Sometimes in the lust to champion accountability and bring a small percentage of lazy people to justice, organizations often create cultures of paranoia and negativity. The majority of people, who typically try to work and live with a code of integrity and character, become disillusioned by those who create unnecessary levels of surveillance and penalties. There are some who enjoy the environments that thrive on fear, blame and intimidation. But, most of us don’t enjoy perpetual Maalox moments and always seeing the glass as half full. Reigns of terror and hierarchies of horror are bad for the spirit, health, and productivity. We speculate it is unwarranted fears like this that can be a catalyst to fuel volatility in the stock market and to dampen consumer confidence.

Victorian Department of Justice of Victoria, Australia has an impressive video to communicate their Social Media Policy to their employees and contractors. It is worth a look to give others the right ideas about drawing a line between professional and personal life and considering the implications of posting.

This rant is about Smart Phones that have gotten a little too smart to the point of annoying.

Ten years ago, it was quite common for only the .. “digitally enhanced” people like the Digital Daddies to carry around both a cellphone and a PDA. Some say that CTS Agent Jack Bauer using a PDA made it chic for everyday users to get them.

Ultimately, the emergence of Smartphones combined the cellphone and PDA. As the applications improved, so did the number of Smartphone users. This is good for all of us: customers, business, and e-commerce.

The problem I have is that the Smartphone software is now being pimped by so some advertising and social media to bombard us with offers and trials that just won’t go away. The proliferation of social media and applications has led to the Smartphone being used to solicit us 24/7 in response to our every move.

Some of the trial applications that I keep declining and deleting on my new Smartphone have the resiliency of Amazon cockroaches from Mars. Like the aggressive, retail perfume sample person, the trial applications can’t take “No” for an answer.

Our greatest strength can be our greatest foe.

An “organizational antibody” is a term used to describe people in an organization who resist change to protect the status quo. Sometimes this can be good to protect the organization from unwarranted or negative change. On the hand, organizational anti-bodies can be like carnivorous vines that choke the life out of innovation or positive change.

Consider the plight of national issues like healthcare and employment. I think that many people want to restore things back to stable conditions and improve upon. Others are against any change and are aggressive in stifling innovation and improvement, even at their own peril. The worst are anti-bodies that become gate-keepers for the whole body and not just their own section.

This is like having chronic constipation, stuffy nose, and athlete’s foot with no desire to fix them, even though there are potential remedies. Some people will even raise the price of the remedies or create barriers that won’t allow them to come to market or be sold.

The Digital Daddies often joke about the USA’s resistance to adopting the metric system. The metric system is so much easier to learn, because it is based on 10s. It is also global standard. When we were kids, we heard “anti-bodies” against the metric system say things like:

“It is too costly to retool.”
“It is un-American. It is socialism.”
“America is a super-power. We don’t need to change.”
“We need to get back to the 3 R’s.”

Antibodies are absolutely valuable in maintaining and protecting the present. There are sometimes that the anti-bodies perform too well and attack all new ideas blindly. In the name of job growth and humanity, please find an antedote to keep the anti-bodies honest, so that our body(our country) can heal and grow faster!

Get the word out to all the young artists in your life! Google sponsors an annual art competition called Doodle 4 Google. Young doodlers have a chance to have their drawing become Google’s Homepage for a day. Prizes include a $15,000 scholarship for college and $25,000 technology grant for their school! Checkout the 2010 winners.

Good sermons or speeches stay with you forever.    One sermon I heard many years ago by a preacher who was trying to motivate the flock to give a little more. He was in rare form that day.   He sought to clarify that money is not the root of all evil,
But the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. 

I thought about this sermon and decided to take liberty to alter the words for you today.  Technology is not the root of all evil. The Love of technology is the root of all evil.  

Where is this modified sermon going? I am trying to get us to think about digital-danger.  Texting while driving or crossing the street are behaviors of addiction.  Yes. Addiction.  Think about it. Even though we know that texting and driving are risky,  we are compelled to think we can multiple-task and are immune to peril. What about backing our cars out of a parking space while checking messages on our cell phones?  Yeah we know better but do it several times a week. It’s not just teenagers.  Look in the mirror and promise to break the cycle of cellphone addiction.   

This has been a Sunday service announcement & public service announcement from your Digital Daddies.   

As we approach the holiday season, our hearts go out to fellow Americans who are jobless or underemployed. The job market is actually improving, but only at a pedestrian 10 mph with the emergency brake on.

In Bloomberg Businessweek (Sept 20 – Sept 26, 2010), Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Minneapolis Fed, reports that the 9.6% jobless rate should be closer to 6.5%, because there are not enough qualified applicants to fill more technical jobs. That is a considerable gap.

If they fill those technical jobs, how soon before the jobs will be outsourced? Are companies communicating their needs to organizations who are providing training to the unemployed?