Compilation of Steve Boese posts for the week ending July 23, 2011 created by a cool service called Tabbloid.

1. 24 July 2011
Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR steveboese@gmail.com
STEVE BOESE’S HR TECHNOLOGY
Five for Friday - July 21, 2011 STEVE BOESE’S HR TECHNOLOGY
JUL 22, 2011 08:46A.M.
Protecting the Boss - A Shaving
Every week it seems like I read about 47,000 blog posts, articles, press
releases etc. all in my continued quest to provide you, loyal readers, with Cream Tale
ideas and insights to help, inform, or amuse you. But each week also, I JUL 21, 2011 08:58A.M.
am lucky if I can draw on at most 4 or 5 of these pieces that might
eventually become the basis for posts, the rest slip off into the ether. The News Corporation ‘hackgate’ scandal is a mess, both figuratively and
Sure, I share some of the links on Twitter and Facebook, we all know by virtue of a classic ‘shaving cream in the face’ gimmick, literally as well.
how fleeting those media can be. In case you need a little refresher course, (‘It’s all ball bearings these
days’), during Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch’s appearance at a
So today I thought I’d do a classic ‘Links to 5 articles I thought British parliament inquiry into the various alleged improprieties at the
were interesting this week’ take, so that at least I could find a way to now defunct News of the World newspaper, a wacky protester rushed the
share and promote some of the great stuff I read. But then I thought Murdoch’s table, and attempted to give ‘ol Rupert an old-fashioned
about it for a minute more and realized the ‘Here are 5 links’ posts are shaving cream face wash.
pretty weak, a little tired, and sort of a blogger’s way of raising the white
flag of ‘I have no more good ideas this week. I surrender.’ Check the below video to see what transpired - (email and RSS
subscribers click through)
But then while I was debating this, (the mental debate was at least 43
seconds), I remembered a neat little presentation-type tool I read about Pretty wild and interesting to me for two points. One, after the shaving
this week that might make my little ‘5 links’ post just a bit more cream incident you can hear the chairperson of the hearing announce a
interesting. Below is the embed of the tool and the links, more details on 10-minute break in the proceedings. Ten whole minutes? Only seconds
what it is and how you can try it out after the jump). Email and RSS after an apparently deranged man attempts some kind of assault in a
subscribers may need to click through and there is a little parliamentary hearing, and there is no way anyone could have totally
arrow on the upper right corner of the slideshow to use for processed the situation and ongoing threat level, the chairperson
navigation. announces a 10-minute recess? Gutsy. If that kind of incident happened
in the US Congress, we’d be at a standstill for days, maybe weeks while a
Steve’s Top 5 (or really 7) Reads of the week: new inquiry led by a blue-ribbon ‘Commission on Shaving Cream
Incidents’ is formed and begins an investigation.
Pretty cool right?
The second point of interest in the clip - check out Rupert Murdoch’s
The tool is from a web service called Slidestaxx, and it allows the user to wife Wendi Deng leap into action and toss a right hand haymaker in the
create embeddable and shareable slideshows from multimedia and social direction of the assailant. Quick, decisive, powerful - and from the
web content. Sign up for a free account, and in minutes you are creating sounds on the video, it seems like she did make contact and swatted the
a cool slideshow that can consist of online images, video, website links, guy. Sure, it would be natural and correct to interpret Ms. Deng’s actions
and more. Add a short little description to each slide, (about the length as the reflex of someone instinctively protecting a loved one, and while
of a Tweet), and publish. You can then share your slideshow on social extremely commendable, it doesn’t seem all that unusual. I think most of
media, share a direct URL link, and grab the embed code to use on your us would react similarly if we sensed a spouse, child, or anyone else close
site. to us was in imminent physical danger.
All told, I think it is a nice improvement from the list of hyperlinks. But if we spin this just a little differently, and indulge a bit of extension
outside of the familial bonds here and think about the organizational
Give Slidestaxx a try and let me know what you think. And check out the ones, a slightly different take emerges. In the entirety of this ongoing
5, (really 7), links in my Slidetaxx presentation above. News Corporation hacking scandal it is pretty much impossible to find
any actor that will emerge from this looking good. The Murdochs
Have a great weekend! themselves appear at worst complicit, and at best, ineffectual and out of
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2. Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR steveboese@gmail.com 24 July 2011
touch with what their managers and executives were doing. Variously the Oracle Applications for most of the ensuing stops in my career,
police and politicians that are caught up in this might find themselves (including working for Oracle Consulting directly), in roles ranging from
out on the street, their reputations and long-term career prospects client implementations, project management, enterprise HRIS
significantly diminished. management, and more. But even as the geographies, industries, and
responsibilities changed for me, I consistently stayed close, (some might
But you know who looks good in all this? At least to someone from say loyal), to the set of Oracle technologies that I first encountered many
outside the UK that might not be as intimately aware of the full details of years before on a 115 degree day in Riyadh. Consistently, I derived the
the story? That’s right - Wendi Deng. most satisfaction by learning new technologies, working with clients to
assess their needs and goals, and finding and delivering solutions that
Think about her actions in the video in the broader context of career and could help them to meet these goals. And sure, getting the chance to
organizational advice you have probably heard for ages - protect the ‘play’ with cool new tools is always fun.
boss, think about how you can make the boss’ life easier, how you can get
ahead by understanding your boss’ objectives and how you can best help So for me, to return to Oracle, and to work with Oracle Fusion HCM
him/her achieve them. Applications at this point in my career is, I think, a natural fit. As I said,
the Fusion HCM team is the best in the space, (sure I am biased), and the
If you look at it that way, wouldn’t you want to have someone like Ms. Fusion HCM Applications that have been delivered, and the ones that are
Deng sitting next to you at the next big board meeting? on the way, are on the absolute cutting edge of our industry. I am looking
forward to the chance to contribute to the team, and most importantly to
be back helping customers achieve their goals.
STEVE BOESE’S HR TECHNOLOGY
Some other notes, (continuing the navel-gazing theme of this post), I do
Welcome Back - News from plan on keeping this blog active here, contributing to Fistful of Talent,
and continuing to produce and host the HR Happy Hour Show,
Steve (although I am taking tomorrow night off). In time there may be some
JUL 20, 2011 07:43A.M. changes to one or both of these projects, we will just have to see how that
develops. Going forward, I will have to manage and determine my
Requesting your kind indulgence today, as I have some participation in other events and projects that I have been associated
personal news to report today on the blog. with in the past and balance the needs and objectives of my employer
and our objectives. But I do plan on remaining active and visible in the
Recently I accepted a position with Oracle Corporation, working in the HCM community, and look forward to continued engagement and
Fusion HCM Product Strategy team, and I will start in my new role next dialogue with the many, many fantastic and intelligent people it has been
week. I am excited by the opportunity to work with such a fantastic team my great pleasure to come to know in the last few years.
of Human Resources technology professionals, and with a set of new
technologies in Fusion HCM that are driving innovation, capability, Lastly, I wanted to say thanks to all the fantastic friends, colleagues, blog
efficiency, and business insight for organizational leaders and managers. readers, show listeners for the assistance, kind words, advice and counsel
The Oracle Fusion HCM team has spent several years designing and over the last several weeks. One thing I have learned for sure is the value
building an incredible set of applications, and I am thrilled at the chance and power of community, and I am humbled and appreciative for all the
to help continue the momentum, and help customers with their critical generosity directed to me. I only hope that I can find a way to repay at
Human Resources and Talent Management initiatives. least some of the good Karma in the future.
Some of you might know that I have a long history of working with That’s it for now - tomorrow we are back to our regularly scheduled
Oracle Applications, from my earliest days with AT&T implementing program of technology, innovative ideas, basketball, and barbecue.
what now seems like a quaint ‘green screen’ Oracle Apps version 10.4 in
the dusty desert city of Riyadh in the 90s. That project was Have a great day!
simultaneously my first real experience with a true enterprise-class set of
technologies, and my first taste of seeing up close how the
implementation of the right technologies, by the right people having a
shared commitment to the desired outcomes could truly transform an
organization. It was the perfect project to get introduced to the world of
enterprise software, large enough to have significance in the
organization, but with just enough self-governance and individual
accountability to keep the engagement levels high, and the spirit of
teamwork alive.
Eventually I moved back home from Riyadh, and continued to work with
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3. Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR steveboese@gmail.com 24 July 2011
STEVE BOESE’S HR TECHNOLOGY Using a variety of sensors, the Sociometric Badge is
capable of, among other things, capturing face-to-
Are you wearing a wire? face interactions, extracting social signals from
speech and body movement, and measuring the
Tracking Employee Interaction proximity and relative location of users.
Digitally The process seems pretty straighforward. Turn up at the office in the
JUL 19, 2011 08:25A.M. morning, check your email and voicemail, then just before heading over
to the office pantry for a cup of thin, industrial coffee, place the
Sociometric Badge around your neck and the badge will begin recording
how much you talk (versus how much you listen); it will gauge how much
you sit versus how much you move around; and an infrared sensor will
track how often you’re facing other people also wearing the badges.
After a period of data collection, about a month or two, the folks at
Sociometric Solutions will use their analytics platform that combines
Sociometric Badges information, e-mail traffic analytics, and other
proprietary data collection methods to provide individual and group
visualization dashboards. The idea being that these dashboards will
provide organizations a more complete view of collaborative behaviors
and interactions, than simple monitoring and metrics of purely digital
forms of communication like shared wikis, activity streams, or email
alone.
Sociometric Solutions points to a case study from Bank of America where
These days it seems most organizational leaders have bought in at least that found that call center workers who interacted more with their
conceptually to the idea that improvements in employee collaboration - colleagues felt less stressed, handled calls more quickly, but had
discovery of ideas, sharing best practices across internal silos, equivalent customer approval ratings to those who didn’t interact as
unearthing insights from the far corners of the firm, and so on, is likely much. Addtionally, Bank of America scheduled employees’ breaks so that
to increase in importance and urgency in the coming years, as almost all they could interact and talk with one another more often throughout the
organizations try to do more work with less people.The Sociometric day.
Badge - no you don’t have to tape it on under your shirt
It is an interesting, if possibly instrusive approach, but one that makes
Sure, a raft of technologies have emerged in just the last few years to perfect sense that people have been collaboratively solving problems,
facilitate and support employee collaboration, (Yammer, Jive, Socialcast, determining solutions, and generating innovative new breakthoughs for
etc.), and while these tools and others like them all have some excellent ages by simply talking to each other.
features and capabilities, they are limited in scope by their digital nature.
We can use tools like these to develop, share, track, and interact, and we It could be the next great breakthrough in harnessing the collaborative
can measure and report metrics about those interactions, but as systems power of the enterprise won’t be limited to rolling out the next ‘Internal
that rely (mainly), on computer-generated and supported inputs, Facebook’ tool, it might be simply gaining a better understanding of the
(individual status updates, shares of a document, group edits of content, informal, verbal, and offline interactions happening all the time.
etc.), they still miss capturing a key aspect of employee collaboration,
namely actual meetings and conversations between peers and in group What do you think? Would you wear a workplace ‘wire’?
settings.
A new approach towards better understanding these ‘real-life’ employee
(and customer) interactions, created by a company called Sociometric
Solutions a wearable device called the ‘Sociometric Badge‘ attempts
to bridge this gap between analog conversations and digital collaboration
tools and data sets by recording and assessing the information captured
in a proprietary framework for further analysis and action.
More information about the capability of the Sociometric Badge from the
Sociometric Solutions website:
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4. Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR steveboese@gmail.com 24 July 2011
STEVE BOESE’S HR TECHNOLOGY people to divert at least some of their social networking energy away
from the value networks they have spent the last few years building up
Don’t quite ‘get’ Google+ yet? on the liked of LinkedIn and Twitter. No doubt we will soon see a rapid
uptake on ‘productivity’ tools that will automate bi-directional feeds and
Fear not, you’ll be ok updates to and from G+ from the older social networks. And then soon
JUL 18, 2011 07:57A.M. after brands and organizations will begin to adopt G+, the game makers
like Zynga and others will get on board, and finally the Google
advertising engine will kick in - developments that will certainly change
G+ from what it looks and feels like today.
It can be pretty hard to keep up with all these developments in the social
space, and one might feel frustrated or even behind the times if they are
not one of the early adopters. But I know of at least one other pretty well-
known and successful guy that also has only a passing understanding of
G+, legendary investor Warren Buffett. Check out the (paraphrased)
comments from Buffett about the technology and social networking
space taken from a recent interview on Bloomberg TV:
Interviewer: Did you ever feel you missed the boat on these
four companies? (Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook)
Buffett: ‘Well I missed the boat on them, but I don’t mind
missing boats that I don’t know enough to captain’. ‘I don’t
I am almost certain that if you are reading this blog that you have at least have to understand everything. I am smart in spots
some passing awareness of Google+, the search behemoth’s latest foray and I stay around those spots’, (emphasis mine).
into the social networking space. By most accounts G+ is starting strong,
coming out of a short but limited private beta period to grow to over 10 Nice one. Now of course Buffett must have staff that stay informed about
million users in just a couple of weeks. Plus seems to fit nicely into a gap the latest and greatest in technology, social, mobile, and whatever other
that many users of more established social networks feel exists, making it new things are coming. But he made it clear in the interview that he
easier and simpler to share status updates, contents, images, etc. with personally did not really deeply understand these newer technologies
discrete ‘circles’ of friends and contacts, positioning Plus less of a and developments, and consequently did not feel compelled to chase
broadcast medium like Twitter, while offering better (at least ostensibly), them, or to change his strategy or direction to compensate for that fact.
control over data privacy, and possessing more potential for meaningful Buffett stressed the importance (at least for him), of sticking to what he
engagement than on Facebook. knew and felt like he could excel at, rather than being constantly on the
make to re-invent himself.
G+ is still very new, and while most folks (at least the majority of ones in
my ‘Circles’) have not done much more on the network other than start I think the lesson here might be an important one, as new technologies
re-building the social connections they had previously formed on and networks continue to multiple and proliferate, it can be really easy
Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, that has not led to a myriad of chatter and dangerous to get caught up in the chase ourselves. Some new
and blog posts attempting to decipher, explain, and help you, the network gets hot, a new tech gadget hits the market, a major service
neophyte G+ user make sense of it all. We have seen this before with starts offering a new solution - whatever, and we almost immediately
other Google products like Wave and Buzz. The products launch to a change course, divert some of our time and attention to this new shiny
(relatively) small set of users, and almost instantly a flood of content gets thing, and feel compelled to figure it all out. And exploit it for some
created (with a shockingly limited data set and experiences to draw personal gain, I mean isn’t that at least part of the game?
from), that compete for some knid of position or authority in the space.
While some experimentation is great, and even fun at times, I also think
For more casual users of social networking services, (like your Grandma it can put us in a situation where we never stop chasing, and spend
on Facebook), the hype and bluster surrounding G+ is likely lost, as they enough time really focusing on that thing we are really good at, that we
happily continue to to post pictures, check in on family members, and understand deeply, and that we can comfortably and reliably add
tend to their virtual crops on Farmville. By early reports, G+ is mostly whatever value it is we are trying to create. Warren Buffett might be one
male, and very geeky. Sort of like the old High School A/V clubs back in of the greatest investors that has ever lived, but he knows what he knows,
the day. and it seems that realization has served him pretty well.
And for more hard core social networking aficionados, G+ while I kind of like Google Plus, but I also really don’t know what if anything
intriguing and capable, will need to offer just enough reason to get I’ll ever do with it, and that any time I spend there is time I’m not doing
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5. Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR steveboese@gmail.com 24 July 2011
something else. We make these kinds of tradeoffs all the time I know, but
when the trade involves something so new and exciting as G+, I think we
perhaps make them too easily.
What’s your take - are we too caught up in the hype and the
chase and not spending enough time at what we are really
good at?
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