CE#684: Into the Ocean – Andy McKee –

CE# 683: Lewis & Clark – Tommy Emmanuel –

CE#682: It’s Just Talk – Pat Metheny Group –

CE#681: The Evolution of an Organization (OrgOrgChart)

CE#680: Three Reasons Performance Management will Change in 2013 (Forbes)

Technology HAS CHANGED

We’re reaching a tipping point for technology in the talent management arena. It began with simple automation: take the paper processes and put them on a computer. Fine, but that left us with so many spreadsheets, Word templates, proprietary systems and disconnected point solutions that we were drowning in complexity and data overload. It also highlighted that many of the processes we were automating actually needed to be revised, simplified or eliminated altogether.

Baffled by the complexity we created, focus in recent years has been on process simplification, user-friendliness and redirecting attention to what actually matters. A good step forward, but we still suffer from too much data, too little meaningful information.

The “big data & analytics movement” has now really raised the bar – not just in terms of what data can be gathered, aggregated and analyzed but also how it is filtered and presented to audiences to provide immediate management insights. Activity lists are being replaced by composite dashboards, lengthy reports by simple performance heat maps – yes, pictures, literally replacing thousands of words.

Key Change for High Performance?

A shift in focus from process to outcomes. Burn the forms. With technology finally up to the task of producing meaningful information, managers can turn their attention to driving performance outcomes rather than being bogged down in laborious processes.

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CE#679: What makes a hero? (TED-Education)

CE#678: 5 Eye-Opening Stats That Show The World Is Going Mobile (Forbes)

LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 21: A child plays with an iPad and the apptivity app at Westfield shopping Centre on August 21, 2012 in London, England. The new app from toy maker Mattel allows children use Hot Wheels, Batman, WWE and other toys to interact with an Apple iPad. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

You can see it in the glow of thousands of tiny white dots at a concert, or that ubiquitous, glazed expression pedestrians get when they stare into a phone on the sidewalk. There’s no denying that more of us are using mobile devices, and that it’s changing the way we not only communicate, but live.

In case you wanted more proof, take a look at the latest presentation by respected venture capitalist Mary Meeker entitled “Internet Trends,” which has a major focus on smartphones and tablets. Meeker has long said that mobile devices point us towards our digital future, one that’s “light on assets” because entire concepts about ownership will change, and her presentation last night at Stanford University gave some figures to show how that was already happening.

Here were Meeker’s top 5, eye-opening stats:

1) Nearly half of all American kids want an iPad for Christmas.  

According to research by Nielson, 48% of American children aged between 6 and 12 want Apple‘s iPad for Christmas, making it the most wished-for gift among the next generation of trend setters. In second place comes the Nintendo Wii U, and another 36% want the iPad Mini, followed by the iPod Touch and iPhone in fourth and fifth place. Sure kids still want a fixed games console, but it’s telling that a large proportion of them prefer the mobility of small devices that they can interact with, and take anywhere.

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CE#677: McKinsey Predicts The War For Talent Will Go Nuts By 2020 (Business Insider)

Despite all the talk from Peter Thiel and others about how college is a poor investment, a new study from McKinsey finds that one of the biggest employment trends in coming decades will be a shortage of high-skill, college-educated workers for all advanced economies.

An intensifying global war for talent means that there will be as much as an 18 million worker shortfall in the world’s richest countries. They’ll be producing too few of the workers businesses really need, and too many with only high school or vocational training.

Here’s McKinsey’s breakdown of future demand and supply trends for workers:

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CE#676: First Circle – Pat Metheney

CE#675: Solipsist-Kaki King