Month: July 2012

What Keeps You Up at Night?

This Wednesday I’m making my debut on the excellent Drive Thru HR, a 30 minute daily blog talk radio show hosted by Bryan Wempen and William Tincup. They talk about Human Resources with a mix of professionals, practitioners, vendors and ‘thought leaders who support HR’ – an all-encompassing mix that ensures the conversation is lively, insightful and covers a wide ground.

The topic is always ‘about HR and whatever keeps you up at night’ – a question that helps ensure each discussion is personal and subjects don’t become repetitive. I’ve been thinking over what I want to talk about and I hope that I can contribute to a chat that keeps all Bryan and William’s listeners tuned in!

If you want to tune in and hear our discussion then click on this link at 6pm UK time, 12.00 CST US time

If you want to follow on twitter then the hashtag is #dthr

Whilst thinking over what I was going to talk about it did strike me that I do lie awake thinking about stuff quite a bit. I’ve always been a fairly light sleeper, but even allowing for that I do seem to lose anything up to an hour’s sleep some nights thinking about things, some arising from that day or evening. And I notice many people in my twitter timeline also talking about having had a restless night’s sleep.

Without touching on what I’ll talk about on Drive Thru HR there seem to be three main themes that fill my head at about 4am:

  • My son (hardly surprising…currently university applications, career choice and A-Levels – am I giving the right support, guidance and insight)
  • Elderly relatives (mainly my mum plus partner’s father who is in a care home but may be coming out soon – am I doing enough to help them)
  • Things I haven’t done (a regular theme! Can be work related, bills not paid, Oyster card not re-charged or other random stuff – yes, I am disorganised!)

I remember that my dad was always a worrier and often would be awake half the night…can’t think it’s hereditary though.

Anyone else care to share? Are you awake at night thinking about things – if so what? You never know…there may be a load of us awake thinking about the same stuff.

Please tune in on Wednesday at 6pm UK time to hear me chew the fat with Bryan and William – and also tune back in next Monday (6th August) when it’s the turn of my friend Doug Shaw to guest on the show and keep the flag flying for TeamGB!

5 Challenges Organisations Have to Face Before they Evolve

Much is written and debated about the future of organisations. Many approach this by talking about organisational structures, internal communications and how we get the best out of people, but what most of the discussions about flatter, collaborative organisations tend to ignore are the many basic challenges that businesses increasingly face now, and will over the next few years, and which will either have to be dealt with before evolving or else will have to be part of the evolution, probably driving it.

The way we get business, transact and fulfil that business is changing, and no debate about the future of organisations can overlook these changes.

So here are my five challenges that will need to be solved by any future organisation that wants to embrace a vision of more open, flatter hierarchy, collaborative and self-directed strategies. It’s really a question of skills, training, space, engagement and communication.

Knowledge Drain

The recent McKinsey Global Institute Report on Work predicts that by 2020 the global economy will be short of 38-40,000,000 degree educated workers. Primarily as they leave the workforce, taking their skills and knowledge with them, this shortfall accounts for 13% of workers needed at this level. How will companies replace this knowledge and capability?

Skill Shortages – Are we Training the Next Generation Properly?

It seems not. Alarmingly the recent UK Commission for Employment & Skills report on youth employment found that in the UK 32.7% of degree educated 25-29 year olds were working in jobs below their skill levels. The US figure was 25.8% and the OECD average 22.8% (chart below). When we talk about underemployment we usually mean people not working enough hours… the concept of under-utilisation of abilities, knowledge and education is rarely discussed. Continue reading “5 Challenges Organisations Have to Face Before they Evolve” →

There’s No Riot Goin’ On

At this weekend’s Hard Rock Calling gig the headline act, Bruce Springsteen, had bought Sir Paul McCartney on stage for a gig-goers dream of an encore. Alas, the entertainment was cut short 😦  The 10.30pm curfew for the event had been breached and the police pulled the plugs. The crowd streamed home, somewhat miffed.

“It made for a slightly bizarre, anti-climactic end to what had been a fantastic show” said the BBC reporter.

Would never have happened back in the 70s!

December 1973 saw an infamous and much chronicled gig at Hammersmith Odeon (now Apollo) from Mott the Hoople (supported by an up and coming glam metal band called Queen) for which high ticket demand had led to the staging of a second show. Touring schedules being what they were then there was no alternative date, so two shows were scheduled for the same night. The second show started late – the police and venue security eventually pulling the plugs (literally) at 12.15 am precipitating a near riot…whilst the final trains of the night waited patiently at Hammersmith station for the crowd to empty out!

Would that happen now? Clearly not! (Even though the Bruce Springsteen fan demographic would indicate that there may well have been people in Hyde Park on Saturday night who had been at the Mott the Hoople gig!)

Just contrast with today’s gig going…tickets bought up to a year in advance, set lists pre-publicised, a running order on the door as you arrive – with a curfew! Hell, even Led Zeppelin in their heyday were known to come back for one last encore to satiate the demands of a few hundred fans who wouldn’t leave!

Coincidentally I’ve recently been catching up on the Dominic Sandbrook documentary series on the 70s and the BBC4 series Punk Britannia. When the latter was first aired it lit up the post Jubilee blogosphere with chat of youth anger, rebellions and the tepid conformity that many old punks see in today’s yoof. I was debating this over a few beers with FlipChartRick a few weeks ago, just after he had published a blog which in turn had been inspired by one from Chris Dillow.

Rick felt that the some of the perceived anger and rebellion was largely misty eyed nostalgia…

“Are today’s youngsters any less rebellious than we were in the late 70s and early 80s? Perhaps but, then again, I’m not altogether sure that we were really that rebellious anyway. We did a lot of things that shook people up but that’s because our easily identifiable youth tribes made it look as though we were hell-bent on a single cause. Most of the time, though, we were just doing what teenagers have always done; seeing how far we could push things without getting into serious trouble”.

Whilst Chris Dillow was in little doubt that Punk offered anger that shocked their elders…

“Punk was more rebellious and more disquieting to the establishment than anything we see today. Nobody of my generation is as appalled by dubstep as 40-somethings were by punk. It’s unlikely that a single today would be banned for political reasons and get to number one, as God Save the Queen did. And try as I might, I can’t imagine Rizzle Kicks doing to Alex Jones what the Sex Pistols did to Bill Grundy. In this, music reflects a wider social fact – that today’s young people are much less gobby than we were.”

During the ale-fuelled conversation Rick encouraged me to record my thoughts, something I haven’t got round to…but last night’s mild mannered frustration at the early concert curtailment gave me a good example of how things have changed since those romanticised 70s days. I guess I wanted to see the full Punk Britannia series first, and I think that watching them in conjunction with the 70s documentaries gave a context that the music programmes alone may not have reflected.

I could have started a blog on the difference between the mid-70s and now with a question. If you are a parent, when we you last really shocked by something that your children did, liked, watched or said?

I remember an op-ed piece by a female journalist a few years ago (can’t remember who I’m afraid) in which she accompanied her teenage daughter to a boy band concert. She was appalled. Appalled by the conformity and niceness of it all. At the same age her band were The Rolling Stones – their primeval, sexual and narcotic take on pop blues horrifying her parents…yet here she was consumed with boredom. She was shocked…but the shock was at the conformity and mawkishness of what she was seeing. Continue reading “There’s No Riot Goin’ On” →

Hello, I Love You, Won’t You Tell Me Your Klout Score

A bit of fun maybe but this one will get the Klout deniers up in arms. Not sure how I missed it a few weeks ago but there’s a US dating site – Tawkify – that now offers to match you with your perfect partner based on Klout scores.

Cool huh?!!

Love these quotes from one of the co-founders on why they use Klout integration…

“People with high Klout scores know how to listen and know how to react; they’re cute, smart and connected. It’s as powerful as someone’s height or weight.”

“We’ve found that Klout scores are an authentic measurement of sophistication, wit, cultural savvy and appeal — a much truer and more trustworthy measurement than the typical online dating site bull-hockey-factors of height, weight and income”

So there you have it – you can put your Klout score on a CV and get a job, and now it can get you a date too.

I realise that a lot of my regular readers are, shall we say, a little sceptical about Klout, and indeed the whole business of measuring influence come to that. I have previously voiced my own thoughts too.

And I can’t help but wonder what kind of first date two people with high Klout scores will have…lots of check ins, liking, tweeting and live blogging of each other’s’ jokes and opinions no doubt.

But then if an algorithm can decide that I’m cute, smart, sophisticated, witty and savvy…then hell, who am I to argue 🙂