Movie: Enchanted

I saw Walt Disney's Enchanted the other day and couldn't switch off my built-in HR filter.

First of all, Enchanted is a very beautiful movie with some funny moments. The only complaint I have is that there's hardly any cynical jokes (that's usually my problem with beautiful movies). And any singing in Disney movies still drives me crazy.

New situations and how to react
Here's what happens at the very beginning of the movie: the Princess Giselle is thrown out of her perfect fantasy world and appears in New York. The Prince follows her to bring her back.

Both their situations and the way they react are different.

The Princess: passive and dependent on others
The princess doesn't realize what is happening to her and reacts in a passive way. Instead of trying to take control of her fate she just waits for the prince to rescue her, letting circumstances and other people make decisions for her.

The Prince: dumb, arrogant and focused
The heroic prince starts the search for Giselle the second he arrives in New York. Since he's arrogant and stupid, he doesn't take even a few minutes to assess the situation and adapt to his new surroundings, but at least he's focused and determined to reach his goal.

What we can learn from this
Even if you find yourself in a new and unexpected situation, a general attitude of readiness can help a lot. Try to take control instead of being the ball in a game of pinball.

A goal will give you a direction and help you focus. If you can't make things happen on your own (e.g. the princess needs the prince to save her), at least try to find a way to help (e.g. make sure the prince will find her when he shows up).

Additional observations
Here are other things I noticed while happily munching some popcorn:

• saying nothing but "no" isn't a good long-term strategy
• being angry from time to time can be very liberating
• calling everybody a "peasant" might be resented by some people

And finally a warning: I'll probably watch Alien vs Predator 2 in a few days...

Quote: Travel Abroad (Dave Barry)

Posting a quote is still a quick and painless way to increase your post count, especially if you have neither the time nor the desire to come up with something clever ;-)

Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.

Source: Dave Barry quoted by Tim Ferriss.

Frohe Weihnachten allerseits!

Quote: Saying "No" (Your HR Guy)

Posting a quote is a quick and painless way to increase your post count. Besides, I love quotes. So here we go:

I am in the business of telling people «no» all day. What makes them think I am actually going to not say «no» to a person that gives me a good reason to do so?

Source: Your HR Guy

J-2: Scare Your Friends While Making Your Enemies Happy

This is a guest post by my friend Johnny. He knows stuff about me. So I let him use my blog...

By Jaded Johnny (J-2)

Scaring your friends is fun. And it's also a great way to find out who really cares about you.

If you're a man with long hair, some or all of your co-workers will ask you stupid questions like "When will you finally cut your ugly hair?" Here's what you should reply:

I'll cut my hair the day I'll start looking for a new job.

Don't say this too often. And select the right people to say it to.

Ideally, they shouldn't know you too well, so they won't be 100% sure whether you're kidding or not. They must also have a good memory, so they will remember what you said when the time is right. And finally, they should like to talk to people from other departments. This way, the day they remember what you said, the news will spread like wildfire all over the company.

Of course, this takes a lot of careful preparation and you can't rush it. But when you're sure that the time is right: Go and cut your hair!

If you don't have long hair, growing a beard will be faster (and probably just as ugly).

Women can play this game too. It's less dramatic with the hair, but it can work if you never put on make-up or wear a miniskirt.

And it's also great for teamwork. Find a partner in crime and have this person ask the question in a public situation. Possibilities are a meeting with people from other departments or at the cafeteria when everybody is pretending not to listen to your private conversation.

Be creative. Do evil. Have fun!

Link: Krusty for CEO

Wally Bock at Three Star Leadership mentions in "Your Concerns Are Their Concerns" how less and less people will really tell you what they think the more you move up the hierarchy.

I just had to quote this paragraph, both because I believe that's it's true and because I love the way Wally formulates it:

The higher you move up the hierarchy the more people tell you what you want to hear, filter the information that you get, and avoid telling you unpleasant truths. The natural human reaction to this is to believe that everyone agrees with you and that you're doing a great job, even when they hate you, think you're a jerk and think the place would be better off with Krusty the Clown at the helm.

Challenge: Asshole Rating Self-Exam (ARSE)

In my last post about Robert Sutton's book "The No Asshole Rule" I challenged all HR Professionals to do the ARSE and report their personal score in the comments.

Congratulations to all the courageous ones who disclosed their scores! Here's an update

• 7 people participated with an average score of 5.43
• no Certified Assholes participated
• Laurie came up with the (not yet) scientific term AQ (Asshole Quotient)

I've published some statistics here.

Both in the book and in the online ARSE, the test consists of a total of 24 questions to the following topics:

• What are your gut reactions to people (8 questions)
• How do you treat other people? (10 questions)
• How do people react to you? (6 questions)

All "true" statements are counted which leads to the following possible results:

• 0-5 true: you're not a certificed asshole (if you answered honestly)
• 5-15: borderline certificied asshole
• 15 or more: full-blown certified asshole

To make my little statistics project possible I tweaked the categories to 0-5, 6-15 and 16-24.

The challenge is still open! Don't be afraid and don't be shy!

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!