Apr 18, 2013
Editor’s note: Any resemblance between Bill Boorman and Tommy Cooper is purely in the eye of the beholder.
In her recent post, Casual But Powerful: Conversations that Need to Happen, Rayanne Thorn incorrectly credits industry ol’ timer John Sumser with putting on the first industry “unconference.”
While Mr. Sumser can undoubtedly claim a “first” for any number of things—after all he’s been around longer than most—the enigmatic Jeff Hunter was, in fact, the first to organize an industry unconference.
It happened in January 2007 on the campus of Electronic Arts where Mr. Hunter was the resident recruiting intrapreneur. He invited me to come. I went, as did most of the “tribe.”
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Aug 27, 2012
Oh, Publix Premium New York Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream, to what shall I compare thee? How about this…stumbling upon something that you have no awareness of but which, on its discovery, has an immediate and obvious familiarity? So much so that it is as if a cherished memory is being awakened. Not at all like a new experience being committed to the cerebrum for the very first time.
I had one such discovery yesterday. Just as the freezer cabinets magically flicker on as one idles up and down the supermarket aisle, so too when researching online, a passing comment can illuminate something that leads you to smack your lips with delight.
Left to my own devices I believe I would have eventually come up with the idea of combining cherry cheesecake and ice cream. But such concoctions are born of cravings unthought of until that first spoonful leaves you thinking about little else.
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Mar 26, 2012
Despite years of commentary and well-intentioned how-to’s about fixing the sorry state of many career sites, the five or six that I randomly visited this morning confirms it: your career site sucks. If you don’t believe me, check it out yourself.
Now, before you get all besides yourself, you can be forgiven if you have abdicated responsibility for your career site to any of the following agenda-driven interests…
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Mar 23, 2012
John Zappe writes in the Fordyce Letter about Monster.com’s possible future. The piece is titled: There’s a Monster For Sale In New York which quotes Neil Cavuto lookalike and Chief Monster Sal Iannuzzi.
On a possible acquisition, I would have liked further explanation on what Mr. Iannuzzi means by, for example:
“We’re agnostic as to what type of acquirer it is. The real issue is we know we have value, and we know we can go around and look for opportunities to get that.”
What does this mean? Could a casual reader be forgiven for thinking that it translates, “Thank you, you saps, for your resume data and eyeballs, now go fuck yourselves because we just sold [you] out?” Surely not. It cannot be.
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Sep 5, 2011
First bowler-hatted gentleman I can say was worth listening to. Interesting…
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Aug 19, 2011
Japanese business has a tradition of breaking the mold. Now, having earned that coveted “seat at the table,” it turns out to be quite entertaining…
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Jul 5, 2011
Some books are simply indispensable. One such classic is How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff. I have had one of the over million copies sold on my desk since I first acquired a tatty secondhand paperback in 1978. Of course, that’s when content was king and influence was measured in royalties, reprints and guest appearances on the Russell Harty Show.
I was reminded of what a useful reference that book is when I happened on Social Media Saturday: Who Are The HR Bloggers? posted by Laurie Ruettimann on her blog, The Cylindrical Girl.
Social Media Saturday: Who Are The HR Bloggers? features an infographic that visualizes a survey of HR bloggers, presumably those listed in the day’s prior post Ultimate HR/Career Blog List for 2011: V3.0.
Credit goes to Ms. Ruettimann’s lucky intern, comrades in marketing at Starr Tincup, for an otherwise delightfully decorative piece. And full props to Ms. Ruettimann for filing both posts under General Nonsense, even if it is, as seems to be the case, her popular site’s default category.
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Jun 29, 2011
No doubt, the organizers of the Society of Human Resources [SHRM] 63rd Annual Conference will tell you that their shindigs take a lot of advance planning. One assumes that includes their choice of venue, this year in Las Vegas.
Unable to substantiate my suspicions that the decision to congregate in the Mecca of smoke and mirrors had something to do with “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” I shall refrain from speculating that, if not that, perhaps some polyester PR plonker persuaded SHRM’s leadership that there is no better place to engage the dissenting voices going ga-ga for transparency than on the Vegas Strip. Where better to make a show of it!
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Jun 6, 2011
In the hopes that it may give pause for thought, a selection of notes taken from phone conversations with John Sumser. The social web was our topic de jour.
1. Data? What data?
It can be difficult to make sense of the data that gets reported under “Social Media.” Harder still, accepting it could be useless in the context of traditional HR metrics, or under any circumstances, come to think it. Teasing intelligence from a new data set can leave one befuddled. Correlating things like “authority,” “increased awareness” “mentions,” and “sentiment” to the traditional metrics like time-to-fill and cost-per-hire may not only be a challenge of Rubik proportions, but ultimately an exercise in futility.
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May 18, 2011
The Future of Work examines the challenges to conventional notions of work and organization brought on by new digital technologies and trends. As the velocity of change increases, institutions and individuals must adapt. Yet many structures, including those in education, government, business and the economy, often remain rooted in the past.
The report captures the insights of the Nineteenth Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology, where business leaders, technologists, international politicians, academics and innovators explored how global structures and institutions are being confronted by the 21st century realities of distributed knowledge, crowdsourcing, open platforms and networked environments.
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May 18, 2011
If you’re a designer, entrepreneur, or creative – you probably haven’t been asked for your resume in a long time. Instead, people Google you – and quickly assess your talents based on your website, portfolio, and social media profiles. Do they resonate with what you’re sharing? Do they identify with your story? Are you even giving them a story to wrap their head around?
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Apr 29, 2011
As business involves more interactions on the internet, the legal and practical implications of what you say and where you say things online is changing. Access to information is instantaneous-thoughtful responses and time to consider are rare.
It used to be that something was written, set aside, edited and mulled over before it was published in one of a few media outlets. Today, information, including photographs and video, get Tweeted, posted, linked, YouTubed, Googled and emailed instantaneously.
The opportunities to create havoc and legal liability abound. Part of it is the disconnect of between the author and the audiences. There is a false sense of intimacy in being able to communicate so quickly to multiple audiences of one.
Posting our hearts out from a computer, we are completely removed from the checks and balances of body language and voice inflections inherent in in-person communications. We like what we’re saying. We think we’re right. It’s often difficult to know when we are completely out of line until it’s too late. And once you post, it’s pretty much too late.
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