Saturday, September 24, 2011

What Makes Gen Xers Tick?

In the Harvard Business Review podcast "What Makes Gen Xers Tick?", (audio, 17 min) book author and blogger Tammy Erickson argues that work motivation of Generation X (those born in 1960s-1970s) is quite different from that of the preceding Baby Boomers generation. Gen X'ers are much less motivated by promotions if these narrow their expertise, box them into more specialized corporate roles, and thus reduce their future choices of getting another job.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

In Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us, (animated video, 11 min) from RSAnimate, Daniel Pink, the author of Drive and other popular books, describes some very unexpected results from the recent research on motivation. The old paradigm of higher pay for better performance works - but only for mechanical tasks. If the task requires even the most rudimentary level of cognitive skills (as do most jobs!), higher pay leads to worse performance.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Who's Really Writing States' Legislation?

Who but our elected officials would be writing our states' legislature? You may be surprised by the answer. It turns out that American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a low-profile joint organization of corporations and legislators, writes many of our model state legislative bills, according to NPR Fresh Air podcast How ALEC Shapes States' Legislation Behind The Scenes (audio, 32 min).

Please continue helping Ukraine and Israel: contact your elected officials

Those of us who live outside of Ukraine can help Ukraine by writing, calling or emailing our elected officials, urging them to continue help...