From the New York Times…

A few years ago I got this note from a mother in my son’s class. “Hey, we both end our e-mails with ‘Carpe Diem’! Hope the parents in class won’t confuse us, ha-ha!” Naturally I thought she was kidding, and wrote back saying our different names might be a tip-off we were not the same person. “Oh, sure,” she said, “but I’ve used ‘Carpe Diem’ forever. People know me by that one. It would be great if you used something else from now on. Thanks!”

After briefly considering the alternative “Carpe Diem, You Control Freak,” I continued ending my notes as I had, and the mother dropped the issue. But it was the first time I realized how fraught that little epistolary goodbye can be.

Read the full article at NYtimes.com…

If people at your company had to opt-in to receive HR emails – if you couldn’t just SPAM the whole organization – would that change the way you communicate with employees?

How?

Most corporate communication emails from HR start off with something along the lines of, “The ability to effectively leverage human capital is our greatest asset.”

Here’s the thing: If your company really believes that, and does “effectively leverage human capital” (buzzword bingo, anyone), you don’t need to say it. Your employees already know.

And if you don’t? Well, your employees know that, too. And saying it doesn’t make true.

Keep reading…

This is part of a multi-article series on the book Made to Stick.

Photo by Paul L. Nettles

Last week, we talked about how you can use surprise to get people’s attention. But how do you keep their attention once you get it?

Today, we’re going to talk about another emotion: curiosity.

Keep reading…

This is part of a multi-article series on the book Made to Stick.

Photo by caribb

If you’ve ever been on a plane, you’re familiar with the safety announcement that flight attendants are required to make before the plane takes off. And if you’re like most people, you probably tune the flight attendant out. The information is pretty important, but no one cares.

What if you were asked to make the safety announcement? And what if you actually needed people to listen to you? What would you do?

Keep reading…

This is part of a multi-article series on the book Made to Stick.

Herb Kelleher, the longest-serving CEO of Southwest, once told someone, “I can teach you the secret to running this airline in thirty seconds. This is it: We are THE low-fare airline. Once you understand that fact, you can make any decision about this company’s future as well as I can.”¹

Keep reading…

I have a guest post up on Know HR this morning – Seven things marketing can teach you about HR. Here’s a quick teaser:

1. It’s a lot easier to market a great product. Rather than pushing a crappy HR program on people, make the program so awesome, so helpful to people, that they not only want to use it – they even tell a friend!

Check out the other six (and subscribe, if you’re not already) at KnowHR. Special thanks to Frank Roche for letting me post on his site!