Tag Archives: shrm11

Perception vs. Reality

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I’m still coming down from my SHRM11 high and am having a blast looking over pictures from my time there. You can see most of them HERE.

I won’t go into all the conference details but I do want to talk about a few things. First off, let me just say I loved the after hours events and just having the chance to get to spend time IRL with those whom I’ve connected online. We had a blast just having fun, singing karaoke, dancing it up, hanging in the VIP rooms and just letting loose.

TLNT partnered with StarrTincup and threw a bang up party where I got to meet Elvis (I knew he was alive and well) See HERE. After leaving TLNT party I went with a few folks to Gilley’s to watch someone ride the bull (I can’t say who, but ask me later) and it was hysterical. I have the video in case of blackmail.

I think one of the most fun things was SHRM’s After Hours party at Madame Tussaud’s. Here I ran into Kevin Grossman and Curtis Midkiff (SHRM’s Social Media Guy) and even ran into Brangolina and gave a few tips to my man Tiger. The more beer we had, the more karaoke we sang, the more every wax figure started looking as if they were real and started coming alive. It’s funny how your mind plays tricks on you.

My group started getting a little hungry and decided we would head down the strip to Denny’s (it’s about 1:30 and we are a little tipsy) to grab some grub! We walked out on the strip and I noticed a wax figure of Freddie Krueger so I decided to get my picture made with him. After all – it was just a ball of wax. I would never get my picture made with the real Freddy because I’m deathly afraid of him. (That movie scared the crap out of me). So I went to put my arm around him so I could have my friend take my picture and it wasn’t a wax figure at all, but a LIVE PERSON pretending to be a wax figure. It scared the padookie out of me when he started talking to me – I almost peed my pants.

I was so conditioned from my previous surroundings that I automatically assumed it was the same.

In the end: Things aren’t always as they appear. What we perceive isn’t always reality.

Twitter Connections, Meeting IRL, and Great Resources

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For the past 9 or 10 months I have been working the whole twitter thing! I started out having a twitter account for about a year and did absolutely nothing, accept follow a few celebrities (and of course my daughter who I wanted to keep tabs on). In fact, when starting out on twitter I was terrified. I couldn’t think of anything to tweet or who to follow. The big question was WHY TWITTER?

That’s because I didn’t understand the strategy needed for business and / or personal branding.

Then came 2010. I was attending networking groups as if it was my career and ran into Fred McMurray and thus began my discovery of social networking. He really was key in helping me understand why I  needed to be involved in social media for business, and I’ll always be grateful (thanks Fred).

I began reading books out the wazoo such as the basics of Twitter from my good friend Kyle Lacy and his Twitter Marketing for Dummies and his other book co-authored by Erik Deckers  entitled Branding Yourself. Both of which have been huge contributors in my online success. I highly recommend them and have become their new spokesperson (not really, but I do try and recommend them to those who can benefit from them).

Over the past ten months I have connected with so many wonderful folks online who I never would have met had I not taken the SM plunge and that to me, it totally cool.

It is especially awesome when you can then take those virtual relationships into the REAL WORLD and meet IRL (in real life). It reminds me of online virtual dating as I often refer to the experience because we connect, interact, engage and share each others interests and information and when we finally get to meet them IRL we feel as if we already have this weird connection. As if we know them already. We either greet with a hug and consummate (not literally) that online relationship, or we walk away thinking “Ew, they look and act nothing like their online persona.” The latter usually never happens.

This is exactly what took place for me recently after being asked to participate on SHRM’s blogging team for their annual conference in Vegas. In fact, it was through my connections with WEKNOWNEXT on twitter, that brought this all about. I was a total stalker to those with whom I had made connections online (especially my fellow bloggers). I won’t name them all for fear of leaving someone out but I will mention Jessica Miller-Merrell who welcomed me at SHRM with open arms and treated me like “one of the cool kids.”

In fact, I had just recently connected with her personally (although I had been following her blog and tweets) before meeting her in SHRM. I overheard something about her book and asked her “what book did you write?” She immediately handed me a copy of her book  Tweet This which is a Twitter marketing for business guide. I just finished reading it by the pool one afternoon and I must say I was impressed. The book is full of helpful tips and useful information in a consolidated format. It is a MUST have manual to keep within reach and will help you in your online strategy as well as continued twitter support.

I am so privileged to have come across so many helpful folks out there, willing to give of their time to help others. I suppose that’s why I try to give back to help those on their online journey. I highly recommend all of the above books and in connecting with these fantastic experts to help grow your business within your online communities.

Thanks you guys, you ROCK my world!

The “Spirit” of Diversity

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I flew to SHRM on “Spirit” airlines and let me just say, lesson learned. If you want to hear more about that experience go to my post “Have you got Spirit?“.

While taking the red-eye back to Chi-town yesterday (which I don’t recommend) I began looking around the plane at the diverse group of fellow passengers and couldn’t help think “wow”! If I could have gotten away with taking their pictures with my handy-dandy camera in my phone, I would have. Instead, I thought that to be very intrusive to take pictures of characters with their mouths wide open while they slept.

Instead, I’ll describe them for you. On the same row with me of course was my business partner and friend who constantly talked to me but kept me laughing all the same. Next to her was an older gentleman, who even though had to go pee a million times and he was seated next to the window while I was in the aisle seat, I had great patience and sympathy for (My Dad has to pee a lot because of his prostate issues).

On the row across from me was an older guy snoring up a storm and next to him some pretty old chicks who talked incessantly (I’m not sure how he was able to sleep through that). One of them had to be wheeled to the gate because of some kind of debilitating unnoticeable handicap.

About 1/3 of the way into the 3 1/3 hour trip I started smelling something so nauseating I almost threw up in my own lap. I looked at Sue (aka – business partner) and noticed she had her shirt covering her nose so I asked her “what is that horrible smell?” She said, “OMG I don’t know but it’s coming from up there” and pointed to the seat in front of us where this not-to-bad looking guy sat next to Mr. Rapper. (We had to smell that smell, which apparently was halitosis to the umpth degree , the whole trip).

Somewhere from the back I kept hearing a kid talking so loud and was thinking, “Why would a kid be on the red-eye and why was what was he doing in Vegas in the first place?”

From the moment I found my seat I noticed that it was extremely cold and thought I would ask for a blanket (apparently, I thought this to be Delta or some sort of REAL airline) once we were in the air so I didn’t cause a scene and then asked the flight attendant if I could have a blanket to which she replied, “Ma’am, we don’t have blankets on the plane.” I was literally so cold I had to come up with a plan. If I could get my feet warm (I was wearing flip-flops because in Vegas it was about 112 degrees) than it would probably help all over. So I took out a few things from a zippered compartment in my backpack on the floor in front of me, took off my flops, and stuck my feet in their (like a pair of slippers). It helped a little.

I started thinking that this is the most diverse bunch of folks I had ever seen in once small space. Now, Vegas did have its diversity I noticed while walking the strip several times (I should have taken pics on that too but thought it might be illegal to post).

Isn’t this just like some of our workplaces? We have the older group of workers that may have disabilities, we have the Rap Stars (who refuse to turn off their music when told to turn off their electric devices – they are constantly pushing the envelope of RULES), we have the worker with extreme halitosis and we are constantly handing them mints or gum, we have those who love to bring their chatty kids to work, and we are constantly having those who think it’s too hot or too cold.

I love hearing my friend Joe Gerstandt talk about diversity because basically he says it’s just being “different.” That’s why we all love (or maybe just me) people watching. Yeah, we all think we’re normal and wonderful, but I couldn’t imagine living and working every day with folks who are just like me. How boring would that be?

In the end, it takes all kinds.

Generational diversity; The patchwork quilt

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Yesterday morning I sat in on a session entitled “Addressing the Global Talent Mismatch in the workplace” at SHRM 2011. When the speaker asked the attendees (most of them in Human Resources or some kind of Human Capital Management role) “How many of you in the room know what to do when it comes to addressing the generational diversity in the workplace, especially with the older generation?” I admit, I wasn’t too shocked to see only a few hands go up.

Hmmmmmm……… Our workforce diversity is forever changing and we don’t know how to prepare for that? Well, I’m sure that is why they were sitting in that session at 7:00 in the morning so they could get some answers.

Some of the information discussed was of course the generational differences;

  • Traditionalists – 65 and older (not really open to changes and feel they have made it this far on what they have experienced)
  • Boomers – Like the Traditionalists they feel that getting rewarded in the workplace is all about having done their time” ( a different mindset) – they even think in terms of their loyalty toward their employers as counting for something
  • Both Gen X and Y are of the mindset that they are “entitled to change and break the rules” and possibly think that it’s up to them to come in and be the change
Traditionalists and Boomers are more adherent to policy and procedures where as the younger generation question policy and are constantly pushing the envelope, (why do I have to do this?) – they feel a sense of entitlement and believe that is it part of their job to continue to question.

Now don’t get me wrong, we did talk about performance in this session and we decided that it goes across all four generations – but in different ways. We also discussed that  sometimes if you have an older (55) super performer they are usually not perceived as “old” in the workplace, by their peers. I know this even when I look at my husband who is about to turn 57. He is definitely the overachiever and is constantly being told that he does not look or act his age. (Sometimes I tell him that he doesn’t act his age but in a different manner :) )

How do we attract and retain experienced workers? The stats given during the presentation are that (14%) of businesses are even trying to do anything about attracting older workers, and only something like (23%) are knowledgeable of how to retain older workers. (Please don’t blast me with emails on where to find these stats because they were up on the power point presentation by the presenter and I really don’t have a clue).

Older workers NEED MORE WORK LIFE BALANCE. This seems to be the theme for the SHRM conference this year – Work, Life – Flexibility. When it comes to older workers we find that they want career choice and they’re needing flexibility practices in place to take care of parents and are also planning for retirement.

Using flex as we have with nursing mothers (working mothers) and using it in the same manner, making a strategic plan of how we can translate this same practice with older workers and elder care, is certainly something to consider and is one companies strategic plan. By using the same guidelines in helping working mothers and changing it up a bit when it comes to aging parents, they noticed they went from a 40%  turnover rate down to 14% – Now that is ROI. By the way, half of their employees were over the age of 45.

Here are a few creative approaches suggested by members of the audience:

  • Some companies are taking older workers and making them contract and some part-time.
  • Some suggested using older workers to train / sponsor the high potential project team. Having the younger generations train the older on new technologies within the workplace to be more productive and valuable within the organization (okay, that was my suggestion that I offered to the group).
  • Interns coming in (especially with attracting new talent for the future and in strategic planning) and utilizing technology such as videos geared toward their long-term strategic planning of how to attract and retain their workforce.
I imagine the generational diversity in the workplace to look something like that of a patchwork quilt – knitted together and all working for the common good. I do believe it can be achieved.

SHRM junkies and tattoo parlors

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So we’ve all been talking SHRM11 until we’re blue in the face. The hype for the upcoming conference has almost become unbearable and the pressure is mounting.

I was recently in a local Tattoo Parlor (d0 they still call it that?) with a friend who was getting a monkey tattoo (not as bizarre as it sounds) and had a brief moment of stupidity in thinking, “hey, I should get the SHRM logo tattooed on my left ankle! That’s when you know you’ve seen too much publicity of an event! You’ll be glad to know that moment of stupidity was as I stated “brief” and subsided.

In all sincerity I am totally stoked about going to Vegas for the SHRM11 Conference but can’t decide if it’s the conference I’m hyped up about or just going to Vegas, seeing as how I’ve never been and always wanted to go.  I’m sure it is the combination of the two.

I’m also excited about meeting so many of you and having a little #F2F (face to face) action. I’m met so many of you online through Twitter especially and now on Facebook and I’m looking forward to seeing your gorgeous faces in person. I enjoy interacting with all of you on a regular basis.

So, that being said – I’ll see you in Sin City!

Which way did he go George?

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I’m stoked and ready to head to Vegas for SHRM11 next week. I’m also excited to be going as part of the press/blogging team and for the awesome invite to participate. (I know, a total dork – check it out: Me in my SHRM11 shirt)

I have printed out all my emails, travel docs, programs and I’m spending time reviewing what sessions I want to attend, what after hours events to go to, and a list of my online industry celebrities that I want to meet in person (no, not stalk). The next thing to do is figure out what I want to take to wear. I’ve been instructed to dress for warm weather outside and freezing cold weather inside which makes it difficult to pack since I refuse to pay for my bags when flying. I will somehow cram it all in one suitcase and hope for the best.

While I’m not as anal as some when it comes to lists and in my organizational skills, I do not like to be unprepared. Especially, for something like this. I don’t want to be wandering the halls, running here and there trying to do everything but I want to have a strategy in place; a plan of action ahead of time. I don’t want to be one of those people that was referred to on True Faith HR.

Have you ever gone to the grocery store without a list? I know for me, I wander around in circles like I’ve never been to a grocery store before. I go up and down the isles thinking, “what did I come here for and where is everything?” I then get home and have a crap load of cookies, chips, and junk food and nothing to prepare a meal. The best thing I could do before I leave for the store is to create a menu for the week and then make my grocery store list from that. That always works best for me.

Having a plan of action ahead of time helps us in so many areas of our lives. I’m not saying that we can never be spontaneous, but for the most part – being prepared is key. It is crucial for time-management, productivity and in leading others. How can we expect to lead others when we are wandering around in circles just “happy to be there?”