Let’s Play Two!

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Baseball great Ernie Banks coined the phrase, “Let’s play two!” When a doubleheader was coming up he would say something like, “It’s a great day for a ballgame, let’s play two!”

Ernie obviously loved playing the game of baseball.

It’s a great attitude to have with anything you do in life as well. It’s all about attitude, right? I mean, how often do you think about something you have to do in life and you want to double it, as your first thought!?!

“Oh boy, a file audit, let’s do it twice!”

“Teeth cleaning!? You bet, let’s clean them twice!”

“Mowing the lawn? Love it! I’m cutting that baby two times today!”

For me, it’s a great measure of whether you actually love what you’re doing. You can silently look at any aspect of your day, your job, etc. and think, not, ‘do I want to do this twice”, but “I get to do this twice, yes!”

I love recruiting, but do I want to recruit for the same position twice!?! Well, depends on why I’m recruiting for the position twice. If I lost a candidate who was supposed to fill it, that never feels great, but if it’s to fill a second position, then heck yeah!

This is all about the attitude you take to your craft. Ernie loved what he did so much, he thought it was a good idea to “play two”. Of course, Ernie was playing a game, but we know plenty of folks who play a game for money, who end up hating to play that game. We know plenty of people who work and love their jobs, and plenty who work and hate their jobs. Same jobs. Very different attitudes.

Often the real difference between a great performer and a weak performer is simply their attitude towards the work they have chosen to do.

Is Someone In Your Organization Hoarding Top Talent?

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#3 of HR’s Biggest Lies – Mr. Smith in our West Region is hoarding talent and won’t allow them to move to other regions/departments/etc.   Why is this the #3 biggest lie?  Because I haven’t come up with the other ones yet and three seemed like a good middle number to start with.  I could have also called it HR’s biggest excuse for not doing their job, but lie seems more appropriate because that’s really what it is.

Here’s why saying your leaders are hoarding talent is a lie, because it’s not their job to workforce plan for the organization, it’s yours!

I’ve met some great leaders, who were great at one of two things, either: 1. selecting great talent or 2. developing great talent.  I’ve never met a great leader who was good at giving up great talent.  I’ve also never sat in front of a leader in any of the companies I’ve worked for and had a leader look me in the eye and say, “No, you can’t have that person.” Wait! I take that back I have had that happen, once.

Here’s how that conversation went:

Mr. Leader: “Hi Tim, nice to see you again. Something must be wrong for HR to come all the way out here to see me!”

Mr. Tim: “Mr. Lead, nothing’s wrong at all. I even left Grim Reaper cape and scythe at home this trip!”

Mr. Leader: “So, what is our pleasure of having you visit?”

Mr. Tim: “Mr. Lead, we need to talk, Ms. Lead back East is in need of a regional director and you have a regional manager who is ranked #1 in the company and I want to offer them the east regional director job.”

Mr. Lead: “Tim, that can’t happen. That manager has family here, says he’ll never leave, just found out his dog has cancer, his wife is prego and he has a rare disease that won’t allow him to travel past the Mississippi!”

Mr. Tim: “Wow, I had no idea that YOU were holding him back so much!”

Mr. Lead: “Sackett (now he’s getting serious) I don’t have anyone who can take his spot!”  BOOM! Now we are getting somewhere, this is really what holds back any leader from wanting to give up talent.

Now as an HR Pro there are exactly two ways you can take this conversation from here, yes, only two. if you still want to get your person:

#1 – Trust – If you have a relationship with the person (which you should) then you have to get them to trust that you will not leave them on an island with no talent and you will “personally” make your life’s goal to find the replacement that is better than who they had before.  And, you better make it happen.  I prefer this option.

#2 – Muscle – This will work with a relationship or not, but it goes a little something like this, “Mr. Lead, I have a meeting when I return to corporate with Mrs. COO and we are going to talk about our regional leaders and who is producing talent for the organization.  As you know Mrs. COO values those leaders who are adding talent to the organization and is critical of those leaders who are always taking talent.  This would put you in a very good light, don’t you think?”  Done. The message was sent, you’ll get your person and Mr. Lead won’t feel good about it, but you gave him away to spin this to his organization as a positive to the company.

HR TIP ALERT: When you get back to corporate have Mrs. COO call Mr. Lead and thank him. You’ll be amazed at how far that will take you the next time you need to have that conversation.

Thank me later, folks!

“My” Company vs. “Our” Company

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I was listening to some of my recruiters talk to candidates the other day. I like to do that from time to time. You learn a lot about your team, your jobs, your hiring managers, your engagement levels.

One of the things I overheard was something like, “I’m going to tell you about the benefits that “MY” company offers”. There was another conversation where someone used “our”, “I’m going to tell you about the benefits that “OUR” company offers”.

It seems like a small difference, right? Both positive, for sure.

I will tell you, as a leader, “my company” brings me to tears. The one thing I consistently hear from senior executives is “I can get my team to care about this company the same way I do”. It’s a very common issue that comes up all the time. How do we get employees to take ownership when they don’t have ‘real’ ownership?

It’s a cop-out and too easy to say, “oh, just give them some real ownership”! Having an employee-owned company isn’t simple or easy, it’s very complex.

Using “My company,”, says to me that this employee is 100% in. Onboard. Wearing the logo! Reppin the gear! It’s not that saying, “our company” doesn’t say that, but “my company” definitely says that!

It’s similar to when you hire a new employee from a competitor and it takes some time to get them away from “we” vs. “them” vs. “you guys”, etc. “So, I know ‘you guys’ do it this way…” Oh, you mean, “us guys”, right!? You’re now on the team. You’re not a ‘them’, you are a ‘we’!

Sometimes some of the biggest changes we make to culture are simple changes in our own language, and what those changes end up meaning to all those stakeholders in an organization.

Who are the best companies to work for? And why?

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I don’t put much stock into “Best Company to Work For” lists. That said, the data provided by Universum in there World’s Most Attractive Employer Report is pretty cool and gives you some insight on how you can help move your organization in the right direction.

What’s wrong with the best places to work lists?

  1. It only measures those employers who actually do the work to be considered for the list.
  2. It’s based on data that someone, other than yourself, decided was criteria for being a great place to work. And that might not align with what your org considers to be a great place to work, or the talent you market to, etc.

All that being said, I find that organizations, every single one who tries out for these lists, probably care about their employee and candidate experience at a pretty high level. Are they really the ‘best’ place to work? I don’t know, but they’re trying and that’s more than most of us can say!

So, who are they?

So, you can already see the bias, right? Tech, Business services, big brands. There isn’t one company on the list you haven’t heard of. Doesn’t that seem strange? You mean in the top 50 companies in the WORLD, there isn’t one company we haven’t heard of who is just great? Well, it’s the “World’s 50 Most Attractive”, so the one thing about being “attractive” is you’re probably known, when it comes to lists like these.

What makes you an “Attractive” employer? 

1. The ability to have high future earnings (you can make a lot of money) – 49.1%

2. You’ll get professional training and development – 43.8%

3. The job is secure (you won’t get laid off) – 39.1%

4. Working for this brand will help your career in the future – 38.8%

5. You have the ability to be creative – 38.7%

6. The company is successful within the market they compete in – 38.5%

7. The company encourages you to go home once in a while – 38.2%

8. You like the people you work with – 38.2%

9. You have leaders who support and they know how to develop talent – 38%

10. Competitive base salary – 37.6%

Anything pop out at you from the list?

What about #1 and #10? Oh, so, really base salary doesn’t mean anything, as long as I make a lot of money from what I’m doing!?! Turns out we release research and data for a reason. If you’re trying to sell employer branding software, it’s important for employers to understand it’s not about how much you pay because at that point you don’t need a brand, you need to pay the most.

But, it’s not what this data says. Like all modern research around this topic, what you make, is significantly more important than things like ‘being developed” and having “challenging work”. The person has to know and understand that financially this will work out very well for me, and then, all the other stuff becomes important once that question is satisfied.

You can not act like the most important thing on the list (#1 – High Future Earnings) is really that different than the last thing on the list (#10- competitive base salary). Those things are married at the hip if we have any inkling about basic compensation theory on where someone starts their career in base salary vs. the impact that has on future earnings, in the millions of dollars, going forward.

Let’s face it, as an employer you want to be able to deliver each of the ten things on the list in a really good way. If you do, you will not have trouble attracting talent or keeping your best talent.

What Sesame Street Character are You in Your Organization?

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Sesame Street begins its 50th season on November 9th and it really got me thinking about the lessons and characters I grew up with watching this iconic show.  As I thought about it, I began to connect people in my own organization and how Sesame Street is really just a snapshot of our own professional lives.

So, here’s my Sesame Street view of Corporate America:

CEO = Big Bird – this was actually a tough one to select because Big Bird isn’t the leader we think of when we think of iconic leaders, but in the end, Big Bird is Sesame Street, just like Steve Jobs is Apple.

COO = Bert – He was always the conservative one, who was trying to get things done, while Ernie was trying to have a good time.

CFO = Count von Count – the Count was probably the easiest choice of all!

CHRO = Ernie – this was by far the most controversial selection. I could have gone with Oscar (boy my operation partners would agree with that! But, to me Ernie was the perfect partner for Bert (our COO). So to make the perfect marriage with Operations and HR, I decided on Ernie.  Influence goes a long way with a CHRO, and Ernie has tons of influence with Bert!

CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) = Aloysius Snuffleupagus (Snuffy) Think about it, who did Big Bird always go to for advice? Oscar was also a potential for this one.

VP of Sales = Cookie Monster – You need someone who is internally motivated, and my boy Cookie is a self-directed monster when it comes to getting cookies. I’m sure he’ll be the same way in bringing in sales!

Executive Admin to CEO = Oscar the Grouch – I really don’t blame them for being grouchy, they have a tough job. So many people want a piece of the CEO’s time, and it is their job to control the crowd but they are still grouchy! (secondary choice? Head of Payroll!)

Head of Legal = Telly – Ok, for those who can’t remember, Telly the Monster is the one who was always worrying.  So this fits.

And it gets tougher! I still have two Iconic Sesame Street Characters to decide on, Elmo and Grover…

CIO = Grover – Shy, but confident. Grover went about doing his business kind of in the background.  No need to be noticed, just getting things done and sometimes making a mess of things, just as we are getting comfortable, and that’s how I like my IT people as well!

Ah, Elmo, what can we do with our little carefree, energetic, naïve red monster?

Head of R&D = Elmo – He is probably the most inquisitive of all the Sesame Street characters and is always trying to learn.  So, tickle me silly, Elmo is leading our R&D department (Mr. Noodle was also in the running, but he’s a real person so I passed).

Throughout 50 years, Sesame Street has brought us a ton of characters, so I’m sure I missed a few. Send a comment if I missed one of your favorites or got one wrong in your mind.

 

Wanted: Blunt Roller ($40-50K salary, plus benefits)

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In case you didn’t see the job posting by Snoop Dogg, on his staff (yes, giant mogul rapper/entertainers have staffs) he has a person whose sole job is to role blunts (for the Baby Boomers in the crowd – a blunt is joint, a marijuana cigarette, if you will). What’s the quote? Do a job you love and you’ll never work another day in your life.

From the article:

“If you’re great at something I need, I’m hiring you,” said Snoop.

The gentlemen staffer in question is allowed as much marijuana as he would like, travels with Snoop, has all his expenses paid, and gets free swag whenever his boss receives it. In exchange, he keeps a well-organized box full of impeccably rolled blunts and waits for his services to be required.

“Motherf*cker like Lurch from the Addams Family. ‘You rang?’”  said Snoop, who might have had the Addams on his mind since contributing the song “My Family” to the new movie.

Why is Snoop Dogg successful?

Oh, well it must be his talent. There’s a ton of folks in the music game more talented than Snoop. Don’t get me wrong, he’s massively talented, but did you catch the first line from the article? “If you’re great at something I need, I’m hiring you”.

Now you and I, and many others might not need a blunt. Snoop has made it pretty clear he smokes like every day, multiple times a day, and he’s decided a great blunt is something he needs, so he’s hired a dude who’s great at what he does. Successful people in life surround themselves with people who are successful at what they do, period.

It makes me start to wonder who I need to surround myself with if I want to be more successful? I’m don’t smoke blunts so I don’t need this position, and I don’t question compensation value Snoop put on this role. We all value things differently. Here are some roles I would like to hire for in my personal life:

  1. Handy Person – I suck at most things related to anything handy around the house. Hanging pictures? F’ing hate it! Fixing a dripping faucet? No idea. Chaulk coming away from that thingy, in the thingy? Um, what? I need a person to take care of all of my crap that I don’t know how to take care of. It’s not a full-time gig, but I think it could be a kind of job share program. Clean the outside and inside of my car? That job sucks. I know a bunch of dudes and gals like me who need this service and I could probably fill 8 hours per week, $30-40/hr.
  2. diet Dew on-call – Like Snoop, we all have our addictions. I don’t drink coffee, but I’m addicted to caffeine. If I was wealthy like my guy, Snoop, I would have a person on staff to ensure when I need a fix, that fix would be there!
  3. Masseuse – Nothing is better and more relaxing than a full body massage. I would do it daily if I could.

I don’t need a personal shopper or cook. I actually like doing that stuff. My wife keeps an immaculate house, so if she wants someone to come in, I’m all for it, but I don’t think we would ever find someone to her standards. An in-house dog sitter might be a possibility to make it easier on travel. Scout is so needy!

Who would you hire for yourself if you could? Hit me in the comments – no judgment!

7 Things to Never Say When Asking for a Raise…But You Always Wanted To!

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Columnist, Jeff Haden, wrote an article called “Ten Things You Should Never Say When Firing an Employee“  in which he tries to give good advice, in typical HR fashion of over-reducing risk, in how you should speak, or not speak, to an individual regarding their near termination.  As you can imagine, there were the classics:

  • “Look, this is really hard on “me”!”
  • “We’ve decided to make a change.”
  • “Compared to Mary, you just aren’t cutting it.”
  • If there is anything I can do for you, just let me know.” (Okay, how about giving me my job back, idiot!)

 

Among a few others, including the most recent classic of firing employees via email, which is just unimaginable, for those HR pros who struggle with conflict, Haden nailed pretty much all the normal things we would tell hiring managers not to do or say. The question then really comes down to thanks for the info, now what should I be saying to someone when I fire them?  The article probably would have been better served here – but that would have been difficult and thought-provoking – and taken more than 13 minutes to write.

The piece did get me to thinking about certain conversations in our work lives that cost people the most anxiety, besides the above example of having to terminate someone, having to go in and ask for money was, on my list, the next most anxious work conversation I could come up with.  I can think of many times that I wanted more money, though I was deserving through results to get more money, and heck even our good old Comp people said the market should be paying me more money, and still, it is a difficult conversation to have with your superior (at least for me).

Like many, I think I do a good job, give my best effort, produce great results and after all that, do I really need to ask? Shouldn’t my boss get it and just want to write me a blank check? I mean really!

So, here are the lines that you would like to say when asking for more money – but probably shouldn’t – if you really want more money:

1. “If you pay 10% more, I will really put in some extra effort!” – So what you’re saying is you’re not putting in extra effort now…

 

2. “I looked in our HRIS system and I know Sheila on the 5th floor is making $5000 more than I am – and she’s an idiot!” – Not the best strategy to look at others’ private comp information, even if you have access, then call them an idiot – at least in my experience…

 

3. “If you don’t pay me more money, I’ll be forced to find another job that will pay me what I worth” – Be careful, I’ve tried this one, and they might call your bluff!

 

4. “I’ve done the math and if you fire Mike, I can do his job and mine, you save $50K, after giving me $25K of his $75K salary” – This actually might be a really good idea, But Mike might be the last one standing with the $25K raise, not you!

 

5. “I really don’t understand how you can be worth $50K more than me, I do all your work – and deserve more money” – Bosses just love to hear they are overpaid, don’t do anything, and you can do their job – NOT!

 

6. “I saved the company $1 million in reducing recruiting fees, by implementing a social media strategy successfully, I should at least get a fraction of those savings” – Why, yes you should – if you were in sales, but you’re in HR, and this was part of your job description. Sorry for the wake up call – all employees aren’t treated equally – put on a helmet.

 

7. “I know times are tough, so I was thinking instead of more money you could give me an extra weeks vacation or pay for my health insurance or something else like that.” – Okay, Einstein, stop thinking – it’s all money. Vacation, health insurance, paid parking, lunch money – it all hits the bottom line on the income statement. You just showed how expendable you really are.

 

I’ve learned over the years, through trial and error, okay, mostly error, that many, if not all, of the above statements, just don’t seem to have the impact that I was hoping for with my supervisor.  I have seen others, who I will not name, who performed well, gave it their all, and were dedicated to doing their best for themselves, their co-workers and the company, and showed a little patience who actually did very well in both the raise and promotion category.

Supervisors are as uncomfortable as you are to have the compensation conversation mainly, because if you are as good as you profess to be then they really do want to give you more but probably can’t due to the budget, the economy, they like your co-worker even more, etc. The reality is you have to follow what Yoda would say – Patience my young Padawan…

In Attracting Great Talent, What’s More Important: Employment Branding or Recruitment Marketing?

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Like most stuff I write, I try to break down things in HR and TA that we make way more complicated than it really is. We’re just hiring people, and trying to get the most out of our employees that we can. We aren’t launching the space shuttle or performing brain surgery. This stuff really isn’t that complicated.

I asked some of the most brilliant minds in the space and they gave some great advice, tips, and tricks. Some started to get deep into the weeds, but most gave ideas that were simple in nature to execute. There was basically one theme for each function, employment branding, and recruitment marketing:

Employment Branding at its core is your organization just telling your stories to candidates. 

Not made-up stories of what you want people to think about you, but your real employee stories. Simple, straightforward, this is who we are and why we love who we are. Some will love you, some will not. The best EB does just that, allows people to choose, so they don’t make a bad cultural fit choice.

Recruitment Marketing at its core is ensuring your stories get in front of candidates in a way and time they would like to consume those stories. 

So, it’s less “We’re a great company to work for!”, because everyone says they’re a great company to work for. No one says, “Hey, we’re a better than average company to work for!” Even though, that’s probably the real truth.

There is a piece of this, though, that I think the true employment branding experts are missing.

As consumers, we are all mostly dumb. A company tells us they have the best most reliable cars and then they tell us this over and over a million times, and we believe that those cars are the best and most reliable. We actually don’t do any research to find out if these cars are actually the best and most reliable. We got ‘marketed’ to.

Recruitment marketing can work in the exact same way. Put enough content out saying you’re the employer of choice, and people will recognize you as an employer of choice. The reality is the difference between a ‘true’ employer of choice, and an organization that is not an employer of choice is pretty small. Small, like, most people wouldn’t see any differences.

Most employers are stuck in the middle of delivering a fairly stripped-down basic employee experience. We all offer basically the same thing for all candidates. Thus, there’s a great opportunity for marketing to tell people we ‘actually’ offer a ‘better’ experience. Say it enough times and people will believe it.

I know my EB expert friends will say this isn’t being transparent and once the candidates get hired they’ll realize it’s not an exceptional experience. But, this is also mostly bullshit. Most people don’t realize it. They’ll get hired. They’ll go to work. They’ll be super excited about the new job. They’ll post a pic on IG. Life continues. One day, three years from now, they’ll wake up and think nothing. They won’t think either way about your company from the last company.

There are like 3 actual companies that offer up this ‘unicorn’ level employee experience that can actually match your brand. The reality of employment branding is far less sexy and fun than we make it out to be. Our stories are uniquely our own, and yet, very similar to those stories of every other employer.

I love your stories, but don’t discount the power of marketing will have on candidate behavior.

What I learned at Workday Rising 2019! #wdayrising

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I love HR Technology. You all know that. So, I was super excited to get invited to Workday Rising since it’s arguably the hottest HR Tech company on the planet, and quite frankly, in the past, they really haven’t engaged the influencer community much, and probably didn’t need to with all of their success.

I’m interested because Workday is disrupting the HR Tech world in a major way, and really the entire ERP landscape. It seems like every single day I speak to a CHRO or CPO who has made the switch to Workday or are in the process of getting ready to make the switch. Currently, they have about half of the Fortune 100, and if you have 2000 employees and above there is a good chance your CFO, CIO, and, we hope, the CHRO are in discussions on whether they should be looking at Workday as their core system.

I came to Workday Rising on a mission. I hear from Workday Recruiting users mostly and many looking for help on how to make it work better for their organizations. I’m not a Workday Recruiting expert, in fact, until this week I never saw the product. I was just hearing stories from those using it and implementing it. So, everything I had was out of context. Getting that context this week certainly helps me understand where Workday is and where they are going with a number of their products and technologies.

So, what did I learn at Workday Rising? 

– Workday sells the “Power of One” really heavily and I never really bought into the pitch, but when you dig into the core tech side of it, it’s certainly compelling based on how organizations should be and will be using data in the future to be more competitive and better performing. And the plans that Workday has using Machine Learning across their platform moving forward. Other enterprise HCMs will struggle to compete with Workday’s capabilities in this area.

– Workday Recruiting – is a core HCM job requisition system. It was launched five years ago and they are building out features as fast as they can. Workday Recruiting doesn’t try and see itself, at this moment, as an end to end recruiting platform. It’s a large enterprise applicant tracking system built for enterprise-level hiring and compliance on a global scale. That isn’t easy to pull off at scale. They have invested in some great add-on technologies to build out your TA tech stack, like Beamery (CRM-Recruitment Marketing), Mya (recruiting chatbot, AI, automation), and Pymetrics (talent matching AI), all of which by the way are top Best of Breed TA Technologies.

– The Workday Recruiting pain point with many clients has been lack of LinkedIn integration and I got to see what Workday will be launching soon around their LinkedIn integration and it’s impressive, and current Workday Recruiting users who are also heavy LinkedIn users will be excited for this.

– Maybe the miss, from my conversations with current and upcoming Workday Recruiting clients, is these clients believing they’ll just use Workday Recruiting for recruiting and won’t have to build out the rest of their TA tech stack. You will and you should, especially if you need to do a higher amount of external recruiting. I still believe “we” (me, you, Workday, etc.) can build out some great tech stacks around Workday Recruiting that will rock. That’s a goal of mine! (Sackett Stacks!)

– Workday Talent Marketplace is impressive. The reality is in large organizations is that you have 3-4 main buckets of hires: 40-60% will come internally; 20-40% will come from referrals; 10-20% will come from external recruiting; 1-10% will come from your contingent workforce (contractors, temps, consultants, etc.). That means internal hiring and mobility is truly your most important type of hiring the larger you are, and it’s what younger generations are demanding from employers of choice. Workday’s Talent Marketplace is a better internal hiring experience than you’ll find in any other tech on the market.

– I tend to judge HR and TA Technology on their leadership, mostly. Do I believe the leadership at all levels, executive, technology, product, sales, etc. have the capability to pull this off? I’ll start with the Workday Talent Optimization and Recruiting product folks because after spending some time with these teams they are loaded with talented folks who ‘get it’. While you might want changes and updates faster, this isn’t some best of breed SMB technology that can just whip out features on a daily basis. Enterprise-level buyers and users have different needs on so many levels that it takes time to build and test before launching out globally and ensuring it works at scale.

– I met a ton of enterprise clients using Workday Recruiting that were very happy with the product and the direction and the consistent deliverables of the roadmap for the Recruiting product. They are also understanding that this power of one platform across the organization is important for the future of what they want to do in establishing systems that will deliver a better overall employee experience. I actually thought I would show up and hear bitching, and honestly, I didn’t. I heard way more excitement over the new stuff and a customer base that feels like they are being heard and an understanding that there’s a bigger picture to enterprise ERP than just core HCM or Recruiting, or payroll.

– The CEO of Workday, Aneel Bhusri, and his leadership team, especially their technology team, really have a strong grasp of where they are going with the platform into the future. You get the feeling from them, almost like parents with kids about Santa Claus, like they know something the rest of us don’t, in a good way. They are confident their direction will not only be successful for Workday, but ultimately for their clients, and you can’t doubt it with their growth. They are pushing the Machine Learning around their data really heavily and I think they’ll be an industry leader their very soon based on the tech they’ve built across the platform.

So, Did I sell out to Workday?

I know some folks in the industry are going to read this and think that. I will say I’ve been super consistent over the past five years writing about my learnings in HR and TA Technology that I will tell you what I like about a product and then encourage you to go demo and make your own conclusions. I’ve been super consistent in writing on this blog to help others in our community understand all of this a bit more easily.

I’m not an HR and TA Technology hater, I’m an HR and TA Technology geek! Can Workday get better at certain things? Yep. Does Workday have an understanding they need to get better at certain things? Yep. Is Workday going to be all things for all people? No, and they don’t want to, which is part of their strength. They know exactly who they are and who they want to become.

I was asked to come to Workday Rising as an “Influencer”. They put no constraints on me on what I could say on social media or write on my blog. They took a risk and I want to thank the team for trusting me enough to let me in on the inside and giving me such great access to your leadership teams and product teams.

These were just some of the highlights from my own lense of interest, there is really so much more I could share about some other really cool stuff Workday is doing. Here are some links on some of the other stuff that is worth reading:

Workday Extends Technology Leadership With Innovations for the Changing World of HR

Machine Learning Across Workday Products: Delivering Business Value to Customers

Workday People Experience: An Advantage in the Changing World of Work

Advice We Need, but It’s Super Hard to Take! #wdayrising @Lin_Manuel

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I’m out at Workday Rising this week in Orlando and yesterday I got the pleasure of listening to Lin-Manuel Miranda speak for the morning keynote. For those who follow me socially, I’ve seen Hamilton the musical four times (almost a 5th, but I got swindled!). So, I’m a bit of a super fan! Hamilton tickets aren’t cheap, it’s an investment to be a fan!

Miranda’s first big break was one he created himself when he wrote his first musical called “In the Heights“. Lin-Manuel is a Puerto Rican-American and in musical theater, there were basically almost zero rolls, so if he wanted to do musical theater he felt he needed to write his own role, so he did.  It was successful, which led to other opportunities and to him being able to develop Hamilton.

The advice so many of us need, but it’s super hard to accept is that many times to be successful, or chance your dreams, you have to create your own opportunities to make that happen.

Especially, if you don’t have the same privilege as others trying to do what you’re doing. My mom started her own company because she was sick of outperforming dudes in the same company and not getting the recognition. Miranda wrote his own roles, not thinking it would be ‘broadway’ successful, but that it was something he could perform locally and show people his abilities and that would lead him on his path.

It would be easy to say he was lucky with In the Heights, but it’s not really luck, he’s truly a genius when it comes to musical theater. He created his own luck by putting in years of work creating something that was perfect for him. It’s a great reminder for any of us who are feeling that there just isn’t the ‘perfect’ opportunity for you in the world.

My favorite quotes and ideas from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s keynote:

  • He came out on stage at a giant technology conference and said, “I feel like I’m launching Windows 95!” which drew huge laughter from the crowd.
  • When asked if he accepted the offer to do the Mary Poppins movie immediately he said, “NO! I had to go ask my wife!” And explained when you have a partnership you have to discuss these types of things because it has a huge impact on the other person, on your life, even if it’s a dream come true. (he seems super grounded!)
  • Hamilton musical stuff:
    • Burr came from a privileged background, a famous grandfather, father was the president of Princeton, he had so much to lose by saying or doing the wrong thing, and this shaped his decision making. Hamilton came from nothing and had nothing to lose. This clearly shaped his behavior and decisions and gave his enemies much to use against him, but he had nothing to lose, in the beginning. Imagine if we all went through life as if we had nothing to lose? What could we accomplish?
    • When you get criticism, and Lin-Manuel as an artist gets a lot of it, it’s important to understand the point of view from where it’s coming. Then, you can make the decision, do I accept that and change, or do I go back and try to change them.
    • “The best idea always wins” – Miranda talking about his writing and production process with his team.
    • “The teller changes the story” – Each person who tells a story will change it slightly based on their perspective. In HR we see this all the time as we get multiple sides of issues in our environments.
    • The interview asked Hamilton how he decided to use all minorities in the cast of Hamilton. He said if I made a hip hop founding father story and used all white dudes, you would have thought I messed up! We do Shakespeare and we constantly change the characters to whatever and it’s accepted, why can’t we do that with the founding fathers? It doesn’t change the story.
    • How did he come up with doing a Hip Hop version of the founding fathers? Hamilton’s story is a perfect hip hop/rap story. He came from nothing. Had huge bravado. Rose up to be powerful and wealthy. Got into a gun battle. Sounds like hip hop!

More to come tomorrow on my breakdown of Workday Rising specifically! But I had to write about Lin-Manual Miranda!