New generation needs help

Generation Opportunity, a national, non-partisan organization advocating for Millennials ages 18-29, is announcing its Millennial Jobs Report for March 2013. The data is non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) and is specific to 18-29 year olds:

• The youth unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds specifically for March 2013 is 11.7 percent (NSA).

• The youth unemployment rate for 18-29 year old African-Americans for March 2013 is 20.1 percent (NSA); the youth unemployment rate for 18-29 year old Hispanics for March 2013 is 12.6 percent (NSA); and the youth unemployment rate for 18–29 year old women for March 2013 is 10 percent (NSA).

• The declining labor force participation rate has created an additional 1.7 million young adults that are not counted as “unemployed” by the U.S. Department of Labor because they are not in the labor force, meaning that those young people have given up looking for work due to the lack of jobs.

• If the labor force participation rate were factored into the 18-29 youth unemployment calculation, the actual 18-29-unemployment rate would rise to 16.2 percent (NSA).

And this isn't even getting into discussions of student debt.

New technologies aside, it is very difficult for many young people today to start a fulfilling life and career. Remember that you can help in your organization by advocating for increased use of paid internships, improved training and mentoring opportunities for your interns and new employees, and by providing career opportunities to young people using the Pathways Programs. Even if these opportunities don't lead to careers with your organization it will leave these disadvantaged youth significantly better off. Do your part to help out.

Who provides the best health care in the country?

I've become a fan of Quora. It's a great way to receive unfiltered, expert advice on the most random of topics.

My contribution is this post. Did you know that the U.S. Federal Government provides the country's best health care? I bet you didn't. (I didn't either, until after I started working there).

Lobbying, and Why the Government Needs Private Sector Alliances

Interactions between government officials and private companies can be controversial. In the U.S., there are growing fears of corruption and the influence of lobbyists in the government. I have seen this lead towards greater hesitation throughout government in interacting with the private sector. But cures aimed at the ills of private sector influence must be careful not to be worse than the disease.

Private sector partnerships are important for good government policy and strong economic growth. They may even be essential, according to a 2008 report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. This report studied countries that were very poor and managed to turn around their economies in the second half of the 20th-century, including Singapore, Finland, and Ireland. Perhaps their examples can help us turn around our own economy.

Below is a graphic depiction of the transformation of Singapore, Finland, and Ireland from economic backwaters to the per capita equivalents of the United States and Europe*:

Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

*U.S. and Europe defined as the top bar, labeled "high-income OECD countries."

The results seen by these countries is dramatic. Astounding, even. To go from terribly poor and largely illiterate to affluent in the span of a few decades is a feat of human achievement that is rarely paralleled.

So how did these countries do it? What did they achieve that the Latin America group did not that led to this explosive economic growth?

According to the report, Singapore, Finland, and Ireland formed alliances between their governments and their respective private sectors. These were not merely handshake agreements between corporate consultants and congressmen. No, these were formal, structured alliances with councils and forums that conducted strategic planning together, and met to discuss issues of national importance and as they related to the national economy. And the advice given and decisions made by these alliances were taken seriously by government officials, and were acted upon in the form of new policies, programs, and legislation. Through these structured partnerships, these countries were able to transform their economies.

Similar practices, to varying degrees, have been seen in Australia, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Spain and Sweden. Not so unfortunately in Latin America, save for Panama, and not so in the United States, with some focused exceptions.

The truth this attempts to unearth is that government cannot produce effective economic policy without very close input from those affected by it. These alliances capture that input by including the private sector as well as the social sector, such as the educational and non-profit sectors. The public-private alliances described in the report compel the decision makers and experts from these sectors to talk and listen to one another, and make legitimate decisions together. It gives these relationships structure.

Since there is no national structure to these consultations in the U.S. like there are in Singapore and Finland, corporations and government must rely on lobbyists to opaquely share critical information. With structured partnerships, there would be less need for the lobbying, the opaque information sharing and consulting, that the American people have justifiable concerns for. The appetite for this information would be sated, transparently.

Similar practices, to varying degrees, have been seen in Australia, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Spain and Sweden. Here is a graphic example of Panama's private-public alliance, for example, which formed a "National Council" that held representation from the entire country, totaling 24 sectors, to solve the problem of Panama's persistent income inequality and stagnant job growth:

If these examples are to be believed, it is clear that the problem that U.S. government officials face is not that the private sector is too influential, contrary to one increasingly popular opinion. No, this influence is essential for good policy. The problem is that it is unstructured and opaque.

The private sector lacks a structured way of communicating with us in the government and social sectors. And until that occurs, the best we in government can do is to guess through internal research, and to communicate as best we ethically and practically can, but under the auspice of suspicion, and at times outright hostility.

It is not the way it has to be.

The Generals

I've become a full convert to the audio book phenomenon. It is an incredibly efficient way to learn. I can knock out books while I'm at the gym or doing laundry. It's wonderful. I'm currently working my way through The President's Club. The last audio book I finished, The Generals by Thomas E. Ricks, is what I want to talk about today.

The Generals is a lucid tale of U.S. Army leadership in the 20th- and 21st-centuries. I went into the book not expecting much but determined to finish it as it was recommended by someone I trust and admire. I am very glad I did. Ricks not only presents ample historical data to make his points, he presents it in the form of competing leadership models. This makes all of the information that much more useful and easier to follow. I feel as though I am armed with a new tool to take into my career that will be very useful. I also underestimated, prior to this book, just how awesome the example was that General George Marshall set, and just how positive and lasting the impact was that he had on U.S. history (he was the man that selected and groomed Dwight Eisenhower for the post of Supreme Commander in World War II, against established opinion).

If you sign up for a monthly subscription at Audible.com, you get the first month free and discounted audio books every month. I highly recommend it.

Airbnb offers help during the Boston scare

Social media has gotten a bit of a bad rap during the Boston bomber manhunt. But I think Airbnb's effort to help provide housing assistance during the scare is a better representation of the role social media can and should play during a crisis.

To Be Feared or Loved?

Your Friday meme.

Emotional Intelligence

Great article by New York Times columnist David Brooks on the importance of emotional intelligence to career success, and where it comes from.

Law Degrees and Lawsuits

Think that law degree will mean the difference between you and a great career? Law school admissions staff will tell you yes, but this court case says otherwise.

Office Survival Tips From Kindergarten

OnlineBusinessDegree.org has a nice article for you and your staff to succeed in the office.

Natural remedies for your office

This post is cross-posted at Routeam.com.

As part of my efforts to create a healthier work place, I do a lot to promote lifestyles and work ethics that are in tune with our bodies' natural needs. An important part of this involves the use of natural remedies for various ailments.

Natural remedies are great when you can find them. When in doubt, I always try a natural remedy before attempting to medicate myself. It's becoming increasingly known that many, if not most, health related issues are caused by the presence or absence of a natural bodily need. If you can take care of that, you don't need any complicating medications.

Here are a few that I recommend:

Allergy Relief. For allergies, there are a wide variety of natural remedies that work very well. Here are a few that I like a lot:

• The Paleo diet in general, or abstaining from wheat and grains in particular. You'd be surprised how effective this can be in improving allergy issues. Just ask Bill O'Reilly.
• Steaming/saunas. This actually cured my seasonal and pet allergies this past spring. I walked into the sauna and steam rooms sneezing and coughing, and walked out feeling like a million bucks.
• Water. During allergy season, drinking literally gallons of water per day is critical for me in preventing my allergies from becoming sinus infections. Not surprisingly, this prevents and remedies many other ailments as well, including...

Migraines. 

• Pressure point release. This is amazingly effective for me. The idea is that migraines are caused by blockages in blood flows, and you can relieve this by strongly massaging a pressure point that is blocking smooth blood flow. For me, that pressure point is almost always in my left hand where the base of my thumb meets the base of my index fingure.
• Water (see above).
• Managing my caffeine intake. If I bounce between caffeine extremes, either having far more than normal or abruptly stopping after a long period of caffeine consumption, I'm usually ripe for a migraine. I make sure to up my water intake during these periods, it really helps to head them off.
• Sleep better. See my post on the subject to learn more.

I'll also add that for me, Excedrin Migraine works as a great last resort for migraines. As I like to say, do it when you need to, but only when you need to.

It's Friday

Your Friday meme.

Why Can't People Get Work Done at Work

Jason Fried on "Why work doesn't happen at work."

Audience and Theme

Mr. Fried is speaking mostly towards the non-managerial working professional crowd.

Structure and Style

Mr. Fried's structure is a straight-forward Attention-Problem-Solution format. Mr. Fried primarily uses colloquialisms, rhetorical questions, and casual analogies.

Best Practices

I like Mr. Fried's use of analogy, such as his analogy to sleep: just like how interrupting sleep deteriorates its quality, interrupting your work can deteriorate your work's quality as well. But I think it could've been done better. Lynda.com has an excellent course on Time Management Fundamentals that talks about this concept, it calls it "switch-tasking." It has a hands-on example that powerfully conveys the point and, in my experience, is a real mind-changer for those who go through it. I don't see that with Mr. Fried's speech.

Why Did It Work?

Managers are people whose job it is to interrupt people.

How much you agree with this line I think will indicate how much you like this talk. I think Mr. Fried has some good points, but he overreaches in many areas, including this one. He goes on to say that meetings are the main problem, but are they really? Sure if they're done poorly, such as with spontaneous meetings -- as with anything -- but has any important initiative or change been accomplished through a series a emails or IMs alone? While I can't say that's what Mr. Fried is necessarily suggesting here, he certainly doesn't make room for this. I think he's essentially losing the forest for the trees here. His points and techniques lack the level of sophistication, nuance, and refinement required to make his points truly effective.

If you're interested in learning more about this topic, I highly recommend the Lynda.com course by Dave Crenshaw, which you can preview for free here.

Einstein's Chauffeur

Another fantastic speech from July's Next Generation of Government Summit, this one from Andrew Rasiej, Founder of Personal Democracy Media.

Audience and Theme

Change takes time.

Like Mayor Morse, Mr. Rasiej is also speaking at an innovative Washington, D.C. conference geared towards public servants. The theme he sets out for himself is is a tough needle to thread, but he does it -- creating change is necessary and important, but difficult.

Structure and Style

I'm curious as to whether the Encyclopedia Britannica has a reference to Jimmy Whales in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Mr. Rasiej uses a traditional three-part structure. He comes across as an expert public speaker, very effortlessly weaving complex ideas and analogies with stories, anecdotes, and high-level messages. He starts with a nice humorous story too, which sets the tone for what we can expect from his speaking style -- he's serious and skilled, but fun too; he "gets" it.

Best Practices

I love how he uses stories of others' successes to tell his overarching story. No need to take his word for it, he's telling us -- take theirs.

Why Did It Work?

Mr. Rasiej uses a very appealing form of speechwriting here. It's a general story told through a series of shorter stories, each one helping to build towards his conclusion. Pay close attention to how he tells each individual story. He sets each of them up with their own rhetorical devices so that, instead of just being data points in his speech, they each stand on their own. Very well done.

More Speechwriting Tips

More speechwriting tips from the Congressional Research Service:

An effective...speech is defined not by rules of rhetoric, but by the character of response it evokes.

So true! In fact, I would argue this is the metric of success for all persuasive communications. Another tip:

Ideally, a speech draft ought to be reviewed three times: by the writer, by the prospective speaker, and by a disinterested third party. Of these three, priority should ordinarily be given to the speaker. The revised product is likely to be more effective. With speeches, as with food, however, too many cooks are undesirable. Moreover, time seldom permits this much critical evaluation and rewriting. It may even be easier to provide for some appraisal of the speech's impact and audience reaction after delivery. For example, it is said that Senator Robert F. Kennedy's speech writers would follow his delivery of a speech word by word, noting those phrases or ideas that were well received, or others that created problems.

This reflects my personal experience as a speechwriter; I also found that three lines of review were best. I sometimes had to go through more lines of review than that, which at times led to deteriorating quality, but I found ways to work with that challenge by better focusing what others could review and what they could not.

For example, as the primary speechwriter in my office, I soon began to see myself to be the final authority for prose and style, other than the speaker himself (the third-line reviewer). In terms of messaging (i.e. Is this line persuasive? Or is it confusing? etc.), I would defer to the second line reviewer. If they thought a message was off I would revise it. And finally, for accuracy of information on particular data points, I would defer to our subject matter experts. If they disagreed with a meaning or statistic, I would immediately correct it.

But if a coworker offered advice on what I considered to be my area of responsibility -- the prose and style -- I would listen carefully and consider it, but I would not necessarily change my approach. At first I would do so to try and please them, but I quickly got out of that habit after I made a number of stylistic changes against my better judgment that the speaker later disapproved. Soon I realized that only I was accountable for that element of the speech, so when in doubt, I would have to go with my own judgment. Otherwise, I wasn't doing my job.

You Gotta...

Your Monday Pick Me Up.

Bring Your Kid to Work Day

Your Friday meme, in Stormtrooper form.

Paper Towels

I love this four-minute Ted Talk by Joe Smith.

Speech Analysis

Audience and Theme

13 billion pounds of paper towels are used by Americans every year. If we could reduce the usage of paper towels, one paper towel per person per day, [that means] 571,230 pounds of paper not used. We can do that.

Mr. Smith is speaking at a Ted Conference, known for promoting new, innovative ideas. But otherwise his speech is intended for a general audience without any special expertise or experience.

Structure and Style

Mr. Smith makes beautful use of the Attention-Problem-Solution format. You could search for a long time and not find one better. He doesn't crack many jokes (though his last line is a good one), but his speech still comes across very conversational without losing its gravity.

Also, note his skilled correction at the very beginning of his talk. I can't imagine so elegantly correcting myself after flubbing an opening line at a Ted Conference. Great job him.

Best Practices

Love the audience interaction and the hands-on demonstration.

Why Did It Work?

He followed the Made to Stick formula. The speech was:

1. Simple
2. Unexpected
3. Concrete
4. Credible
5. Emotional.

I think I've personally used at least a hundred fewer paper towels since seeing this talk for this first time about six months ago. So good.

Mayor Alex Morse speech

23-year-old Mayor Alex Morse of Holyoke, Massachusetts delivered a powerful presentation at the Next Generation of Government Summit this past July. I'd like to break it down, and analyze what I think made it so effective.

The speech in its entirety can be viewed here:

Audience and Theme

Mayor Morse is speaking at an innovative Washington, D.C. conference geared towards public servants. In his speech, he describes his election as Mayor at the age of 23, and his innovative initiatives to improve his impoverished community. His speech was expository, meant to instruct more than persuade.

Structure and Style

Mayor Morse's speech employs a traditional three-part structure. He begins with brief thank you's, a self-introduction, and mapping out the topics of his presentation. The speech combines what appear to be practiced and rehearsed remarks with an off-the-cuff, conversational, free-flowing and contemporary style.

Best practices

Mayor Morse is clearly a rising star, but he doesn't let his potential celebrity get in the way of his message. He employs self-deprecating humor -- "Every mayor has their quirky facts...Those are mine...Now you know where volleyball was invented" -- to draw the audience into his story.

He also plays a number of his campaign's ads, which were very well done and -- from what I recall -- brought the house down. The instrumental track was very effective in deepening the mood.

Why did it work?

The story. Mayor Morse had a powerful story to tell, and the techniques he employed to tell it served to enhance it. An excellent example of highly effective, sharp, yet unassuming, public speaking techniques.

Like Mayor Morse himself.

Speechwriting Tips

One distinguishing feature of management is the constant need to communicate, particularly in front of groups. The highest, most pressured, and often most difficult form of this communication, in my opinion, is public speaking. I would like to take some time over the next few weeks to delve deeper into this topic.

To get us started, I found this nicely done (and free) write-up by the Congressional Research Service, created to advise Congressional speechwriters:

Writing for the spoken word is a special discipline; it requires that congressional speechwriters' products be written primarily, although not exclusively, to be heard, not read. Speeches are better cast in simple, direct, and often short sentences that can be easily understood by listeners. Rhetorical devices such as repetition, variation, cadence, and balance are available to, and should be used by, the speechwriter.

It is important for speechwriters to analyze audiences according to factors such as age; gender; culture; profession; size of audience; political affiliation, if any; and the occasion for, and purpose of, the speech. Most effective speeches do not exceed 20 minutes in length.

I highly recommend reading the entire write-up, it's very well done.

Never Gonna Stop

Your Monday Pick Me Up.