Category Archives: Innovation

May 16, 2012

IPocolypse – The Rise of the Humanoids

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

Thank you Cameron Crowe for your return to the emotionally driven director that reaches deep into our hearts and reminds us of the values and ideals that bring us happiness and love. It is your vision that has inspired millions. For that and for the term used in the title, I thank you.

Now why am I ranting and raving about Cameron Crowe you ask?

We Bought a Zoo, the latest film by Cameron Crowe offered up the term IPocolypse and it fit perfectly with my latest message. For those of you that know me, I am a bit of a reversal of fortune when it comes to technological advancement. I am not starting a renaissance to stop advancement, but I am doing my part to delay the inevitable. It does not take years of scientific research to know that holding a mini computer (yes a smartphone is a mini computer) against your body 12 to 14 hours a day and next to you in bed all night will have an adverse affect on your health with its radiation release. Therefore, I do not have a cancer tablet, aka smartphone nor do I engage in Facebook. It is a slow evolutionary change but it has put me in a better place.

Give me a copy of The Philadelphia Story on VHS with Kathryn Hepburn and Cary Grant, a couple of candles and a warm comforter and you won my heart for the night.

What is IPocolyspse?

IPocolyspse is the destruction of mankind by way of technology. I certainly cannot foresee the future, but I have a theory that the smartphone is the transition stage from humanity to humanoid life. It makes sense. If all humans carry a mini computer 24/7, through the process of evolution, we will mold the two together to create a civilization of humanoids. Soon two will become one. The idea of human interaction with emotion will be replaced by programmed sensors sending impulses providing artificial intelligence, emotion, calculated reaction and implementation. The element of connection will be a catch phrase from the past and the simplicity of life will be replaced by a series of cyborg interfaces. I know this prediction is well into the future and will not affect us but for the next several generations, the future is questionable.

How much time are you spending with your smartphone, tablet or laptop?
Can you leave your phone at home?

There was a time when most of us had land lines and when we left home, there was a device called an answering machine that recorded anything we missed. My how times have changed. DVRs, Blue ray, surround sound, 3D, Wii, apps and games have all become our friends creating a society of alienated narcissistic loners. Maybe some are happy with this transformation, but this writer is not.

Writing is about release of human emotion. It is about the risk of opening up your heart and letting others inside the frailty that is humanity. The love letter, as ancient as it sounds, has a level of poetic justice that cannot be matched. It was a personal gesture from a prince to his princess in a time of chivalry. It was a declaration of unconditional commitment. Now we send a text saying “What’s up”, “wanna hang” or “we’re kickin it at the IMAX”. Its it similar, quicker, more efficient? Duh, yes but more efficient is not necessarily better.

In the age of computers, efficiency and speed is better.

Now we have a dilemma on our hands.
With the move to speed, availability and efficiency driving us away from human interaction and toward technology solutions is this where we really want to be?

Ask the lovers, the moms, the dads, the artists, the poets, the writers, the dreamers and I think you know the answer.

You can Photoshop a sunset over the ocean with the colors of the rainbow and post on Facebook and Google+ to see how many likes you get or you can lay out a blanket with someone you love and watch the sun slowly disappear under the ocean’s surface to rest for another night.

The future is up to you. It is up to each of us. I can’t stop the influx of smartphone and tablet users. I think many in the back of their mind know the cancer and health risks, but I can do my part to walk away and live the life I want to live.

1 comment | posted in Cameron Crowe, Computer, Humanoid, Innovation, IPad, IPhone, Ipocolypse, Speed, Tablet, Technology

February 2, 2012

Keys to Workplace Happiness

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

Do you wake up on Monday morning dreading the week ahead or do you pop out of bed with a feeling of zest and vigor? Do you have the same sense of pride about your company that you do with your dog or children? Can you walk away at the end of the work day on Friday and know you made a difference?

These are all vital questions to ask yourself when you evaluate your current company, and the role you play in its success. Your job and your company should be a direct extension of yourself and your personality.

Ask yourself this, what type of personality do you have? What type of culture do you thrive in? What type of workforce are you compatible with?

Some have a start-up mentality while others thrive in a conservative structured environment.

Here is where we stand, when we look back at our lives while we sit on the rocking chair, sipping tea and watching the grass grow, we are going to come to the realization that over 40 years of our lives were spent working. Hopefully, those will be fond memories. Do you really want to look back in regret? I think not.

Finding Workplace Happiness – The Quiz

That is easy. If you can look at yourself in the mirror and see what brings you personal happiness, then you can easily translate that into the workplace.

Let us start with a self evaluation quiz.

Get your number two pencil and a piece of paper…..

1. Do you play well with others in a teaming environment or run as a well oiled individual contributor?
2. Are you an innovator or a status quo provider?
3. Do you thrive in a small family oriented setting or a large global entity?
4. Do you like to create or be told what to do?
5. Are you passionate about your company’s mission, products and services and vision for the future?
6. Do you feel your are maximizing your strengths in your current role?
7. Do you have room to breath and grow?
8. Can you walk away each day with a feeling of fulfillment?
9. Do you feel your company is an extension of yourself?
10. Do you feel like you will look back at your time spent and smile?

Each of these questions take a critical look at yourself and your perceptions of your relationship with your company. Based on the responses you will begin to understand your feelings about your company and its impact on you emotionally. You are in a marriage or a binding contract to be with your company through “better or worse, richer or poorer.” With any marriage there will of course be compromise, but in the end, it is about personal happiness, enrichment and fulfillment.

How do I ensure I am finding happiness in the workplace?

I know this is difficult to say during a recession that will have a sustained lasting affect for a number of years to come, but one should never stay with a company that is making them feel discouraged, emotionally drained or upset. Those negative feelings carry past the workplace into the home and the social setting. Continuous flow of negative energy could have a detrimental affect on physical and mental health. None of us want that. If you are truly unhappy, actively find a home that will turn that frown upside down.

Surround yourself with people that share the same positive energy as you. That includes personality, demeanor, passion, drive, ambition and challenge. As human beings we are bread with the pursuit of making a difference in the world. Your job should be no different. You need to know that you are making a significant contribution to your own development and to the success of the company. That is vital.

Treat each day like a new adventure. Keeping it fresh, spontaneous and zesty will make any career experience worthwhile.

Be expressive. The culture of a company is built on the brand, the products and service, the infrastructure but most importantly the human capital; You!

You are the ultimate foundation of everything your company stands for. You can look at yourself in the mirror and smile. Can you look at your company in the mirror and do the same? I hope the answer is yes. It is a part of you.

Never stop learning! Work is like school, a platform of learning. As we continue to grow, we continue to learn. Each day, each week, each month should be filled with moments of learning and growing.

Be true to yourself. Don’t hide behind a paycheck or a false sense of responsibility. If you are not having all your needs met, don’t stay with company. Remember earlier, we made the metaphor that you and your company are a marriage. Would you stay in an unhealthy marriage? I hope not.

There you have it, some of the keys to workplace happiness.

Find a company that makes you feel alive and cherishes each and every moment. That will be the one that will bring you the greatest personal happiness and sense of achievement.

1 comment | posted in Career, Development, Fulfillment, Happiness, Innovation, Job, Job Satisfaction, Learning, Marriage, Recruiterpoet, Workplace

January 11, 2012

The Opposite of Death is Creation

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

Creation: The action or process of bringing something into existence

“What can you ever really know of other people’s souls – of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands” – C. S. Lewis

We are often told through childhood and grade school that the opposite of death is life when in fact the true opposite of death is creation. Creation is the innovator of all humanity. It is the ability to take nothing more than a thought or concept and through the remarkable ability of our minds make something amazing. It is this gift that each of us possesses that allows us to not only evolve as a society but surround ourselves with wonder.

As we embark on a new year, we look at January as a symbolic gesture of a fresh start. Through the power of resolutions, we are able to relinquish our misfortunes from the previous year and start over. The ability to journey down a road undiscovered and take on the risk of a better tomorrow is quite a unique phenomenon.

What differentiates greatness from mediocrity, is the ability to take conscious thought and implement an action plan.

Do not make this a year of creation, make it a lifetime.

The creation of life is only the beginning. It is the gateway to all potential. Don’t wait, don’t hesitate, don’t resolve to make a difference. We are on the edge of complete insanity as technology is manipulating our culture and bringing us to the brink of global mayhem. If there was ever a time to stand up and allow your imagination to become the next generational icon, this is it. Immortality is a state of being. It is the legacy you leave behind that will define you for generations to come.

We are all blessed with the gift of imagination and the knowledge tools to become the ambassadors of change. Look deep inside yourself and search for the answers that have been waiting to be unleashed. You and you alone are the bearers of creation.

Your time on this earth is now. Own it and set a path for greatness because you have this reverence chained up in your brain waiting to be released.

Don’t wait for the world to come to you. Take it by the hand and guide it down the eternal path of absolute spectacle and astonishment.

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” – George Bernard Shaw

1 comment | posted in Amazement, Creation, Death, George Bernard Shaw, Innovation, Invention, Life, Recruiterpoet, The Byrds, Turn

July 10, 2011

I Hope You Dance

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

“The greatest risk in life is taking the chance on life.”

“Let us praise famous men and our fathers that begat us. All these men were honoured in their generations and were a glory in their days. We are here today to give thanks for the life of Harold Abrahams. To honour the legend. Now there are just two of us – young Aubrey Montague and myself – who can close our eyes and remember those few young men with hope in our hearts and wings on our heels.”

Lord Andrew Lindsay – Chariots of Fire

Yesterday afternoon, Derek Jeter, right off the disabled list, danced his way into the history books acting out a script that could have been written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by James Cameron. It was a poetic journey as the Captain of the New York Yankees became the first player in pinstripes to strike 3000 hits in his career as he launched a home run decisively into the outfield bleachers. As 54,000 fans and millions of viewers stood to honor the man and the achievement for over five minutes, it was clear that this was not an isolated moment in sports history. This was a moment, drafted in the stars and played out as fairy dust fell from the heavens. Derek would go five for five including the game winning hit on this day, but as he hugged each one of his teammates and remembered those that were not there with him, he embraced a moment that will forever be in his and our hearts.

Derek danced.

Life is dictated by responsibility. Responsibility for the financial well-being of ourselves and our families. Responsibility for defining the morals that we bestow. Responsibility leading a life that our parents had set for us. Out of respect and admiration for our upbringing, many feel the need to “pay back” our parents with a life of moral solitude.

Yet, are we risk adverse because of the fear of harm or the perception that if we step into the unknown we become vulnerable and thus open the door for predators to take advantage of our weakness.

The human mind is a challenging foe whose very existence is our greatest challenge. It numbs the senses and imparts the lessons of routine, comfort, stability and patience.

If you collect all of these thoughts, they are nothing more than barriers to the Dance.

We are a civilization that for millions of years has thrived on innovation. The ability to create what does not exist has set the standards for everything from fire to space travel.

The most memorable successes occur when our backs are against the wall, the resources are limited and your only support is the will to know you can accomplish anything.

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be” – George Sheehan

You are the will, compassion, fortitude, and strength to release the greatness within you. We are raised to dream; to reach for the stars and accomplish anything. Life shouldn’t interfere with the innocent notions you had as a child. If anything, life should strengthen the desire to want to meet and exceed those goals. All of us, whether wealthy or poor, receive an invitation to the dance. Some go, some don’t, some stand in the corner while the very few who know that it is an honor to stand alone on the center of that dance floor and shine will become greater than even their own imagination could visualize.

To be free to spin, jump and twirl and see things in this world that only you can see; what a thought. It is that perception that will carry over into the next generation and history will remember you, the shy boy or girl that dared to step on that shiny floor and let your soul be naked for all to see.

It is time to dance.

Reach into the pockets of that dress or suit and find that list you created that has you reaching into the unknown and let it out. Don’t give up, don’t let go…Just make the unthinkable happen and enjoy the ride.

Leave a comment | posted in Accomplishment, Chariots of Fire, Dare, Derek Jeter, Dream, Greatness, Innovation, Risk, Success, Triumph

September 16, 2010

Hewitt Associates Ranks Among the Top 100 on the 2010 InformationWeek 500

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

Provided by Hewitt Associates

Full Article link:

http://www.hewittassociates.com/Intl/NA/en-US/AboutHewitt/Newsroom/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?cid=9066

Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing company, announced today that it was ranked #87 on the 2010 InformationWeek 500—a list of the nation’s 500 most innovative users of information technology.

InformationWeek recognized Hewitt for developing and implementing its Back Office User Interface (BOUI), a customized, back-end technology application that automates and enhances various tasks performed by the company’s operations group in HR Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). This level of automation has enabled Hewitt to improve data accuracy, reduce human capital resources and lower its ongoing operations cost by millions of dollars.

“With an average of 10 million HR and Payroll transaction volumes expected each month across all of our clients, technology investments are critical to ensure that Hewitt’s capabilities remain differentiated and cutting edge,” said Matthew Heckler, chief information officer for Hewitt’s HR BPO business. “With BOUI, we’re now able to quickly solve operations issues, significantly reduce costs and increase scale in a way that our competitors cannot match.”

The BOUI application has made a significant difference in helping Hewitt develop and maintain successful outsourcing partnerships with its clients. Results from a recent client satisfaction survey show that 95 percent of Hewitt’s outsourcing clients say its error handling capability is outstanding, and 100 percent believe that the innovative technology Hewitt offers helps them reduce rework and increase efficiency.

“For 22 years, the InformationWeek 500 has honored the most innovative users of business technology,” said Rob Preston, InformationWeek’s editor in chief. “As we start to emerge from the worst recession in decades, the IT focus is now on driving growth—new sources of revenue, new relationships with customers, even new business models. This year’s ranking placed special emphasis on those companies and business technology executives leading that charge.”

InformationWeek identifies and honors the nation’s most innovative users of information technology with its annual 500 listing and tracks the technology, strategies, investments and administrative practices of America’s best-known companies. The InformationWeek 500 rankings are unique among corporate rankings as they spotlight the power of innovation in information technology, rather than simply identifying the biggest IT spenders.

Additional details on the InformationWeek 500 can be found at http://www.informationweek.com/iw500/.

3 comments | posted in Employee Benefits, HEW, Hewitt, Hewitt Associates, HR Services, Innovation

November 22, 2009

I am Hewitt! This is Where I Make a Difference

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

http://www.google.com/profiles/Hewittassociates2009

I am Hewitt!
I make a difference
Each day I contribute to the global well-being and awareness of individuals and families across cultural, ethnic and religious boundaries.
My contributions matter.
My input is valued.
My thoughts and ideas are implemented in a conceptual team setting where collective knowledge sharing is the key to successful cutting edge acheivements.
I am the past, the present and the future of this organization.
Each day the voice of Ted Hewitt and his vision of customer focus is heard through the walls of our infrastructure.

I am the best and I work with the best

Investment guru John Rogers during a recent interview with CNBC spoke of his recent investment options and achnowledged a significant personal stake in Hewitt Associates. His reason was simple: “Because it is one of the best HR companies in the world”

http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=58115

That is a valued statement from a significant and financial successful figure head.

With documented achievements in diversity, benchmark process improvement, excemption client focus, well positioned customer service and new client expansion, Hewitt Associates is a company rich in talent, value and achievement.

I am Hewitt and this is where I make a difference

2 comments | posted in Hewitt Associates, Human Resources, Innovation, Market Leadership

November 10, 2009

A Decade of Mediocrity

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

Has the peak of internet innovation reached a halting plateau?

For Al Gore’s sake, we hope not; and for the true inventors of the internet who bestowed the earliest form of this porn sharing, obesity building, obsession magnet almost 55 years ago, we thank you and bow.

http://www.momb.com – The Museum of Modern Betas is a fun directory of new internet junk…I mean sites that will help reinvent modern technology and take us to new and exciting heights. As you funnel through the multitude of sites bottle necking the information superhighway you will notice a developing trend. That trend is a lack of invention.

Photo sharing, Twitter application tools, graphic design, 4D IM applications, event planning, music sharing and friend sharing…oh my.

What I have failed to see is a true innovator. Clearly the war is over. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google are the Generals in Victory and Apple is the high commanding officer.

With the gaming specialists, internet software developers, modulation application gurus and other twelve year old prodigies out there I am having trouble grasping the last of ingenuity on the internet front. We are a generation flowered in confusion and genius. We welcome challenge with open arms and have the technology to find a single human being among 6.3 billion. The industrial age was a time of invention. The internet age is the rise of the second invention but my fear is that it is over.

We developed it all. The only thing left is to let greed and competition take over and make tweaks and modifications to the current existing tools until we are so over-saturated that we will have an internet depression.

The question now is when. When will the internet be so saturated with junk that it will metaphorically explode into a pool of green slime that will cover us all.

I may be the first to say this, but I have been slimmed.

In the immortal mission of Blastoffnetwork.com: We will be the next Amway.

I hope the next generation of internet leaders take a long look at what has become of the greatest invention in modern mankind and stop the insanity now. It needs to breath and grow.

The internet is becoming less Arnold and more Cartman.

Help stop the bleeding…Don’t be afraid to invent greatness. Be a leader and set the standard.
Don’t look for immediate results but become the future of this most powerful communications tool.

2 comments | posted in Innovation, Internet Media, Uncategorized

October 30, 2009

My Future in Recruiting

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

“In the great mass of our people there are plenty individuals of intelligence from among whom leadership can be recruited.” – President Herbert Hoover

Is recruiting about the research, relationship building and acquisition and training of talent or the potential for greatness?

My future in recruiting will be a manifestation of innovation and change. Planting the seed, nurturing and watching the tree of global unification grow is a horticulturalist dream. As the branches expand and leaves grace the stems with intellectual brilliance we find ourselves in the Talent community holding hands around this tree and embracing the future ahead of us.

Throughout my academic ride, professors stressed the importance of cultural awareness, business models, relationship building, training and adaptation. Taken that knowledge base and diversifying my career over industry sectors and geographic change, I have witnessed a collective understanding of the key factors that contribute to the greatness all companies have the potential to achieve.

Business Model 101 dictates the elements of a successful organization are built on the foundation of a mission, core values, policies and procedures, sustained culture, rewards and recognition and ethics. Putting that all aside, I have always viewed the one key element that will set brilliance ahead of mediocrity is human capital.

Those that have the key skills and competencies will help a company maintain a competitive edge but leadership is driven by risk, challenge, change management, collaboration, fiscal understanding, and cultural tolerance.

My future in recruitment is not only to play a roll in acquiring the talent that will drive my organization to become a benchmark in our industry and provide a return on investment to all our shareholders but to groom the next generation that will catapult us to standards of excellence.

I will build relationships through social networking, personal connections, collaborative efforts and integration into their professional and personal well being. Who I connect with now may have an immediate impact on the future of my company or a long term affect.

I believe in the mission of my company and its goal of promoting my personal growth and development and I feel strongly that with patience, technical resources, industry knowledge and presence, I will build a network that will continue to grow over time both domestically and globally.

My future in recruiting is about embracing the tools of social media, not being afraid to connect, and understanding the knowledge base that is launching the evolution of my industry.

I am excited about the prospects of the future. I believe talent acquisition are the pioneers of a new movement in business and we will set the standards and dictate policy moving ahead.

This is an exciting time of change.

1 comment | posted in Great Employees, Human Resources, Innovation, Recruiting, Social Networking

October 17, 2009

What George Orwell was trying to tell us

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

Before Google Wave
Before GPS Tracking systems on cars and mobile phones
Before Big Brother
Before Dave Matthew’s Ants were marching
Before chat rooms
Before the Apple Hammer Thrower dawned the drones into a new world
Before Terry Gilliam’s vision of Brazil
Before Metropolis

George Orwell eloquently penned a story so reamed in horror and fear that it could only be dismissed as fanatical fiction. The joke may be on the 6.2 billion robots that inhabit the earth.

1984 was not a piece of literature but a warning. The industrial revolution that begin post Civil War was a newborn baby just opening its eyes to a world of possibility. Assembly lines enhanced our ability to mass produce and thus lead to a world of gluttony. Let’s not blame Mr. Ford or Mr Rockefeller. Eli Whitney is the forefather of the industrial revolution when he managed to develop a device that could mass produce cotton for textiles. Oh yes, the cotton gin. Back to the Industrial Revolution. There were initial limitations. We were confined to set hours due to darkness and limited means of communications Step in, stage right Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison who gave us the phone and light (Not without the assistance of Phineas Bogg and his trusting boy wonder Voyager). If you did not get the Voyagers reference I will not dock you points. Fast forward one hundred and forty years later past Teddy Roosevelt, the rise of the National Park System, Woodrow Wilson and the United Nations, more states, the Great Depression, Truman, the bomb, the rest of the Billy Joel song, Apple’s technological explosion, AIDS, Rent, virtual reality, WII and now….

We are becoming victims of our own self created genius. Has innovation made our daily lives easier or sucked away the emotion and spirituality that once completed our very being?

We know we are being watched and we have accepted that. Our obsessions, our addictions, our fascinations are all being captured and stored by the very beings that we have chosen to protect us from violations of the principles of freedom.

Quite a conundrum we have gotten ourselves into.
Can we reverse the curse that is controlling our lives? Do we accept it? Or perhaps there is a compromise.

I can suggest a few ways to blend your lives to create a fine mix of virtual and actual reality:

1) Roll around in some leaves
2) Make a snowman
3) Buy a plane ticket without planning anything and just go
4) Lay on a beach at night and just watch the stars twinkle
5) Hug someone and tell them you love them
6) Hide your blackberry or IPhone for one full weekend
7) Fly a kite/Jump out of a phone/Parasail – Anything that involves wind and defying gravity
8 ) Coach a youth sports team
9) Foster a dog
10) Close your eyes and take a deep breathe!

The rest is up to you.

6 comments | posted in Actual Reality, Innovation, Live for Today, Virtual Reality

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