Lexy Martin: Quilter and Survey Lady

Coming back home....from Italia

2011-10-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

Two and a half weeks in Italy have cleared my head! I am excited to be returning home tomorrow from Milan for a quiet weekend unpacking, petting the lonely cat, seeing what's happened to my garden and eating healthy food -- maybe -- I must admit that Italian food is just so good that I may have to make a Bolognese sauce to help make the transition. And, Monday, I'll be returning to work, with a fresh mind. I must admit though, that I kept up with many emails. Otherwise, there would be hundreds or more. Many were about the HR Technology Conference -- the highlight for anyone seriously using, inventing, or supporting HR technologies. See the latest CedarCrestone HR Systems Survey for the research results I presented for the seventh year -- thanks to Bill Kutik!For me, the other highlights of the conference were all the sessions on analytics, although many others would argue that it was more about social media. And, of course, the best highlights were seeing all the friends made over the years from this wonderful HR technology arena.

Rally for Sanity, 2010

2010-11-13T15:22:00.000-08:00

First day home with an hour to spare since September 29th! Pretty much non-stop travel. But in all that travel, the family went to the Rally for Sanity. It seems so long ago, but here's a few pictures that caught the sentiment for me:
The crowds
There were lots and lots of funny costumes and teeshirts and signs....
And moments of utter sanity as expressed by these twins
And the best of all was to go with Ian

Balance in Life is Not a Serial Thing

2010-10-14T08:59:00.001-07:00

I'm an early riser but I mostly force myself to not start work until 8. Instead, I spend some time reading, then in my quilt studio and then out in my garden (which after two weeks away is in sad shape). When I do these things, I start my "work" day more relaxed and often with a sense of accomplishment, something that I don't always get from my work as there are parts of it that take days, if not weeks, to complete.

As I was working this year to finish the CedarCrestone HR Systems Survey, I neglected this daily start of the day. Now that the survey is done and out, I've returned to my normal day's start and I feel ever so much more refreshed. Of course, a week on the beach with my family helped too.

As I was quilting this morning, I started thinking about balance and realized that there are some other things that I don't do when I'm under the gun that I think would give me more balance. For example, I work out with a personal trainer twice a week -- that regime makes me get at least that much exercise, but I know that's not enough. So, I've told my husband that "when I retire, I promise myself to work out more." But why not start now? Another example, is weekly date nights -- these go by the wayside when I'm under a schedule gun. But weekly date night with my wonderful husband is something that balances me, nurtures me, and helps both of us be better support for our family and friends. And, there's so many other things that give me balance -- daily meditation, weekly sitting at the sangha, vacations, letter writing....and so much more.

Dear Friends: please remind me next time I get embroiled in work that I know better!

An old-timer's view of HR Technology Conference

2010-10-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

I was reading a first-timer at the HR Tech Conference and it got me thinking about what I saw/learned at my latest event. I've had the pleasure to present the CedarCrestone HR Systems Survey there for six years. Ron Hanscome, who I think is a superb survey person reviewed this year's findings quite well.

First of all, hats off to Bill Kutik and David Shadovitz and the entire LRP/HR Executive team involved in putting this together. Bill, who I think has turned mellow with the advent of Nancy, was a jewel to work with this year from my perspective. And while being mellow, he still put a keen wisdom to getting great speakers, vendors, analysts, bloggers. Truly well done and thank you!

Second: It's always great to attend the special events and dinners -- thanks to Paterson's and absent Naomi Bloom, Kenexa, Oracle, and my colleague David Carter and a treasured client -- but never again will I puff a cigar Len and Michele! Also, for the brief time with the Chicas -- my drinking girl friends and the few guys we "let" join us if they pay. You are the ones that make HR Technology special for me. Elaine Orler and I vow that we will have a grand reunion in Las Vegas! Thank you Naomi for showing us all what is truly important by being with one of your long time friends at her time of need.

Third: Doing the survey for 13 years is a personal labor of love and a gift to our community from CedarCrestone. I appreciate all that respond and especially those that respond to all questions and do so year after year. Please feel free to contact me through hrsystemssurvey@cedarcrestone.com if you have comments or questions.

It is from the perspective of being a broad researcher on HR technology adoption and the value achieved that I'd like to make a few comments about the conference. In the fervor of social networking and the latest/greatest from software companies, there are two types of organizations and their decision makers I don't see at the conference:

1) Sophisticated users that have an advanced HR applications portfolio. By this I mean they have few software vendors and most often have a extensive set of talent management, social networking, and business intelligence practices and technologies built on the same platform as their ERP(Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft). These are the ones I see amongst our survey respondents that are doing the best financially. I think we could learn much from them about topics like talent analytics, workforce lifecycle management, use of SOA to automate processes not covered by existing technologies, and advanced learning and development technology use.

2) Late adopter organizations that have not yet turned to much technology. Their decision makers have not begun to think about social networking except to unwisely ban it; they have no self service; and they actually don't do a very good job of serving their employees. Some may argue they won't be around long as they are so non-innovative, but they've been around for years and we buy/use their products and they will be around for many more years. Think steel companies, some health care, many universities, and more public administration organizations. Can we as a community figure out how to wisely and gently get them involved?

Not collaborating is a power trip or we just don't know how ?

2010-07-25T09:51:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking about why people don't collaborate and specifically collaborate in the sense of sharing information. I remember from a research project in the early 80s on the use and value of groupware, that back then we had tools that enabled people to share information just like we do today with wikis, blogs, Twitter or even simple email today. Back in 1983 or so, I was talking with a representative in IT at the Air Force and someone there said that people don't share information because "information is power" and sharing means giving up that power. It means giving up one's perceived competitive advantage. Like -- how can you teach something if everyone knows it or how can you be an analyst if everyone knows about what you are talking about? Nothing new between then and today although perhaps that power means a bit more in the Air Force than elsewhere.

But I think not sharing information is also because people don't know how to and they get no reward for sharing information. At the Air Force in the 80's, there was no pay for performing information sharing...after all, pay is a matter of grade level. And using something like Lotus Notes as a repository was not all that intuitive to use anyway. Today, sharing information still takes time with most of our social media solutions. Simple example: my quilting buddies don't know that they can actually provide a url about how someone does a technique like how to mitre corners and instead will download an entire YouTube video and then send that huge file. Or in my work where to really be an effective collaborator, one should not only share a file that may have valuable information but also explain why it is important to entice people to actually read the file. And, who has the time for that? Or for people to share information in repositories of customer information, they need to report news, site visit notes, conference attendee notes all the time and it it's not easy to do, people just won't do it.

Organizations have to pay in some way to reward people for sharing and make that part of the value system and recognize it in performance reviews. But people too need to realize that sharing information is pretty powerful not just for the organization but for themselves too. It shows you care to help your colleagues, and we all want to be caring individuals. It shows you know enough to realize the value of the information you are sharing and to articulate that value for othrs.

So, I encourage all of us to take the step from the individual's perspective and start sharing just for the value it will bring to you. Learn how to use social media as a collaboration tool. We can work on having organizations pay for collaborative actions later.

Been awhile....

2010-07-21T15:59:00.001-07:00

Thus started the blog of a dear friend (forgive the plagiarism....you know that's a form of flattery) but it so totally tells the story. Other than a week off to go to Quilt Camp at Empty Spools in Asilomar, my nose has been to the proverbial grindstone. It's survey analysis season and my brain doesn't allow me to write when I'm doing data analysis. But then, realizing that I haven't written for a long time and have not just been doing data analysis, I realize that's a cop out excuse. I've just not had much to say while mulling over ...things.... Like, why do I work so much instead of doing the things I love like spending more time with family, friends, in the garden, quilting, etc? I still don't have the answer to that one. Or, why am I such a perfectionist and when is perfection really needed? I actually think I got pretty far on the answer to this one: it has to do with my own personal standards...not those of others. But perfection, in quilting is sometimes really needed. Like if you want really crisp seams to highlight a luminous square or getting bindings that don't curl. And if that level of perfection is too hard, then I should just make wonky quilts. But for now, I'm challenging myself to do perfect blocks. Or perfection is also needed in crisply stating hypotheses and testing them and reporting results. Or, is a licensed, on premise Oracle PeopleSoft HCM solution the best foundation for HR transformation or can organizations only transform with a SaaS HCM? Welll.....we all know the answer to that one. It's really a mindset to bring about HR transformation and no matter which platform an organization chooses....and there are lots of options these days....an organization can transform to achieve more business value with the workforce. Yes, there are cost tradeoffs, but what's most important is having a clear workforce/talent management strategy in place. The technology choice that makes most sense will follow. So, what are your thoughts on my thoughts?

ReUse Connection - a family affair

2010-05-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

The countdown begins.....soon to launch this awesome contribution from my stepson, founder Ian Moise. ReUse Connection. You can read about it here on Facebook and then watch for its launch here: ReUse Connection. As my husband, the software developer says: "Soon, we will be out to launch." And then my stepdaughter does the research and my son in law also develops software. Our extended family is contributing as well. We are VERY excited.

Twitter, SMS, LinkedIn....all linked? Ugh

2010-03-13T07:56:00.000-08:00

You may be wondering about what was hopefully an uncharacteristic tweet from me this morning. It said: "Try Lexy Martin. I should come up."

Back story: My stepson tweeted me about something this morning and then commented when he searched on me, he couldn't find me. Who knows what name he used? WOSM perhaps, for wicked old step mother? That aside, my response to him was "Try Lexy Martin. I should come up." This, sent via SMS.

So, I had been doing all this while lying in bed, using my iPhone to respond to emails, look at Tweetie, and even view SMSs. The latter, I use infrequently. And once again, it's clear why. Instead of responding to my stepson, I responded to EVERYONE. Everyone that follows me on Twitter and Everyone who follows me on LinkedIn. Fortunately, these connections are no longer coming up on Facebook because I figured out how to turn that off. The SMS/Twitter/LinkedIn connection will be turned off today! After this apology.

Next part of story: My husband was downstairs, logging in to LinkedIn and his other various connections. It's his birthday today and we'd already shared tea and I'd given him his birthday present. A KINDLE from the family. So, he sees that message on LinkedIn: "Try Lexy Martin. I should come up." And, grateful husband that he is, immediately runs up stairs.

So, for Ian, my stepson: If you search on Lexy Martin, my name should come up on Twitter. If not....PLEASE let me know. Obviously, I have my learning to do on that front if not.

And, for my Twitter and LinkedIn connections, that SMS this morning was not an invitation. Really. But, if you do come up, to the house, of course, we can have tea.

Have a great day!

PS: Will someone PLEASE teach me how to respond to an SMS?

Measure twice, cut once - another quilting/HCM intersection

2010-01-27T14:45:00.000-08:00

I guess because it's winter and raining a lot and I can't be outside that I've been designing and making more quilts. Last weekend, I was piecing a border from a very cool Japanese woven by fussy cutting between designs. I needed to get 4.5 inch widths and cut one just 4 inches which meant that I lost the piece! Argh. It reminded me of the quilter's adage: Measure twice, cut once. My husband tells me that that's actually a carpenter's adage, but I think us quilters make good use of it too!

It got me thinking about software design and programming and that this adage applies there too. Although perhaps it's Plan Twice, Program Once. Now, I haven't programmed since Cobol was the dominant application programming language (yes...I'm older), so forgive the stretch here. Back then, we got a whole lot of user input into planning, then we designed and only when we got approval of the design did we start to program. Watching my husband do his programming today, it seems like that stage can be much more iterative and he can show users a strawman solution multiple times and get ongoing user input.

But just like with quilting, overdoing the part before you cut absolutely makes for a better end result, with no swearing either on the part of the quilter or the end user!

Thoughts?

And for those that want to see the latest quilts. These are unfinished! I'll post when done too.

This first one is "Berkeley Pieces" because I was inspired by a quilt I saw at New Pieces in Berkeley...very cool quilt store! I can see that I should have measured twice although I think I can square this up in the quilting.

This one, now that it's done looks like one of those pesky "Dear Jane" quilts. But it's not. This is done with Japanese fabrics and with Japanese quilt block patterns. I've been trying to learn to be exact....this may be the last one I do like this. So, it gets the name of "Japanese Jane." And, given how many sample squares I did not include, I definitely need to measure twice more. Of course, trying to understand a Japanese pattern is a bit tough!

Early view of IHRIM Link on Leading Practices

2010-01-05T08:58:00.000-08:00

Every two months, as Co-Chair of the IHRIM Link (soon to be renamed), I “edit” the next issue. It gives the wonderful opportunity to really read the issues as I look for the minor errors of authors and the publishing process. Kudos to Tom Faulkner, Futura Publishing and to each of our fabulous guest editors for each issue! I’ve taken to tweeting as I review and here provide my log for the issue to be published in January. I started it on the holiday break and kept coming back to it amidst the festivities of two weeks of grandkids. In the list below, I’ve inserted comments from tweeters and Facebookers in italics.

Readers can subscribe to the IHRIM Link for just $37.95 and as I’m on the planning committee for the NEW and improved publication to be released in April, I highly encourage you subscribe. We have exciting plans! Even better, join IHRIM and you receive the periodical as part of your membership.

Here goes:
Looking forward to editing latest #IHRIM Link on "leading practices" banishing the term "best practices". Kudos Yvette Cameron, Saba. grtjob

Newest @IHRIM Link issue compiled by Yvette Cameron. Anyone at @SabaSoftware -- tell her she did a great job!

Nxt @ronhanscome Starting edits with article requesting semantic change of "best practice" to "leading practice" Bottom line - no 1 magic bullet

By the way. No one on Twitter commented, but lots did on Facebook. Leading practices is definitely the preferred term.

Next by @SyncoJonkeren. To differentiate from peers orgs should adopt new sourcing models including outsourcing

This article is aptly titled, “Unchain HR”

Nxt article: Talent Management for “New Normal” Why the Wisdom of the Crowd is Now the Catalyst for Change @UpdateMaksim @sabasoftware GRT!

Join @ihrim to read gr8t article by @UpdateMaksim. How 2 use social networking for recruiting, onboarding, performance management & learning

Onboarding tech-don’t waste $ on forms automation, invest in solutions 4 employee socialization that reinforce company culture

OK...done editing @IHRIM Link for today. Going to see the new Clooney movie with family. Happy holidays to all!! May 2010 be all we wish for

Actually I saw a ton of movies: Up in the Air, Avatar, Invictus, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squequel (I o have grandkids), and It’s Complicated.

Reading "From Change Management to Governance" by @rpannoni. Footnotes lead to great resources

The Change Handbook: Resource on Best Methods 4 Engaging Whole Systems by @tomdevane covers 60+ change mgt approaches from six sigma to soft

Problem isn't managing change but generating organizational alignment 4 objectives, strategy, tools & methods Governance addresses #rpannoni

First footnote in From Change Mgt to Governance article: @standishgroup. Only 32% of tech projects succeed: http://bit.ly/t1U1G

VERY interesting article: Ulrich for Next Generation: Why a new take on model is needed. Braam & Meijboom

Ulrich's model falls short on overall HR services interactions & no role for exercising oversite. HR services mgr is needed + governance

Next article is Best Practices in Evaluating & Selecting a Talent Management System...or any HR System Fletcher & #mattlafata

Best Practices in evaluating/selecting TM @mattlafata has 10 essential steps for evaluation process and lessons learned. Very insightful

Next article: Why Manage Risks by Martia Newell, #adp. Two-part comment on this coming up.

We have a choice to manage risk proactively or be surprised by problems. Human nature admires firefighting hailing rescuers as heroes.

That’s understandable for burning houses. A major goal of risk management is to prevent projects from catching on fire in the first place.

Nxt article-Leading Practices in Global HR: Determining Your Own “Best” Path Forward, Theresa Brett RexHealthcare. Timely topic

Whoa...now I know why we need editors. That last article is actually by @karenbeaman. Great article - 25 "leading global HR practices"

Leading Practices in Global HR has 25 practices organized by Strategy, Organization, People, Process, Technology, Management

Plus 25 great references (5 come from CedarCrestone research). Got to plug us sometimes! Great quotes by Dee Hock. kudos @karenbeaman

Next article: Harnessing Existing Assets to Drive HR Process Improvements-Financial Services Case Study. Roy Altman, PeopleServe

Altman article starts with the parable of Stone Soup - a lesson in cooperation and draws parallels to the case story.

Stone soup tale: villagers learn if everyone contributes something of value synergy occurs with benefits exceeding individual contributions.

Next article - Eliott Witkin humorist at @UltimateHCM. You will LOL over finding out if UofMich teaches HRMS. Kudos

Twitter for HR by @steveboese answers the ? how can social networking tools be leveraged for personal/organizational benefit - 3 reasons

Branding, establishing industry thought leadership, active recruiting are the reasons (Twitter for HR) @steveboese. Must read!

This last article is one that every tweeter will want to give their HR department!

Again: Readers can subscribe to the IHRIM Link for just $37.95. Even better, join IHRIM and you receive the periodical as part of your membership.

Social networking tools (like Twitter) returns the advocate to customer service

2009-12-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

When I was 16 too long ago, having just started driving in my bullet nose 1947 Studebaker, I got pulled over for slightly speeding late one night. When the policeman asked for drivers license and flashed his light first on it and then on my face, he then flashed the light on his face and laughingly said: “Lexy, you were about five miles over the speed limit. I’m not writing you a ticket. Go home.” It was Bobby Rollins, the older brother of my girlfriend who lived across the street. He knew I was really a good kid, and let me off with just a warning.

When I bought my first house and went to my bank for a loan, where I’d been banking for MANY years, despite not really having the right credit history, the manager approved my loan. He knew I would be good for the loan. Today that seldom happens as you can’t get past the system-based rules to a person who will take the time to review your history and the situation.

But wait….perhaps social networking aids….true collaborative aids may be playing a role today and bringing back a person who will be your advocate.

Two days ago, I got a letter from American Express telling me that I’ve been put in the penalty box for missing a payment (heavy duty charges, a year's worth of onerous interest), a situation that immediate raised my ire and made me want to cancel my Amex card. Now, since I pay my bills in full, the onerous penalty wouldn’t apply, but there was a principle here for me. As a member in good standing since 1973, I was hurt. Particularly since I never got a bill!

I blasted my ire on Twitter and copied @AmericanExpress.

I received two kinds of responses: 1) lots of people saying similar things had happened to them and how they had handled it. 2) #AmericanExpress on Twitter encouraged me to #AskAmex. I did, and through the afternoon worked with one of their Social Media Inquiry people. (Yes, PEOPLE. American Express has a team on Twitter assigned to address issues for its customers.) If you look at #AskAmex, you will see the bio of the team: Now tweeting, Beth (B), Nadir (N) and Rachel (R) from 9AM-5:30PM ET M-F. When we’re not tweeting we enjoy cooking, football and spending time with family. Through DM, I was guided by them to go to my online account and send an inquiry with “my facts.” I did, and within a short time, I received the kind of letter that someone with a 35+ year good history with American Express feels she deserves. It started with: Thanks for taking the time to contact me via email. I can definitely understand how frustrated you would be with this situation. I have reviewed your account and have taken care of everything. It ended with: It was my pleasure to assist you. Have a happy and a healthy new year!

A real person handled this situation in a compassionate and expeditious manner! Wow….that sure doesn’t happen when one tries to get through phone menu hell. Not that I’ve had to contact American Express…perhaps its phone services are equally good, but I’ve had the occasional mishap with mobile services and have lost a credit card or two over the past 40 years, to be totally frustrated by the process of remedying the issues with the respective providers.

So, thank you American Express. And, especially thank you to the Social Media Inquiry group at AskAmex. And, I’m totally stoked on the power of social media! For me, it has returned me to the good old days of PEOPLE who support you when stuff happens. I feel like the group is my friend!

A look back enables a prediction for the future of HCM technologies

2009-12-24T08:59:00.000-08:00

I was reading Jim Holincheck's 20 and 10 year look back, plus his predictions for today and 10 years from now. It got me thinking about my past as a futurist, working at the Institute for the Future and my time working with Patty Seybold.. OK...briefly, I've been working over 40 years, started as a programmer at Bank of America, then a couple of mutual fund companies, worked internationally at Dupont in Switzerland, then Stanford University Hospital and started my consulting work in 1980 at SRI International, followed by IFTF, then Patty, some time on my own and then The Hunter Group which has morphed into Cedar and now CedarCrestone. Up until Hunter, I used to change jobs every four years, but this has been a place where instead of leaving, I can evolve my work. But whew....that's a lot of work!

Anyway...when I started consulting work, it was as an adviser about office automation. IBM, Digital Equipment, Wang, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox and others all had these word processors or computers that evolved into integrated systems by adding data processing, email, decision support. To make a long story short about what happened....eventually, the functionality of all these vendors' office automation offerings looked alike, and here's the important part: the ONLY differentiation was the service and support the vendor or consultants provided!

Thinking about what Jim says...that MISO (Microsoft, IBM, SAP, and Oracle) will lose one over the next 10 years but gain one from today's ranks of business application vendors...maybe SalesForce, Workday, or Google? (MIGO?? maybe? or GISO??) Based on my old experience, I think the ones that survive and thrive in the business applications arena, including HCM, will do so because they get the IMPORTANCE OF SERVICE AND SUPPORT and all that is conveyed within. IBM already gets this. Oracle and SAP may start to bundle maintenance (just one part of service and support)into annual subscription packets and at least one will do fine. Microsoft if it is to evolve as an application provider must understand the importance of service and support to really play bigger time in the enterprise realms. And, Google, absolutely must get this. I watch all these companies that have great technical people developing custom solutions based on Google Apps or Sharepoint and watch the fact that these developers really don't get great leverage within their organizations because they don't understand that there is also change management needed to institutionalize solutions. And change management, consisting of all those things like project management, training, communications, building stakeholder commitment, etc. etc. is one of the most important parts of service and support. Hmmm, now that I think about it, even Oracle and SAP don't really get the importance of change management with their own service and support offerings, unless one pays arms and legs. Fortunately, they have great ranks of implementation/consulting companies like ours.

Giving yourself permission not to finish frees up energy - another quilting/work intersection

2009-12-22T11:08:00.001-08:00

Last year I took a class from a world renowned quilter for a week. It's my gift to myself each year to spend a week learning something new at the Empty Spool seminars. By the way, if you've never gone, it's a wonderful way for quilters to learn! This year though, the teacher, wasn't my kind of teacher. For me, not very affirming. I digress here a bit, but I've noticed that sometimes great artists are really not great teachers -- some are great at promoting themselves and their work rather than encouraging and teaching students. I think I've had a few bosses like that as well. I digress.

During the holidays, is my time to renew myself with family, friends, and quilting. I've noticed, however, that in my studio I have a few UFOs -- a quilter's term for "unfinished objects." I like to think of myself as not a quitter -- as someone who finishes what I start. The UFO from that class, I've decided will never be finished as originally planned at that class. And, oh my...it feels good to recognize that. I declare it totally unfinishable! Of course, I will go through some doubts: 1. Is it unfinishable because my techniques are not up to it? 2. Is it unfinishable because I didn't like the teacher and she did not help me to excel? 3. Is it unfinishable because.... You know what, I don't need to know the reason. What I do know is that by declaring that one effort unfinishable,I feel ever so much more creative! Plus, it frees up one of my favorite fabrics that I want to use in another quilt project that is to be a gift for dear friends.

So, how does this intersect with my work life? Well...getting closer to retiring, I could declare my work career at an end, but I'm not ready for that, although the lesson I will take here is that when I do it will because declaring an end to work will free up energy for other loved activities and efforts. I think the better intersection is that sometimes we are asked to do things that should not be asked. For those, we have to stand up for our beliefs and redirect our efforts. What do you think?

My predictions for 2010 (Global, Business Intelligence, and SOA)

2009-12-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

William Tincup asked a bunch of people in our HR technology arena to make predictions for 2010 and I rose to the challenge. All the big HR technology analysts from IDC, Gartner, Forester, etc. have made predictions about the steep projected increase of adoption of cloud computing/SaaS, social networking, mobile devices being bigger than PCs, etc. etc. So, I thought I'd get a big more granular and talk about three trends I see from reviewing our CedarCrestone HR Systems Survey data -- my little corner of the world (or at least my world):

1. The trend towards “going global” with a single instance of a core HRMS and common processes will escalate rapidly. I think the past year of economic downturn has focused large global organizations on cutting costs, more than ever, by moving to a single workforce system of record and rationalizing processes. I do see that they are being much wiser in the process rationalization and realizing that some processes really do need variations by country or business unit. Processes like workforce administration, compensation and performance management which have been handled first will be followed by recruiting and learning management.

2. The trend towards adopting business intelligence and managing with metrics will take two forks as the market moves towards higher levels of adoption. One fork will be a continued adoption of BI middleware technologies such as Oracle’s OBIEE, along with packaged analytics solutions such as OBIA/HR Analytics. The other fork is one taken somewhat out of frustration in that the first fork is expensive and takes total organization commitment. This second fork is towards adopting a SaaS solution. This one leads organizations again towards packaged analytics solutions and I personally think is a temporary blip (until organizations get that they really need to institutionalize the delivery of metrics and need some heavy lifting technologies), but it will make many of the SaaS analytics providers look very good for the coming year.

3. SOA suites will take off. Given that so many large organizations have an HRMS from Oracle or SAP, these organizations have already started adopting SOA middleware. They have gotten how valuable it is to address certain processes with automated support. Pulling from the CedarCrestone HR Systems Survey for 2009: Early adopter industries such as financial services are already using SOA technologies for core banking and to integrate disparate information sources to provide business intelligence. Higher education institutions, typically a laggard industry, are using SOA to integrate students with funding sources and to hook them up with back office services. SOA, most typically used for onboarding activities, will take off with other processes such as seniority handling, terminations (if these continue), and other work-life processes not already automated with the actual packaged applications.

Giving feedback - what I've learned from quilting

2009-11-15T16:39:00.000-08:00

I took a quilt class spread over two Sunday mornings. The first Sunday, we learned the technique, and then went home and worked on developing the pieces of the quilt. The second Sunday, we came back with our ideas for our quilts and presented our quilts to the class. For the feedback process, the instructor suggested that instead of us criticizing what WASN'T working, we should talk about what WAS working. It was interesting for me, who is a person that finds lots of faults with my own quilts to instead hear what was working. I realize if I'm critical of my own work, I'm surely critical of others. I found myself being very thoughtful in providing feedback -- perhaps more so than when my feedback is critical. Thinking more about this feedback session, I realize that, of course, sometimes we need to hear what isn't working. But it seems to me that when our work is a "work in progress" hearing about what IS working encourages us to do even better. And, it was a really nice change to not hear from my left shoulder critic and instead to hear from my right shoulder supporter. Thoughts?

Oh...and here's the quilt in progress...obviously not finished. I'll post it again when finished.

Data analysis does not breed good writing!

2009-11-13T08:40:00.000-08:00

My husband is really brilliant and a really good guy. He has a PhD in cognitive psychology, develops human cognitive measurement software, loves computer games, and is a really nice guy too. One of the things I've noticed over the years of being married to him is that I can't talk very coherently to him after spending a day doing deep data analysis which I need to do with our CedarCrestone HR Systems Survey . It's like my brain just can't go from number crunching to being verbal. But, after a day of data crunching if I play Bejeweled. I'm really good. I've gotten my best scores (over 500,000) on those days. Anyway...back to my really nice guy husband, in a roundabout way. Today, I actually got two comments about my blog and posts....both saying...do more! Thank you.... I mentioned this to my sweetheart of a husband, and he is so brilliant....he said. "Blog when you wake up before you do the data crunching." Duh..... So, maybe that's what I'll do. Blog first thing. What do you think?

The Value of Pre-built HR Analytics

2009-10-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful fall day in the Sierra foothills. We spent yesterday picking a neighbor's grapes and while I was tired and achy yesterday, I feel great today. Maybe it's because it's our anniversary and I'm looking forward to a wonderful day with my husband of many amazing years. I started the day in my studio, working on some little Japanese panels. But in the back of my mind was a work issue. I'm writing a white paper on HCM Analytics and one piece of the white paper is on the value of HCM Analytics. Personally, I think that organizations can not long survive and thrive without managing their business, and workforce, with metrics, but I am always challenged by readers and clients to "prove it." Fortunately, the CedarCrestone HR Systems Survey can show some strong and continued links to improved financial performance. And, we're certainly starting to see lots and lots of organizations report on the value they've achieved. Wait and see the white paper for some of those stories. But what I was thinking about this morning is "why pre-built." And what better place to think about this than in my studio where I build quilts.

When I first started making quilts, like most novices, I used patterns. Irish chain was my first, followed by Log Cabin, and some Amish patterns. It's only been as I've matured as a quilter and even had some coaching from incredible art quilt teachers that I've designed my own quilts. Even now, I return to patterns, but put my own creative color choices, or even break the pattern and just use pieces of a pattern, along with my own creative design. I value pattern makers for figuring out how to integrate a particular design piece (like a diamond, star, or other geometric design) into another piece. That integration is critical for merging pieces with the exact measures...and I don't like to take the time to do that engineering calculation all the time.

I think the value of pre-built analytics, such as those from Oracle's business analytics and specifically, the HR Analytics product, is similar. Oracle has done all the integration from a recruiting dashboard into the talent management applications, into financials, and into the system of record. In the learning arena, it has integrated from learning management, to financials, etc. as well as to display a learning dashboard with metrics valuable to the training department. It is not to say that technical resources couldn't do all these integrations themselves, but why take their time? All of those integrations come ready made.

There is another subtle value of pre-built. Here I have to diverge a moment to comment on how many analysts and pundits just love to criticize HR for not being good with numbers. So what? Are these pundits good with numbers? I don't think so! So, how does HR get started? Let them use ideas from others. I say, help HR out with some pre-built functionality and from these examples they can start to branch out to identify the metrics that will matter for their own companies. But starting with pre-built KPIs, metrics, reports, and dashboards gives them a big boost to get started.

Blogging every day??

2009-10-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

I recently heard a motivational speaker who suggested that one should blog every day! I put it on my list of "to dos" about three weeks ago and you can see that I don't keep my commitments. So, I'm going to publicly renege on that one and promise to do a blog at least ONCE A WEEK on the survey, on HCM in general, perhaps something on BI (business intelligence and analytics), and, of course, quilting. I just don't know about these daily bloggers. What kind of life do they have? For me, I find that I just can't move from data analysis (my primary job) to writing. I think my brain just isn't wired for those cross modal activities. And, I also don't seem to balance my life interests very well. My quilting has gone down the drain the past month or so as I've worked to get the annual CedarCrestone HR Survey out the door, presented at several conferences, and set up for ongoing benchmarking.

But, at long last, I got back to my quilt room this weekend and am working to complete my UFOs. I did finish a baby quilt for a baby born a bit ago. And, on my list of to be finished: a Japanese kimono triptych -- just need to bind, last year's Christmas quilt, the hers to the his and hers comforters, and then on to the new one using the Kingyo, Red Rooster fabrics. I'm going to adapt that pattern, using the panel in the middle but my own blend of fabrics from my stash. Stay tuned on that one.

And, I'll post the triptych by this weekend -- my goal for finishing it! Let's see if I can start keeping my commitments to me again!!

My first quilt show

2009-09-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

It's been way too long since I thought about blogging and I'm not sure I really will get back into it now, but here goes. After what seems like months, I've finished the 12th annual HR Systems Survey white paper and presentations that I'll be giving over the next month or so at HR Technology, some private shows, IHRIM, and OpenWorld. Anyone reading these that's interested knows more about these shows than I. Got some good material for this year: my recommended technologies: HR help desk, absence management, compensation management, and a BI tool set, and, of course, anything to do with social networking and SOA. The formal survey goes out two weeks from today.
In the background of this work, I've been gardening and quilting for sanity. Our garden has produced a ton of food...feels like literally. I've canned tomotoes, made Barefoot Contessa's tomato soup...yummy, made our pasta puttenesca sauce. I feel like quite the country lady!
And...best of all, I'm having my first quilt show with six of my quilts at Cafe Vista, here in Meadow Vista. And, on day one, sold my first quilt! I guess that makes me a professional now. Here's one of them...yours for just $350.

Quilting and HCM

2009-07-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

It's been way too long since I've written. I've been busy and distracted, but with good stuff. I've actually been quilting up a storm...made a quilt for our bed, redid one I made 20 years ago for Jess, made a baby quilt, and have started a triptych of wall hangings. But this morning, I need to work and given that I'd rather be in the garden or quilting, it got me thinking about my work and quilting and I've decided to explore the intersection of the two. Do you know if you google HCM and quilting that the link you get is to the Horry County Museum:) Those two phrases don't go together. If you google human capital management and quilting, it gets slightly more interesting. There's a link to a Business Week article on the "crazy quilt of rules" and another with similar title on Workforce Management referring to an SAP site that has an article on the "crazy quilt of wage laws"... HCM and crazy quilt...hmmm This could be on the right track. For some reason, Wikipedia is not available this morning, but on the Free Dictionary, the definition of a crazy quilt is: 1. A patchwork quilt of pieces of cloth of various shapes, colors, and sizes, sewn together in an irregular pattern. Seems appropriate for HCM as does the next definition: 2. A disorderly mixture; a hodgepodge: But, both our strategy work with HCM and our quilting turns both the concept and the art form into a thing of beauty, eh? Ah...finally, wikipedia is "up" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_quilting. Look at that amazing old crazy quilt. These are not my cup of tea, but many value these wonderful quilts. I can see some similarities between quilting and pulling talent together in an HCM talent management strategy, stitching it together with processes and technology, but most importantly, the seams of change management, create both a thing of symetry and of beauty.

Competencies -- I must be missing something

2009-03-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

For several years, the one talent management application most frequently correlated with the best financial performance, has been competency management. It has always made a lot of sense to me: if an organization knows the competencies it needs for the future, it can assess what it currently has and if deficient can either train or hire. And, I'll make the assumption that if they know the competencies it has, then it knows which ones deliver the best performance. See: www.cedarcrestone.com/research for the latest research reports.

Today, I came across this competency list from Harvard University. It sure seems to me that these are awfully generic. Doesn't every organization have people with these competencies? Don't organizations really need to have information on the competencies that make them unique?

Quilt in progress from Asilomar 2009

2009-02-26T11:38:00.000-08:00

Just back from Asilomar where I took a class with Carol Taylor. Here's the "work in progress."

Now I must move from quilting back to dealing with TOO many emails and too much analysis.

Benchmarking from the survey data

2009-02-16T19:29:00.000-08:00

My life is about to be balanced with a one week visit to quilt camp! Yeah..... quilting with girlfriends and learning from some great teachers: I'm taking a class from Carol Taylor:

What that is balancing is weeks and weeks of deep benchmarking analysis for some really large companies that are looking to change their HR systems and implement more talent management applications. But, it has been interesting. We've discovered that the "top performers" adopt a lot more technology. Yeah...yeah...so they have the money for it. BUT....this is such a consistent finding. Year and year, those with MORE technologies that help manage people do better. And statistical geeks that we are, the directional causality is: have technology>>do better, rather than doing better>>buy technology.

Quilt....survey. I'm going quilting.

HR survey data released this week

2009-01-24T13:32:00.000-08:00

Two reports:
Our first CedarCrestone HR Survey "Pulse" report that collected data in December about expected changes in HR technology expenditures. Not as bad as expected: 70% of respondents said "no change." Of the remainder, 11% indicated expected increases; 19% expected decreases. The net change was -6% although it varies by type of technology and by industry. See www.cedarcrestone.com/research. The category of Strategic HCM applications (talent management focus) was the least impacted.

We also published our first CedarCrestone HR Survey focused on Asia and Australia. This effort was sponsored by Oracle, BUT responses came from organizations with varying solutions. This first CedarCrestone Asia Pacific HR Systems Survey of 277 organizations representing over 2 million employees discovered:
• The number one business initiative for APAC survey respondents is a focus on metrics and analytics whether in the form of developing a metrics strategy, integrating data sources, or implementing business intelligence applications to enable metrics-based management. Aligning employee performance with organizational goals (including implementing a performance management application) and business process improvements are also top initiatives.
• Self service and moving to an HR service center approach enables organizations to serve more employees with their HR staff.
• Talent management and business intelligence applications matter—those organizations that have these applications report higher financial performance than those without these applications.
• An integrated talent management approach enables organizations to achieve a lower total cost of ownership. Organizations with such an approach also reported higher sales and more than double the operating income growth than those with alternative approaches (44% vs. 17%). In this economic environment, an integrated talent management portfolio is a best practice.
• Web 2.0 is at the innovator stage among APAC respondents, but early adopters worldwide are achieving early positive advantage of double the sales growth of those without these technologies.
• Oracle’s Human Capital Management (HCM) software suites (PeopleSoft Enterprise and Oracle E-Business Suite) are the top choices of APAC organizations for administrative, service delivery, talent management, and business intelligence applications. These software solutions enable organizations to successfully automate their HR processes, provide employee and manager self service, manage and retain talent, and gather HR-related business intelligence in support of metrics-based management.

Sacred Places

2009-01-09T18:00:00.000-08:00

It's been too long since I've written here but I want to share some thoughts with a dear friend and this is a good place to do it. I've been wanting to post some pictures and talk about my "spiritual journey" in China this past November.
I am a practicing Buddhist who belongs to a local sangha in Auburn. I am also a lapsed Methodist. I get more sustenance from meditation and weekly discussions at the sangha.
My trip to China was mostly for work, but my husband and I had 8 days to "see" China. Whenever we could, we visited Buddhist sites and other sacred places. Remind me to share those pictures, but here are a few that were special.

The Laughing Buddha is a delightful carving near the entrance of the Lingyin park and temple in Hangzhou. There are hundreds of carved buddhas....this is my favorite.

It is said about this buddha:
"His belly is big enough to contain all intolerable things in the world;
His mouth is ever ready to laugh at all snobbish persons under heaven."
May his belly hold any pain that dear friend Bonnie has today.

But the destination here is the Lingyin Temple where you see a 55 foot Buddha statue made out of camphor wood.

This is the Sakyamuni Buddha statue. My heart was so filled with peace and love and true joy seeing this statue. I know it is just an icon, but I think the day, the journey, the fact that I'd been on a 7 day vacation with my husband and had trekked in the cold cold with thousands of people to get to this place, at that time led me to this sense of peace and joy more profound than I've felt anywhere other than in simple meditation.

Asia Pacific High Level Survey Findings on state of HR technologies adoption

2008-12-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

This first CedarCrestone Asia Pacific HR Systems Survey of 277 organizations representing over 2 million employees discovered the following. This survey report will be published in the next week:
● The number one business initiative worldwide, including for APAC countries, is a focus on metrics and analytics whether in the form of developing a metrics strategy, integrating data sources, or implementing business intelligence applications to enable metrics-based management. Aligning employee performance with organizational goals (including implementing a performance management application) and business process improvements are also top initiatives.
● Self service and moving to an HR service center approach enables organizations to serve more employees with their HR staff.
● Talent management and business intelligence applications matter – those organizations that have these applications report higher financial performance than those without these applications.
● An integrated talent management approach enables organizations to achieve a lower total cost of ownership. Organizations with such an approach also reported higher sales and more than double the operating income growth than those with alternative approaches (44% vs. 17%). In this economic environment, an integrated talent management portfolio is a best practice.
● Web 2.0 is at the innovator stage among APAC respondents, but early adopters worldwide are achieving early positive advantage of double the sales growth of those without these technologies.

How old would you be if you lived on Mars?

2008-12-05T17:14:00.001-08:00

For me, I'd be 34. I rather like that. Check this out this birth calculator for each of the planets. And, I'm really young on Saturn!

Balancing self, relationship and work

2008-11-29T14:40:00.000-08:00

I've been asked why I'm doing a blog on quilting and surveys. For some time now, people at my company had been encouraging me to do a blog. But I think I never wanted to do a blog just on work stuff. It wasn't until my friend, Dickie, started one on quilting (and life) that I decided ...OK. I can do one on quilting too AND also on work stuff. Further, I'd had a conversation with a colleague at Knowledge Infusion. Heidi Spirgi and I were talking about blogging being a male endeavor. Certainly most of the blogs I follow that are work related are by guys. Heidi and I both agreed though that life is not just about work and that women's lives seem much more full. For us women, life is a balance. It's a balance of our commitment to work, our commitment to our relationship with our partner and family, and most importantly a commitment to the relationship with our emerging selves.

So, for me, work-life balance means balancing all three of my commitments: to my husband, kids, and extended family; to my work; and to me. Surprisingly, blogging is a lot about that last one. By getting some of my thoughts into writing, I am exploring that last most important relationship.

Encouraging innovation -- you can help by voting

2008-11-26T08:45:00.000-08:00

As you read the following (copied from an email from the Herman Trend email on November 26), realize that innovation comes from collaborative endeavors. By voting, you too can contribute. Visit Project 10 to the 100th to sign up to vote.

Herman Trend says: "Some months ago now, the leading searching engine Google launched a competition calling for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.

Herman Trend says: "Some months ago now, the leading search engine Google launched a competition calling for ideas "to change the world by helping as many people as possible". It was open to anyone anywhere in the world.

They call the contest "Project 10 to the 100th"; 10 to the 100 is another way of expressing the number "googol", a one followed by one hundred zeroes. The goal of the challenge reflects the company's goal---"to achieve great results through smart technology that starts small and scales dramatically over time to have a tremendous long-term impact". The Project is a similar attempt to produce those kinds of scalable results by harnessing [their] users' insights and creativity. Yes, Google wants to help change the world for the better. Unfortunately, the deadline for submission of ideas was October 20, 2008.

However, you can still vote on the idea you believe is best. The voting on ideas will begin on January 27, 2009. (They will send you a reminder to vote, if you wish?) At that time Google will post a selection of one hundred ideas and ask you, the public, to choose twenty semi-finalists. Then an advisory board will select up to five final ideas. To implement these projects, Google has committed $10 million, and their goal is to help as many people as possible.

This Project reminds us of others. Many of us have heard about the X Prize given for Space Flight. Yet, the X Prize Foundation is planning other prizes in diverse fields, including Health Care, Education Energy and Environment, Exploration, Global Entrepreneurship, and Life Sciences.

The other well-publicized competition to encourage innovation is the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Challenge. For years, the United States Department of Defense has had an interest in developing a driverless vehicle that would navigate long distances. Remarkable technological advancements have emerged from this annual contest.

Expect more entrepreneurs, private enterprise and government entities to offer incentives to encourage and reward innovation. For the entrepreneurs, the pay-off is leaving the legacy of a better world; for private enterprise, it is about demonstrating corporate social responsibility; for government, it is about advancing defense technologies at a relatively reasonable cost."

Fabric Dyeing in China

2008-11-25T13:17:00.000-08:00

On the next to the last day of our trip in China, we visited Wuzhen, about 75 miles from Hangzhou. This scenic town is another of the "water towns" in China. But my real interest in this town was that it had an exhibit of indigo-blue fabric dyeing. Actually, the whole town is kind of like our Jamestown, where there are many of the "old" crafts exhibited like basket making and making combs from horn, and more. But, as a quilter, I find the old crafts related to fabric very interesting and will always go out of my way to see these. This trip was worth it.

The picture above is how they finally dry the dyed fabric and it's lovely to see these long swaths of cloth blowing in the breeze (about 40 degree breeze the day we were there). The process goes like this:

1. Prepare a pattern. These used to be done by hand, but are now done by machine. They look like this. The crafts person puts a paste on the design.
The crafts person puts a paste on the design and when they lift the pattern off, it looks like this:
Then the pattern is pressed against the fabric and dyed in vats like these:

And, finally, the fabric is dried in the wind as in the picture at the beginning. Unfortunately, the "old" process has been replaced by machines, but it was good to see the old way. Modern quilters are still using the old way too. Here's a blog all about fabric dyeing: http://wordpress.com/tag/fabric-dyeing/

Chinese food

2008-11-24T17:21:00.000-08:00

OK, one last blog about China. This one is about the wonderful Chinese food.

We were often told that the Chinese eat everything! The adage goes something like this:
"The Chinese will eat everything. Everything from the sky except the plane; everything from the sea except the submarine; and everything from the lad except the stone.
This may likely be more poetic in Chinese.
We also heard of the regional differences:

North: in this region, the people need fat to keep them warm like the polar bear or Eskimo needs fat, so the food is often more substantive and oily.

West: this region is more known for its spicy food because spice preserves moisture/humidity in the body and these are the dry arid areas.

South: these people eat wild food like wild birds and snakes. Believe it or not, in Guilin, our furthest south site on our visit had snake on the menu. Of course, they also said that it would take a while to go get a snake.

East on the sea coast: eat fresh and finer foods and sure enough Hangzhou’s food was the best of our visit.

And here are a few of the challenging, fun foods and signs. First, dried duck:

Then: eel, frog and dog :(

Our favorite salad -- "The Dancing Salad" made of lettuce greens, other veggies, some dressing, and dancing to mix it all up.

The most popular American food in China. You might think it is McDonald's, but no, it is KFC. They are everywhere...kind of like Starbucks with multiple KFCs in the same block!

Finally, our favorite food -- the crispy fish. Yum.

And, now I'll go make a mundane dinner of broiled fish and salad.

What I Didn't Like about China

2008-11-20T13:10:00.001-08:00

Not much, really. But there are a few things that are rather icky.

Old men pee in public. You'll be driving down the highway and see a guy with his back to the road. And little boys with their fathers will pee on statues. Ick.

Spitting....yuck, ick. Everywhere.

Slurping and smacking while eating. Yes...the food is really good and worth smacking your lips over, but it is somewhat overwhelming. However, understandable. The food is sticky. Think about sweet and sour pork.

Pushing. Wow...the train station door opens and all 900 people who will take the bullet train smush toward the door at once. You have to push too to get on or be lost in the trample.

Pushy street vendors. Major and I have often been the only non-Chinese on shopping streets and EVERYONE wants to sell us something. While bargaining is sometimes fun, you have to constantly be telling people No. Actually, the term is something like BuYa. (Our guide told us to remember the first two letters of Bush and Yao Men. I say BuYa a lot, but I really mean "bug off."

Hard beds. Even fine hotels have hard beds. Literally just a thin pad on boards. I love hard beds normally, but this is ridiculous!

But there's so much more to love!

Did you know?

2008-11-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

With my visit to India and then to China, I found myself returning to the "Did you know" presentation on You Tube. I've got somewhat slow access to the Internet today in the "medium sized city" of Hangzhou so I've not watched this update of the first one that provided amazing stats about the US compared to China and India.

By the way, a medium-sized city has just 6 million people, while the large cities (Shanghai and Beijing) have over 15 million!

My head is swimming with thoughts about China. For example, prior to Mao, China had just 400 million people. Under Chairman Mao, who believed that the country could dominate with more people, the country quickly doubled to 800 million. But then, with the cultural revolution a "one family/one child" policy was initiated. If the first child is a girl, then 4-5 years later, the family can try again. If the child is a boy, that's all the family can have.

The implications of this population growth: 1) all children are tremendously spoiled. One of our guides told us that children are both spoiled and unprepared to share or collaborate unless taught this in university; 2) girls are spoiled too, but they are somewhat "2nd class," 3) there will not be enough children to earn/pay for the larger population that preceded them. Systems thinking would have helped in this case, eh?

But what a wonderfully dynamic, while steeped in history, place China is. Stay tuned for blogs on construction, food, and culture.

Cormorant Fishing

2008-11-17T01:18:00.000-08:00

In the river villages of China, there is a way of fishing that is both lovely, and not to SPCA standards.

Cormorant fishing is a way the fisherman is able to catch lots of fish, in rivers and lakes, where apparently the fish are too smart to take bait on a line and a net won't work because of the rocks. The You Tube link shows this being done graphically. I'll explain what we were told.

The fisherman raises the cormorants from being hatched from the egg. They become a part of the family and they are loved and cared for. They don't run away. Here's a picture of a fisherman's cormorant crew.
At night, the fisherman goes out with his crew and the cormorants skim the water and catch fish in their beaks and then bring the fish back to the fisherman. Now, here's the non-SPCA component: the fisherman ties a rope around the bird's neck so that it can only swallow little fish but not the big fish. This way, everyone gets fed!

Great Wall of China

2008-11-15T04:53:00.000-08:00

Today we visited the Great Wall. This amazing wonder of the world is 6,400 km long. The easiest part for tourists to visit is about 70 km from Beijing. It is so easy, that 100,000 people visit the wall every day! I know I use the word, "amazing" too often, but this truly is. In this picture, off to the right of me are just a few of those thousands trekking up the final piece before reaching watchtower #8 at Badaling. Last night I badly stubbed my toe and as it was complete black and blue this morning, we decided not to walk from watchtower #1 to the top. That trek would take about three hours. Instead, we opted for taking the gondola to tower #7 and then just climbed the last piece. It was a glorious day. Today is Saturday, and even in Beijing, it was blue sky. When people aren't commuting to work, the smog is considerably less. In fact, Beijingers are dealing with smog in several ways. First, during the Olympics, each day, they only allowed even or odd licenses to drive on even and odd days. Now, they don't allow two final digits to commute each day, thus cutting traffic by 20%. I find myself saying, "those clever Chinese" too often.

Anyway, millions of people built the wall. And millions died there and are buried beneath the wall. A truly stupendous undertaking.

The coordination of enabling 100,000 people to visit the wall every day is also stupendous. And, it all works. We saw thousands of buses. We've felt so spoiled as we've had local guides for our tour. And they are the nicest, well spoken people...excited to have jobs and to practice their English. Here's Nancy. (They always take English names, although frankly, I enjoyed her Chinese name better: Luodan. I've encouraged all the guides we've had so far, to use their Chinese names instead of using English names like Susan, Helen, or Nancy. If they are going to use English names, at least they should be using contemporary names like Camilla or Arden!)

Lo and behold, even in Badaling, there is American comfort. Starbucks are EVERYWHERE! And, they too are packed. The Chinese now love coffee. We, on the other hand have been tea snobs for years, drinking green tea. But today, with 35 degree weather, we succumbed to the familiar....Major's favorite Coffee Mocha.
Tomorrow....Guilin at 7 in the morning. Must get some sleep.

Loving China

2008-11-10T23:57:00.000-08:00

Before doing two more survey presentations, Major and I have taken a few days off to visit Shanghai and some of the smaller towns: Suzhou and Zhouzhuang. I do love the country. Shanghai is just another big city. Tremendous growth and just now starting to pay attention to preserving some of the lovely neighborhoods and its traditions.
Here's a few pictures:
1. Major and Lexy at the famous tea house in Shanghai
2. The Venice of China: Zhouzhuang
3. Papa and Nonny at Jinmao Tower
4. Missing RC....so found my first white kitty
More later.

Indian Generosity Knows No Bounds

2008-11-07T15:15:00.000-08:00

I've had a great visit with new friends in Delhi that I've made while presenting the CedarCrestone Asia Pacific HR Systems Survey. Is there an acronym there? CAPHRSS? Darn....just doesn't role off the tongue. I will write on my observations, but what I want to write about now is the incredible generosity of so many Indians I've had contact with the last six days. Last night was exceptional and I have a little story.

If you come to India, at least once, you will go shopping. The way you do this is to arrange to have a driver who will take you to special places (identified by friends or the hotel) where the crafts are authentic and perhaps even the prices are set. Of course, haggling for an item is fun too. So last night a colleague and I set out to visit several shopping areas. I was looking for puppets for my grandchildren. Kirsten, who had had a bout of Delhi Belly all day was along for the ride. Kirsten is delightful....everyone loves her immediately. Without too much detail, I successfully haggled for some items as gifts, and then we arrived at the Cottage Industries Emporium

This is a special place that brings in handcrafts from all over India. And, as my eye was drawn first to a small Buddha head, I began to make a connection with the man helping me and he with me. I also found a Buddha head for Major. Then, I asked if they had thangkas. I spent the next minutes looking at over 50 and finally settled on an exquisite mandala type. (By the way, I am a practicing Buddhist meditator and a member of the Auburn Sanga and this gentleman too, a Buddhist). As we started to leave, he suggested that we go downstairs to their "special items". Our bodies tired, but our eyes began to sparkle as we traipsed downstairs to be met by a room full of handmade rugs, pashminas, and anything made from fabric. Oh dear....me a quilter in a room of fabric.

The frenzy begins. The first item they showed me was an embroidered coat. Unfortunately it was not in my colors but it was Kirsten's so she tried it on. It was gorgeous. The picture does not do justice to the embroidery and the feel of this silk coat. It was "only $350."
She loved it and we all encouraged her to buy it. She, however, is a single mother, living in Singapore, and had not budgeted for something like this. But, it was truly a buy of a life time but even with much encouragement, Kirsten said she could not afford it .... until next year. Here's where just one example of generosity comes in. The owner of the Emporium told her to take the coat and pay him next year! Tired sick lady she was, started to cry. He gave her the coat and trusts her to pay him. Of course she will. I cried too.

We happily left...me with my purchases (two Buddha heads, the thangka, a patchwork runner, a little Ganesh elephant for my grandson and miscellaneous small items needing a big bag....they gave me a duffle). We tiredly returned to the hotel to go to bed.

I had started to pack when Kirsten called, saying that the store had called apologizing that they had neglected to pack the heads and the thangka. I really was tired to have not overseen the duffle packing plus all of the store people and Kirsten and I were so excited by the trust of the store owner in giving the coat to her for her to pay for later. So, then the owner comes to our hotel and delivers the gift items.

I confess that sometimes in NY and other cities with an abundance of foreign speaking taxi drivers....perhaps from Pakistan or perhaps from India...that I've not had the greatest trust. I will NEVER NEVER not trust these generous people again.

Indians ask the most challenging questions

2008-11-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

So, here I am in Mumbai, presenting the results of a survey done in Asia on the state of HR technology adoption. Its part of a series of presentations about talent management and business intelligence.

So one question was: could an organization have been able to predict the likelihoood of the demise of Lehman? A provacative question that eventually had us all deciding emphatically that technology can not counter individual foibles such as greed.

Indian kids better educated....says a 12 year old

2008-11-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

On the plane from Delhi to Mumbai tonight, I had the pleasure of sitting next to Eera, a 12 year old, VERY articulate and composed young woman. Our conversation was wide reaching and, of course, I loved her when she said I didn't look as old as I am. She'd asked if she could ask a personal question.

Anyway, one of our conversations was about her belief, from speaking with her father, an aeronautical engineer, that Indian schools are much harder than ours. During the 7th grade, she said she will have 74 different courses from math and science to Hindu and English literature and everything in between. She believes that our kids can sue the school if they are given homework that takes more than 30 minutes to complete.

What an image she has of us. Let's pray for an end to the last 8 years of dumbing down.

Prime Minister to India Inc: Refrain from layoffs

2008-11-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

This morning's Hindustan Times has this headline and request to corporate India: "While every effort needs to be made to cut costs and raise productivity, I hope there will be no knee-jerk reaction such as large scale layofffs which may lead to a negative spiral." This in a meeting with "business honchos" in which the country's "top macroeconomic managers confabulated for over two hours with industry leaders." I love the message and the words....honchos ... confabulated.

Also on the front page is, of course, our election along with the perceived stance by Obama and McCain on Outsourcing, India, Pakistan, and Nuclear Policy. The summary statement on outsourcing: "Rough times ahead for India's $40 billion outsourcing industry, still growing at a 25% annual clip. Obama will try retaining tech jobs in the US. McCain says all the right things from India's point of view, but if he wins at a time when job losses are accelerating, he may be hard pressed to walk the talk." Obama is more protective. It is, of course, a tough line to walk.... take advantage of what the world has to offer and have access to the world's customers .... essentially putting up no walls around our economy vs. keep jobs at home.

Now...off to some meetings in Delhi.

It's all about growth and education in India

2008-11-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

It's amazing that on Friday one can be home in Meadow Vista, CA and then two days later in Delhi, India driving to the Taj Mahal. From the comfort and ease of home to the excitement, heavy population, and totally different culture from flying half way round the road. I get one day off before working and chose to go to the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort of Agra. 50,000 people a day visit the Taj Mahal and at one moment, I think I was in touch with all of them as we struggled into the Taj to view the tomb replica of the Emporor and his favorite wife. Its a beautiful place and we were here today in relatively great weather...90 and clear.

The drive to the Taj Mahal pounds home the breadth of life in India, from

to here. And both of these were once someone's dream.

The one thing that really captivated me today though is that there are so many institutes. On the 220 km road from Delhi to Agra, we would pass a technical institute or a hotel management school or some medical school or even little kid schools and private schools. This country is definitely into educating its people. And everyone is an entrepreneur, whether it is a child dancing for rupees, a man with bulls that demands payment to have your picture taken with them, to your guide, to..... This is a very vital, growing country.

Getting ready to leave for India

2008-10-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that tomorrow night I leave for India and then on to China and that I'll be working there. I am so excited. I'll be posting pictures and making comments on the HR systems environment, so check back.

Wine in the Foothills

2008-10-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the day to pick grapes at our neighborhood winery co-op, Mandolfo Wines. Major and I have "bought into" the co-op and get 5 cases a year. Of course, we have to work for our wine, so Saturday, along with 50 others, we picked grapes and I helped cook. A great day. The crop will be greater. I'll try to get a picture of the wine stomping...several of the ladies dressed up in Lucille Ball outfits...very hilarious.

And then we went for a ride up to Nevada City to see the leaves. Here's a picture of our yard....and the new house color....finally painted!

My new orange door

2008-10-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

I really have NO TIME for blogging, or twittering....but to avoid being a grandma dinosaur, I guess I must. Actually it's fun to think about the intersection of quilting, surveys, blogging, and twitter. My concern is that now I've started a blog, Paul Boutin, Wired, says it's time has passed! Yikes...I guess I started four years too late. However, as someone who has worked with emerging technologies for almost 30 years, I suspect blogging will stay. And, besides the quilting community has just discovered it!

Today was my day to finish the first draft of the APAC survey....done. So I walked out into my garden which is an absolute mess. But, my dear dear husband has done something really nice. He had the door to my potting shed painted my favorite color. Isn't this incredible?

The first quilt sent to Japan

2008-10-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

I've always loved the feel of Japanese fabrics, especially the cottons. They are heavier than most of the cottons you can buy in the US. They are also very, very soft. They hang beautifully. The first quilt I made with all Japanese fabrics is this one.

I call it CIRCLE PLAY. I took a class with Reynola Pakusich and then made this quilt. I was not only playing with the circles, but also the background and trying to give a sense that the angle lines on the right were weaving in and out of the left angles. I entered this quilt in the Japanese quilt festival in 2008 and was invited to send my quilt to Japan for judging. Unfortunately, this quilt was not accepted. But I learned a lot from the process. One must be absolutely perfect in all aspects and while I love the look of this quilt, it had one flaw. We gave this quilt to dear friends this year.

2008-10-18T16:39:00.001-07:00

I am SO PROCRASTINATING today to get some work done. Don't I deserve one down day? But just had to share this and besides it's my favorite color.

And, credit where credit is due.

Finished Katazome pieced top

2008-10-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Wow...it's been a month since I tried my hand at blogging. Just no time with the survey. But I needed a break and so made a new quilt. I've finished the top.
This one is made from Katazome fabric from Nautilus FiberArt . It is worth seeing how Katazome is made.
It's a Japanese method of dying fabrics that uses a resist paste applied through a stencil. Nautilus does this the "old way" and the resulting fabric has the most wonderful feel and look. Karen Miller is a true artist.

Day One

2008-09-14T10:56:00.001-07:00

There are two parts of my life I want to share. 1. Quilting...specifically, my love of Japanese fabrics and Japanese quilting; 2. CedarCrestone HR Systems Survey results. At the moment, I am procrastinating on the survey results until Major gives me some stats, so I want to focus on #1.
This morning, I spent a few minutes on my current quilt. One made entirely from hand-dyed indigo. Blue is not my favorite color, but these fabrics are really great to work with. Susan Faeder from Quilters Express to Japan has this wonderful fabric club and sends packets every other month. The one I'm working with has these incredible blues and whites. I'll post a picture from my wall as soon as possible.

But now, it's back to survey work.