Pamela Meyer is a professional lie spotter. She's worked with a team of researchers to collect and review research on deception from such fields as law-enforcement, military, psychology and espionage. She also received advanced training in deception detection, interrogation, microexpression analysis, statement analysis, behavior and body language interpretation, and emotion recognition.

Meyer says that lying is a cooperative act - on its own, a lie has no power. It becomes powerful when someone agrees to believe it. She says that on any given day, we're lied to from 10 to 200 times - from the white lies that allow society to function smoothly to the devastating duplicities that bring down corporations and break up families.

In this TED talk, she shares some of her expertise and helps us learn to spot the lies and liars in our midst by recognizing and spotting hotspots. In addition to being smart and useful, her presentation is funny and familiar - because let's face it - we've all lied and been lied to. You can also learn more about her research from her book Liespotting. You can also get more pointers for spotting deception on her website.

Direct link to TED talk video
http://www.ted.com/talks/pamela_meyer_how_to_spot_a_liar.html

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Want to ensure a winning team in your organization? In addition to help for your employees, ESI EAP offers a full suite of tools for supervisors and managers, including our ESI Management Academy. Trainings cover compliance issues, management skills and more. If you want to learn more about how ESI can provide more employee EAP benefits and more employer services, call us at 800-535-4841.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on April 13, 2013 at 12:42 PM | Permalink

When's the last time you got your motivation from outer space? Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield offers a short, inspirational video on how to achieve your goals - it's great advice for you as a leader and a great clip to share with your employees!

For more inspiration, see this longer video of Chris Hadfield talking with William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk.

You can find more videos from Chris at the Canadian Space Agency YouTube channel. Don't miss space food and nail clipping in space.

(Note: This post contains a YouTube video. If your organization blocks access, you may not be able to see it in this post. Here is a direct link to the video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGrzo4IvXyg )
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Want to ensure a winning team in your organization? In addition to help for your employees, ESI EAP offers a full suite of tools for supervisors and managers, including our ESI Management Academy. Trainings cover compliance issues, management skills and more. If you want to learn more about how ESI can provide more employee EAP benefits and more employer services, call us at 800-535-4841.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on March 17, 2013 at 11:16 AM | Permalink

Canada's Heart & Stroke Association has put together a series of powerful health messages in a campaign theme of "Make Health Last" - a series that might be good to share with employees in your wellness program. They pose the question: What will your last 10 years look like?

(This post contains YouTube videos. If your organization blocks access, you may not be able to see them in this post. Here is a direct link to the Make Health Last campaign: www.makehealthlast.ca)

Posted by Julie Ferguson on March 8, 2013 at 6:07 AM | Permalink

"Cross-country skier Janine Shepherd hoped for an Olympic medal -- until she was hit by a truck during a training bike ride. She shares a powerful story about the human potential for recovery. Her message: you are not your body, and giving up old dreams can allow new ones to soar."

"Janine Shepherd is a walking paraplegic; she is also a pilot and aerobatics instructor, as well as a motivational speaker and author.

A champion cross-country skier in training for the winter Olympics, Janine’s life changed forever when she was hit by a truck during a bicycle ride in the Blue Mountains of Australia. Doctors did not expect her to survive and, when she did, they warned her that she would never walk again.

Janine focused intently for years on healing both her broken body and crushed morale. A turning point came watching small planes flying overhead. She decided: “If I can’t walk, I’ll fly.” While still in a full body cast, Janine was lifted into an aircraft for her first flight. Within a year she had her private pilot’s license. Later, she earned her commercial pilots license and instructor’s rating. Janine recently served on the board of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and became its youngest -- and only -- female director.

Janine is a the patron of the Australasian Spinal Research Trust and is committed to helping find a cure for spinal cord injury in the near future. In the meantime, she seeks to inspire those coping with physical disability. She is the author of five books, including The Gift of Acceptance and Never Tell Me Never. And while doctors told her after her accident that she would never have children, she now is a mother of three."

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ESI EAP offers 24-7 access to counselors and a wide variety of support resources for employees and family members who are facing difficult health challenges. We also offer wellness benefits and health risk assessments, including discounts for weight loss programs, exercise and nutrition programs, and stop smoking programs. If you want to learn more about how ESI can provide more employee EAP benefits and more employer services, call us at 800-535-4841.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on February 23, 2013 at 3:36 PM | Permalink

Meet two brothers named as the 2012 Sports Illustrated Kids SportsKids of the Year. Check out the inspiring short video clip below, read the accompanying story from Sports Illustrated: 2012 SportsKids Of The Year: Conner and Cayden Long or visit the Team Long Brothers Facebook page. It's a great feel-good story that makes you want to try to be half as awesome as these kids.

If you can't see the video above, try this direct link to YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouhURNLsnjo

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Want to ensure a winning team in your organization? In addition to help for your employees, ESI EAP offers a full suite of tools for supervisors and managers, including our ESI Management Academy. Trainings cover compliance issues, management skills and more. If you want to learn more about how ESI can provide more employee EAP benefits and more employer services, call us at 800-535-4841.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on February 10, 2013 at 2:56 PM | Permalink

"The Marshmallow Challenge is a remarkably fun and instructive design exercise that encourages teams to experience simple but profound lessons in collaboration, innovation and creativity.

The task is simple: in eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top."

The ingredients cost only a few dollars and the time invented is less than a dollar. If you would like to try the Marshmallow Challenge at your next meeting, here are Step by step instructions for the Marshmallow Challenge.

That's how challenge founder Tom Wujec describes the exercise. Tom is an award-winning innovator who specializes in fostering creative thinking. See him describe the project in this video at TED:

(If you can't see the video above, try these direct links to Ted.com video and transcript or to the video on YouTube.)

Videos of teams engaged in the Marshmallow challenge:
Watch teams of varying ages as they participate in the Marshmallow Challenge.

Ms Smith's STEM students

PepsiCo Talent Acquisition Meeting

Mr Kaiser's MVMS students

Posted by Julie Ferguson on February 1, 2013 at 3:35 PM | Permalink

Great presenters know the psychology of their audience. Behavioral psychologist and author Dr. Susan Weinschenk shares 5 of her favorite things every presenter should know.

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In addition to more benefits & more services for your employees, ESI EAP offers a full suite of tools for supervisors and managers, including our ESI Management Academy. Trainings cover compliance issues, management skills and more. To learn more about how ESI EAP can help, give us a call: 800-535-4841.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on January 5, 2013 at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

TED is a nonprofit devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading." It started in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Over the years, it has broadened its scope considerably. We've featured some great talks here on the blog, and will no doubt feature more. Recently, we discovered a new feature that allows for some fun browsing through the extensive collection of videos: curated playlists - selections either on a given theme or favorites selected by various thought leaders.

There are many to choose from, but here are a few playlists of interest:

Bill Gates: My 13 favorite talks

Steve Case: 10 unforgettable talks

Barbra Streisand: 8 must-see talks for women

Re-imagining school (11 talks)

The future of medicine (8 talks)

Making sense of too much data (9 talks)

Posted by Julie Ferguson on December 1, 2012 at 5:15 PM | Permalink

An Associate Professor of Cognitive Science and Communications at Cornell University, Jeff Hancock's research has focused on how people use deception and irony when communicating through cell phones and online platforms.

"On average, people tell one to two lies a day, and these lies range from the trivial to the more serious, including deception between friends and family, in the workplace, and in politics. At the same time, information and communication technologies have pervaded almost all aspects of human communication and interaction, from everyday technologies that support interpersonal interactions, such as email and instant messaging, to more sophisticated systems that support organizational interactions.

His idea: that while the impersonality of online interaction can encourage mild fibbing, the fact that it leaves a permanent record of verifiable facts actually keeps us on the straight and narrow."

Posted by Julie Ferguson on November 17, 2012 at 12:12 PM | Permalink

Here's a fun way to raise awareness for breast cancer and have fun doing it: The Pink Glove Dance Competition. Winners for 2012 haven't been selected yet, but you can review and cast your vote for favorites. You'll need to set aside some time - it looks like hundreds of healthcare organizations have submitted entries.

We've picked out three from past years that are energetic, fun, and contagious - and we love the way that the hospitals got so many employees from all parts of the organization involved. There's some real talent in evidence, but there's also a very endearing "real people" feel that makes them particularity fun and charming. We already loved healthcare workers and this just makes us love them more! Check out the rules - maybe your organization could do this next year!

Lexington Medical Center, West Columbia, South Carolina (This was last year's top prize winner)

Florida Hospital

Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon

Learn how ESI Employee Assistance Program can help address your employees' health - from a wellness benefits and help for everyday work-life matters to comprehensive assistance for a wide array of potentially disruptive issues and problems.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on October 19, 2012 at 3:33 PM | Permalink

"A fantastic model of collaboration: thinking partners who aren't echo chambers."

Margaret Heffernan's TED talk, Dare to Disagree, explores the idea that conflict avoidance can sometimes create blind spots that hinder progress. She illustrates how the best partners aren’t echo chambers -- and how great research teams, relationships and businesses allow people to deeply disagree.

According to her biography on the TED page, Margaret Heffernan is the former CEO of five businesses: "She began her career in television production, building a track record at the BBC before going on to run the film and television producer trade association, IPPA. In the United States, Heffernan became a serial entrepreneur and CEO in the wild early days of web business and was named one of the Internet's Top 100 by Silicon Alley Reporter in 1999."

Her book Willful Blindness has been called one of the best business books of 2011. You can follow more of her business thinking at her blog and her her websit, mheffernan.com.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on October 6, 2012 at 2:05 PM | Permalink

This World War II vintage clip was designed to instruct women about safe behavior as they joined the workforce to support the war effort. They are encouraged to leave jewelry and high heels at home, avoid the debutante slouch, and tuck loose locks into hairnets, turbans and snoods. It's a fun little time capsule offering a glimpse of how the work world has changed.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on August 24, 2012 at 3:34 PM | Permalink

Elyn Saks offers first-hand insight into schizophrenia from the vantage of the sufferer. Despite grappling with this through her lifetime, she is Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California School of Law. In 2007, she released her autobiography, The Center Cannot Hold, in which she reveals the depth of her own schizophrenia, now controlled by drugs and therapy. As a mental health law scholar and writer, she speaks for the rights and dignity of mentally ill people.

We've included two items about this courageous woman. Below is a 15 minute video, in which she shares her experience, and tells how the intercession of family, friends and colleagues have helped her to lead a productive and happy life. She credits three reasons: excellent treatment, the help and support of many close family members and friends who help her navigate her life in the face of symptoms, and an enormously supportive workplace. We also encourage you to listen to A Scholar's Memoir of Schizophrenia, a 20 minute interview with NPR. Both are invaluable in breaking down myths, giving hope to those with mental illness, and standing as compelling testimony for intervention, underscoring how essential it is for those of us who live and work with the mentally ill learn compassionate ways to help.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on July 22, 2012 at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This "humorous" instructional video offers a fascinating glimpse into the 1944 workplace. Note the way that women are portrayed - oh my!

Posted by Julie Ferguson on June 15, 2012 at 7:52 PM | Permalink

Shawn Achor is the winner of over a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University, where he delivered lectures on positive psychology in what was described as the most popular class at Harvard.

His research and lectures on happiness and human potential have received widespread media attention. He travels around the United States and Europe giving talks on positive psychology to Fortune 500 corporations, schools, and non-profit organizations.

He is currently CEO of Aspirant, a Cambridge-based consulting firm which conducts research to understand where human potential, success and happiness intersect. Based on his research and 12 years of experience at Harvard, he clearly and humorously describes to organizations how to increase happiness and meaning, raise success rates and profitability, and create positive transformations that ripple into more successful cultures.

In his entertaining and though provoking TEDxBloomington presentation, he says that most modern research focuses on the average, but that "if we focus on the average, we will remain merely average." He wants to study the positive outliers, and learn how not only to bring people up to the average, but to move the entire average up.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on February 11, 2012 at 4:17 PM | Permalink

The Employment (El Empleo) is a 6 minute animated clip by Argentinian animation studio Opusbou and director Santiago 'Bou' Grasso that has won more than 100 international awards. It offers quite a cynical but amusing view of the workplace!

Posted by Julie Ferguson on January 8, 2012 at 4:48 PM | Permalink

This is a though-provoking presentation by Dan Ariely, author of the bestseller Predictably Irrational. Ariely is a behavioral economist who holds a fascination with "how emotional states, moral codes and peer pressure affect our ability to make rational and often extremely important decisions in our daily lives." In this Ted Talk, he examines the hidden reasons we think it's OK to sometimes cheat or steal, illustrating it with experiments that he conducted.

If you liked this talk, visit Dan Ariely's Blog

Posted by Julie Ferguson on November 2, 2011 at 7:35 PM | Permalink

The Mummy Meets Human Resources...

Also: see Ray Villafane's awesome pumpkin gallery

It's not too late to remind your employees about safe driving on their way home tonight because a lot of little kids might be out and about right around commuting time. Why not send them a link to this: At-Home Safety: Brake for Ghosts and Goblins this Halloween

Posted by Julie Ferguson on October 31, 2011 at 10:49 AM | Permalink

Some people have more trouble adapting to change and new technologies than others. A few weeks ago, we brought you the Medieval Help Desk. On a similar theme, we the offer "Bronze Age Orientation Day."

When your organization introduces major changes, some of your employees will be early adopters and some will be laggards - see the Rogers Innovation Adoption Curve. Whether the changes are technological, organizational, or even a more simple change like a change in routine, some of your workers may struggle to adapt. This article offers some good principles for managing change in the workplace. (PDF)

Posted by Julie Ferguson on October 1, 2011 at 2:03 PM | Permalink

How would you spend the last hour of your life? Man in the Red Bandana is an excellent clip from ESPN commemorating the events of 9/11 by telling the inspiring story of a young man who led people to safety from one of the World Trade Center buildings 10 years ago. He was a former Boston College lacrosse player whose trademark was a red bandana.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on September 8, 2011 at 9:12 AM | Permalink

In light of Steve Jobs' resignation earlier this week, here's a highly inspirational and poignant video clip of Jobs speaking at the 2005 Stanford University commencement in an address entitled "How to Live Before You Die." He made the speech about a year after being diagnosed with cancer and after a surgery which gave him a new lease on life. Here's a transcript.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on August 28, 2011 at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Alain de Botton, renowned essayist, philosopher and founder of The School of Life, examines the nature and function of work. Most of our waking hours are spent at work, and yet we rarely challenge the basic assumptions that lie behind this time-consuming, life-altering activity. A thoughtful and entertaining talk - don't miss the part about HR Departments (from about 13:15 to about 17:00)

Posted by Julie Ferguson on August 5, 2011 at 7:02 AM | Permalink

In this his short, lighthearted talk, Google engineer Matt Cutts offers a new approach and a simple recipe for setting and achieving goals.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on July 17, 2011 at 2:30 PM | Permalink

This video clip is one of those must-shares. It's the heartwarming and sweet story of a remarkable group of kids who offer tremendous lessons in teamwork, sportsmanship, and the truly important things in life. That's the kind of team I want to be part of -- winners, every one of them!

l'equip petit from el cangrejo on Vimeo.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on June 27, 2011 at 2:23 PM | Permalink

Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down? At TED, he tells his story publicly for the first time.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on June 3, 2011 at 11:10 PM | Permalink

In hunting for something in the archives, we stumbled on this amusing video and thought it was just the perfect thing to revisit on a Friday the 13th. Relive all the reasons you wanted to get into the Human Resource in the first place!

Posted by Julie Ferguson on May 13, 2011 at 9:30 AM | Permalink

Caroline Casey has dedicated the past decade of her life to changing how global society views people with disabilities. In 2000, she rode 1,000 kilometers across India on an elephant to raise funds for Sight Savers. Then, as founding CEO of Kanchi in Dublin, she developed a set of best practices (based on ISO 9000 quality standards) for businesses, to help them see "disabled" workers as an asset as opposed to a liability. Hundreds of companies have adopted the standards, changing their policies and attitudes.

In 2004, Casey started the O2 Ability Awards to recognize Irish businesses for their inclusion of people with disabilities, both as employees and customers. The initiative has received international praise and, in 2010, a parallel program was launched in Spain.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on May 4, 2011 at 10:27 AM | Permalink

In his recent entertaining TED talk, author and New York Times columnist David Brooks talks about new insights into human nature from the cognitive sciences. He makes a case for why we need to pay more attention to and acknowledge our emotions, our instincts, and our intuitive life. This is in some contrast to the prevailing view of man as primarily a rational being. His ideas have implications for learning, for interpersonal relations, and for self-knowledge, as well as for the broader spheres of business, economics, and politics. It's an interesting perspective in terms of thinking about human motivation, and the whys, hows and whats of motivating people.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on April 3, 2011 at 12:19 PM | Permalink

Can you base a business model on happiness? Yes, according to successful CEO Chip Conley. Conley has written three books, including his most recent, PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, and is at work on two new ones, Emotional Equations and PEAK Leadership. He consults widely on transformative enterprises, corporate social responsibility and creative business development. He traveled to Bhutan last year to study its Gross National Happiness index, the country's unique method of measuring success and its citizens' quality of life.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on March 19, 2011 at 6:27 AM | Permalink

This year marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, and today is the start of a series of commemorative global events that will continue through the month. The UN Has identified this year's theme as: Equal access to education, training and science and technology."

The Division of Labor has issued a special statistical focus on Women At Work. It encompasses a lot of interesting data about working women - here are a few highlights:

• In 2009, 59 percent of working-age women in the United States were in the labor force. This percentage has increased from 43 percent four decades ago.
• By 2010, nearly 65 million women had jobs, and 53 percent of these women worked in the three industries that employed the most women: education and health services; trade, transportation, and utilities; and local government.
• The ratio of women's to men's earnings, for all occupations, was 81.2% in 2010. The ratio varies by occupation. In occupations such as personal financial advisors, retail salespersons, insurance sales agents, and lawyers, for example, the earnings ratios are lower than the overall ratio of women’s to men’s earnings. In occupations such as stock clerks and order fillers, bill and account collectors, and combined food preparation and serving workers, women earn more than men.

We thought it might be fun to take a look back and found a few clips that give an idea of just how far women have come over the last generation or two. If you are at or around boomer age, these clips may not be totally surprising, but they should be pretty mind blowing for anyone of younger generation! (Ladies, go home and thank your Moms and Aunts for paving the way to a more egalitarian landscape.)

The first clip is a training film from 1944 entitled "Supervising Women Workers" - obviously a special challenge!

In "The Trouble With Women," a clip from 1959, we see that a decade and a half didn't do much to enlighten male supervisors about how to deal with female workers.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on March 8, 2011 at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just after listing a crop of work-life blogs, we found a new Ted Talk on the topic. Nigel March, author of "Fat, Forty and Fired," offers his thoughts on Work-Life balance. He makes the case that balance is too important an issue to be left in the hands of your employer. March lays out an ideal day balanced between family time, personal time and productivity -- and offers some amusing and inspirational thoughts about why it's a worthy goal and how to get there.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on February 11, 2011 at 2:22 PM | Permalink

Temple Grandin is a remarkable person. Perhaps the world's most well-known adult with autism, she was recently named to the 2010 TIME 100, the magazine's annual list of the world's most influential. Grandin was diagnosed with autism as a child and her parents were told that she should be institutionalized. Fortunately, her parents did not listen because today, Grandin she is an American doctor of animal science, a consultant on animal behavior, an animal rights activist, a professor at Colorado State University, a bestselling author, and a noted speaker and author on the topic of autism.

This past year, she was a featured speaker at TED, presenting about how the world needs different kinds of minds. In her engaging presentation, she makes the case that "... the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids." It's elucidating both from the vantage of enlarging our understanding of autism specifically, and more generally, understanding how to motivate and work with different types of thinking.

More on Temple Grandin
Temple Grandin's Official Autism Website
Temple Grandin - Wikipedia
Dr. Temple Grandin's Livestock Behavior page
How does visual thinking work in the mind of a person with autism? A personal account
TIME: Temple Grandin on Temple Grandin

Posted by Julie Ferguson on November 20, 2010 at 4:17 PM | Permalink

Author Daniel Pink explores how motivation functions at home and at work. Last June, we ran an RSA animation on the topic which we repeat here. It runs just under 11 minutes. The second clip, which we recently discovered, is a video of the 40 minute talk that inspired the animation.

We also found a 2009 Ted Talk by Pink on "the suprising science of motivation. The blurb about the talk says "Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward." It's about an 18 minute talk and it generated quite a bit of discussion - 272 comments, many thought provoking. (These can be found under the video)

Posted by Julie Ferguson on November 4, 2010 at 5:54 PM | Permalink

Over the weekend, a few hundred thousand people turned out at a Washington DC rally to affirm the message that we can disagree without being disagreeable and that our opponents should not be demonized. They came armed with a sense of humor to send the serious message of a need for civility in our public discourse. It's a shame that this message has to be delivered by comedians rather than our leaders, but maybe the message of civility will be contagious. Civility and good humor are certainly a good themes for us all on election day eve, the culmination of a difficult political season. Campaigns have been highly charged and acrimonious and there are a lot of volatile issues at play: the economy, immigration, gay rights, and religion. For many, these are important and personal issues, so it's all too easy for discussions with opponents to escalate into anger and emotion.

Sue Shellenbarger of the Wall Street Journal talks about ups and downs of politics in the workplace in her column and also posts about ways the employers can help to keep the peace in pre-election politics on her blog.

A 2008 American Management Association survey on Political Discussion in the Workplace Survey revealed attitudes about politics as a topic of discussion:

"35 percent of respondents were uncomfortable talking politics with co-workers, while 19 percent were okay. And about 39 percent were not comfortable discussing their political views with their supervisor, while about 40 percent were. When it came to having written policies regarding prohibiting the distribution or posting of party of candidate material, about 39 percent said their company did, about 30 percent said their company didn’t and 31 percent didn’t know."

It's helpful to remember that this is not new territory. In the 2008 election, things were pretty heated as can be heard in NPR's segment with Amy Dickinson where callers discuss their experiences with politics on the job. In that election, we also posted about managing politics at work. And the roots of acrimony go back much further than 2008. While that is not a good defense, it's comforting to know that despite our differences and the heat of our rhetoric, we manage to move on and progress as a nation.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on November 1, 2010 at 2:46 PM | Permalink

After hitting on a brilliant new life plan, our first instinct is to tell someone, but Derek Sivers says it's better to keep goals secret. In a recent short TED talk, he explains why.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on October 12, 2010 at 10:30 AM | Permalink

October is a busy month for health awareness observances. We're highlighting two in particular.

First, we are right in the middle of Mental Illness Awareness Week, which runs from October 3-9m. It's sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which offers a vast library of resources on the various illnesses and support programs, along with many other tools and resources. In line with this, October 7 is National Depression Sreening Day.

Next, we call your attention to National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM). The NBCAM site is a partnership of national public service organizations, professional medical associations, and government agencies working together to promote breast cancer awareness, share information on the disease, and provide greater access to screening services. While the site documents activities around Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it is also a year-round resource for breast cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and the general public.

This is an opportune time to present one of our favorite video clips, which was performed by staff at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon to raise awareness for breast cancer.

Other health and wellness observances for the month include:
Domestic Violence Awareness Month
National Physical Therapy Month
Dental Hygiene Month
National Disability Employment Awareness Month
October 18-24 - National Drug-Free Work Week

Posted by Julie Ferguson on October 4, 2010 at 11:50 AM | Permalink

If you can relate to this amusing film by Patrick Biovin, you may need a new job. This 4 minute clip takes a dark but humorous look at organizational structures and politics. "Being efficient isn't enough; you have to be prepared for a PROMOTION..."

Posted by Julie Ferguson on October 1, 2010 at 1:12 PM | Permalink

As a follow-up to our last post, we found this great 9 minute animated video - Health Reform Hits Main Street - which was written and produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation to help explain the basics of healthcare reform. (Video transcript)

Posted by Julie Ferguson on September 28, 2010 at 7:36 AM | Permalink

The ways that businesses communicate with their employees and their customers and the channels that they use for communicating have undergone a seismic shift in the last decade. In the past, businesses could go to the top of the mountain and broadcast their messages by harnessing a variety of one-to-many communication channels: speeches, memos newsletters, PA systems, bulletin boards, management meetings, policy manuals, advertising, brochures, sales staff, etc. With the Internet and mobile technologies, all that has changed. Business are communicating on a new and dynamic playing field, one that is characterized by interactivity and collaboration...and - most disconcertingly for many - a loss of control.

Mashable has an excellent feature on How CEOs Will Use Social Media in the Future. The operative word here is apparently "future" since recent research by Forrester shows that none of the CEOs in Fortune 500's top 100 global corporations has a social media profile. In fact, according to Forrester Research’s CEO George Colony, this trend encompasses CEOs of tech companies, too: "Eric Schmidt of Google is an infrequent Twitterer and is not a blogger; Steve Ballmer at Microsoft has no blog and no Twitter account; Michael Dell is on Twitter but is not an external blogger … Steve Jobs of Apple, and Larry Ellison of Oracle have no Twitter, Facebook (Facebook), LinkedIn (LinkedIn), or blog presences that we could find."

That last bit of information is pretty startling. But as the widespread adoption of social networking continues apace, businesses are inevitably following (alas, not leading) their employees and customers and trying to engage them. How successfully they navigate these shifting sands is another matter.

In addition to the futuristic tone of the article linked above, Mashable also recently featured the article How CEOs Are Using Social Media for Real Results, which offer some success stories. Also see Anne Freedman's article on Leveraging Social Media in Human Resource Executive, which discusses how some HR managers are thinking of and using social media in their companies.

We recommend Mashable as a good resource to keep up to date on social media trends and news - particularly their business section. Plus, there are lots of "how to" articles, as well as tools and resources throughout the site - it has something for everyone from the veteran to the novice. Here are a few other business-oriented social media resources worth bookmarking:

Sharlyn Lauby on Mashable - HR pro turned consultant, her articles discuss strategies for businesses and HR professionals towork successfully with social media

5 Insightful TED Talks on Social Media

Social Media Glossary

Small business trends - social media category

15 Excellent Corporate Blogs to Learn From

Alltop HR News - an RSS headline news aggregator with feeds from many publications and blogs.

HR people and lists on Rwitter Listerious and from Twibe

Social Media Marketing Resources from MarketingProfs

Finally, this clip is now dated by about 8 months, but it's an engaging look at how social media is changing the landscape:

Posted by Julie Ferguson on September 6, 2010 at 2:22 PM | Permalink