Delving Deeper

Time just flew....cannot believe that it's been 20 yrs since I completed STD X at Marian Junior College (Old name for Marian Sr. Secondary School, Kalathipady, Kottayam). Excited about meeting my classmates and teachers at the 20th Anniversary Re-Union which is scheduled for tomorrow (26th Dec) at Kottayam, the land of 3 L's (Letters, Latex and Lakes). Social media was the backbone for Organizing this event, thoughts about which were initiated about 2 yrs ago :-) Facebook page, which was created to link (and search) the batchmates (V-Marians 1979-92) helped us reach out to over 65 batchmates - over 25 have confirmed to attend the first such event organized by any batch from our Alma mater. Looking forward to the D-day tomorrow.

Chanced upon a link to a free article on astd's website where the authors take a time m/c trip to track the 'future' of Learning. You can reach the article http://www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2010/Jul/Free/1007_LookingAheadAt.htm I really think that Prediction No. 5 - 'Peer-to-Peer' is a thing to watch out for.. My earlier post about the progress of Facebook type applications aimed specifically at Corporates - Vivek Paul's new company is testimony to the pace at which things are progressing in this area.

Well, it's about time Kochi got it's true of IT mind space. Here's a link to a post on Manorama online - featuring an interview with my boss. http://www.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/itcontentView.do?contentId=7558235&programId=6306068&contentType=EDITORIAL&BV_ID=@@@ Best wishes to Kochi :-)

Interesting update from ET Headlines of today.. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-announcement/Vivek-Paul-turns-entrepreneur-with-KineticGlue/articleshow/6235092.cms Glad to see the idea catching up in India.. Exciting times ahead I'm sure :-)

A laudable effort by SHRM India - here's an article by Pradeep Mukerjee on their site .. I thought Pradeep hit the nail on the head with this statement: Understanding business: why is it important? It is extremely important for any professional to understand what the business he or she is in is really about. Without such an understanding a professional will have a limitation in appreciating how his or her role contributes to the larger whole. A role may boil down to a set of tasks - done because they need to be done. We all know what that does to an individual’s motivation levels.

Happened to get a link to Workforce's research page where I found an interesting use of Web 2.0 principles for Workplace Process improvements...You can find more details on this link http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/27/06/75/index.php

Here's what I found on Workforce.com A Social Networking Solution for Retail Recruiting’s ChallengesCommentary - By Mike Dwyer Take it from someone who once had to rely on weekly job fairs in strip malls to fill open positions at a fast-growing chain: There’s a better way to hire, thanks to the unlimited recruiting potential of social media’s holy trinity—Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Read the full article here - http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/26/81/90/index.php

Industry Leaders to Use Nielsen Products to Help Marketers Better Measure Online Advertising Impact and Realize Greater ROI - read the article on this link - http://in.nielsen.com/news/20090923.shtml

This news - http://www.technoparktoday.com/2009/04/carpooling-for-technopark/ took me back to memories of 'Nature Club' days :-) during graduation. I think it's a great initiative and have done my bit to help by signing up and also spreading the news to my contacts. Kuddos to all minds who bring in fresh & Greener thoughts !

An update on linkedin ( http://www.linkedin.com/ ) led me to Sanjeev's blog post. Sanjeev is a Sr. (ex)colleague of mine. You can reach this post http://thenewschool-sanjeev.blogspot.com/2009/07/flyover-speed-breaker-and-hr.html Excerpts from his blog: I relate this to a many HR policies in organizations that are focused on driving compliance but not commitment. Policies that are put in place to stop the 10% of issues from happening but 90% of others getting inconvenienced and demotivated. I liked his narrative style and the way he connected the speedbreakers and Flyovers to the HR practice of Policy making.. although having been driving in Kerala for some time now, I may have to dispute to the percentages that he's used :-) I had earlier read this post http://gauteg.blogspot.com/2009/07/business-managers-should-be-hr-business.html on Gautam's blog - and would like to point Sanjeev's case as a real life example of a Business Manager turned HR Leader :-)

I'm recovering from a bout of Viral fever which made me miss office yesterday.. boredom made me log on to search for audio books and i was happy to have found this link to Marcus Buckingham's First Break all the rules from Simon and schuster Audio. I feel audio books have not reached their true potential in our country. Maybe marketing guru's in our country will turn their thoughts in this direction :-)

Matt Taibi of Rolling stones mag has this to say about Goldman sachs...

A post from my online pal and Social media Guide - Gautam Ghosh ( http://gauteg.blogspot.com/ ) on career planning for HRM students led me to some research (a.k.a - Google search) yesterday.. among the stuff which came up, I found this one very interesting and relevant to that discussion on XLRI's blog. Follow the link from the title of this post to listen to the audio book - Now discover your strengths.. http://rapidshare.com/files/211098633/NxDxYxSx.zip I remember reading the physical version of the book some years back.. Highly recommended :-)

Here's some excepts from what John Kotter wrote in his (1990) book - 'What leaders really do': Management is about coping with complexity and 'good management', according to Kotter - 'brings a degree of order and consistency to key dimensions like the quality and profitability of products'. Leadership, by contrast, is about coping with change; and major changes are more and more necessary to service and compete effectively in this new environment. More change always demands more leadership. Being a Mgmt grad, i found the following as explained by Kotter to be, well 'simpler' :-) Management - manages complexity by Planning and Budgeting Organizing and Staffing controlling and problem solving Produces predictability, order and consistency Leadership, on the other hand - leads change by setting a direction - (Vision being the key word here) Aligning people Motivating and inspiring Produces useful 'dramatic' change

I found this while Google-ing.. Excerpts - HR professionals at corporate have responsibility for HR philosophies that permeate the entire organization. They represent the firm to external stakeholders (regulators, investors, communities) and need to help establish a corporate brand or reputation. They also help senior executives select HR initiatives that will permeate the entire organization. They work with Boards to ensure effective governance and with senior executive leaders as coaches and team facilitators.

Check out this interesting post from HR Capitalist... I tend to agree with most of what is said, although I should confess that I've not done any major linkedin searches for the hiring I've been doing on my present or past jobs... Maybe-2 or 3 yrs down the line, Hiring managers in India will have this step in their checklist :-)

I found these words in a fast company article - You can divide any working population into three categories: people who are engaged (loyal and productive), those who are not engaged (just putting in time), and those who are actively disengaged (unhappy and spreading their discontent). The U.S. working population is 26% engaged, 55% not engaged, and 19% actively disengaged. You can read the article here - http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/49/buckingham.html?page=0%2C0

I got the f0llowing update from SHRM today: The SHRM India Learning Events continue to evolve with changes and innovations in the global marketplace. Attendees can expect an event filled with the latest trends and best practices connected with the theme and engaging sessions with experts in the field. We are happy to inform all of you about Pune’s largest HR Event – learn and network in person with 500+ participants from multiple locations, including prominent business, academic, research and HR thought leaders. Do let your friends and colleagues in Pune know so they can avail of this opportunity! SHRM India Knowledge Leadership Events Series across INDIA (with More Than HR Global) • Mumbai – Date: 30th May 2009 (attended by 500+ delegates)• Hyderabad – Date: 20th June 2009 (attended by 200+ delegates)• Pune – Date: 11th July 2009• Delhi – Date: 25th July 2009• Bengaluru – Date: 1st August 2009• Kolkata – Date: 8th August 2009 We are very proud to be presenting these Events in collabor...

Gosh, twitter is happening.... for those of you who are new to twitter, follow the title link to browse thru articles from experts.. all of us got some catching up to do. Happy twittering...

Attention - Legal eagles... During my student days, the only way to catch up with legal i.e labour law stuff (case laws etc) was to rush to our Law college Library on Senapati Bapat Road campus. So, when I heard about this site which gave most of the updates on laws and also allows search, the first feeling was that of jealousy :-) Here is the link to site - http://judis.nic.in/scwelcome.htm . Yes, it's free .. .I gather that there are some pay sites too with decent subscription rates but those I'll leave for lawyers. I'll recommend this to all HR pros who occassionally would need to check out on 'those laws' ....