communication failure

Poor standards of communication and collaboration are the main cause of more failures in work, according to Bernard Marr.

How do we look for good collaborations without the ability to identify and then clearly express our preferred communication style? Subsequently, without understanding the communication styles of the people we work with, there will be misunderstandings. Misunderstandings that could potentially be avoided.

It takes less than fifteen minutes to gain insight into communication & collaboration styles. What’s a good argument for not doing it?

ridiculing innovation

The first phase in accepting innovation is usually ridiculing it.

When the iPhone first came out, Microsoft claimed that people would never consider buying a phone without buttons… Take NFT’s, for instance. Some people are quick to dismiss the technology altogether, making fun of it in the process. An estimated 70% of the world’s population doesn’t have an enforceable claim to the land they own. For the use case of demonstrating ownership alone, there is a lot of intrinsic value in the technology driving NFT’s.

HR managers are no different. Often reluctant to embrace innovative technology. After all, it’s a people business, so people will know best, right? Regardless, there is a tremendous opportunity to have technological support.

Be wise, don’t ridicule.

when results are checked

Results are checked on two occasions — not to be confused with the hit record of The Deele — either when things are really bad or really good.

When things are bad, it’s a matter of assessing the situation and knowing when to brace for impact. When things are good, it’s more of a morale boost and a quick affirmation that things are peachy.

The middle somehow seems less appealing.

With an abominable retention rate, HR managers kind of know what’s going on. With an incredible company culture that oozes out employee engagement, HR managers might even go on a keynote tour sharing their story with the world.

The middle is, however, where it gets at least equally interesting.

Monitoring average results in the middle enable you to anticipate. For better or worse. Chance favors the prepared mind.

half-solved

Writing is like good design. It shouldn’t contain unnecessary extras. In other words, ideally, it’s so clear and concise that if you remove one element, it no longer makes sense.

How many challenges can you identify in your company that (some) people are somewhat aware of but have never been written down?

A problem, well-defined, is half-solved.

too wise trap

Knowing too much is dangerous because you stop asking questions.

When you visit a city for the fifth time, it’s hard to relive the wonder you experienced when you first arrived.

Professionally, it’s definitely worthwhile to keep asking questions. Approach work as if it’s the first time. A fresh perspective can work wonders.

elephant outside the room

Suppose you know your way around an Eisenhower matrix. In that case, you’ll know that when you never make it out of the urgent and important quadrant, you have no long-term strategy.


Some HR departments are close to panicking. Their employees are quitting faster than they can hire them. As a result, they have no choice but to do urgent and important tasks, day in and day out. The elephant isn’t even in the room. It didn’t get invited and it’s waiting outside.


Without looking into the future, strategically, you’ll be stuck in the urgent and important quadrant forever. Understanding employee retention, or why people are actually leaving your company isn’t killing your pain today, but it’s alleviating it for tomorrow.

gaslighting talent

Are companies (and their recruiters) gaslighting their candidates?

When people quit after six months because the job doesn’t align with their expectations the way they thought it would, who is to blame? The company or the candidate?

If the company can’t adequately describe what’s expected for the job, blaming the candidate seems unfair.

If the candidate, on the other hand, isn’t able to clearly express their expectations of the job, blaming the company might also seem unjust.

Both companies and candidates need help expressing job-content and (team) role expectations.

test again

When somebody cuts you off in traffic after having woken up from noticeably insufficient sleep, you feel different, right? Worse than you usually would.

New candidates get sent through entire batteries of tests. Personality, aptitude, reasoning… You name it. There is probably a test for that.
When a candidate gets hired, that’s where the tests stop. Why? People change, along with their interests. From one day to the next, you might feel completely different, increasing the need for testing recurrently.

Employees should have the ability to formally restate their professional interests, once in a while.

madness

Insanity is misattributing the same Einstein quote repeatedly. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.” It turns out Einstein never said that.

The definition for crazy madness still holds ground, in any case.

People are hired every day, only to see them leave a couple of months later. If the goal is to grow as a company, that translates to pushing water uphill with a rake.

Hiring new people without knowing why the current people are leaving is kind of a crazy thing to pursue.

retention levels

There are levels to employee retention. Ordered from disastrous to excellent.

People are leaving faster than you can properly onboard them. They run away from your company as if they’ve seen a ghost. That’s bad.

People aren’t considering leaving your company at all. At the same time, they stopped being engaged years ago. They stay with your company due to the benefits your company provides. Their productivity is still stuck in the previous century.

People are considering leaving but really take their time. They’re concerned with how job-hopping might look on their resume, so they stay on for about a year, albeit unengaged.

Your employees are somewhat engaged and aren’t actively looking for a new job. If a better offer comes along, though, they might leave.

Your employees are super engaged. Beginning to think of leaving your company isn’t even an option.

Question: what’s worse than the first couple of levels of retention? Answer: not knowing where your employees are.