Less Cheese, More Meat!

Are there still people who pretend that the Interwebs aren't any good for generating and sharing ideas?

Mark's article at HC3 Take Control Of Your Job And Your Success reminded me of an idea I had for a t-shirt. I also mentioned his article as an inspiration for my post Give Them What They Want. Mark then shared in the comments one of the reasons why he's in charge of HR for a multinational corporation:

I jumped to doing all the things in HR most just dream about when I figured out "its not all about me"...I am with you on this one, less cheese, more meat!!! [..]

By the way, "It's not about you" is the 3rd career lesson in Dan Pink's book Johnny Bunko.

And as today's grand finale, here's a terrible picture of my great idea:



.

The Interwebs Are A Village (Shameless Self-Promotion)

Now this is just too cool: While reviewing Dan Pink's book Johnny Bunko I mentioned the red stapler. Believe it or not, it seems that I was the first one to pick up on this Office Space reference and Dan mentioned it on his blog!

He also called me "a blogging HR Guru".
This man's got a great sense of humor ;-)

Be sure to check out Dan's blog!
And for the Obama fans, here's a post showing how the principles from the book apply to Obama.

Other things that are just too awesome not to mention here:

• Dan Pink commented on my blog
  
• Wally Bock recommended one of my posts
• Frank Roche also recommended one of my posts
• Bob Sutton commented on my blog

Now I really need to post a review of Why Work Sucks. And maybe, who knows, the two nice ladies might even mention it ;-)

This is my little trophy gallery so far.
.

Johnny Bunko Trailer

I recently reviewed Daniel Pink's Johnny Bunko. Here's some fun bonus stuff.

HR Minion reminded me that she had been faster (and Dan Pink even left a comment). Same as with our Wanted movie reviews: hers was published 3 weeks before mine.

However, and I think this is important, I managed to mention the red stapler in both reviews ;-)

Below the infotaining Johnny Bunko trailer.

And this part still cracks me up every time I watch it:

In the 70's and 80's people asked: What color is your parachute?
In the 90's people asked: Who moved my cheese?
Now a new generation is asking a new question about their work and their lives:

WTF?!

.

Book: Johnny Bunko (The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need)

Daniel Pink could have written a classic business book about choosing a career, but he took a risk, tried something new and wrote a manga!

The ad for The Adventures Of Johnny Bunko (The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need) says that it's "Americas first business book as manga". It contains very nice and expressive art in the style of Japanese comics as well as fun dialogues. But it's also full of valuable advice presented in a very engaging way.

In Daniel Pink's own words:

Today the question at the center of work is: WTF?!

The book explores this question resulting in the "six lessons of a satisfying, successful career". You probably heard them before in one form or another. But believe me, never like this. Or has any career counselor ever said to you that

when it comes to work, you're as clueless as a cucumber.

I really liked how Pink introduces Johnny Bunko as a hardworking but disillusioned and somewhat clueless knowledge worker and then walks him (and the reader) through the six lessons.

I also enjoyed seeing the name of Martin Seligman (Learned Helplessness) and the face of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Flow) in a manga.

But the absolutely coolest was of course the red stapler! Okay, it's in black & white, but it was so obvious, it had to be a red stapler.

The only bad thing about the book is that it's too short. But I always say that after reading a great manga.
.

New ROWE Book: Ignored By HR Bloggers?

I've been gone for 2.5 months and I'm still catching up with hundreds of posts. So I searched for "ROWE" in my RSS reader.

Huge surprise: either I'm subscribing to the wrong feeds, Google Reader's search function is crap, or most HR Bloggers didn't hear about the new ROWE book or decided that it wasn't worth writing about.

I'm talking about "Why Work Sucks and How To Fix It" by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson. The book about ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment).

Possibly HR's best and currently only chance to dramatically improve many workplaces using a revolutionary method that has so far generated proven results for several years at headquarters of a Fortune 100 company (including measurable increased productivity, less turnover and higher job satisfaction).

Of course, it's not that easy, nobody knows if it will really work in other companies (although a second (smaller) company has also implemented a ROWE) and it's incredibly difficult to convince management to go for it. But if this doesn't work, then what will? Maybe you're busy sitting on the expensive carpet in the hallway outside of the executive meeting room and still wait to be invited to sit at the table? If not this, then you must be waiting for the second coming!

Hah, that was fun. Now that I've finally managed to piss off the few remaining readers of this blog, lets finish "en beauté" with some boring statistics:

I'm currently subscribed to 111 feeds of which 47 are HR related (excluding comments and my own blog). Here are the results of above mentioned search:

Posts published in 2006 about or mentioning ROWE: KnowHR, YourHRGuy
Posts published in 2007 about or mentioning ROWE: KnowHR, YourHRGuy

Posts published in 2008:

• Tim Ferriss, not an HR blogger, published an excerpt of the book and an interview with Cali & Jody (part 1 and 2)
• Execupundit linked to and commented Ferriss' post. You can always count on Michael, and the new picture with the sunglasses is absolutely cool!

After the book was published:

• Alexandra Levit wrote a great introduction to the book (later also published on HRMtoday)

What next? Read Caly & Jody's book page and start writing about ROWE. Whether you become an instant believer or not, I guarantee that it will generate interesting discussions.

I've been reading and thinking about ROWE for a couple of months now and no later than today I thought I had (again/finally) found a weakness in the ROWE system. Two minutes later I realized that I was wrong and it really makes sense!
.

Random Thoughts: Work Smarter, Not Harder

I'm a bit embarrassed to say, but I always thought the expression "work smarter, not harder" was invented by Scott Adams since I first read it in a Dilbert comic.

Now I learned in Drucker's "The Essential Drucker" that it was first coined by Frederick Taylor, the father of Scientific Management.

Oh well, at least I learned something ;-)
.

Quotes: Happiness Or Excitement?

A quote from Starship Troopers by Heinlein:

Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. [..] All the wealthy, unhappy people you've ever met take sleeping pills.
(Johnnie Rico)

Sometimes we look too hard for happiness!


Tim Ferriss goes one step further in The 4-Hour Workweek:

Happiness can be bought with a bottle of wine and has become ambiguous through overuse. [..] The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is - here's the clincher - boredom. Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase.

And to finish with a quote from a Def Leppard song:

Are you excitable?

.

Work Sucks, Isn't It Awesome?

Cali & Jody, the Queens of ROWE, promised an advanced copy of their book "Work Sucks" to the first 10 people to send an email. I was faster than the 11th person and can't wait for the book to arrive!

ROWE, Results-Only Work Environment, is the program Cali & Jody developed at Best Buy. It's controversial and highly interesting.

All free advanced copies are gone, but there's information about the book on their site including a 38 page pdf sample (introduction, chapter 1 and two testimonials from Best Buy employees).
.

No Asshole Rule: I'm So Proud!

In December 2007 I wrote about Bob Sutton's book The No Asshole Rule. The other day I realized that his blog features a link to my review under "Reviews and Comments: The No Asshole Rule".

I don't care if the prof added the link himself or if it was done automatically by some gadget. It's just cool!

You can read my book review here and check out the results of my "ARSE Challenge" here.

I also just did the ARSE Test again (score: 4, "You don’t sound like a certified asshole, unless you are fooling yourself."). I think that - more important than the score itself - it's just good to do the test from time to time and to pay attention to your replies.
.

Book: The No Asshole Rule

I finally finished reading the famous book by Robert I. Sutton (PhD), professor at Stanford University. Bob's book is called "The No Asshole Rule".

Professor Sutton won't bore you with politically correct, scientific lingo. In fact, the first sentence of the book is:

When I encounter a mean-spirited person, the first thing I think is: "Wow, what an asshole!"

This book manages to combine scientific research with real world stories in a way that everybody can understand and relate to.

You will get information about studies regarding bullying, emotional abuse and harassment at the workplace. But in the end, Sutton will still call the "über-jerks" (see chapter 3) by their real name: assholes.

The book contains descriptions and definitions of abusive bosses and co-workers, examples and tips for surviving and leaving an asshole-infested work environment and, probably most important of all, recommendations that will help you realize that you're an asshole or help you avoid becoming one.

Chapter 6 is almost shocking as it describes the advantages of behaving like an asshole. But this only shows that Sutton analyzes a topic from every possible angle as the true scientist he is.

Here are some of the references that the trivia fans and celebrity addicts will enjoy: The Godfather, Virgin's Richard Branson, Disney's Michael Eisner, Google's Sergey Brin and many more.
(Prize question: which ones are the assholes? Oh, I forgot to mention Steve Jobs!)

And still, in the end there's no doubt that this book is not trivialized pop-science, but rather solid research explained in a way that even I can understand.

Bob Sutton's blog: Work Matters

The Self-Test from chapter 4 is also available online:
ARSE (Asshole Rating Self-Exam)
It's not really about "Am I an asshole or not?" but rather "where do I, or may I, behave like an asshole?".

2 weeks ago I was a 4 ("You don't sound like a certified asshole"). Today I'm a 5 ("You sound like a borderline certified asshole"). I'm not as nice as I used to be...

Challenge:
Do the test and post your score in the comments!