reminded of how sometimes the extra-mile projects fall flat while the, “I did my best and infused this project with my years of value and experience without over-analyzing” projects often net the most kudos and bottom-line results.

5) Align Yourself With Complementary Others

Finding colleagues, mentors, friends and cohorts who think a bit differently than you do may be a key to unlocking doors to new ways of thinking. Seeking to explore outside your comfort zone is an admirable trait and one we all must be reminded to tap into from time to time.

By connecting with individuals or groups of folks whose intellectual capital, like the arteries of a road map, shepherd you through unexplored and sometimes uncomfortable highways and byways, you may find new direction toward achieving the destination goal that you have been struggling to reach.

Image Credit: RightIndex

Finding Career Success Without A Job or Internship

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Written by Kirsten Taggart

I’m currently in Australia taking some classes and learning what life is like in the southern hemisphere.  Even more, I’m learning some important lessons and tricks on how to advance my career away from home without a job or an internship. Whether you’re also abroad, a recent graduate, or simply want to plan ahead, it’s always beneficial to know how to be productive on your own time.

We’re facing an unemployment rate of 9.1% (underemployment is at 19.2%). There are approximately 21 applicants per job position.  Intimidating? I certainly think so. But you can have a major advantage over your competition simply by making yourself known and getting your name out there from wherever you may be.

Being away from home, I’ve found the best way to do so is to stay connected. Email previous employers/professors and tell them what you’re up to, what you’re planning on doing in the near future, etc. Maybe they know someone you can contact.

Use LinkedIn wisely.

Be vocal on Twitter – when I say vocal I don’t mean telling the world that you broke up with your boy/girlfriend via a sappy song lyric. Twitter is a branding source so use it the way you would want your employers to view you. What are you interested in? What relevant articles have you read lately? Who are (or aren’t) you following?  Twitter is great for making connections in your industry and finding open positions.

At the same time, go out and meet people. My goal here has been to meet the locals and find out what they do, what working in Sydney is like, workplace dynamics, etc.  Who knows, you might find someone in your field that can help you out.

Here’s a recent example of how networking can help you anywhere in the world. TalentCulture recently took on a few new talented bloggers.  I tweeted them a small community welcome, which led to a conversation with William. Before I knew it, he was sending me the contact information of his friend in Australia.  Now I have a local connection and an opportunity to expand my network.

In the past few weeks there have been numerous articles on the best and worst advice for college students, but the most valuable tip I’ve heard so far is not to limit yourself. Put yourself out there on social media – in the end you’ll be available to a much broader job market.

If you would like to read more on the world of work for new grads, check out Tuesday’s #TChat recap.

In the World of Our Work, We Are the Architects: #TChat Recap

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If we all knew what we wanted to be when we grew up, then what’s the point of growing up? Where’s the beauty in the journey?

When I say “beauty” I’m not talking just about the literal kind of pretty, I mean the mindful presence of learning to own your life decisions, your failures, your successes and your over- and under-reactions, your disruptive passions and your nonchalant, middle-of-the-road actions…your life. Let me digress sentimental…

Growing up (aren’t we always growing up?), I wanted to be an architect. And a poet/novelist. And a rock star drummer. Quite a combo I know. What started as drawing Snoopy and other Peanuts characters then cars and hot rods led to drafting classes in high school and a love for designing homes and buildings. And what started as writing sweet little rhymes led to dark prose of teenage questioning angst then hopeful short stories of love and redemption into adulthood, with a few “novel” beginnings to boot. And lastly what started as air drumming and eventually practice pads has never gotten any farther than the love of drumming.

Instead I went into philanthropy, then marketing communications and business development with a college degree in psychology. Note to future grads: Not getting work experience, including internships, prior to graduating is a mistake. Don’t ride it all out a la academic — get real-world experience along the way as well as finding mentors to guide you. Remember, a college degree doesn’t equal an automatic paying career. Not anymore. In fact, in this job market, working multiple contingent jobs ain’t a bad gig if you can get it. It’s great “stretch” experience, too.

I read at the end of last year that millenials (i.e., Gen Y, those born somewhere between the mid-1970′s and the early 2000′s) will have at least 7-8 careers in their lifetimes. I’m a Gen Xer and I’ve already had 6 now. Many of my peers can relate to the path of “I wanted to be this but I fell into that, and that, and that.” As I wrote yesterday, there are five generations now in the workplace who are scrambling to stay afloat in this post-apocalyptic economy.

And while I agree that for the most part it still takes time and experience to build a better mouse trap and mouse trap management, there’s nothing wrong with a little impatient hurry-up-and-fail attitude to build one’s fortitude. Some of the most exciting business startup activity in over a decade is coming from a mixed generational group, young and old alike, all re-imaging the way and why of work within an emotional connectivity context and cultural inclusivity.

That’s why it was so poignant that I awoke with this passage from famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright:

“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.”

Own your career management, fail and learn, and champion your mentors. Then become one. In the world of our work, we are the architects.

There’s lots of beauty in that as far as I’m concerned.

You can read the #TChat pre-cap titled Meet the Workplace: World of Work for New Grads, as well as review the questions from last night:

  • Q1: Should 2011’s new grads follow their passions, or focus on finding a stable career?
  • Q2: What rookie mistakes are new grads in danger of making in the workplace?
  • Q3: What are some tactics a new grad needs to employ in a troubled employment market?
  • Q4: Do you think a four-year degree (at least) is necessary for career security?
  • Q5: What makes this generation of young workers different from those of 20 years ago?
  • Q6: How do you think this decade’s crop of new grads will transform the workplace?
  • Q7: What’s the best piece of career advice new grads need to hear right now?

A special thank you to Charles Purdy from @Monster_Careers for moderating last night!

The World of Work for New Grads: #TChat Preview

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Originally posted by Charles Purdy, one of #TChat’s moderators, on Monster Thinking Blog

It’s not just that many recent grads are new to the world of work — it’s also that the world of work has changed quite a lot in recent years. The tumultuous economy, fast-changing technologies, and the social-media revolution (just to name a few factors) have made the workplace 2011′s grads are entering a very different place from the one 2oo1′s experienced.

Of course, many of the questions new grads face — such as “Should I follow my passions or work on finding a stable career?” “What mistakes should I beware of?” and even “Was my four-year degree really necessary?” — aren’t questions that only young people ask. We’re all dealing with these questions to some extent.

If you’re a new or recent grad looking for answers, a job seeker with questions about the new world of work, or anyone who has career wisdom to share, join #TChat tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern (5 p.m. Pacific). This is sure to be a lively discussion!

#TChat Questions and Recommended Reading (06.07.11)

Here are tonight’s questions, along with some posts on emerging workforce issues we think are worth checking out.  This background reading isn’t mandatory to get in on tonight’s #TChat action, but we suggest checking out these articles by top career-advice and talent-management thought leaders before the chat (or if you missed it):

Q1: Should 2011’s new grads follow their passions, or focus on finding a stable career?

Read: How to Find Your Calling: Lessons from Larry Crowne by Monster College

Q2: What rookie mistakes are new grads in danger of making in the workplace?

Read: The Worst Career Advice Continually Given to College Seniors by Emily Bennington

Q3: What are some tactics a new grad needs to employ in a troubled employment market?

Read: Job Search Tips for New Grads: Standing Out From the Growd by Charles Purdy

Q4: Do you think a four-year degree (at least) is necessary for career security?

Read: Should You Go Back To School? by Jacob Milner

Q5: What makes this generation of young workers different from those of 20 years ago?

Read: Workplace Entitlement? C’mon, Mom Told Us All We Were Special by Kevin Grossman

Q6: How do you think this decade’s crop of new grads will transform the workplace?

Read: The Non-Generational Talent of American Workers by Peter Weddle

Q7: What’s the best piece of career advice new grads need to hear right now?

Read: Recession Job-Search Tips for New Grads by Margot Carmichael Lester

Monster’s social media team supports #TChat’s mission of sharing “ideas to help your business and your career accelerate — the right people, the right ideas, at the right time.”

We’ll be joining the conversation every Tuesday night as co-hosts with Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman from 8-9 p.m. (Eastern) via @MonsterCareers and @Monster_Works.

Transforming the Workplace: Charting a Path to a Better Place

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Originally posted by Chris Jones, a TalentCulture contributing writer. He is an IT Strategy & Change Management consultant, with a passion for driving new levels of engagement and learning in the modern organization. His research areas include the dynamics of organization culture, and more recently, the importance and implications of critical thinking. Check out his blog, Driving Innovation in a Complex World, for more.

In my last TC post, we did a deep dive on critical thinking in the workplace.  We discussed ways to drive innovation in our day to day exchanges by tracing the value of engagement in the modern organization and focusing on the mechanics of collaboration as a more rigorous way to solve problems.

These are all core elements of a desirable future state culture.  If achieved, they could serve to foster organization-wide learning.

But what about culture change itself?

So often executives will speak of the need to drive a full transformation of the business or its culture. It’s not too difficult to imagine an alternate future state.  But it can be difficult to know how to get there.

The research I’ve done in this space indicates that culture change can be guided by leadership, provided there is a focused, coordinated, and ongoing effort to achieve it. Too often culture is viewed as a quick fix, a “memo” to the team (remember those?), or a simple expectation of management for the troops to ‘figure it out’.

Organization change is too complex for simple solutions. Learned behaviors run deep into the fabric of the organization, and are not easily changed.

I see value in attacking the problem at two levels simultaneously, a simple, high-level framing like the one recently popularized by Chip and Dan Heath in Switch (2010), supplemented by a more detailed approach, such as the one famously outlined by John Kotter in Leading Change (1996).  A combination provides a reinforcing framework, a ‘scaffolding’ of sorts, that will be resilient due to its diverse structure.

Let’s take a look at a synthesis of these two models, and outline what the core transformational elements might be:

Viability of an Organization’s Vision

Stakeholders must be able to see themselves in the future state, and will gain value from participating in the visioning exercises.  The vision must be achievable and actionable, and defined in a language recognizable to those who must seek it.

Ability of Leaders to Motivate

A guiding coalition must form around the change effort to create a believable, unified front to shepherd the changes through.  This coalition, representing elements of the entire organization, must be able to articulate a clear “value” story for stakeholders to rally behind. A “burning platform” is ideal to create a sense of urgency.  There must be an emotional appeal for an organization to be truly motivated, and a sense of empowerment that gets people engaged.

Ability of Managers to Clear a Path

Hurdles and roadblocks will invariably get raised, because human nature is to avoid change and maintain a status quo.  Pockets of resistance and politics will resit new approaches, and the guiding coalition must be sure that the team receives full support.  Communication will be critical, as well as establishing momentum, and, eventually, being sure to embed changes into daily operations.

Neither a checklist nor a new framework will be sufficient for an organization’s transformation to be successful.  It takes commitment and focus, and an investment of energy over the long-term.  Working together, stakeholders can build a transformation road map, charting a path to a better place.

Do you think these steps could serve as a means for driving change in an organization? Which of these steps have worked for you?  What do you see as challenges?

Let’s discuss adoption.  It would be great to compare notes, and to drive this thinking forward.

IMAGE VIA bbsc30

The HR Technology Disconnect…Not What You Think

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Last week on May 25th and 26th, Las Vegas hosted the 2011 HR Demo Show in conjunction with the HRO Today Forum, including the RPO Summit. The point of the demo show was to showcase the best and latest HR and talent management technologies. Organizations that presented were Kenexa, Guidant Group, Epicor, CareerBuilder, Taleo, iCIMS, RECSOLU, JSTN, OneWire and many more. Throughout the two days, I closely followed the main hashtags for the event, which were #HRDemo and #HRTech. I also paid close attention to the Blog Squad, particularly the ones I personally knew—Geoff Webb, Meghan M. Biro and Jessica Merrill.

During the event, the weekly #TChat that I am religiously a part of focused on “Innovation Gap Realities Workforce Technology.” From my perspective it was probably one of the most active #TChat’s that I have ever participated in because the focus was on innovation, or lack of innovation when it comes to HR technology. Here is the high level “Jeff Waldman Brain-Dump Summary” of what I discovered during this chat, which is also inspired by the #TChat Recap: “HR tech innovation should keep us all in business.”

  1. Most HR technology is focused on recruitment and talent management.
  2. People think that innovation must be something new or a re-imagining of how technology can drive efficiencies in HR, and contribute to the business.
  3. HR practitioners need to better educate themselves on the use of technology in the workplace.
  4. Technology “users” think that existing HR technology is NOT innovative but “providers” think otherwise.  As Meghan M. Biro of TalentCulture stated, “HR and recruiters just are not perceiving what’s out there as innovative, perhaps because most of what we’re seeing isn’t screaming cloud, mobile application.”
  5. There is huge disconnect between technology providers and technology users regarding their perception of how valuable technology is in completing work.
  6. Technology cannot replace the human element.

What’s the main point in all of this?
The one thing that I heard consistently was that a huge gap exists between HR technology providers and HR technology users (a.k.a. HR practitioners). I could not agree more with this. But… yes, there’s always a “but!”  But, I strongly believe that the reasons that were discussed for this disconnect missed the boat.

The Technology IS There!
There are so many phenomenal platforms that HR practitioners can strategically leverage to help them add more value to their clients. Off the top of my head, awesome platforms that come to mind that I have used include Rypple, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, ZuzuHire, SurgeHire, StickyHQ, Yammer, ClearFit, FreshTransition and BranchOut.

Now, I want to note that I bring a unique perspective to TalentCulture because I work in Canada, and the majority of my professional experience is with Canadian organizations. Here is the problem… the HR community in Canada does NOT possess the knowledge and understanding of HR technology, the necessary technological skills or the ability to evaluate the strategic impact of HR technologies. They inadvertently avoid the conversation about HR technology because they have not a clue where to begin.

So, it does not matter how good the technology is, the Canadian HR community as it currently exists will never get to the point where they will be on the same page with technology providers.

Change is Change… “We” Don’t Like Change!
Technology is a tool. It is not meant to replace the human element or the responsibility of performing the activities that impact “brand building”—e.g. talent attraction, employer branding, employee engagement and the overall employee experience. Integrating new technology into the workplace represents a change.  It could be a huge change, or it could be a small one. It doesn’t matter; people naturally are not very good at coping with change.  So let me ask you this question. If the majority of HR practitioners are unable to even begin the technology conversation, do you think HR technology providers are able to lead and manage change?  Hmmmm…. I don’t think so.

Case in Point…
A couple of years ago I was brought into a very entrepreneurial, yet small organization that possessed an extremely strong corporate brand. They sold really cool things, and employed some really neat product marketing and promotional tactics. This company was really just starting to build its HR infrastructure, and they were in the process of implementing a technology to help them with the full recruitment cycle, all the way to on-boarding.

They retained a PMP (Project Management Specialist) to lead and manage this project. He did an absolutely stellar job of identifying business needs, potential technology platforms, engaging most of the right internal players to select the platform, all the way to “flipping the go-live switch” on the new platform. Sounds great doesn’t it? Well… the execution failed miserably for one simple reason. He completely ignored the end-user. To add fuel to the fire, the technology providers were completely hands-off with the people change management components of the execution; they just focused on the technical aspect (of course, this is where their expertise lies). The failure basically boiled down to a couple of things:

  1. The end-users (HR practitioners) were technologically illiterate.
  2. The end-user was never engaged during the technology selection and implementing process.
  3. The end-user was never trained on the new technology.
  4. No platform testing was performed with the end-user group during the project phase.
  5. The end-user was simply directed to “just do it”.


Conclusion…
Technological innovation is NOT the problem right now. The problem is a severe lack of technological competence within the HR practitioner community and a complete disregard for change management being fully embedded in the technology integration process. If you can resolve these two fundamental problems, the perceptions of providers and users regarding technology innovation and work-related value will be pretty close, and the result will be favorable.