Do internal hires or external hires make better employees? Who gets paid more?
Requisite Reading
Because you are the killer app.
Moore, Oklahoma and My Family
Yesterday, a massive tornado hit the Oklahoma City area, concentrated on Moore, OK. This just one day after a tornado ripped through Edmond and other cities. We think about these things because my wife is from OKC, and she had family in Moore and Edmond.
Today, we’re just thankful that everyone is safe. Her brother-in-law was able to clean off his SUV and make it from Moore to Edmond, wher…
Why Your Boss Won’t Kill His Pet Project
People fall in love with what they work on, or so research by Michael Norton, Daniel Mochon and the ubiquitous Dan Ariely reports. They discovered that when people have to work to create something — like an IKEA bookshelf — they see it through rose-colored glasses. It’s not that you do what you love but that labor leads to loving what you do. It becomes part of your self-esteem.
Does Fluid Intelligence / IQ Matter?
(This continues our discussion about intelligence / IQ testing. Read part 1, Intelligence Testing & IQ: What it is, isn’t.)
The big issue with intelligence tests is this general mental ability (GMA or g) that they measure. This is mostly “fluid intelligence”. It means how quickly you can solve a unique problem. You would think that it would correlate with something like wisdom (or what…
Intelligence Testing & IQ: What it is, isn’t
I’ve been studying the world of “intelligence testing” for some work I’m doing. Other than my own experience as a small child being subjected to what I recall as two days of evaluation far from my home (actually i had a lot of fun and my mother recalls it as only a few hours), I really knew almost nothing about the world of “Intelligence Quotients” (IQ) and intelligence testing.
I just…
Tell me your favorite posts and you could win an hour of consulting worth $200!
UPDATE: Contest extended until Tuesday, 2013 March 26, at 11:59 PM Chicago local time. ALSO! Votes by email and Facebook now allowed by popular demand!
To all my readers:
I’ve been asked to provide a professional society with three or four great blog posts for them to repost. It gives them some nonstandard content and gives me some exposure so it’s win-win!
The problem: I’m not…
Get Your Staging Right to Get Your Expertise Heeded
Presentation matters. A lot. Whether you are trying to get a job, sell a point, or get some respect in your house of worship, you need to spend some time on how the “you” you present to other people makes it easier or harder for them to believe in you.
We co-create social realities. The “presentation of self”, as Erving Goffman put it, involves creating meaning often via props and stag…
Luck Does Not Determine Your Essential Character
I like to point out idiocy by “experts” when I see it. And management writing in Harvard Business Review is usually such a fertile field! Today, let’s look at idiocy about luck and being a great strategist from Hans H. Hinterhuber and Wolfgang Popp (“Are You a Strategist or Just a Manager?”, Jan-Feb 1992).
As Moltke observed, the good strategist also needs good luck….
So, if we assum…
Mary McQueen on Dragon’s Den: 2HiPo on National TV
Did you know that one of my raving fans and frequent commenters, Mary McQueen, appeared on the CBC show, Dragons’ Den? It’s like the American Shark Tank, where entrepreneurs make a pitch before a team of investors trying to get money. Mary pitched her brilliant Hand & Beak business: she makes greeting cards with her lovebird partner, Luigi. No, he’s a real lovebird, one with feathers and beak and…
Why Timespan of Discretion Works
Timespan of Discretion is the biggest point of complaint that the old folks in the Glacier Metal related work (Requisite Organization, Stratified Systems Theory, Career Path Appreciation, work levels or worklevels, etc.). If you’re new, you may be scratching your head about this “Timespan of Discretion”. Elliott Jaques, the psychiatrist and researcher who coined the phrase “mid-life crisis”,…