Group items tagged

blog post by Jennifer Gilhool, 6.4.2013 "You are connected to work 24/7. You don't need your lap top to be connected. You are connected via BlackBerry, iPhone and iPad to name just a few. These devices no longer provide flexibility. Instead, they tether you to the office. They enable you to work all the time and anywhere. And, now, many companies believe that is the definition of flexibility: "'What flexibility means today is not part time,' the head of work-life at one large organization told me recently. 'What people want is the ability to work anytime, anywhere.' That's true if your target labor pool is twenty-somethings and men married to homemakers. The head of HR at another large organization asked, when I described the hours problem, 'What do you mean, how can we get women to work more hours?'" - Why Men Work So Many Hours, Joan C. Williams, May 29, 2013 Harvard Business Review Why Your Manager Doesn't Want You To Innovate Ron Ashkenas Ron Ashkenas Contributor LinkedIn: Busting 8 Damaging Myths About What It Can Do For Your Career 85 Broads 85 Broads Contributor Someone has taken the "human" out of "Human Resources" departments across America. And, this behavior is not limited to operations in America. I work for a multi-national corporation that cannot seem to wean itself from the 24 hour work day. Colleagues in China often begin their day with a 6:00 a.m. meeting and end it with a meeting that begins at 10:00 p.m. or, worse, 11:00 p.m. To combat this problem, the company leadership agreed to a global meeting policy. The policy provides that global meetings should occur only between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. and that no meetings should occur on Friday nights in Asia Pacific. Further, the policy provides a 10 hour fatigue rule. In other words, there should be 10 hours between your last meeting of the day and your first meeting on the next day. First, if you need a global meeting policy, you are in

Adafruit was founded in 2005 by MIT engineer, Limor "Ladyada" Fried. Her goal was to create the best place online for learning electronics and making the best designed products for makers of all ages and skill levels. Over the last 6 years Adafruit has grown to over 45 employees in the heart of NYC. Adafruit has expanded offerings to include tools, equipment and electronics that Limor personally selects, tests and approves before going in to the Adafruit store. Limor was the first female engineer on the cover of WIRED magazine and was recently awarded Entrepreneur magazine's Entrepreneur of the year.

Someone my London cousin suggested we look at. She is quite something and has grown a very successful company. She is the first woman engineer featured on the cover of WIRED. Her site is interesting, and she awards badges for acquiring skills.

Forbes, 10/22/13, by Jacquelyn Smith "Entrepreneurial spirit is a mindset. It's an attitude and approach to thinking that actively seeks out change, rather than waiting to adapt to change. It's a mindset that embraces critical questioning, innovation, service and continuous improvement. "It's about seeing the big picture and thinking like an owner," says Michael Kerr, an international business speaker, author and president of Humor at Work. "It's being agile, never resting on your laurels, shaking off the cloak of complacency and seeking out new opportunities. It's about taking ownership and pride in your organization." Sara Sutton Fell, CEO and founder of FlexJobs, says: "To me, an entrepreneurial spirit is a way of approaching situations where you feel empowered, motivated, and capable of taking things into your own hands. Companies that nurture an entrepreneurial spirit within their organization encourage their employees to not only see problems, solutions and opportunities, but to come up with ideas to do something about them." Entrepreneurial companies tend to have a more innovative approach to thinking about their products or services, new directions to take the company in, or new ways of doing old tasks, she adds. "Entrepreneurial spirit helps companies grow and evolve rather than become stagnant and stale." According to Jay Canchola, an independent human resources consultant, entrepreneurial spirit is also associated with taking calculated risks, and sometimes failing. "

"-- Nearly half of new microbusinesses are women-owned -- Many microbusiness owners are pulling double duty, depending on a second job to make ends meet -- Despite struggles, 69 percent of microbusiness owners say they have the ideal job -- Microbusinesses would rather spend more time serving customers than taking time off WASHINGTON & BENTONVILLE, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 03, 2014-- One in three microbusiness owners (31%) depend more on a second job for their personal income than they do on their business, yet 69 percent say owning their business is the ideal job, according to the new Sam's Club/Gallup Microbusiness Tracker. In collaboration with Gallup, Sam's Club unveiled a new quarterly tracking poll today focused on America's smallest businesses -- microbusinesses -- with five or fewer workers. With more than 25 million microbusinesses in the United States*, they account for approximately 10 percent of all American jobs across a broad spectrum of businesses, such as pizza shops and cafes, convenience stores, pet groomers, mechanics, offices, day care centers and more. The results of the inaugural Sam's Club/Gallup Microbusiness Tracker provide new insights into the preparedness, concerns and needs of America's vital microbusiness segment. The results reflect 868 phone interviews made in March 2014 with companies of five or fewer employees."

Alice's wonderful blog, from September 30, 2013, commenting on DIY learning conversation in CPsquare. Excerpt: "Emilie Doolittle summarizes some related research in a blog post, showing that social networks can improve collaborative efforts, reduce costs, help people get just-in-time help, speed decision making, and retain employees. Does your organization treat knowledge as a thing and learning as a pre-planned and isolated activity? If so, you might experiment by thoughtfully connected some networks, and watch to see what happens."

from the Blog Tyrant: online marketing strategy Blog about Chris Drucker's new book Although he has over 300 employees and speaks at high profile gigs around the world, he is still very approachable and has helped me out a number of times when most people just wouldn't have replied.If you're at all interested in outsourcing to grow your business then his website and podcast are two things you should really be checking out. And so is his new book.

Makes me feel better about having Kristin do some work for us, and makes the point about concentrating on what you want to do and are good at doing.

Yes, it reassured me, too, to know that the market is moving to buying promotion.

by Seth Kahan, April 12, 2013, Fast company 1. fundamental model of membership is in question ...What is membership turning into? Too early to tell. Engaged action is one candidate. This is the anticipated, intentional, collective behavior of a group. 2. Adoption of private sector business practices ...Pursuing the bottomline in tough market conditions seems like a no-brainer, but the overall impact is not necessarily what is desired for a mission driven organization, shifting priorities away from impact and member value. 3. Talent ...continuous, aggressive professional development is an organizational asset only in some associations. This is changing. It means less certainty for employees while it opens up new territory for innovation and expansion of the organization. 4. Competitive intelligence ...many associations are doing negligible work on behalf of their mission. Prices for gathering intelligence are plummeting. Often it is only the CEO who actively searches for new information and connects the dots for organizational strategy. Expect this to change 5. Disruption of members' business Savvy associations leaders are looking around the curve, putting the puzzle together for members. This means going beyond providing information and ata. Instead it means compiling, analyzing, distilling and communicating useful knowledge that impacts members' lives. ???It is not uncommon to see associations beefing up their subject matter experts these days because members need it in a disruptive economy. 6. Driving uptake in a competitive world ...each association owned a small monopoly, providing the single best resource to everyone in their field. No more. With the advent of 24/7 interconnectivity, anyone can set up shop and begin serving your members.

Article by Peter Cappelli, Washington Post, September 5. "Companies simply haven't invested much in training their workers. In 1979, young workers got an average of 2.5 weeks of training a year. While data is not easy to come by, around 1995, several surveys of employers found that the average amount of training workers received per year was just under 11 hours, and the most common topic was workplace safety - not building new skills. By 2011, an Accenture study showed that only about a fifth of employees reported getting on-the-job training from their employers over the past five years."

Blog post by Katie Bascuas, Associationsnow.com, July 14, 2014. Post reports on 22 CEOs who "will lead by example demonstrating health lifestyle habits in an effort to encourage the more than 2 million employees at their organizations to make healthier choices in their own lives." The simple seven are listed below. What about a simple seven for leading online? What would that look like? ""Life's Simple 7": getting active, controlling cholesterol levels, eating healthy, managing blood pressure, losing weight, reducing blood sugar, and quitting smoking."

issue of employees using cloud apps such as Twitter and Dropbox and IT just saying no won't work. Post by Ernie Smith, September 23, 2014

Example of a conversation guide to help employees create personal learning plans by James Tyer in Google Drive, January 2013. Found it through the Learning Concierge Society moderated by Jane Hart.

Although written in 2011, it forecasts nicely how LMSs are being revamped/enhanced/integrated with business performance & business transformation. Really it's about boundary management, too, in terms of formal employer led/sponsored training/learning and what employees may learn and apply on their own.

article by Elaine Pofeldt, Forbes contributor, May 25, 2015, on 40% of the workforce working in "contingent" jobs as contractors, project employees, part-timers, on-call, agency temps, contract workers, etc. according to new GAO report.

assessment by CBIgroup (outplacement and outside-in recruitment service company established in 2001) of rise in contingent workforce and how it benefits employers and employees

published in 2011, excellent chart on page 8 of The Extended Workforce: Old and New Realities, 3 columns headed Dimension, Old Reality, and New Reality. Reports that type of work by extended employees has changed from primarily low-skilled, low-value work to high skilled, high value knowledge work, personal profile of workers has changed, reasons for becoming an extended worker have changed.

Article by Christine Porath, June 20, 2015, NYT on rudeness and bad behavior and its impact on us. Has two lists: Boors in the Workplace, Behaviors that we admit to Also has paragraph on impact of multitasking and too much technology

Although ten years old, interesting blog post by Dave Kovaleski, July 1, 2004, Meetingsnet, makes some good points about what kinds of learning and when. Excerpt The key to an effective blended learning program lies in the mix of media used to deliver the training. Bersin identifies 16 different media, including classroom instruction, webinars, conference calls, CD-ROM courseware, study manuals, Web pages, online simulations, on-site labs, Web-based discussion groups, mentoring programs, and videos. To create a successful blended program, it's not necessary to incorporate many or all of them; in fact, two or three should suffice. Typically, a blended-learning program has several steps. The first might be a conference call, introducing students to the trainer and subject. Next is the self-directed portion, in which students are asked to study for the live session. The self-directed portion is best delivered through asynchronous means, such as webcasts or some kind of simulated, virtual exercises. Experts suggest follow-up testing on the pre-work to make sure students are prepared to move on to the live, or synchronous, session. "The self-directed portion of the blend is critical," says Jennifer Hofmann, president of InSync Training LLC, Branford, Conn., and author of The Synchronous Trainer's Survival Guide (Jossey-Bass). "It's a huge culture change." ... Post-meetings, or asynchronous evaluations, are frequently the final components of blended-learning programs. Coaching modules, online tutorials, tests, and simulations reinforce the classroom work. They also allow companies to make sure that employees are applying the new information to their jobs. In addition, testing allows employers to identify knowledge gaps so that follow-up training is well-focused.

"In 2002, approximately 12 million people were employed by nonprofits and another 100 million volunteered their time to help these organizations (O'Neill, 2002). If any sector could be exempt of the glass ceiling - where professional women would advance and be paid at the rate same as men - the nonprofit sector seems like the most viable candidate. An overw helming percentage of nonprofit employees are 3 women, so it logically follows that in this sector, the percentage of female CEOs would be larger than the percentage of male executives and the two groups would be similarly compensated (Hays, et al., 2009; Johnston, & Rudney, 1987; Gibelman, 2000a; Joslyn 2003; Shaiko, 1996; Pynes, 2000; McGinnis, 2009). Perhaps in this se tting, supportive female co-workers would be more likely to confront inequity and encourage women as they work toward promotions. But such scenarios are the exception rather than the norm. It turns out that the glass ceiling of nonprofits is similar in construc tion and resiliency to the gl ass ceilings of government and private industries. "

Wonderful blog post on social learning by Sahana Chattopadhyay, October 19, 2014. Identified by Jane Hart. Excerpt: "Then comes the dichotomy of having an enterprise collaboration platform where no one is sharing, where there are no conversations happening, no debates and questions. It's a ghost town. At the end of the day, the platform doesn't matter. The culture of the organization does. An organization with an essentially command and control approach, an overly competitive outlook, and a repressive environment is not yet ready for social learning." Does this mean the employees are not engaging in "social learning"? Not at all. Learning has been social ever since human life was born on this planet and will continue to be so, with or without technology. Individuals will get their work done by talking to peers, reaching out to their network, and bringing their #pln and #pkm to work.

article by Dan Schawbel, Forbes, October 21, 2013. 6. Freelance nation booms. We keep hearing about the surplus of freelancers out there and it's just the beginning. Next year, there will be millions more freelancers, replacing full-time workers. Companies will hire experts to solve problems instead of full-time employees and save on benefit packages. This is due to the economy and how corporations operate now. One third of American workers are freelancers, reports NBC News.