• 90% OF COMPANIES GENERATE YEARLY PERFORMANCE EVALUATION ‘SCORES’ FOR EMPLOYEES and use them as a basis for compensation decisions. But the process “epitomizes the absurdities of corporate life as both managers & staff too often view it as time consuming, excessively subjective, demotivating, ultimately unhelpful… and which may even undermine performance as they struggle with ratings, worry about compensation, and try to make sense of the feedback.” Large companies have been shifting emphasis from annual retroactive evaluations to “fact-based performance & development discussions” on a frequent basis, and from rating ‘scales’ to objectives that are more fluid and changeable” – more focused on development, teamwork and leadership skills among the ‘high’ performers… and avoiding risk of demotivating the broad majority of employees.” DCG have designed systems in this vision for decades, encouraging the critical factors which truly motivate top personnel: challenge, autonomy, opportunity to expand skills & aptitude, and purpose. Let us help.  [McKINSEY QUARTERLY – May 16, 16]
  • “WHEN THE WORLD’S RESERVE BANKS NEED TO CREATE MORE MONEY, they don’t turn to printing presses anymore. With a few keystrokes, trillions can pop into circulation” which is what ‘quantitative easing’ has been about since the 2008 meltdown and why national debt is now around $15 trillion. But from a behavior standpoint, eight out of every ten transactions (involving more than a third of consumer spending by value) still use cash as the payment methods. The reasons are principally (1) that ATM and electronic banking cybertheft continue to increase dramatically (“disproving the widely held belief that a cashless society would reduce crime rates”); and (2) that ‘tangibility’ of money, “despite the abstract concept it represents, is what makes printed money so powerful – as a symbol of success and as a household budgeting tool… Currency is fixed into the transaction processes of the world and is securely embedded into our social and commercial culture.”   [REUTERS.COM – June 3, 16]
  • STAYING MARRIED IS A CHALLENGE. “In early years, you fight because you don’t understand each other; in later years, you fight because you do.” Sociologists/psychologists/therapists generally contend that “disagreements are inevitable and healthy, so learning to fight fairly is essential, starting with avoidance of Resentment and its chief conspirator: Contempt – which gets communicated by derogatory remarks, constant interruption, dismissal of concerns and/or withdrawal from conversation. Contempt sets off a chain reaction: killing vulnerability which is a prerequisite for intimacy, without which commitment is a grind and the whole enterprise goes pear-shaped.” A huge factor is that “contempt’s favorite condition for breeding is familiarity, and you can’t have a family without familiarity.” The most generally suggested antidotes are (1) to apply the steps which “make your partner feel loved – words, time, kindly acts, gifts, sex; and (2) learning to apologize properly and to forgive.” Probably the biggest misperception about the ‘partnership’ which wedding vows imply is expectation that it’s a 50:50 relationship deal, but “there’s a reason fairy tales always end in marriage. It’s because nobody wants to see what comes after.”  [TIME – Jun 13, 16]
  • BIG MEDICARE CHANGES ARE NOW BEING PROPOSED BY THE ADMINISTRATION “under the guise of ‘reform’…claiming the new rules reward quality instead of quantity.” Reality is the opposite, as many low spenders with “worst scores on patient outcomes – indicating patients get more infections and die sooner from heart problems and pneumonia than at other hospitals” – get Medicare bonuses. Changes would include: “(1) Opening Medicare to age 50, forcing seniors to compete with certain treatments reserved for younger patients with more life ahead; (2) Making it harder to get joint replacements and clobbering seniors with bills for ‘observation care’; (3) Capping annual fee increases to a fraction of 1% with increased federal report filings, so ailment treatment gets short shrift, prodding 9 out of 10 solo practitioners to avoid Medicare patients. Remember the 2012 election campaign where the President accused Republicans of plotting to ‘end Medicare as we know it,’ including an ad depicting pushing Granny’s wheelchair off a cliff?”     [NEW YORK POST – June 21, 16]
  •  THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: Pretty solid evidence that Google is manipulating political Search Response and who is behind it – here’s why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFxFRqNmXKg&feature=youtu.be‘Password Hell’ may soon be a nightmare of the past. Schwab has replaced PINs and identity-verification questions with VOICE I.D. “which authenticates you by identifying different behavioral and physical characteristics unique to your voice.”

    Turn your arm into a touchscreen?  https://www.youtube.com/embed/9J7GpVQCfms