My Medium Content
Thanks for stopping by! The content here is going to be in a little flux for a while because I’m moving items and shifting some of my media creation over to Medium as a way to leverage the power of the publishing platform. I’ll still post a unique blog here and on LinkedIn from time to time, but my main focus will be on that site.
Get in touch!
pmann@educationalthinking.com
(717) 400-6266 (voicemail)
Harrisburg, PA
How Are Your Blinkers?
Blinkers filter-out the confounding traits of many other modes of communication (e.g. language, posture, tone, environment, etc.), thus rendering inert most of the external forces we can blame for communication problems except the natural complacency that comes with years of driving (and communicating), the blinker exposes our native habits of communicating in ways that might surprise us.
Make Help More -- Helpful!
If someone cares enough to notice that you need help, whether via a consultant or not, it is a better option to consider that, 1) someone cares enough to notice the need, and 2) there is an opportunity to find and fix a blind spot in your perspective. Someone like me isn’t there to force a change or otherwise stick our noses into your business; we’re there because someone feels things need to adjust but aren’t going to get better on their own.
Your Thinking on Millennials is Wrong
There. I said it. You are wrong. Wrong about millennials, wrong about their place in the workforce, and wrong about how you are trying to gain their attention (long enough) to work for you. Just. Plain. Wrong. On at least three counts.
Recent Graduates …Only?
It is both amusing and problematic that the old paradox of recent graduates with 10+ years of experience is going away. It is amusing because the swell in nontraditional graduates, especially in terms of those who are either finishing their education while working a career, means that it is actually possible to hire someone who graduated in the last year (i.e. recent graduate) with a decade or more of experience.
Do We Need (More) Rules to "Unplug?"
"Do those choices make sense in the context of the legal and ethical structure of their work agreement?" Turns out, checking email "off the clock" is dead at the first hurdle -- it isn't legal whether exempt or not.
Hiring: Does Short Term Thinking Cause Long Term Problems?
“Consider how similar hiring decisions are to romantic decisions. We interview a person based on an online profile or short resume, the candidate gets a short look at the company through a web page and an interview, and at that point both decide whether to start a relationship with them that requires us to make an investment.”
Work-Life Balance: Are Benefits On-Point?
“…benefits are one of many tools used to capture and retain scarce talent. In this context, it appears obvious that leaders would work hard to validate both the value and utility of benefits from a variety of perspectives represented in the workforce, but this isn’t the case.”
Take a Hint from Gamers: Learn the Outcomes of Metrics and Systems
That is, we attempt to measure things at a high level that are changed at a very low level — measuring something with many contributing factors, but attributing it to only one or a few — and this tendency extends to our employee engagement efforts. However, if we took a simple hint from the world of gaming, we would quickly find that our fixation on measurement in the way that we do now only succeeds in encouraging undesirable behaviors.