Geeks, Geezers, and Googlization Show

We've got another first on this week's episode of Geeks Geezers and Googlization. Our guest is the "World's 1st Industrial Philosopher" - Cristina DiGiacomo - and her visit couldn't have come at a better time. The future of work arrived ahead of time thanks to the COVID19 pandemic and death of George Floyd. These events exposed massive cracks and vulnerabilities in our society, traditions, laws, and norms. The future of work needs fixing. And if we want a better future, we need to create a better now! Relying on the wisdom of the greatest thinkers of all time (Socrates, Lao Tzu, Emerson, Plato, and the like), Cristina helps executives and entrepreneurs face the greatest challenges they confront at work. She shares those challenges and reveals how we all must begin to think and respond differently to the now so we have a better future that works for everyone. Cristina is also the author of Wise Up! At Work and founder of MorAlchemy.

Recruiting in a VUCA world? (BTW, VUCA represents Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous.) To get a sense about what's going on and where talent acquisition is headed post-pandemic, we brought back a good friend of Geeks Geezers and Googlization and an amazing thought leader in recruitment and talent acquisition, Craig Fisher. Craig shared his own personal experience with job search and then peered inside his crystal ball for trends on the future of video interviewing, employment branding, company culture, employee assessment, and learning.

Unemployment in America is headline news in the U.S. As high as it is, Vinay Singh has real concerns that the actual rate of unemployment is significantly underreported. He questions how unemployment is tracked and more importantly that it misses the dark side of income inequality, social inequality, and ageism - exacerbated by under-employment, wage suppression, age discrimination and CEO compensation. He's a passionate student and user of technology but concedes humans need to learn how to apply technology in a more human way. He implores recruiters and HR to stop asking inane and irrelevant interview questions (such as "if you were the first human on Mars, what would you do?") and urges both companies and workers to take this pandemic crisis to reskill and upskill. Singh is the author of the Amazon best selling book "Your Future in Pieces."

Hiring right is definitely not the "no-brainer" many HR and hiring managers think it is. They often allow conscious and unintended bias to cloud their judgment and predictable decision-making. The disappointing success rate of new hires (30 percent) over time confirms the poor choices many managers make. Our guest HireBrain CEO David Nason intends to change that through the use of neuroscience, probability science, and social science. He has the data and methodology to prove that even the commonly used situational interview questions offer zero predictive value. Worse, they often introduce significant negative impact. Tune in now to hear how HireBrain's advanced interviewing methodology removes the guesswork and bias from hiring, shifting decision making from gut instinct to predictable evidence.

Success will not be measured the same way in the New Normal as it was just a few months ago. Hopefully that's a good thing. Recovering from the pandemic stronger and better will require more grace, more compassion, more empathy, more humanity, according to our guest Julie Ann Sullivan. From interviews with over 60 C-Suite leaders and conversations with hundreds more who created thriving cultures and workplaces, she discovered four attributes these leaders all have in common. She published them in her new book Catalysts of Culture. (You'll need to listen and/or read the book to learn what they are.) An important read before the pandemic crisis, it's now an essential leadership guide for a successful reopening and relaunch of business in Age of Continuous Certainty.

Business is re-opening and life is anything but normal. The past has been decoupled from the present and future. HR practices and processes that used to work don't work the same way. Even if they do work, getting things takes longer with social distancing and other new safety and security precautions. Many companies are headed for an epic fail when they try to source, recruit, hire, and train employees as if life is "normal." Declan Murphy, CEO of Datalive, believes the new next normal problems will be solved by the rapid digitization of HR. Listen as he describes how his company is taking "the robot out of the human" by saving time and improving candidate and employee experience.

Chances are that between emails, Zoom, Slack, text, and even phone, you've sent an important message to your employees that was missed or ignored. The information spigot is open. More than 560 billion emails are sent each year. One hundred billion of them are sent to employees. Communication is flowing full throttle but a lot of it falls on deaf ears. Cutting through all this noise is hard, even in normal times. So what is it that you need to do differently for your messages to be heard above all the noise? We've got the CEO of Guide Spark Keith Kitani, a corporate communication strategy expert, on our show today. And he's ready to share answers to and new findings from his company's research about corporate communication in the age of uncertainty.

Brianna Shelko is a Millennial. But you'd never guess she belongs to the generation that's been called Trophy Kids, spoiled brats, self-centered, digital addicts...and that's only what we can print! Simply mentioning the "M" word brings groans and sighs. Her generation gets blamed for everything that's wrong with ...well just about everything. Well, Brianna shatters the Millennial myth. At 26 years old, she's the CEO of a social media marketing company PLUS 14 additional revenue streams! She's articulate, savvy, entrepreneurial and one of millions of young people who doesn't fit the Millennial mold. She's also our guest on this episode of Geeks, Geezers, and Googlization!

A funny thing happened on the road to tomorrow. The SHIFT hit our plans! Now that the pandemic curve is flattening, our focus shifts to re-opening America (or the world for that matter.) What will "normal" look like? How long will it take to get "back-to-normal? For many, near-term survival is top-of-mind. Others are thinking forward, seeking to rebuild themselves and get a headstart on the next chapter of our lives. No matter the path you choose, one thing is certain: the road to recovery will be an exponential curve. Which industries might lead to our recovery? What jobs will be in demand? Will technology lead the way? How will we balance the need for technology with the value for human life, for security, for privacy, for well-being? With all the new guidelines and conditions coming out about what it will take to reopen for business, might companies discover that work-from-home productivity is better than when employees go to work?

Is there anyone on this planet that would question that navigating the pandemic has been disruptive, uncomfortable, stressful, and downright confusing? It's no surprise then that we're all chomping at the bit to reopen for business. Unfortunately, this road back-to-normal will be anything but usual. For starters, our leaders seem to be making up the playbook as we go. Everyone is fighting above their weight class. Few businesses and people can afford to make any mistakes. And the next step you take will thrust you into the Age of Unusual Uncertainty. What steps must you take to ensure that you lead and navigate through this next chapter of your life successfully? For advice that matters, we reached out to Mike Clarke, representing Gallup - one of the world's most respected analytics and advisory firm. Buckle up. This is one of those podcasts that you'll be relistening, quoting, and sharing often. During the show, a few FREE resources were mentioned. Here are the links: Gallup COVID-19 Resources. Click here. Free Trust Assessment. Click here. Free Kind Quiz. Click here. Free Trial eLearning Course (2600+ courses). Click here. Free Best Selling Book. Click here. Join our Googlization Nation community. Click here. CliftonStrengths Assessment (This isn't free but well worth $19.99). Click here.