Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom What Does Digital Transformation Mean to You

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom What Does Digital Transformation Mean to You Digital transformation is a transformation because it affects everyone within the organization from the c-suite on down. But at this point in time, is it more of a theory â€" something that organizations aspire to â€" or a reality? A group of recent studies provide insight into the degree to which non-IT employees desire and are helping to move the needle. Age Discrepancies Are Real To start, Capgemini Consulting conducted a 2016 joint research study with the MIT Center for Digital Business. The partners interviewed over 150 executives across a broad range of industry sectors and geographies. Not surprisingly, the research found that younger workers today have greater familiarity with digital tools and ways of working than their more tenured counterparts. The Capgemini consulting executives highlighted a growing gap between older and younger workers in their expectations and work habits around technology. Where older employees face a learning curve, millennial workers are often underwhelmed by the digital tools available to them. One executive commented: “these people coming into the company, mid 20s, late 20s, even early 30s, they do everything electronically. They say: ‘Come on, I know the company is over 100 years old, but our information and IT capabilities don’t have to match the age of the company!’” Along the same lines, according to the Dell Future Workforce Study, which was conducted in 2016 by Penn Schoen Berland, nearly half of American millennials (42 percent) said they’d likely quit a job if workplace tech didn’t meet their standards â€" nearly 4X as many as baby boomers (14 percent). Eighty-one percent of millennials reported the technology available influences their decision to take a new position compared to 53 percent of baby boomers. Sixty-two percent of millennials said remote teams and better communication technology will make face to face communication obsolete compared to 48 percent of Gen X-ers and 32 percent of baby boomers. And nearly 3 in 4 American millennials (72 percent) said it’s likely they will be working in a smart office using the Internet of Things in the next five years â€" compared to 52 percent of Gen X-ers and 35 percent of baby boomers. Finally, 68 percent of millennial workers anticipated using AR/VR products in their professional life (compared to 55 percent of Gen X-ers and 42 percent of baby boomers), and 70 percent of millennial workers agreed that their jobs could be made easier with the assistance of AI (compared to 49 percent of Gen X-ers and 34 percent of baby boomers). Adoption Remains A Barrier Some of the executives Capgemini Consulting and MIT interviewed reported success in using platforms such as enterprise social networks or collaboration tools, but others highlighted challenges. Given the investment made in these systems, lack of adoption is a serious concern. One respondent stated: “We’ve spent an awful lot of money on technology, but I still see people working in the old way.” On the user side, executives reported a lack of understanding and unclear business value as major issues. A leader in the food service industry explained: “I think people are apprehensive about new technologies. They don’t understand them and there is a fear of the unknown. They don’t fully understand how they’re going to drive business outcomes.” Many of Capgemini’s respondents recognized that new digital tools, automation of business processes, and an increasing role of data in decision-making can increase transparency in an organization. But, as conversations move online and information is more freely available, they also witnessed resistance from management employees. Managers may view these trends as a threat to their autonomy or influence. Explaining sales managers’ reactions to the introduction of a real-time reporting platform, one Capgemini executive commented: “That kind of transparency, they’re not used to, so there’s an initial push back.” For the rest of the post, head over to the QuickBase Fast Track blog.

Volunteering The Secret to Career Growth

Volunteering The Secret to Career Growth The act of volunteering doesn’t need to be an altruistic endeavor.  While we can’t forget that there are many societal benefits to individuals volunteering their time, individuals shouldn’t discount how they can utilize volunteering opportunities to increase their own personal happiness and their own professional success. Volunteering has many effects on your psychological health and happiness such as decreasing your chance of a premature death by as much as 22 percent. It can also be utilized as a professional development tool that can fast track your journey to professional success. Before you go off to volunteer at a soup kitchen or a dog shelter, you might want to consider if you need the professional boost the right volunteer opportunity can grant you. If you managed to successfully land your dream job, then by all means get your cuddle on with animals at the local pet shelter. On the other hand if you find yourself in the unenviable situation where you’re too inexperienced to land that dream job, you might want to be a little more thoughtful where and how you volunteer. Ohio University weighs in on the importance of targeted volunteer experiences when trying to utilize them to enhance applications and resumes in one of their articles. According to the university, “putting in a few hours at the Humane Society probably won’t do the trick. Organizing a fundraising event, however, will probably send your application straight to the acceptance pile.” In college I was one of those people who made it to the end of their junior year with a laughably bare resume. I hadn’t proactively engaged in clubs and I didn’t work through college. I had to find a volunteer opportunity ASAP. In a moment of bumbling genius rather than find a soup kitchen to volunteer at, I approached the manager of a local radio station about helping them write grant proposals. They said yes. I had the skills and they were in desperate need of funding. I spent the next semester of college, searching for relevant grant opportunities and crafting grant applications. That targeted volunteer experience was enough to allow me to land a job within two weeks of seriously beginning to look for employment. How can you find your own targeted volunteer opportunity? Here are two solid strategies: Contact Non-Profits and Offer Specialist Skills. Decide what skill you want to learn or what type of experience you want to build, find a few local non-profits and contact them about potentially utilizing your skills on their behalf. Whether that’s maintaining or modernizing their website, getting them on social media, or crafting grant applications for them, you might find them more than willing to welcome you onboard as another helping hand. Here’s some tips to get this process started: Determine what types of tasks you would ideally like to implement as you volunteer. Choose three or four non-profits. Determine if your goals and their needs align. Prepare a concrete pitch explaining how you can help them and the value of the suggested task to the non-profit. Find a Volunteer Opportunity Over the Internet. Don’t limit yourself to your hometown. The internet and modern technology has increased the numbers of volunteer opportunities available to you. Online volunteering can also be helpful if you don’t have a lot of time to spend volunteering, you don’t have an easy way to commute to a volunteer location, or you live in a remote location. For example, the Smithsonian accepts volunteers to help transcribe old historical documents. This can be a great opportunity for anyone interested in a career that focuses on transcribing. To find other volunteer opportunities, you should check out the UNV Online Volunteering Services website. The site allows you to search for volunteer opportunities based on your skills and interest. Or you can check out Volunteer Match. Volunteering Benefits Everyone Volunteering does not need to be for purely altruistic purposes. And if you find yourself in the unenviable position of unemployed and underqualified, you might want to utilize targeted volunteering to enhance your resume. You won’t regret it. You can check out more volunteer opportunities here. Image: Volunteers  Michael Lehet

My forbidden fantasy Voting for Trump

My forbidden fantasy Voting for Trump I am not voting for Trump. And I think Hillary is a liar and Im voting for her anyway. Also, I love Ivanka so much I cant stop Googling to find more tidbits about her. And I read in many places that Chelsea is a brat and neither she nor her husband can figure out a real job to do. And, I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that Trump is like a car crash and I love looking.  I love watching him squirm out of every disgusting thing he does. I love watching him say he pays no taxes. I love the drama. American  politics is boring, the two-party system is BS and everyone is pretty much the same candidate, and its fun to watch him shake things up. Part of me wants to vote for Trump because I want to see everything shaken up. After all, Robespierre  had to terrorize  France before we  saw the benefits of  the French Revolution. Im sick of Denmark. And Norway. And Sweden. Im sick of all the research that says they are happy. People in those countries are always reporting how happy they are. Why cant they be more like New Yorkers who are the most unhappy people in the world  and wear that like a badge of honor? Its not just the grown ups. The kids score higher on tests, and they bike to school, or whatever. The research about happiness that comes out of these three countries is sickening to me  because Ive always been convinced that the happiness is a result of homogeneity. Its the same as in companies. When you read about how important diversity is to a company, you never read that it makes people happy. For example, corporate governance is more effective with  women: companies that have female board members make more money. But you never read that corporate governance is more fun to do with a female mucking up the boys club. In fact, research shows that most startups cant even function properly with diversity because its such a time suck to deal with. So those tall blond  Northern Europeans are happier because they keep their gene pool so pure. Not kidding. Homogeneity promotes happiness. I consider  my move to rural America as proof of this  hypothesis. Because I did all the research to discover that people in big cities are not happy and people in small  communities are happy and I moved to one. And you know what? People are happy because they are all the same and have nothing to do but keep doing the same thing. Its a microcosm of the Danes and the Swedes and the Norwegians. The Economist confirms my hunch. Just like the Eskimos have a billion words for ice, the Danes have a billion words for happiness. Hygge (pronounced hew-geh) means something like the art of creating intimacy or cosiness of the soul or cocoa by candlelight. The Economist says the Danes consider this concept  a quintessential element of their national character. But Denmark, Sweden and Norway are known for something besides hygge/happiness. Exclusion. Even if they are trying hard to be inclusive, those countries are among the most difficult in the world for expatriates. Because making new friends, and adapting to new people is hard. And  seeing your own culture  reflected back to you in another persons culture is especially hard because it reveals new ways of looking at tightly held beliefs. So expatriates are excluded from the happiest communities. If you are voting for Trump, I dont need to tell you that. You know it intuitively. Which is why I dont want to be like you. I want to be someone who strives to see myself in new ways  and puts myself in new, difficult scenarios so that I can grow. I want to grow from doing something brave and challenging more than I want the security of homogeneity and happiness. That said, I have a fantasy that I tell everyone Im voting for Hillary but when I get to the poll I secretly vote for Trump. And so do enough people because really, its so uncool to admit publicly that youre voting for him and then he gets into office and that forces the Democrats and Republicans to come together in Congress to keep Trump from doing anything, which means we will finally admit what has been true all along, that theres no difference between Democrats and Republicans, and that will open things up for other, real choices for political parties. Maybe this is what happens when you get older: wild sex fantasies retreat to make way for  wild political fantasies. But really what happens is that when you get older you get happier, and people who are more insular are happier: Its messed up (and tricky which is why Im doing the  upcoming course on happiness). Happiness, the way most people define it, makes you do crappy things like keep  immigrants out and vote for Trump. Happiness is most powerful when its fueled by interestingness diversity, unmet but engaging goals and real, meaningful choices. Thats why Im happy to live in a  country where our schools are  a mess  due to the fact that  we have so many different types of families. And we cant even have cosiness with cocoa because we cant agree on how cocoa should be made. I like the diversity. I like that its difficult. The easy way is not the path to happiness.

Financial Tips And Loan Options For Female Entrepreneurs

Financial Tips And Loan Options For Female Entrepreneurs Female entrepreneurs have multiplied in great numbers over the past ten years.   The invasion of women into the white-collar workforce has made it easier for ladies to obtain the necessary access to capital it takes to keep a business growing and moving in the upward direction. Though talent and passion are imperative to success as a female business owner, the access to available capital often provides crucial support during slow or fast-growing times.   Take a look at a few solid financial tips and loan options that will provide the necessary funding for female entrepreneurs. Business credit cards have their pros and cons  Instead of obtaining a traditional loan, owners have the ability to access more capital through a business credit card.   Business credit cards offer several benefits.   They typically have higher credit limits than conventional cards.   Business accounts also boost the borrowers credit rather quickly as long as all payments are made promptly. Research and explore financing options Reading this article is a great first step.   Do not try to go into business ownership with a blind eye.   Be competent in the full array of financing options to best decide how to plan for the future.   Try seeking out lenders that have programs that are unique to women.   Some banks offer lending options specifically designed for female entrepreneurs. Connect with other women in business and build a core network of colleagues.   Women who have already experienced the growing pains of running a business can offer invaluable practical advice.   Women should always lift up other women. The United States Small Business Administration has a networking platform for over 100 business centers around the states with a sole purpose of assisting female entrepreneurs. Also, consider becoming a part of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).   The organization offers valuable one-on-one professional development programs and other tools aimed to help women find the funding they need to grow their businesses. Loan options are extensive Depending on the lending bank, there are several different options when it comes to acquiring a loan.   Here are just a few of the various options, along with a short synopsis of their function. Line of credit loans   This is a short-term loan that basically extends a business owner’s available balance to the upper limits of a loan contract to cover business expenses.   Line of credit loans typically have the lowest interest rates, due to the low risk. Installment loans The most traditional borrow and return type of loan.   The business owners receive the funds and subsequently pays a monthly payment, including interest, until the amount it paid off. Balloon loans With a balloon loan, borrowers receive the full amount upon signing and then only pay a set amount of interest each month for a set amount of time.   When the end of the contract arrives, the borrower pays the principal amount of the loan in one lump sum. . Images via pixabay.

How to Check the Writing Resume For Errors

How to Check the Writing Resume For ErrorsIn order to check the writing resume for errors, the employer should know what type of writing he or she is checking for. Remember that your resume is your best chance to showcase your talents and abilities. Here are a few pointers on how to check the writing resume for errors.Start by looking at the first paragraph. What is your first paragraph all about? It is the section that contains all the basic information that you want to be noticed in the eyes of the employer. Your writing resume should be precise and clear; any sloppy or unclear information can really work against you when you go looking for a job.Next, try to see if the writing resume offers you something of value. Do you have anything interesting to say about yourself? Do you provide some examples of awards, professional achievements or volunteer work?How do you feel about the job position that you are applying for? If it doesn't sound like a good fit, you might want to think twic e about submitting your resume. If you are interviewing for a job that sounds just right, then you will be more likely to succeed.Another tip to check the writing resume for errors is to go through the whole document as a whole. While it may not seem important, it is important to make sure that there are no spelling or grammatical mistakes. A typo or a misspelled word can make a bad impression.You should also check your previous work. You can always include references from your past employers to show proof of your work experience. This will help to prove that you are qualified for the job. Look at the job posting and see if there is anything that seems suspicious.Also, make sure that you are targeting the right position by looking at the requirements of the job posting and deciding whether or not you can fill the requirement. A good example would be if the hiring manager asked for only one word, and you needed to write an essay on why you were perfect for the job.Finally, check the writing resume for errors before you actually submit it. If there are any errors, you should find out what they are and fix them before the deadline.

Career Secret #1 Define Your Terms

Career Secret #1 Define Your Terms We mistakenly think only the super-successful get to work on their own terms.   The real secret to success is quite the opposite.   Heres how I learned that valuable lessonDuring my 7 years hosting a career talk show on SiriusXM, I interviewed Deepak Chopra.   I was a fan and aspired to be like him motivating people with wisdom about new ways of thinking and being.   He possessed the kind of life and lifestyle I wanted and attained a level of success that offered him control to work on his own terms.When asked about what a day in the life was like Deepak said that he gets up every morning, meditates and works out and then looks at his schedule for the day.   If everything on there doesnt bring him joy, he doesnt do it.My response: I cant wait until Im that successful to be able to have that kind of control over my life and my time.Deepaks response: How do you think I got this successful?And there you have it.   We dont get to some magical day where all of the sudden we are a success and our time is our own to manage the way we want.   We find success when we define what brings us joy and we make sure thats what our days are comprised of.We all have different requirements when it comes to how we want to work, where and when.   We need to be the ones taking the time to Soul Search and understand what each of us needs to be most successful what schedule we want, what role we thrive in, what type of work brings us joy.   Then its up to us to make each day reflect what we want by making the right choices.   That is how you will become super-successful in your own right too.Its not selfish to work on your own terms.   Its the best career move you can make.   Try it.   Youll see that inspiration, stellar ideas and results come most easily when you work in the ways that work best FOR YOU.   Get a jump start on your Soul Search with my upcoming career empowerment webinar (5/16/15).   Find out more and sign up here (special discount ends 4/30/15).To know what you prefe r, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to keep your soul alive. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Spotting the Difference Between Good and Bad Insurance Companies

Spotting the Difference Between Good and Bad Insurance Companies In order to live a secure financial life, it’s important to get the peace of mind you would expect from an insurance company. After all, the last thing you want is to have a sudden vehicle repair that not only costs a lot of money but leaves you stranded at home with no way to get to work. It’s far better to pay a consistent sum of money every month in order to get the compensation we need to continue our lives should an accident happen. Unfortunately, not all insurance companies are so accepting of our problems. Many insurance companies do everything in their power to avoid helping their customers, and that’s when it’s important to separate the terrible ones from the good ones. In this article, we’re going to help you differentiate between good and bad insurance companies by listing the most common differences that you should expect to see. Delays and Responses The sign of a good insurance company is no delays. A poor insurance company will do everything they can do delay your claims, message you back and drag out any conversations. They’ll confuse you with technical terms, they’ll point out fine prints that you probably missed out and they’re going to make it tough for you to get any compensation out of them. A good insurance company, on the other hand, will be prompt in their responses and actually make you feel like you’re a valued customer. They’ll make sure there are minimal delays in processing your claim and they’ll also quickly reply whenever you have a message for them. If you feel like your insurance company takes forever to respond, then it’s likely because they’re a terrible company. Policies That Confuse You Good insurance companies keep it simple. They’re not concerned with trying to squeeze every penny out of you and are more focused on delivering a good service. If you feel like your insurance company is taking you for a ride, then you may want to consider a free case review from an attorney. This will give you more information about the case and also give you details about your rights and how to exercise them. This will ensure that you get the attention you need from your insurance company, and also ensure that you end up getting the compensation you deserve. Taking legal action is usually the best option against a company that has confusing policies that are difficult to explain. If the insurance company is purposely confusing you over the phone because they know you don’t understand their conditions very well, then seeking legal advice is the best way to counteract that poor behaviour and seek justice. In short, if your insurance company makes you feel like a statistic more than an actual valued customer, then it’s a good idea to consider switching based on recommendations from friends and family members or online reviews. Don’t subject yourself to a poorly-managed insurance company any longer and give yourself the peace of mind you deserve.