Sea Legs

Sea Legs

by | Jun 22, 2021 | Covid-19, Economy, Future of Work, Labor Markets

We received an email from a friend sending her regrets for an event. She said: “still trying to get my sea legs” regarding the return to mostly normal in this mostly post-Covid world.

Who isn’t?

It’s as if we have all been on various desert islands, and now ships are arriving to take us back to our previous lives. Or so we thought.  But some shipping lanes aren’t quite open, and others are overcrowded. 

It is definitely NOT smooth sailing, and it is very hard to find your footing.

The seas roil as nearly all of us are entering the same markets at the same time causing quite a wake in the process.  As a result of rushing to so many of the same places at once, it looks as though the water levels are rising around certain islands containing cars, lumber, housing, while some of the potential labor seems trapped on other islands.  The port masters keep hoping some sort of craft will be able to ferry workers to the appropriate islands, but here’s the rub:  everyone keeps using old charts of obsolete shipping lanes.  Assumptions are being made that everyone wants to return to where they were in February of 2020. 

This past week a few articles emerged with insights that defied all the economists: multiple months on a desert island make you re-evaluate your life.  Sometimes you find yourself. Other times, you don’t want to be found.  Sometimes you’ve thrown away the map determined to chart a new course.  Other times you’ve taught yourself so many new skills, you want to get paid for those skills. And of course, there is the issue of the “real clothes” required when returning to civilization.

The real lesson that may emerge is that man may be a more rational actor than all the economic texts taught us.  He may have found the meaning of his particular life and he is not willing to go back to the one he had before the Covid Tsunami.

 

by | Jun 15, 2021 | DEI, Leadership Agility, Performance Management, Pivoting

The headlines are filled with articles about the return to work, specifically, getting people back into an office. Some of the articles then focus on subtopics such as dress codes, flexible schedules, and mandatory vaccinations. At the core of these articles is an underlying assumption that either companies want to treat everyone the same, or feel that they must treat everyone the same.

With all of these articles swirling in my head, I reflected on the kudos given to Red Auerbach.  Reading the autobiography one of his protégés, who also became a coach, I have been introduced to his genius, his legend, and his insights on people. “I’ve never been around a man who managed … better than Red Auerbach. Particularly, the egos he had to deal with, the cross cultures he had to deal with and all the variations in the kinds of people that I saw him be associated with.”

That’s when it hit me that this is why the world of management has its collective basketball shorts in a twist.

The typical manager does not have a team any bigger than Red did when he led the Boston Celtics to nine championships.  If Red could find a way to coach, cajole, badger, and encourage his players … here’s betting today’s managers can.  Of course, just as Red needed to comply with NBA guidelines, today’s managers must not run afoul of the pertinent HR laws that pertain to their team of employees.

Stat sheets don’t lie, and a manager who sets clear goals will know quarter by quarter who is performing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorting out the May Jobs Numbers

Sorting out the May Jobs Numbers

by | Jun 8, 2021 | Economy, Hiring, Jobs, Labor Markets, Recruiting, Unemployment

Many very smart people have been working overtime trying to make sense of the May jobs numbers.  Economists have been poring over them.  Journalists have tried to translate them – some to explain to those who aren’t economists, some to soothe the fears of the average American, and of course, some to play to their audiences.

Compensation consultants comb over the numbers looking for clues.  Will they affect IT jobs? Will this relieve pressure over in another industry? Will job gains overall, regardless of industry, drive people back to stores and restaurants?

Suddenly the image came into focus.  Regardless of who you are, economist, journalist, or comp consultant, we all keep looking to the past for contextual clues to interpret these numbers.  That is about as sophisticated as the sorting toys that you gave toddlers in the 1960s. 

But that is how everyone IS looking at the jobs numbers.  “Oh, we have this many jobs openings and this many people out of work, so let’s just stack them up, and we know they will fit in this order. DONE.”

Kids sorting toys evolved.  In the 1970s, toys emerged that required you fit several different shapes into the space.  Far more analogous to trying to match skills and openings.  Then came the toy with the crazy shapes fixed upon wavy wires – they wouldn’t stay in place, very representative of today’s labor force. Today, kids’ sorting toys are so complex that they demand collaboration, one of those soft skills.

We all need to get that simple ring stacking sorter out of our head.  It will never be that simple again.

Go for Broke

Go for Broke

by | May 27, 2021 | DEI, Inspiration, Leadership, Sacrifice

A recent piece in the Chicago Sun-Times featured Yosh Yamada, a long-time teacher and coach at Englewood High School read more here.  He was one of thousands of Japanese-Americans who ended up in Chicago because they were never given the opportunity to return to their homes after being sent to internment camps during WWII.  After release the article says, “He was drafted into the Army, where, he later wrote, ‘I served the very country that had imprisoned me.’ ”  Yosh went on to serve the students of Chicago for decades.

This coming weekend we celebrate Memorial Day. The day is intended to remember those who gave their lives while serving our country. 

The most decorated unit of its size and length was the 100th/442nd, the self-named “Go for Broke” comprised of the Nisei, or second generation Japanese Americans.  While their families were interned at home, they fought for liberty abroad.  They rescued Texas Rangers, fought at places whose names are infamous, like Anzio and Cassino, and some liberated a sub-camp of Dachau.

So this weekend, between all the fun, perhaps learn a bit about these amazing American heroes. Here are some potential sites.

https://www.goforbroke.org/learn/history/index.php

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/japanese-american-100th-infantry-battalion

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reallocation & Retraining

Reallocation & Retraining

by | Apr 28, 2021 | Economy, Human Capital, Jobs, Unemployment, Work Place

Despite the headache caused by all of the labor market reading done for our last post, we’ve persevered.  

Some Chicago economists have had their thinking caps on, and their musings are worth sharing. They are asking the right questions as we contemplate labor markets and human capital post-pandemic.  

The Chicago Fed’s April paper focused on this:  Why didn’t more people from affected industries move over to industries that were NOT affected by the pandemic? “One sign that Covid might have increased the need for labor reallocation is the fact that even while unemployment rose substantially, firms reported an increase in job openings, the opposite of what normally happens in a recession.”

That article raised a nagging question:  Do workers lack the ability to retrain? The resources? Or the incentives?

One of Chicago’s most wry economists, Carl Tannenbaum, addresses the risks if people do NOT retrain. Solving these problems will not be easy, but he rightly points out, failing to address them will lead to even larger problems along geo-political lines. His piece’s topic sentence sums it up:  “Renewing human capital is as important as renewing physical capital.”

Solutions depend on cooperation and innovation. Education needs to orient to life-long upskilling, supporting a different concept of education before 18 and after 18, with government support. Companies must put their money where their mouth was when they signed the Business Roundtable document in 2019. If they create that ecosystem, they will retain workers for far longer—hiring based on competencies for life-long learning—and partnering with employees committed to constant up-skilling.