Geeks, Geezers, and Googlization Show

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.

Eventually, the COVID-19 crisis will pass. Management will reach for its playbook for getting back to normal. Unfortunately this time, there is no playbook. There is no modern-day parallel. This pandemic triggered one of the biggest economic shocks in history and a world of uncertainty. All of us will need to get comfortable with things being different, for living in a constant state of disruption. That requires a new playbook. The time to start writing it is now. You can't wait for the "all-clear" signal because it's not coming. When you reopen your doors for business, a significant number of employees will be anxious, stressed, and fearful. Many may be grieving or experiencing varying degrees of PTSD. What is your plan to re-board, re-assimilate, re-engage and re-synchonize your workers when the coast is clear? Without such a plan you may be replacing one crisis with another. To help get you started we invited two experts to the show.  First, we’ve got Bo Mitchell who has spent his entire adult life dealing with and training for emergencies. He now helps companies prepare for everything from natural disasters to active shooters. He is president of 911 Consulting and a former police commissioner.  Our second guest, educational and cognitive psychologist Jason Cochran, is on a mission to help organizations build a culture of growth. He is co-founder of iAspire, a turnkey software solution for human development.

The Shift just got real! The Covid-19 pandemic turned the theoretical exponential curve into a very personal experience. The lines between sci-fi and reality blurred almost overnight. Welcome to the age of the new normal, where uncertainty and ambiguity are constants. Fortunately, the pandemic will pass but the changes it forced are more permanent and transformational. Each one of us is being challenged to think and act differently. The door behind is locked and sealed. The-way-it-was is written in the history books. What’s the best way to adapt, get back on your feet, and prepare for future success: Shift your mindset. Mike Smith from Hiring Stage Inc joins us.

To say the shift hit work plans this week would be a gross understatement. Thanks to the Covid-19 response, millions of people without warning began working from home - or not working at all. But despite the threat of massive layoffs hanging over the heads of millions of workers, many industries (healthcare, distribution, transportation) are hiring like crazy. Unfortunately, social distancing makes the traditional interview impractical and nearly impossible. Welcome video interviewing. Has its time come? Will video interviews become the new normal? What are the best practices?  How should you select the best platform and technology for your company? To answer these questions and more, we invited  Phil Strazzulla from Select Software Reviews, an HR technology research company, to join the show.

Our health and wellbeing are being severely tested. Personal stress levels are in overdrive, or as we like to say on Geeks Geezers and Googlization, the SHIFT is hitting a lot of plans. Just minutes before this episode, WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. The stock market fell into bear territory. More conferences and events were canceled and many schools announced they were closing. With everyone’s business and personal plans susceptible to disruption, it’s no wonder our stress levels are skyrocketing.  So we decided the best advice we could offer would be to stop and take a deep breath. The timing was perfect because today’s guest happened to be Joe Burton, CEO of Whil, a company founded in 2014 to fight the global stress epidemic. As a mindfulness advocate and author of Creating Mindful Leaders, Joe leaves you with practical skills you can use immediately to power down, even if for only 5 minutes. Most importantly, he offers hope that no matter what is happening in our lives, mindfulness can help each of us how to power forward to a future when everything’s alright.

There’s a lot of things your company can’t control and the coronavirus is just one of them. But how you respond should be at the tip of your tongue. According to our guest, crisis communication expert Bill Coletti, “Plan now like your company’s reputation depends on it because it does.” According to Coletti (via way of Seth Godin), your reputation is no more than what people expect you to do next. What you say and do (or don’t do ) to calm employee fears and ease customer concerns may have long-term implications, even when you have no control over the actual event. How can you prevent a moment of crisis from evolving into a media “shift” show? How do you balance messages of "the sky is falling" with caution and optimism? How do you take a crisis like the Covid-19 and shape and protect your reputation going forward? Reputation management is what we’re talking about on this week’s episode of Geeks Geezers and Googlization.