#6Things: Zombie Unicorns, Passive Aggressive Emails and Diversity is #Pants

All my diversity is in my pants

So this panel on gender diversity posted by Jennifer Candee brought something troubling to light. The fact that a panel full of male leaders were inviting women to a discussion around gender diversity. To be fair, the very pink flyer did state that it was for the men to speak so I guess I don’t know why we’re surprised but I think Heather said it best:

“There is no question that everyone should be part of the discussion on diversity. But they undermine their credibility by having a panel that is all male. If a company is truly committed to diversity and inclusion, it needs to walk it’s talk in both practice and appearance.

The most important thing about equality is that we are not all the same. There is no way to truly understand bias and discrimination unless you have experienced it. And when you have experienced it, it’s easy to spot the people who have great intentions but are full of . . . (let’s go with) platitudes.” (Facebook)

Want a productive team? Survey says…

Google spent a bunch of time and a bunch of money to learn what your momma could have told you (and did). In the short term, it’s “be nice”, but really what they said is that “psychological safety” is what builds a solid team and that, my friends, is applied practically like this:

• When someone asks you for help, give it.
• When someone confides in you, keep their secret.
• When a team member is going through a crisis, pitch in.
• When you see a colleague left out, invite them in.
• If you’re invited to participate in gossip, don’t.

Everyone here at Red Branch Media will happily accept a check from Google anytime they want to send it our way. (Quartz)

BackGlassLash?

Huh. I always sorta thought that Glassdoor was the untouchable pretty gal at the party. Sure its influence is increasingly pervasive and we all know that it’s easier to get bad reviews than…well, anything else, but “disturbing”? That’s weird. But Phil Strazzulla seems to think so. He cites an anecdote where someone asked a bunch of entry level hires (notably reliable) if they’d work at XYZ, they said yes. Then the presenter showed the GD score and all of the sudden no one wanted to work there. So is it time to pay attention to Glassdoor? How can you pressure, I mean, ask employees to leave good reviews? I’m exhausted just thinking about it. I think GD is great but I’m sure I won’t once my disgruntled ex-employees jump onboard. (RecruitingTools)

I hate Pinterest

But every so often it’s useful. Fortunately, I subscribe to CB Insights and already had this in my inbox. Gerry Crispin is the one who put it on Pinterest. Gerry! Crispin! I don’t see any big new names but I would like to contrast this with something Jason Warner (of RecruitingDash) said today:

“If you are interested in start ups, Silicon Valley, investing and the economy, you should read these two articles. I predict we are headed into the age of the Zombie Unicorn, and not enough people are talking about it.

I’m no economist, but it’s going to be a huge problem when we have half a TRILLION dollars in capital deployed into a small number of unprofitable companies that will need to be recapitalized with no clear way to do it.

Wait for it….wait for it…

 

(pop!)

http://abovethecrowd.com/2016/04/21/on-the-road-to-recap/

http://fortune.com/silicon-valley-tech-ipo-market/”

First, person to get me a #ZombieUnicorn T-shirt wins. (Pinterest/CBInsights)

The Swedish Think They’re So Great

They take coffee breaks. This is the story on Quartz. I don’t know why we can’t get placed on Quartz, but this explains a whole lot of it. Like for real, the title is “This four letter word is the Swedish key to Happiness at Work” and there’s a guy that opened a coffee shop based on the concept of coffee breaks. So there’s that.  (Quartz)

I am trying to be more of a nice person

But this article makes me smile.

“Learning how to subtly get your message across is pretty much part of office training. You know what key phrases (“looping in,” “ping me,” “jump on a call”) have double meanings. We’ve come up with an annotated version of the most passive-aggressive email you could ever receive. Feel free to print this out and hang it at your desk as a reminder to your coworkers that you know exactly what they’re trying to say.”

You can print your own version of passive aggression here. (Real Simple)

Maren Hogan

Maren Hogan is CEO of Red Branch and general Bad@$$

Maren Hogan is a seasoned marketer and community builder in the HR and Recruiting industry. Maren started Red Branch Media and, before she hired all the smiling faces you see below, she ran it on her own. In marketing for over 15 years, she has deep experience in strategic campaigns and a long-term, results-based operational approach.