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InFullBloom Archives

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Speaking Engagements

UPCOMING
Predict and Prepare sponsored by Workday 12/16

PAST BUT AVAILABLE FOR REPLAY
The Bill Kutik Radio Show® #171, 2/15
The Bill Kutik Radio Show® #160, 8/14
The Bill Kutik Radio Show® #145, 1/14
Workday Predict and Prepare Webinar, 12/10/2013
The Bill Kutik Radio Show® #134, 8/13
CXOTalk: Naomi Bloom, Nenshad Bardoliwalla, and Michael Krigsman, 3/15/2013
Drive Thru HR, 12/17/12
The Bill Kutik Radio Show® #110, 8/12
Webinar Sponsored by Workday: "Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Business Value," 5/3/12 Audio/Whitepaper
Webinar Sponsored by Workday: "Predict and Prepare," 12/7/11
HR Happy Hour - Episode 118 - 'Work and the Future of Work', 9/23/11
The Bill Kutik Radio Show® #87, 9/11
Keynote, Connections Ultimate Partner Forum, 3/9-12/11
"Convergence in Bloom" Webcast and accompanying white paper, sponsored by ADP, 9/21/10
The Bill Kutik Radio Show® #63, 9/10
Keynote for Workforce Management's first ever virtual HR technology conference, 6/8/10
Knowledge Infusion Webinar, 6/3/10
Webinar Sponsored by Workday: "Predict and Prepare," 12/8/09
Webinar Sponsored by Workday: "Preparing to Lead the Recovery," 11/19/09 Audio/Powerpoint
"Enterprise unplugged: Riffing on failure and performance," a Michael Krigsman podcast 11/9/09
The Bill Kutik Radio Show® #39, 10/09
Workday SOR Webinar, 8/25/09
The Bill Kutik Radio Show® #15, 10/08

PAST BUT NO REPLAY AVAILABLE
Keynote, HR Tech Europe, Amsterdam, 10/25-26/12
Master Panel, HR Technology, Chicago, 10/9/012
Keynote, Workforce Magazine HR Tech Week, 6/6/12
Webcast Sponsored by Workday: "Building a Solid Business Case for HR Technology Change," 5/31/12
Keynote, Saba Global Summit, Miami, 3/19-22/12
Workday Rising, Las Vegas, 10/24-27/11
HR Technology, Las Vegas 10/3-5/11
HR Florida, Orlando 8/29-31/11
Boussias Communications HR Effectiveness Forum, Athens, Greece 6/16-17/11
HR Demo Show, Las Vegas 5/24-26/11
Workday Rising, 10/11/10
HRO Summit, 10/22/09
HR Technology, Keynote and Panel, 10/2/09

Adventures of Bloom & Wallace

a work in progress

And It’s Not Even Full-Blown Hurricane Season Yet!

Hurricane Charley 2004

I’m flippin’ tired of all the bad news.  My twitterstream has been a surreal mixture this year of enterprise software (#EnSW) developments, HRM happenings and insights (#HRM) and all things related to HR technology (#HRTech) along with the end of civilization as we’ve known it brought to me by the global media.   And it’s not even full-blown hurricane season yet in SW Florida! 

Globally high unemployment with no real solutions in sight.  Soaring 3rd world food prices causing even more starving and often displaced families.  Horrible prognostications about shrinking water resources, overpopulation and the obvious impacts of global climate change to go along with Japan’s nuclear meltdown’s pouring radioactive water into our already fragile oceans.  Civil wars, uprisings, rebellions, drug wars, unrest of all kinds, and that’s before the islamist militants take over a variety of failed states.  Budget impasses, financial meltdowns, and striking everybody, while the already wealthy are doing quite nicely. 

Why haven’t we got a cure for cancer yet or, better yet, a couple of vaccines? I know detection and treatment are much improved, but this awful disease has taken and continues to take a terrible toll on my family and closest friends, not to mention on the rest of mankind.  And did I mention that aging is quite literally painful?

When was the last time that we faced something other than intransigent problems amid a polarized society?  When was the last time we really pulled together in ways that made you proud not just to be an American but to be a member of the human race?  Whatever happened to that wonderful feeling of putting a man on the moon, of the Berlin wall coming down, of the eradication of polio?  On a more personal level, when was I last on top of everything expected of me and that I expect of myself?  And when was the last time I felt truly accomplished, like the feeling I had after swimming a measured ocean mile for the first time, sailing successfully off the anchor (and shifting bottom sands) of Anegada’s treacherous anchorage, or declaring a major systems implementation go-live an unadulterated, on-time, on-budget success with a team doing high-fives? 

If we’re all so damned smart, connected and armed with nearly endless technology, why the hell can’t we solve some of our global problems?  For all the gamification, consumerization, mobile, global, analytics, etc. that we’re hot to incorporate into every bit of enterprise software, will that next generation of enterprise software make a dent in the politics of self-interest, the brutality of tribal warfare, the damn debt?  Call it a crisis of confidence on my part, but it sure feels like we’re rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic rather than saving the world.  And those of us who came of age in the 60’s really believed that we could save the world. 

The good news is that I’ve found my theme song for this year’s HR Technology Conference:  The More Things Change…

 

3 comments to And It’s Not Even Full-Blown Hurricane Season Yet!

  • Steve Bogner

    I’ve come to see ‘saving the world’ as a continuous process, not a one-time project. Sort of like continuous improvement, to offset the human tendency to gravitate towards excessive self-interest.

    • Naomi Bloom

      You’re so right about all such continuous improvement efforts, personal to universal, but I do regard discontinuous/disruptive change, ideally for the better, as needing more of a project framework for its successful execution. So the exercise program we undertake in the interests of greater fitness and, hopefully, quality of life should be a major lifestyle change that’s ongoing. But the focused training program we add to that in order to get ready for a particular athletic event, that’s much more of a project. Whatever our terminology or management approach, what’s important is to get on with it. Pick an improvement target, personal to universal, and commit ourselves to the effort, from planning to execution to results. I’ve got a few such on the personal and community level in the planning stages and no doubt will tweet/blog the journey.

  • Bill Kutik

    Evidently Gen Y wants to save the world, too, according the third installment, but want to get rich and famous doing it. That should make you feel better.

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