May 6, 2024
Good morning! In horse racing as in life, the size of the nose matters.
Ever notice, the shorter the trip the greater the amount of luggage?
Spring continues to spring as it catches up to normal.
I was visiting with Abigail at the coffee shop, a very pleasant and seemingly intelligent barista.
She was cutting back on her espresso intake in part because of her regular daily consumption of nine Red Bull drinks… I’m not sure what size.
With very little applause, publicity, or aplomb we sailed through both May the Fourth be With You — and Cinco de Mayo… maybe because it was a weekend?
- People spend 52 minutes per day, at work, on average, talking about other people; gossip pervades the work place.
- Do you want to hear a bit of gossip? Yes, please.
- Scholars describe work gossip as informal exchanges of evaluative information about people who aren’t there.
- Those exchanges can be complimentary as well as critical.
- By that definition, bosses who do not gossip about employees may not be doing their job properly. (Bartleby, 2024)
- There are approximately 200,000 internal combustion engines produced and sold each year worldwide.
- With about two-thirds manufactured for automobiles, one-sixth for marine, and one-sixth for aircraft. (Grandview Research, 2024)
- That seems relatively small… would have thought it might have been millions.
- But, just think, if every one of those engines were a horse instead… how many horses could there sustainably be in the world?
- Of course, each engine represents several horses, in some cases several hundred, or even several thousand horses…
- Hmmm? We might be going down a rabbit hole with this curiosity.
- There are 60 million horses worldwide, ten million of those living in the U.S.
- And speaking of which, the share of vehicles ten years old or older being operated on U.S. surfaces today is 44%, compared to 17% 45 years ago.
- There are too many variables to assign scientific cause-and-effect to these data, but it is somewhat counterintuitive given anecdotal observances…
- … especially the plethora of seemingly brand new pick-up trucks — most carrying nothing but vanity.
- Don’t count him out just yet… Elon, that is.
- He apparently accomplished more during 24 hours in China than anyone since Dick Nixon.
- An unexpectedly (very) good movie: The Holdovers (2023).
- Pure genius! You’re going to want to watch Jerry Seinfeld’s Pop Tarts movie more than once. Wow!
- “If you don’t like a politician’s principles, there is a good chance s/he has others.” (Keller)
- Do you think the arts will be preserved, persevere, and thrive with artificial intelligence huffing and puffing at the door?
- We might have answered our own question with the recent release of Randy Travis’s latest hit — created using A.I.
- Check in — connect — chat… Check in — connect — chat… it’s not that difficult, or at least shouldn’t be.
- “Blocking employee advancement is a lose/ lose proposition for organizations, employees, and managers…” (Keller, Dlugos, 2024)
- “You have a superstar on your team; s/he never misses a deadline or fails to impress a client.
- S/He puts out fires, supports colleagues, and mentors junior team members… you cannot imagine your work life without her.
- And then she tells you she is ready to grow and wants to find the next opportunity at the company…” (Ibid.)
- Do you help her — or hoard her?
- According to the research, internal talent hoarding is not good for anyone…
- … data suggest most managers have hoarded talent at one time or another… 75% openly admitted to hoarding.
- Why hoard? Beyond human frailty, company culture often rewards it with bonuses, ranking systems, quotas, performance reviews…
- … Hoarding is rewarded in a convoluted sense.
- “A key takeaway from our work is talent hoarding is bad for organizations, employees, and managers themselves.
- Managers must be willing to give up talent if they wish to become talent magnets;
- Letting people move on (and up) is good for organizations and managers;
- The grapevine works… employees know which managers hoard talent;
- Hoarding is costly.” (Ibid.)
- Advice: Change the system and the culture. Incentivize, reward, and normalize the promotion of talent from within.
