Governance
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Misinterpreting Apple and Microsoft
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As a global community, we all hate Bill Gates. Actually we all hate Microsoft. While we might depend on things like Microsoft Outlook and the MS Office suite of products, most of us probably believe that they have a bit too much of a monopoly and probably have bullied around other companies to ensure that…
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Which Version of Reality?
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I’m an advocate of reality. It’s nice when you can look at something and immediately recognize it. In most cases, a reflection of reality is quite obvious. When I say the word “chair” each and every reader automatically has a concept generate in their heads – some with an armchair, some with an office chair,…
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Balance
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My road bike is a custom titanium racing frame. It was made by a guy in Montana who is probably the cleanest welder of titanium bike frames in the world, the guy’s work is just impeccable. I don’t really need a custom bike – it’s not like my body proportions are weird or anything. I’m…
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Understanding HR Data Governance
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We bought my wife a new bike this weekend. She is not usually a bike rider, and the last time I took her out riding with me, she swore never to go riding with me ever again. I suppose that one does not necessarily realize this if one does not have sufficient self awareness or…
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Extending HR
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I tend to buddy up taxi drivers. No, it’s not that I think they are fascinating to talk to, I have much more mundane reasons. I’m so obsessive about this that I have my own driver that I call in quite a few cities.There are actually reasons for this. First, I’m not a smoker, so…
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Yellow
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I remember when I moved into my last house (I’m in a condo now, it’s what happens when you move to the Bay Area, a house becomes an apartment). We moved in and my wife had in her mind that she wanted butter yellow walls. She had a very specific “butter” in mid – not…
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Oh, You’re a Recruiter
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I often have a hard time describing what I do. I mean, I’m an HR technology guy, but I don’t implement anything. And telling non-HR people that there are a whole slew of HR technologies out there to serve a wide variety of business outcomes is strange to most of the population. When I tell…
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Lessons Learned From Gaming
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Ok, I’ll admit that I’ve been playing this on-line game. It’s a MMORPG (I can’t believe I remembered that whole thing) and I play a priest in a guild of mages, fighters, archers, etc. What I find entertaining about it is not the game-play, but the collaboration that is necessary to make the game work. …
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The “Other”
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Why can’t we get along with payroll? What makes them so different? It really does not matter when Payroll reports up to HR and when they report up to Finance. There always seems to be some friction. Often we like to think that they are just “different” people. HR people are strategic and nurturing and…
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Change Management, Collaboration, Communications, Engagement, Enterprise Solutions, Functional, Governance, HR Service Delivery, HR Strategy
Blending Food Flavors and Cross Functional Collaboration
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I usually write about cycling here, but I generally make it no secret that I’m a wannabe foodie. ((My other blog is a food blog)) Great food is sometimes about simplicity, and other times it’s about depth and flavor combinations. I was recently at Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles (( Osteria Mozza is a partnership…
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Strategy in 4 Words – I Don’t Like It
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There has been a blog circulating on HBR.com that I had to think long and hard about. At the core, it’s a simple philosophy: “minimize evil, maximize good.” ((Haque, Umair, December 15, 2009. “21st Century Strategy in Four Words.” Retrieved from http://Blogs.HBR.org on December 20, 2009.)) First of all, if I were going to adopt…
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System of Record: Everything in its Place
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I’m sitting on a plane (delayed of course for 4 hours) thinking about the people around me. I have the fabulous exit row seat on the A319 where there is no seat in front of me. The guy in the middle next to me is great. He’s not a talker, he’s slim, does not intrude…
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The Marketing of Snowflakes
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If you ever look at a snowflake dangling from the window at your local Macy’s or Bloomingdales, realize that this snowflake is only a piece of marketing, there to draw your eye, but not an accurate representation of reality. You see, most marketing snowflakes have either five or eight sides to them. Nobody seems to…
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Change Management, Enterprise Solutions, Governance, HR Service Delivery, HR Strategy, HR Technology
M&A – Whose System Wins?
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I must say that sometimes M&A transitions are a pain in the *** for HR and HRIT practitioners. It’s quite rare in my experience that a merger will be a pure 50/50%, more often than not one of the merger partners is getting a tiny fraction more than 50% and so can govern the decisions…
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Cycling Technology: GPS
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Yeah, believe it or not, I have a GPS on my bike. It’s even a Garmin. With a push of a button I can go to a screen that either shows me how fast I’m going and what my heart rate is, or I can see a little map with direction arrows and everything. I…
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The Money Multiplier
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I’ve put a lot of faith and hope in businesses as the economy continues to trend downward. I had initially thought that this time around we would be smarter. Smarter than in 2001 when the bubble burst and HR technology spending almost completely stopped for 3 years. In that time, there was virtually no growth…
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Global Data Protection – Model Contracts
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As long as we talked about Safe Harbor in the last entry, we might as well talk about model contracts. Honestly, I don’t like this one as much as it’s really an avenue for data protection that comes out of the EU. However, data protection laws are rampant all over the world and the EU…
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Global Data Protection
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As I continue to work with global organizations, I’m a bit surprised to see a continued effort around obtaining employee consent for the export of data outside the home country (or EU). While this may have been the traditional method for compliance to EU and other data protection standards, it was quickly realized that traditional…
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Changing Governance Based on Complexity
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So I suppose first and foremost, I’ll need to admit that I didn’t even read nearly the entire article I happen to be referring to in this post. I’m really much more of a decision support guy that a decision-making science guy. I’m not sure I really understand the total complexities that define the differences…
