Nature never ceases to amaze me. No matter how much I learn I don’t have to look very far to find out it stuff I never would have dreamed.

For instance, in school we were taught that the heart is the strongest muscle in the body, but seems as if that’s not right, your tongue is strongest.

Speaking of tongues, crocodiles can’t stick theirs out; I don’t know about alligators.

Echoes are like shadows, everything has one, right? Wrong! Duck quacks don’t echo, but no one knows why.

Come summer when you’re scratching away at those pesky mosquito bites, just remember, it really is a bite, because mosquitoes have teeth.

Summer also brings butterflies for your viewing pleasure. Butterflies love the nectar, but did you know they taste with their feet?

While we’re on the subject of feet, whether you have two or four you can jump—as long as you aren’t an elephant. Elephants are the only animal that can’t jump.

One final human fact that you can verify yourself the next time you have a cold—it’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

See you tomorrow for a look at how insanely smart hiring creates stars and boosts retention.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/s_fox/358204689/

I frequently focus on creating and sustaining culture and link to articles about that. Today, we’re going to look at culture from other points of view.

What actions and attitudes does culture enable?

Can radically different actions stem from the same culture?

What about technology and culture?

South by Southwest, better known as SXSW, is a festival that celebrates music, film and all things interactive and social, is the last place you would expect to find people recommending unplugging and questioning the value/impact of social on culture—but they did.

GE is lauded for its culture and for its ongoing innovation renaissance and that creativity carries over to its tax department. How creative? It paid 7.4 percent on $5.1 billion worth of US profits as well as a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. How’s that for innovation?

Studies in the US indicate a pervasive culture of cheating at all levels in schools; our politicians cheat, business leaders cheat, many say that you can’t succeed in today’s world without occasional cheating.  Consider the difference between that attitude and the German culture where a minister who plagiarized parts of his 2006 thesis was forced to resign.

Speaking of cheating and culture in schools, Harvard Business School is radically changing it’s curriculum, but the real question is whether it can change its culture to reflect that.

We started with what some would consider heretical attitudes at SWSX, so it seems fitting to end with a bit more heresy centering on the idea that technology can’t change culture.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Image credit:  MykReeve on flickr

Yesterday we looked at insanely stupid hiring and I said we would explore the alternatives today.

Every time a manager tells me that staffing gets in the way of their “real work” it makes me crazy. For decades I’ve heard this same stupid statement from various managers, from CEO to team leaders, and none of them was stupid.

Insanely smart (or stupid) hiring starts with individual MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™).

Here is the basic attitude of insanely smart managers, voiced decades ago by Terry Dial, who eventually became vice chairman of Business Banking at Wells Fargo.

“People are 90% of our costs as well as the key to customer service and satisfaction. The only thing that should take priority over hiring a new employee is keeping a current one.”

Overview of insanely smart hiring

1. Hire people to be part of the team. In other words, people who share your values, will support your culture, are fascinated with your product and believe in your company.
2. Take time to define what you really need. In other words, the right person for the right job at the right time and for the right reasons.
3. What you see may not be what you get. In other words, commit the time needed to interview thoroughly.
4. Performance isn’t always portable. In other words, be sure you can supply the management and environment in which the candidate can flourish.

How to practice insanely smart hiring

• Insanely smart mangers know that no matter what else they have to do it is people, acquiring them, motivating them and retaining them, that is their “real work.”
• Insanely smart managers never lose sight of this basic law of managing—there is nothing a manager can do personally (to save their review) that will off-set the effect of their under or non-performing group.
• It is easier to be an insanely smart manager if you work for an insanely smart company, or at least manager, that understands there is no hiring gene and good staffing skills are learned, not born—but don’t count on it.
• Insanely smart hiring is real work that requires time, energy and commitment.
• Insanely smart mangers focus on ending up being the dumbest person in the group.
• Insanely smart managers never hire jerks, no matter how much pressure they are under.

Join me Monday when we consider how insanely smart hiring creates stars and boosts retention.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ideaconstructor/563596890