Talent Management
Apple vs. Google: Battle of the Management Styles
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008Apple Computer is getting a lot of press these days, but the focus isn’t always on its computers, iPhone, or ubiquitous iPods. Rather, various sources have written about how Apple is run very much like a traditional top-down company. People are told what to do and then sent off to do it. If they do […]
How to Be Unhappy at Work
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008As a reaction to the media attention being bestowed on the subject of positive psychology and happiness, Eric G. Wilson has written a book, Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy, that focuses on the benefits of unhappiness. According to Wilson, melancholia can lead to inspiration and creativity. Would Vincent Van Gogh have produced such wonderful […]
Learning Technology Categories Increasingly Blurry
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008I delivered a Webinar session last week titled “Learning Technology 101: LMS, LCMS, & Talent Management Systems.” In this session, I described the features found in these three types of enterprise technologies and mentioned that the distinctions between them is becoming blurry.
Many learning management systems (LMSs) now include traditional learning content management (LCMS) features, specifically, […]
MFAs are the New MBAs
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007My teenage daughter has changed her mind repeatedly about a future career:
For many years, her love of animals led her to consider veterinary medicine. A couple of trips to the vet’s with our own cat convinced her that there was just too much potential for gore in this career.
After our first summer vacation on the […]
“Cavemen With Briefcases”
Thursday, October 11th, 2007Compared to many other species, humans have a long lifespan. Whereas geneticists can study more than 50 generations of fruit flies in a single year, the human species is more difficult to study from an evolutionary standpoint. Since a new human generation comes into being every 20 years or so, our rate of evolutionary change […]
The Myth of Boomer Retirement
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007For a number of years, the media have been reporting that many countries will be facing a severe shortage of workers due to the impending retirement of the baby boomers. Increasingly, I don’t think this will be the case.
If they haven’t already begun to do so, many boomers will soon be taking a sobering look […]
Net Worth of Only $3.5 Million Keeps Executive Working
Monday, August 13th, 2007In doing research about what our future workforce might look like, I came across an interesting article in the N.Y. Times titled In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don’t Feel Rich. The story is about Hal Steger, a 51 year-old Menlo Park marketing executive with a net worth of $3.5 million U.S.
Mr. Steger continues to work […]
Will 35 Year-Old Adolescents Join the Workforce?
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007(Still on the subject of an aging workforce) The Coming Death Shortage, written by Charles C. Mann and published in The Atlantic Monthly, examines the possible effects of increased human longevity on society.
According to Mann, “From religion to real estate, from pensions to parent-child dynamics, almost every aspect of society is based on the orderly […]
Sears Catalog Workers Call It Quits in Droves
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007My last couple of blog posts have been about the ramifications of changing workforce demographics. Because of our aging population, governments will be encouraging people to keep working as long as possible to avert an impending labor shortage.
Some of those people will need to work. They will not yet have achieved financial independence. Many others, […]
The Coming Boom in Older Workers
Monday, July 30th, 2007I’ve been thinking a lot about aging. (No, I’m not planning to quit my job, buy a red convertible, and join a rock band as part of a midlife crisis.) Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the future impact of a rapidly aging population.
The Canadian Census Bureau reported a couple of weeks ago that the Canadian […]
