There’s a word in our collective vocabulary that needs to die a quick death. The word is “iterative.” ” Have you heard it? Many IT professionals are thinking about iterative and incremental development cycles , which is a thing unto itself. But your HR director just learned the word “iterative” and is probably misusing it. For example, I just had a discussion about iterative feedback. I was like, hold up, there is no such thing as iterative feedback. think you mean real-time feedback. Let’s just call it what it is: one-way babbling.). love you. MORE >>

Are you tired? Just about a month ago, I went to an all-day meeting with a bunch of people who are adults, parents and productive members of society. Everybody looked exhausted. scanned the room and saw nothing but droopy eyelids. The thirty-eight-year-old creative director was pounding Red Bull Total Zero®. Most of the women were drinking Diet Coke. The rest of the pack drank coffee and caffeinated diet ice tea. will not lecture you on the toxic waste that’s pumped into most energy drinks and sodas. Get your heart rate up during the day. made fun of the trend. A lot. One more thing. MORE >>

A friend of mine just asked, “What HR technology excites you most? What’s new? What’s hot?” ” Those are complicated questions. The easy answer is to send you to analysts and advisors who tell me that recruitment technology is hot. Also, learning. If you can cobble together a platform that enables companies to get the right people in the right jobs, you run a cool company. You’re on fire. I’m also told that mature HR technology companies are hot, too. Patriarchal cultures. Old names. Reliable brands. Big brands are buying from big brands in record numbers. MORE >>

We all have them in our lives. Trump lovers, Bernie supporters, birthers, 9/11 truthers, and people who send you a voicemail/text/email and then stop by your desk two seconds later because they need a response. Here’s how to work with stupid people. Smile. Pause. Breathe. It diffuses the stupidity. Begin with praise. We’re all narcissists. Works for everybody. Speak slowly and user fewer words. Cognitive processing speeds are sluggish. End your sentences with a declarative statement. Inflect down. Don’t invite follow-up questions with your tone. Boring is the new black. MORE >>

People ask me about the future of HR. Am I an optimist? Am I a cynic? think you have to look at the past to understand the future. Business leaders brazenly defrocked HR between 2009-2014 and invested in software, which has largely failed. Meanwhile, a talented cohort of HR professionals became disenfranchised and moved out of the function. They found jobs in marketing or sales. They started businesses. Or maybe they just stopped working. So now the present merges with the past. What remains of HR is complicated. Like a mom, but not too motherly or matronly. Other analysts think HR is doomed. MORE >>