It is amazing to me what gets measured in this world. Just say, Guiness Book of Records and you are now conjuring up outrageous tales of the biggest, fastest, most random anythings — largest hand thrown pizza crust, the largest ball of string, or the longest distance keeping a table lifted with teeth (really?).

But, what about when you need helpful measurements?  It is interesting to me where measurements and metrics can go so wrong.  So, I am going to try and be helpful, as you face the umpteenth report for counts of this and lists of that being demanded from your organization.  Beware and be prepared! read more »

Right now a lot of organizations are experiencing pain caused by talent shortages – not the kind caused by a lack of skilled workers, but because there has been a lack of internal mobility. Companies just aren’t managing talent development across departments, which is what turns skilled specialists into well-rounded leaders who can see the forest and the trees. Then, they wonder why they’re left with workers who have the skills to perform narrow, specialized tasks, but not the talent to run projects, launch business initiatives or manage global growth.

CIO magazine ran a recent article citing the pain being felt in IT departments because their employees generally have narrow technical skill sets, but lack the broader business skills needed today. It’s a great read. And timely. I gave a presentation devoted to internal talent movement at the IHR Contract Workforce & Talent Exchange conference this week in San Francisco.

Here’s the gist of my presentation: read more »

Daniel Debow wrote such a great blog, “An Open Letter to Gen Xers and Baby Boomers” that I want you to read.

I will add to his comments some of my personal experiences.  I hire interns, a lot of them.  Not only the “stuff the envelope” type interns, but real jobs to help college students  find reality in the workforce.  At the moment I have an amazing student employee read more »



Halloween is not far away and the horror stories are mounting.  Oh, bad data will really mess you up!  Here are bad decisions or issues seen recently due to bad or no hierarchy data or lack of visibility to data: read more »

Lately, there has been a lot of talk  about how the recruiting department is a critical location to focus your brand and culture training.  But what about your purchasing department?  Are they damaging your brand?  Here are a few examples of bad corporate citizenship displayed by purchasing departments recently.  They seriously tarnish their corporate reputation. read more »