Scouting for Leaders
October 30, 2007
Tonight I was at a Boy Scout recognition event where I was recruiting the parents of the younger boys to step up to the responsibilities of running the troop. My son, a senior in high school, has been in scouting for 10 years. His scoutmaster, one of our friends and contemporaries, will be stepping down this year as our sons graduate from high school and out of the Boy Scouts. After 7 years of running the troop, he and his wife have earned a break from these responsibilities.
Boy scouting has been great for my son and his peers. As they’ve moved through the ranks, they’ve earned not only merit badges, but an increasing confidence in their individual ability to take control of their lives. Ten years ago, they were the little kids, intimidated by the big kids. Tonight, they’re the big kids- moving on to Eagle Scout status, completing college applications, and ready to leave the protection of our small town for a much larger world. They’ve become the mentors and leaders the younger kids look to for lessons from using a knife safely to navigating the bumpy middle school and high school years. The foundation of personal responsibility, integrity and teamwork they take from scouting will serve them well wherever they land in their future work lives.
None of this is possible without adult leadership, on several levels. Scouting, like most youth organizations, depends on adults to carve out time from work and other obligations to keep a troop alive. Scoutmasters sacrifice weekends and vacations to lead their troops. Families of scouts help with fundraising events and camping trips, and support their kids in completing their merit badges.
Scouting teaches kids to set long term goals and to persist for however long it takes to reach those goals. Scouting also teaches them that family, community and spirituality are as important to a full life as pursuing individual goals. The adult leaders who model this behavior for the kids are teaching them lessons every bit as meaningful as anything in the Boy Scout Handbook. For many workers today, it’s hard to escape the demands of their jobs to make time for “extras” like scouting. Let’s hope, for the sake of the kids (our future workforce), that forward thinking organizations continue to provide their employees with the flexibility in their lives to do so.
The Red Sox & the Meaning of (Work)Life
October 24, 2007
(October 30, 2004 Red Sox World Series Victory Parade)
In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit I am not a sports afficionado in general or a baseball fan in particular. This is despite the fact that my great grandfather, Tom Smith, was a professional baseball player. It’s hard to be indifferent, though, when the Red Sox are in the World Series and the world as we know it in Boston is aflame with Red Sox fever. There is no public discourse possible without contemplation of another World Series victory and another triumphant parade through the streets of Boston. There will be no rest for the Red Sox fan in the coming week - especially with games to be played in a different time zone. Workplace productivity will give way to recovery from the prior evening’s contest and speculation about what will happen next.
Even though I don’t fully appreciate the depth of the passion, I think I understand the source. Baseball is the perfect metaphor for what most of us wish the world of work could be. The rules are clear - you hit the ball, you run the bases. If you make it home, you score. The adversary is clear, and teamwork is critical to victory. In fact, only the team can win. For most of us, life at work is nowhere near this definitive. The goals change, the rules change, and victory isn’t always forthcoming - even with extra innings. Competition isn’t always focused outward. And even when you make the perfect play, there aren’t generally fans in the bleachers to shower you with appreciation.
So, I’ll watch the game tonight and every night during the series. Just like everybody else in Red Sox nation, I want to share the feeling of a job not only well done, but well appreciated.
Perspective and Randy Pausch
October 23, 2007
I read about Randy Pausch in Jason Corsello’s Human Capitalist blog yesterday. Randy is a professor at Carnegie Mellon who learned recently that his pancreatic cancer can’t be treated, and that he’s only got a few more months to live. His last lecture at Carnegie Mellon was recorded and has been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
You can see it on YouTube.
Randy’s comments about living your childhood dreams, and his wishes for his children, are very moving and thought provoking. He has clearly been leading a purposeful and balanced life before he learned that his life was likely to be cut short. His work has been deeply meaningful in his life as it has connected him to his dreams - specifically becoming an “Imagineer”.
I encourage you to take a few minutes to hear Randy’s message. Most of us rush through our workdays trying to stem the tide of to do’s. If this message doesn’t get you thinking about what you are working for, I’d be very surprised.
Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
October 19, 2007
One of the issues that our “Working in America” survey highlights is the importance of health benefits to employees as they evaluate whether to stay in their current positions. Tonight, I was out to dinner with my family after having visited my mother in the hospital. My parents are retired, but fortunate to have excellent health insurance. The hospital where my mother is being treated is a well regarded suburban hospital - attractive, clean, and expanding. Even with all its advantages, it’s clear that the floors are understaffed and patients wait for assistance when they ring for help. My mother’s doctor had delayed sending her there, fearing that the upside of monitoring her could be undone by the risk of hospital induced infection. No one wants to be in the hospital, but it’s increasingly difficult for hospitals to provide excellent care given staff shortages and the ongoing pressure to contain expenses.
At the restaurant, an older woman sitting next to us was angrily talking to her friend about her current work situation. She’d had an experience this week where she felt disrespected and unappreciated. She was talking about quitting. Her friend was urging her to consider her next steps carefully, reminding her that she had full health benefits in her current position. Health benefits are ironic that way. The last thing any of us wants is to end up in the hospital, but we surely want to be able to pay the bills if we do.
Jared Bernstein Guest Blog: So, is the job market healthy or sick?
October 14, 2007
From a national perspective, figuring out the status of the current job market has not been a walk in the park. Large data revisions, conflicting statistics, and considerable regional variation have made it quite a challenge to figure out the dynamics of today’s labor market.
The biggest challenge stems from a large data revision by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). When they first reported the national figures for August’s net job growth from their payroll survey, the number was downright depressing: -4,000, the first negative report in four years.
But a month later, they revised that number up by 93,000 (!) for a net gain of 89,000 in August, followed by a gain of 110,000 in September.
Clearly, any survey, even a large one like the BLS payroll survey from which these numbers derive, will have monthly blips. That’s why I like to take a three-month average of the job changes to better tease out the underlying signal. The problem is that due to these unusually large revisions in September, this method showed job growth at an average of about 45,000 over the prior three months. In October, the revised data (and the additional month) raised the three month average to 97,000, a much healthier rate of job growth.
Bottom line is…well, there are two bottom lines (hey, I’m an economist—I’m allowed to invoke the ‘on-the-one-hand’ method of discourse): first, the job market is healthier than we thought. I plumbed the underlying data a bit and I think the revised numbers are the right ones, i.e., I doubt these latest results will get revised away.
Second, even the improved rate of job growth is probably too slow to prevent the unemployment rate from rising. It’s still quite low at the national level, at 4.7%. But that’s up from 4.4% last March and the highest rate since August 2006.
Of course, like politics, from the perspective of the firm, all job markets are local. Michigan’s unemployment rate has been at recessionary levels (7.4% in August), while that of my state (VA) is 3.1%–all that gov’t deficit spending spins off some jobs, you know.
But my sense is that slower growth in the overall economy, related in large part to the housing bust, the credit crunch, and the resulting loss of economic stimulus from these developments, is bleeding into the job market. At times like this, it’s useful to go back to first principles: demand for labor is derived demand, derived from employers and producers views of where things are and where they’re headed. Again, there’s lots of variation around the country, but it looks to me like when it comes to labor market conditions, they’re tighter than I thought they were, but looser than they’ve been.
How’s it look to you?
Jared Bernstein is a member of the Workforce Institute Board of Advisors and author of All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy.
Infotriever is a fickle friend
October 12, 2007
OK - I said I had a passion for technology, but that’s cooled a bit this morning. As any good BlackBerry addict does, I take advantage of all possible opportunities to manage my life within its cheerful interface. That includes downloading flight information from our travel agent via Infotriever. Normally, this works like a charm for me. Today, for reasons I’ll detail, the ‘Berry failed me. The good news, however, is that a number of wonderful human beings did not. I’m sure they feel they were just doing their jobs, but they salvaged me from a potentially very bad day.
Travelogue so far today:
- Get to Dallas Fort Worth at 5:00 am for 6:30 am flight to Philadelphia with connection back to Boston. Calendar view on ‘Berry tells me I’m on United 2036. Stand in line for 30″ to self check.
- 5:30 am - Self check kiosk tells me I need to be at USAir, not United. Having not clicked through to the details of my reservation, I have failed to note important “operated by USAirways” information.
- 5:40 am - Waiting on curb for airport shuttle - takes a while to come. Finally get shuttle at 5:55. Driver tells me 10-15″ to make the loop and get to my terminal. I explain my situation. First Angel of the Day: Driver calls his supervisor, tells him he’s going to skip all stops and get me to my terminal asap.
- 6:05 am - Arrive at USAirways terminal. Hike to ticket counters. Bypass all fellow travelers and get attention of Second Angel of the Day: Ticket agent. Mind you, this is all my fault because I didn’t check the complete info on the ‘Berry. I am polite, but clearly distressed when she tells me there’s no way to get me and the bag on my scheduled flight. She spends 10″ trying to book me on an alternative flight, with the poor outcome that all alternatives include flying standby. She is unfailingly polite and truly sorry for my troubles. I thank her for her time and efforts.
- 6:15 am - Call Third Angel of the Day: After Hours Operator at Travizon. She hears my tale of woe, and quickly gets me on an American flight back to Boston at 9:00 am (I hope, bad weather in Boston right now).
- 6:30 am - Got Starbucks and wireless access and hoping for the best.
Lessons learned:
- Read the fine print on the Infotriever download.
- Terminal Link at DFW, USAirways, and Travizon should be proud of the great customer service I received from their employees today.
Old Home Week at HR Tech
October 10, 2007
Today I visited the HR Technology Conference and Exposition at the Navy Pier in Chicago. I spent a few hours traversing the exhibit hall and catching up with old friends. I had conversations with about a dozen former colleagues and contacts who have moved on to new ventures in the human capital management space.
Deb McGrath (HR.com) introduced me to a new virtual conferencing tool that HR.Com will be using to host a few of their upcoming conferences. Check out InExpo. I hadn’t seen this tool before, but it appears to be a more user and business friendly alternative to Second Life. I’m looking forward to attending one of Deb’s upcoming online conferences to check out the user experience.
I had lunch with Mike Hennessey, founder of SmashFly Technologies - an innovative approach to marketing jobs to your candidates via traditional job boards as well as the social network. Mike and I worked together at Brassring. He’s a brilliant and innovative engineer, and I bet we’ll hear a lot more about SmashFly in the months to come.
There was lots of audience traffic around Workday, Dave Duffield’s software as a service alternative to the ERP’s. The application demo’d nicely, and is a contender in the HR shootout that will be conducted during the conference tomorrow.
Whether you had the chance to attend HR Tech or not, I’d love to hear from you about new applications in the HCM space that are impressing you.
Welcome to the Workforce Institute!
October 2, 2007
Today is launch day for the Workforce Institute website and blog. I’m excited to be opening up our mission to public view, and invite you to contribute to a lively discussion of the topics we present.
Our mission is to help the community share ideas that can improve organizational performance through more effective workforce management. There are lots of resources available to organizations that focus on white collar workers, but we don’t see much that addresses the concerns of the hourly workforce. Our hope is to identify actionable advice that can help managers with their entire workforce, not just the knowledge workers that are the principle focus of much that’s written in the human resources arena.
I’ve been working in the software industry since 1982, and have focused on software that helps with people management for much of that time. I have a passion for the promise of software to help make people’s lives easier and more productive at work.However, that promise comes true only when those using the software are clear on the impact it will have on people, and if they adjust their business processes accordingly.We believe we can help here by bringing together a variety of practical experts and encouraging an open dialogue among them– formally through our Board of Advisors as well as through a growing virtual network of experts.
Over the next year, we’ll be working with our Board of Advisors (and hopefully with a growing number of you) to expand our content and this discussion. I hope you’ll come back here often to read what’s new and weigh in with your own stories from the front lines.
Joyce O’Donnell Maroney
Managing Director, Workforce Institute
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