Quantcast
Channel: Co.Labs
Viewing all 36575 articles
Browse latest View live

The Music Industry's New War Is About So Much More Than Copyright

0
0

We're listening to more songs than ever thanks to YouTube. Eight charts that explain why that isn't necessarily music to the ears of Taylor, Bono, and the big labels.

Taylor Swift has "declared war" on YouTube. Or at least that's how some have characterized the open letter signed by Swift, U2, and around 180 other artists last month, calling on lawmakers to reform the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, or DMCA.

The DMCA, says the letter, "is broken and no longer works for creators." The letter takes aim specifically at Section 512 of the law, which gives user-generated content platforms "safe harbor" from liabilities related to copyright infringement. In other words, artists say, YouTube profits off pirated copies of their music. That directly diminishes songwriters' and artists' earnings while allowing "major tech companies to grow and generate huge profits by creating ease of use for consumers to carry almost every recorded song in history in their pocket via a smartphone." YouTube, Google, and Alphabet aren't mentioned by name, but it's obvious which "major tech companies" they're talking about.

While global music consumption is at an all-time high—and YouTube is the number one source of music streams, boasting more listeners than Spotify and Apple Music combined—only a small amount of the revenue generated by that consumption is passed along to artists and musicians, according to the letter. (You can read it in full here.) The artists' share is allegedly dwarfed by the "huge profits" earned by the platform. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, YouTube saw a more than 100% increase in the number of video plays last year, while revenue sent to U.S. artists only saw a 17% increase.

"They feel they are being shortchanged," Mark Mulligan, managing director of Midia Research, a boutique media and technology analysis company, told the Guardian.

MORE LISTENING, LESS REVENUE

STREAMING ACCOUNTS FOR MORE MUSIC INDUSTRY REVENUE THAN EVER

The Issue Of Piracy

The music industry has long claimed that YouTube is not nearly as effective as it claims to be at identifying copyright-infringing videos uploaded by fans or other third parties. The DMCA's "Safe Harbor" provision protects the platform from prosecution if one of its users posts infringing material, provided that the site was unaware of the infringement. (These protections were crucial for the growth of social networks where the majority of what is posted there is submitted by users, unvetted; Without the provision, sites like Twitter and Facebook would have likely been litigated into bankruptcy and oblivion.). In turn, if a copyright owner or her representative reports an example of copyright infringement, the site must take steps to remove the offending material, or the site can be held legally responsible.

Taylor Swift can rely on a team of lawyers, but for most artists, searching for pirated versions of their songs on YouTube is an onerous task. To help police the platform for pirated music and videos, YouTube's automated Content ID system alerts rights owners when their copyrighted material is found on the site, giving them the opportunity to either take the offending piece of material off the site or to monetize it with ads and collect the revenues.

"The overwhelming majority of labels and publishers have licensing agreements in place with YouTube to leave fan videos up on the platform and earn revenue from them," a YouTube spokesperson said last month in a statement. "Today the revenue from fan-uploaded content accounts for roughly 50% of the music industry's YouTube revenue. Any assertion that this content is largely unlicensed is false." Since YouTube launched Content ID a decade ago, the program has paid $2 billion to artists and labels, the company says.

YouTube claims that its Content ID system catches copyright violations 99.7% of the time. The labels say otherwise: Some record executives claim that YouTube's success rate is only 50%, according to the Wall Street Journal, implying that there's a lot of copyrighted material on YouTube for which the proper rights holders aren't receiving compensation. A Sony executive told the outlet that since 2012 the label had discovered 1.5 million copyright violations that Content ID had missed, amounting to $7.7 million in lost revenue.

However, according to Midia, the impact of these "Safe Harbor" streams are small, with just 2% of music video views coming from rights-infringing user-generated uploads. Three-quarters of all music video views are official, says Midia, and of those, three-quarters come from Vevo, a joint venture between Google, Sony, and Universal Music Group.

Whatever the true numbers are, the artists say they want Congress to change the DMCA so YouTube is held liable and responsible for any copyright infringements, and not just the ones identified by the music labels or the platform's Content ID system. That could prove devastating to the platform. So too could a decision by the music industry to move Vevo to another platform, like Facebook—what Mulligan of Midia calls a "nuclear option."

But there's another way YouTube might be able to cool this war, and it has little to do with piracy.

This Isn't Just About Piracy And Copyright Reform—It's About Declining Royalties

Rampant piracy is the narrative being pushed by the music industry in its letter to Congress, but the truth is more complicated. Read between the lines of the letter, and a larger, more lucrative and familiar problem appears: The royalties that an artist or songwriter gets each time a stream of their song is played are declining.

Putting piracy aside, legal streams earn much less on YouTube than they do on Spotify or Apple Music. It comes down to a core issue with YouTube's business model—one that DMCA reform will not resolve.

YOUTUBE'S AD-BASED ROYALTIES ARE A FRACTION OF SUBSCRIBER ROYALTIES

Via the "Fair Music: Transparency and Payment Flows In the Music Industry" by Rethink Music, an initiative of BerkleeICE (Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship)

Artists reap revenues made from ads shown before and alongside a video, but those revenues appear to be decreasing. In 2015, YouTube paid $740 million to music rights holders—a 15% increase year-on-year, according to Midia's research. But at the same time, streams on YouTube and Vevo grew a whopping 132% to a record 751 billion plays.

This surge in plays cut YouTube's effective payment rate per stream to rights holders in half, from $0.002 in 2014 to $0.001 in 2015, according to Midia, based on data from the record industry and YouTube announcements. That drop in payout rates amounted to a loss to the record industry of $755 million, Midia estimates. (YouTube does not disclose yearly ad revenue payments, although a person "close to the company" told the Financial Times that the $740 million figure for 2015 is "understated.")

THE RISE IN AD-SUPPORTED STREAMS

AD-SUPPORTED STREAMS VS. SUBSCRIPTION-SERVICE STREAMS IN U.S.

Zeroing in on the U.S. market, in 2015 the royalties artists earned in the U.S. from "On-Demand Ad-Supported Streaming"—that includes all the cash YouTube sent to artists and labels last year, plus revenue created by Spotify's free tier—amounted to only $385 million, reported the Recording Industry Association of America. That was a 30% improvement on the $295 million the industry earned from ad-based streams in 2014, it said. But during that same period, again, the growth of music streaming on YouTube far outpaced revenue growth.

By comparison, the revenue created by paid subscriptions—like Spotify's and Apple Music's—was $1.2 billion, says the record industry, or over 3 times the amount created by YouTube. Nor do YouTube's royalties match the $803 million the music industry earned from online radio listening on smaller platforms like Pandora, labeled above as "SoundExchange Distributions."

THE RISE IN STREAMING SUBSCRIBERS

The magnitude of this disparity—a roughly $800 million gap between ad-based royalties and subscription-based royalties, according to the RIAA—really comes into focus when you consider that in 2015 the industry estimated that there were only 10.8 million paying streaming listeners in the U.S. YouTube, on the other hand, has an estimated 200 million users in the U.S. That means each paying streaming U.S. listener creates over $120 a year—or the annual price of a $10 a month subscription—while each YouTube or free Spotify listener in the U.S. nets less than $2 a year.

And here's one final way to look at YouTube's dismal royalties in the US: last year, the platform earned less for artists than sales of vinyl records did.

EARNINGS FROM VINYL VS. ROYALTIES FROM AD-SUPPORTED STREAMS

COPYRIGHT REFORM: A WAY TO GAIN LEVERAGE IN ROYALTY NEGOTIATIONS?

Ultimately, the amount of lost revenue due to copyright violations that YouTube's automated system has missed still pales in comparison to the billion-plus dollars that the music industry earns each year from YouTube's subscription-based competitors like Spotify and Apple Music.

In other words, DMCA reform alone—getting stricter on piracy and funneling more users to officially sanctioned, ad-supported uploads—won't calm complaints by artists or the record companies that YouTube is stiffing them in ways its subscription-focused competitors are not.

What might help however is a change in how ads work on YouTube, and how they make money for artists and labels. One issue at play: Ad sales tend to be lower in developing markets, where YouTube's growth is happening fastest. Currently, 80% of YouTube's audience is said to live outside the U.S. Those may be valuable new listeners in the long run, but for now they're bringing a fraction of the earnings they used to.

Indeed, all three major labels are currently in contract renewal negotiations with YouTube over the royalties it pays per play; Universal's contract, sources say, has already expired. Also, it's worth noting that while the music industry has made beloved performers like Taylor Swift and Bono the faces of this fight in order to curry favor with their fan bases, negotiating better contracts—while great news for major labels—may not fix most artists' revenue woes. That's because labels often take home the lion's share of the revenue created by music consumption, just as they have throughout the history of recorded music.

WHO EARNS WHAT FROM STREAMING

Some observers have argued that the music industry is using the copyright battle as nothing more than a way to gain leverage over YouTube. After all, if the DMCA were reformed like the artists' letter suggests, it could bog YouTube down in an endless river of copyright infringement suits.

But it could also threaten to decimate the chances of smaller content platforms from ever growing to the size of what Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are today, which would be bad for competition. Moreover, by making the DMCA more strict, it could severely damage how issues of Fair Use are handled on the web. Video artists and musicians whose work relies on fairly appropriating copyrighted work to create something new or to comment on the source material, may wake up one day to find all their work deleted from YouTube's servers, sent off into digital oblivion.

As the industry and the business models continue to evolve—and as YouTube expects artists to be patient that on-demand content will someday be better-supported by advertising—artists and the music business are grabbing whatever leverage they can.

Will YouTube Red, Its Subscription Service, Help The Situation For Artists?

In October, Alphabet launched YouTube Red, and for 10 bucks a month—the same price as Spotify—users get unlimited access to ad-free videos and exclusive content. The opportunities for revenue creation with YouTube Red are clear: The Verge's Ben Popper suggested that "if just 5% of [YouTube's] U.S. viewers were to sign up for the service, it would add more than a billion dollars in annual revenue to the company's bottom line." This means more money for the music industry too: Speaking to the Financial Times, YouTube's chief business officer Robert Kyncl calls Red "another revenue source for rights holders."

But just how significant a revenue source Red will be remains to be seen. Much of the planned exclusive content is not music-related; rather, with a programming slate that includes participation from major TV networks and non-music "YouTube stars" like PewDiePie, YouTube Red seems to be positioning itself less as a competitor to Apple Music and Spotify's paid tier and more like one of the many VOD platforms out there, like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video—which wouldn't necessarily improve the fortunes of artists.

Still, YouTube is trying hard to funnel music lovers to Red through its YouTube Music app, which, thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign, briefly unseated Pokémon Go last week to become the top-downloaded free app on the iTunes chart. New users will receive a two-week free trial to Red. But there may be little incentive for those free users to stick around and start paying because, unlike Spotify and Apple, which offer significantly less to free mobile users versus paid ones, YouTube Music with a Red subscription offers virtually the same music experience, only without ads.

Moreover, according to conversations with those familiar with the matter, in spite of its efforts with YouTube Red, the company expects free, ad-supported streaming to remain core to its business. The fact that ads aren't yet a wildly lucrative source of revenue is a matter of patience: As more ad inventory moves from television and terrestrial radio to digital platforms, YouTube predicts that the revenue from free ad-supported streaming will increase in time. And when you're owned by one of the most valuable companies in the world, it's easier to be patient with sluggish revenues.

In its defense of ads, YouTube has argued that ad-based music has worked for radio. But there's a key difference between YouTube and radio: Radio controls what listeners hear, making it great free promotion for the artist. On-demand services like Spotify and YouTube—on which users search for what they want to hear, hit play, and voila, it's there—don't offer the same promotional benefits or capture the same kind of attention.

In short, artists and the music industry writ large have a reason to be feel "shortchanged" by YouTube. Unfortunately, YouTube may not be able to meet their demands without dramatically rethinking its business model, and the notion that music can be supported by just ads.

Related Video: Taylor Swift, Apple Music, And Streaming's Big, Enduring Problem

Road Rules: How Tesla Plans to Change The Way We Buy Cars

0
0

Tesla isn't just making groundbreaking electric vehicles. It's upending the way cars are sold across the country. And it's making a few enemies along the way.

I am in a car that is driving itself on the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway—one of the busiest highways in the country—and I am freaking the hell out.

"Hold the steering wheel, but still let it do its own thing," Michael, a product specialist for the electric-vehicle maker Tesla Motors, gently cautions me, trying to snap me out of the wide-eyed stupor brought on by watching the wheel of my Model S steer around a curve as if guided by invisible hands.

As we pass through Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens neighborhood and the waterfront complex of Industry City, my anxiety eases enough to start asking Michael about how the autopilot feature works (the car's sensors analyze traffic patterns and read lane markers), how frequently Tesla beams software upgrades to its vehicles (as often as once a month), and the car's top speed (155 mph, 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds). "Just by taking a good look at you, I feel like you're already comfortable with driving a Model S," he remarks halfway through our 35-minute ride. Yes, that's what every car salesman is supposed to say, but he's right. If I could afford the black, all-electric Model S P90D—which drives like butter, but costs $108,000—I could see myself following Michael into the company's Red Hook, Brooklyn, showroom to buy it, even though until today I'd never been in an electric vehicle, much less one that could drive itself.

Tesla is betting that if it can get millions of other people like me comfortable with its cars, they'll want to buy one, too. In fact, Tesla is going to have to connect with people like me: Its current $33 billion valuation hinges on the ambitious assumption that the carmaker can not only make superior long-range electric vehicles, but also convince lots of newbies to buy them. This task has been complicated by lingering fears over the safety of autonomous vehicles as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigates a fatal Tesla crash that took place in May. (That's not to mention the SEC investigation into how Tesla disclosed the accident.)

Much of Tesla's success depends on the 2017 launch of its $35,000 Model 3—the first of its futuristic, all-electric luxury vehicles created for the masses. And the Model 3's widespread adoption hinges, in turn, on Tesla's direct-to-consumer sales model. Tesla has chosen to eschew the traditional dealership method—in which automakers sell their cars to independent dealers, who are granted exclusive territories—in favor of company-owned showrooms staffed with product specialists like Michael, who can talk people through both the technology and their safety concerns. It's an approach that Ganesh Srivats, Tesla's vice president of North American sales, says is essential. "We knew we couldn't rely on dealerships to promote our mission, to operate the business the way we wanted to, to provide this great customer experience," he explains. "So we've really had to chart our own course."

For all the talk of Tesla's product innovations, it is leading another battle: this one centered on how vehicles are sold, as much as how they're made. The company has been embroiled in a series of brutal legislative skirmishes in more than a dozen states, including Connecticut, Texas, and Michigan—home to the Big Three automakers—where long-standing franchising laws handicap (or completely quash) Tesla's ability to engage customers without an intermediary. On the opposing side is an alignment of auto manufacturers and dealerships, along with the lawmakers who support them. Whatever the outcome, it could fundamentally change the way cars are sold in the U.S.

Car dealerships have been the backbone of the automotive industry since the 1950s, when the Big Three—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—were pumping out around three-quarters of the world's cars from their mammoth Michigan plants. While they focused on designing and mass-producing vehicles, their franchised sales operations reached customers across the country. At the same time, dealer associations pushed state legislatures to enact franchise laws designed to protect dealerships from coercive and arbitrary practices by manufacturers—with the added benefit that customers' interests would be served by increased competition among franchisees.

But, over time, automakers have become disconnected from the sales experience, hindering both dealerships and the brands they represent. Today, consumers increasingly want to research and even buy their cars online: A 2015 survey by Accenture revealed that 75% of respondents would consider conducting the entire car-buying transaction online if they could. "When you go to a dealership, there's all this sort of doubt about the process," says Srivats, who was senior VP at British fashion house Burberry before joining Tesla last summer. "The haggling, all the nastiness around it. Did I pay the same amount as the next customer? Did I get tricked?"

Tesla fashioned its retail model in response. Its 40,000-square-foot, redbrick store in Brooklyn's gentrifying Red Hook neighborhood features only two vehicles on the sales floor—a cherry red Model S and a white Model X with falcon-wing doors. Though Tesla's cars are currently luxury products, the industrial space doesn't exactly scream high-end. What it offers instead is a disarmingly transparent sales process. There's a Model S chassis illustrating the layout of the vehicle's unique, battery-powered engine. A large touch-screen display lets visitors view Tesla's expanding network of high-speed charging stations and enables them to customize their own cars—from basic features (60-kilowatt battery versus 90) to offerings like "Bioweapon Defense Mode," a cabin-air-filtration system. When you're ready to purchase, you can do it on-site or at home on Tesla's website. "We like the idea of owning the entire process," says Srivats. "It creates an information loop from our customers straight into manufacturing and vehicle design."

Window-shopping Tesla's Pasadena, California, showroom allows customers to buy directly from the company.Photo: Daniel J. Johung

Not all of Tesla's stores look like the one in Red Hook. Tesla can't sell cars directly in Arizona or Texas, for example, so it opened "galleries"—showrooms minus any mention of price or sales. Cars ordered online in Texas arrive with California tags and must be reregistered. Some states allow Tesla to negotiate a set number of stores under a trial period; New York gave it five (including Red Hook). But that didn't stop the company from adding a pop-up shop—via a tricked-out shipping container—in Long Island's South Hampton. (Tesla later opened a permanent gallery in East Hampton.)

"They have gone on and said, 'No, the law doesn't apply for us,' " says Don Hall, president of the Virginia Dealership Association, which filed suit against Tesla in May when it applied for a DMV license to open a second showroom in the state. Hall and others in the dealership community accuse Tesla of flouting regulations put in place to protect car salespeople—and consumers: They claim that, without having to operate under franchise law, Tesla is free to obscure details about data regarding recalls and processing fees, for example. ("We operate within the law in every state we're in," says Srivats.)

It's not just dealers who are aligning against Tesla. Ford worked fervently to get Tesla showrooms banned in Texas. General Motors—which will release its first long-range electric car, the Chevy Bolt, this year—stands to benefit even more if laws crimp Tesla's growth. As GM CEO Mary Barra pointedly told attendees at this year's Consumer Electronics Show: "Unlike some EV customers, Bolt EV customers never have to worry about driving to another state to buy, service, or support their vehicles." What she didn't tell attendees about was GM's active role supporting anti-Tesla legislation in Indiana.

The fact is, in many regards, the U.S. automakers have been hamstrung by their own dealership model, which is unique in the global marketplace. The European Union abolished restrictive dealership models more than a decade ago, while Japanese manufacturers, lacking the space for car lots, grew the country's auto economy by sending salespeople door-to-door. Domestically, GM is starting to convert some of its Cadillac dealerships to virtual-reality showrooms with no inventory. Sound familiar? "[Tesla] is telling the consumer that the dealership is an unnecessary extra step, and we at the factory can take care of you just fine with our service centers," says John O'Dell, an auto-industry analyst and former senior editor at Edmunds.com (a car review and pricing hub) who served on the National Research Council's alternative-vehicle committee.

The clock is ticking for Tesla. Demand is already high for the Model 3, which CEO Elon Musk is saying will be delivered in late 2017; nearly 400,000 people have put down $1,000 to reserve a vehicle. If even half of those sales come through (and Tesla will have to crank on its production facilities to make it happen), the company will have sold more EVs than BMW, Ford, GM, Toyota, or Volkswagen have in the past five years. But to realize those sales, Tesla must find a way to boost its physical sales infrastructure. Musk made the electric-vehicle version of the sexy iPhone; now he needs more Apple Stores.

Some believe that Tesla will have to embrace the dealership model in some form. Musk has publicly flirted with the idea, presumably unable to ignore the reach of the roughly 17,000-strong U.S. dealership network. He may also seek partners outside the car industry: In June, Tesla opened a gallery in Nordstrom at the Grove multiplex in L.A. Or he may choose a more radical path. Srivats says that Tesla will soon drastically redesign its retail concept, but offers few details: "We're throwing preconceived notions of auto sales out the window and starting from the ground up." Whatever the plan, it's sure to leave automakers charged up.

Related Video: How Tesla Motors aims to supercharge the auto industry

Beyond Foosball: Office Perks That Employees Actually Want

0
0

Release the doves!

VC–funded startups have long been known for their cushy amenities, such as foosball tables and free lunch, but a poll of more than 100 directors and managers in Fast Company's Most Creative People and Most Innovative Companies communities sheds light on the way businesses—both new and old—are rethinking the art of keeping their employees happy. More than 70% of respondents, from companies as varied as GE to Genius, say that their employees value experiences over things, or at least a combination of the two. Some stick with the tried-and-true—regular happy hours, generous parental leave—and others are getting creative, offering volunteer days and round-trip plane tickets to anywhere in the world. Here are a few standouts:

"We have quirky celebrations when we meet our goals. These have included releasing doves, smashing Greek plates, and, of course, lots of parties." — Melanie Perkins, cofounder and CEO, Canva

"Everyone [has] access to free private sessions from a professional therapist or coach on a weekly basis." — Lisa Kennelly, director of marketing, Clue

"We have a series where anyone can volunteer to lead a workshop on a subject they have some expertise in. Topics have [ranged from] linocut printmaking to funeral directing to sushi making. [At] our annual retreat, David Byrne was a guest speaker and joined us for lunch." — Stephanie Pereira, director of community education, Kickstarter

"We offer full-body professional massages every Friday to all employees." — Dan Harden president and CEO, Whipsaw Inc.

"One thing that feels unique to our culture is the Facebook Analog Research Lab and the Woodshop. These are on-site facilities where any employee or intern can learn how to do silk screen, take a hand-lettering or drawing class, or learn the basics of woodworking." — Margaret Gould Stewart, VP of product design, Facebook

"We incentivize employees to give back through initiatives like #TranslateBIG, where we took over a local food bank to prepare and serve meals to the Bed-Stuy community where Biggie Smalls was born." — Steve Stoute, founder and CEO, Translation

"After two years, pick [an affiliated] country, and the trip is on us. After three years, take a month off to do what makes you happy—your paycheck will keep coming." — Erin Lewellen, COO, Global Citizen Year

"A sandbox. Offices with soundproof, padded walls for the rough days. Book club. Daily meditation." — Heather Gordon, brand manager, Acorns

"We [offer] an employee-challenge grant where REI gives an employee $300 in products for any outdoor activity, as long as it's a challenge—backpacking in the High Sierras, summiting Mount Everest, running a marathon in Thailand, et cetera." — Chris Gardner, director of total rewards, REI

From Coraline To Kubo: Laika's Artistic And Technological Journey

0
0

Laika celebrates 10 years of pioneering stop-motion animation with a traveling interactive exhibit.

At times, achieving these films loomed as insurmountable as their characters' journeys.

Since 2006, Oregon animation house Laika has been revolutionizing stop-motion animation in the films Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls, this year earning a "technical Oscar"—an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Sci-Tech Award—for pushing the boundaries of 3D printing and rapid prototyping. The technology freed artists from having to painstakingly create each facial movement by hand to facilitate more nuanced expressions and performance.

The revolution continues in its newest and most ambitious film—Kubo and the Two Strings, releasing Aug. 19 from Focus Features—that also marks Laika CEO Travis Knight's directorial debut. Five years in the making, the result is a sweeping Japanese-themed epic voiced by a celebrity cast that combines computer-generated images with stop-motion, enabling even more characters, environments, and complexity.

Travis Knight[Photo: Sue Karlin]

"I've worked in animation for 20 years—as a PA, scheduler, coordinator, CG and stop-motion animator, development, producer, head of a company—and I could never have attempted a film like this had I not gone through every single one of those experiences, which I tapped in order to direct this film properly," says Knight. "Even with that, it was so incredibly hard."

"With every film we've done, we stood on our own shoulders," he adds. "Our core team has been intact for 10 years, enabling us to grow together as artists, filmmakers, and people. The evolution of Laika is the evolution of this community."

The company is also marking its first decade with a traveling interactive exhibit, From Coraline to Kubo: A Magical Laika Experience, which is running at Universal Studios Hollywood through Aug. 28 before making its way to other cities.

From Coraline to Kubo: A Magical Laika Experience[Photo: Sue Karlin]

Coraline, which came out in 2009, brought several firsts to the art form—digital shooting and capture systems, rapid prototyping making facial animation, and stereoscopic photography.

"Once we figured those out, we could apply our energy to come up with the next technological evolution," says Knight. "That's happened with every film. When we started Kubo, we didn't know how we were going to do half of what we did."

"Kubo's complexity is through the roof," says animation supervisor Brad Schiff. "It incorporated visual effects way more than before, so we needed to make sure the stop-motion characters looked the same as the CG ones in texture, lighting, and movement."

Just as plastic 3D black and white printing on Coraline gave way to powdered 3D color printing on ParaNorman in 2012 and Boxtrolls, in 2014, Kubo's characters would require another technological overhaul.

The characters in Kubo on display at the From Coraline to Kubo: A Magical Laika Experience[Photo: Sue Karlin]

"To achieve the fine feature detail in these characters' faces, I either had to go back to the director and say, `Change your character design,' or figure out a new way of doing it," says Brian McLean, director of rapid prototyping.

Laika's 3D printing partner, Stratasys, let its animators tinker with technology still in development and connected them with software developer John Hiller to help them ramp up the software to their new animation needs. "It was a little like going to Apple and saying, `We love your iPhone. Will you let us develop our own operating system?' " laughs McLean.

"It was a nail-biting experience," he adds. "For the first time since ParaNorman, we were not only trying a new, untested type of 3D printer, but building the software. We were in the midst of developing this when the technical Oscars folks came to investigate, but we couldn't talk about it, because only the technology from released films was eligible. It took six months of development just to see if it would work, but when do you pull the ripcord and say, 'This isn't going to work?'"

Once the printing was sorted, the increased capacity for detail presented hurdles for the other departments. Whereas Laika's previous films featured stop-motion characters in tight-fitting clothes with the occasional moving tail, cape, or hair lock, Kubo tackled loose fabric, long flowing hair, the fur-covered Monkey, multi-limbed Beetle, and a 16-foot skeleton, then seamlessly blended them with digital characters and environments.

Costume designer Deborah Cook had to abandon traditional tailoring for alternative methods (cloaked in secrecy) to make their kimonos' floppy, draped sleeves animation-friendly. Other clothing—capes that opened into wings—fell to the puppetry department, which crafted them on lattices of piano wire.

"The character of Monkey was a big challenge," says puppet fabrication supervisor Georgina Hayns. "Not only had we not made a very high-performing animal before, but a fully furred one. The last thing anyone wants to do is animate hair, frame by frame. We had to develop fur that would not move every time the animator touched it." The solution involved building a ball-and-socket skeletal structure first, then adding a muscle suit and fur layer, instead of building the puppet from the outside in.

Fusing the models with CG presented both practical and philosophical hurdles. "How do you integrate the technology while at the same time honoring art of stop-motion animation?" says VFX supervisor Steve Emerson. "The visual effects in Kubo were largely informed by all the other departments. Our animators reported to the same animation supervisor as the stop-motion animators."

Kubo's completion has everyone's nails growing back—for now.

"We want to take this old art form and reinvigorate it with new approaches, ideas, and technology," says Knight. "What we do is a fusion of art, craft, science, and technology. Even though we work in a craft that's 100 years old, it does feel like we're scratching the surface. Sometimes old ideas can be rethought relative to a modern era."

Imagine A Hyperloop That Uses Underwater Tunnels To Replace Cargo Ships

0
0

You might be excited to take Elon Musk's crazy transportation tech, but the first use is going to be for freight—and it might not be on land.

Before you ever board a hyperloop for a half-hour trip from San Francisco to L.A., it's possible that the ultra-fast transit system might help deliver the things you buy. Hyperloop One, the Los Angeles-based startup that ran a demo near Las Vegas earlier this year, is working on cargo transportation on land—and it also wants to transform shipping ports.

The underwater system would let cargo ships drop freight into massive hyperloop tunnels submerged 10 miles offshore. "You can see it as almost analogous to what oil companies do now: They bring their tankers in, connect with risers offshore, collect or distribute their oil without ever coming into port, and then leave," says Blake Cole, a marine engineer at Hyperloop One.

[Photo: Daniel Terdiman for Fast Company]

For shipping companies, it could make delivery more efficient. Cargo ships sometimes wait in line for days to reach port; the new system could stretch out far enough to provide as many docking points as needed. Because it would be so much faster, it would help save money, and ultimately make goods cheaper.

It could also dramatically reduce pollution. While ships wait in line, they typically spew smog into nearby neighborhoods. The Ports of L.A. and Long Beach are the largest complex in the country; kids in Long Beach also have the highest rates of asthma. Keeping ships farther offshore would help.

"You don't need to get these really pretty disgusting cargo ships actually entering ports anymore," says Cole. "It's bad that they pollute in general, but if they have to, it's probably better that they be kept away from where people live."

[Photo: Daniel Terdiman for Fast Company]

Moving ports offshore would also free up beautiful coastline areas for parks or development rather than acres of cranes.

Of course, the hyperloop still needs work before it's ready for use on land, let alone underwater. The type of tunnels that would likely be used at ports—submerged, rather than buried in the sea floor—have never actually been created before. "There are pretty substantial engineering challenges that have to be overcome before they can successfully be built," says Cole.

Underwater, most of the hyperloop technology could be directly transferred, but there would be new challenges—such as issues with leaking, which all underwater tunnels face, and maintaining a vacuum.

If it the design challenges can be solved, it could eventually also be used for moving people. The company recently proposed a 300-mile underwater tunnel that would connect Stockholm and Helsinki. But it's most likely to start with underwater cargo first.

The system could also be used over longer distances; an underwater cargo hyperloop from Los Angeles to San Francisco could potentially deliver freight without ships at all, helping reduce overall pollution.

"Personally, what gets me the most excited are the possible implications for environmental remediation," says Cole. "In my mind, if we can take even a handful of cargo ships off the ocean, that's a huge benefit in terms of reducing sulfur dioxide in the air, and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. Basically, if we can say we've got a way to transport goods from A to B that's not only fast and efficient but clean—that's really exciting."

Have something to say about this article? You can email us and let us know. If it's interesting and thoughtful, we may publish your response.

Meet The Man Who Designed The Iconic Font In "Stranger Things''

0
0

"I just wanted to make a buck!"

From the moment the credits of breakout Netflix show Stranger Things start, they transport you to the '80s. Creative studio Imaginary Forces accomplished that largely through Benguiat, a decorative serif typeface that screams '80s mostly because of its associations: the covers of Stephen King paperbacks and Choose Your Own Adventure novels, the copyright notice on old VHS tapes, and the covers of old Smiths albums, to name just a few of the cultural artifacts it has been tied to over the years. It's homey, langorous, and yet a little fancy.

[Photo: via FontShop]

Type designer Ed Benguiat created ITC Benguiat (pronounced Ben-gat) in 1978 for the International Typeface Corporation. You might not know his name, but you know his work. Over the course of a nearly 70-year career, Benguiat has designed or redesigned the logos for Esquire, Playboy, the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and more. He's also active in the film industry: He designed the logo for Planet of the Apes, Superfly, and Twin Peaks. All told, he's designed more than 600 typefaces.

Now 89, Benguiat tells me by phone that he never set out to create a typeface that encapsulated a certain period of time, the way his eponymous font seems to be viewed. His goals in designing ITC Benguiat were simple. "I just wanted to make a buck!" he says. "That's the reason I did all of those fonts for ITC." When he designed ITC Benguiat, he set out to design something "like Times New Roman or Bodoni—a pretty, readable font" that could be used in a lot of different contexts, and consequently, generate plenty of money in commissions and licensing fees. "Some people describe it as having an art nouveau look, but I never thought of it that way," he says. "I just wanted people to use it as much as possible."

By any standard, Benguiat accomplished what he set out to do. As the 1980s started, something about ITC Benguiat spoke to people. It smacked of the quaintness of Americana, of adventure in small rural towns, of Reaganism and the Cold War. That's probably why people seem to so strongly associate it with Stephen King. A bespoke, hand-modified version of ITC Benguiat was used on several Stephen King covers through the '80s, sometimes more heavily modified than others (compare the cover Carrie to Pet Sematary, where King's name is much more compressed). "Stephen King and I were friendly for a while," says Benguiat. "His publisher based all their type on Benguiat, just changed the serifs, made it more Latin-looking." So while not always identical, both typefaces share the same creative DNA (like Stephen King and his alter ego, Richard Bachman).

[Photo: Flickr user Chris Drumm]

"It wasn't hard for a typeface to take off back then," Benguiat says. "I mean, these days, there are millions of typefaces. You can just download them. Back then, companies might have access to just 10 or 15." He says that when the ITC sent out a brochure with a new typeface, he almost always saw it for months or even years afterward. "It's always been popular," he says. "You can use it in a film title, a book cover, or on the sign of a small-town pizza shop. It's really easy to use. It works everywhere."

Even so, he says ITC Benguiat was uniquely successful. "Stranger Things has really made Benguiat into a big deal again," he admits. Stories about the typography of the credit sequence are everywhere now. "Now everyone's using it. I think I just saw it on a loaf of pumpernickel bread. It makes me proud." As for Stranger Things: While Benguiat says he has yet to watch the show, he likes how his typeface was used in the credits. "They paired it with Avant Garde, which was designed by my old ITC partner, Herb Lubalin," he notes. "Herb named Benguiat after me, so it's like old times. We're back in the driver's seat together again!"

Conquering The 3 Most Common Types Of Company Crisis

0
0

As one entrepreneur explains, "crisis management" isn't a monolithic process or a skill that suits every situation.

Sooner or later, no matter their size, location, or industry, all companies face some sort of crisis. The trouble, though, is that we often talk about "crisis management" like it's a single skill or process: You have it or you don't; you do it right or you totally mess it up.

But that isn't the case at all, and the effects of this misunderstanding aren't hard to see. Researchers at the University of Michigan and Emory University reviewed the data and found (unsurprisingly) that mismanaged crises often resulted from unprepared leadership teams and led to a wide range of long-term consequences, whereas companies that handled crisis effectively managed to recover fully and quickly.

Here's a basic yet underappreciated taxonomy of business crises and a look at what it takes to weather them.

Three Types Of Crisis

1. Personnel crisis. This is when there's serious individual misconduct and unethical or illegal activities by key players. The sexual harassment scandal that's rocking Fox News right now, centered around founder and CEO Roger Ailes, is a flagrant example of this type of crisis. It not only reflects Ailes's alleged personal conduct but the culture of the organization he led.

Former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn is under investigation for alleged market manipulation related to his involvement in the company's emissions scandal, which began to unfold in 2014, alongside other VW board members. The company has already admitted to secretly installing software in some 11 million vehicles in order to pass emissions tests, a violation that investigators now appear to suspect may have been mismanaged (or even started) among top leaders.

2. Systemic crises. Chipotle is still fighting its way back from a string of customer food poisoning incidents in late 2015. The company is finally back to in the black but still struggling to right itself. Chipotle's failures were a matter of systemic operational crises up and down the organization—from its supply chain and quality control to customer interactions.

3. Contextual crises. Brexit, mass shootings, terrorism: From local incidents all the way on up through geopolitical upheavals, businesses can wake up one morning and suddenly have to navigate a variety of crises they couldn't have seen coming. This type of crisis originates externally but dramatically changes the context in which a company operates. It creates psychological turmoil and unsteadies employees and customers alike.

Professor Peter Senge of MIT's Sloan School of Management once wrote:

Leadership exists when people are no longer victims of circumstances but participate in creating new circumstances . . . Leadership is about creating a domain in which human beings continually deepen their understanding of reality and become more capable of participating in the unfolding of the world. Ultimately, leadership is about creating new realities.

That's a high bar to clear—especially during a crisis. But if leaders grasp that their job is already about creating new circumstances, then sudden changes of fortune (even for the worse) may not actually seem so anomalous or frightening after all. You can't set an action plan for every possible contingency, but you don't have to. Here are two steps for navigating a crisis whose specifics you can never anticipate.

1. Start With Yourself, Then Work Outward

Managing crisis means accepting incredible levels of uncertainty with a calm, cool, and positive attitude. That's never easy. But the sense of urgency to tackle tough situations always requires an even temper.

In order to communicate a decisive yet flexible plan as soon as crisis hits, you'll need to assess the situation effectively:

  1. Ask yourself: What does this situation demand? Is it a personnel crisis, a systemic crisis, or a contextual one?
  2. Then craft an immediate-term response strategy based on how you want to emerge from this crisis at the end—even if you don't know exactly how you'll get there—and communicate it to your team, partners, and customers.
  3. Finally, as you begin rolling out that strategy, keep an eye on ability (your own and your organization's) to execute it based on how the crisis evolves (and it will!)—without losing sight of your company's assets, structure, and capabilities.

Sound like a lot to handle? To be fair, it is. In 2014, Mary Barra became General Motors's (GM) first female CEO. After only two months in the role, GM had to recall 1.7 million cars with an ignition switch defect that was responsible for more than a dozen deaths—a clear-cut systemic crisis, with possible reverberations at the personnel level.

Barra snapped into action. She personally went on a media tour and apologized for GM's grave mistake. As the New York Times reported, "It was a moment unlike any other at General Motors: The top executive stepping—personally and publicly—into the middle of one of the gravest safety problems in the company's history. Her performance was a marked departure from the norm in the auto industry, where corporate chiefs routinely avoid talking about recalls unless subpoenaed by Congress."

After assessing the situation, Barra took personal responsibility for dealing with GM's crisis head on, preventing a systemic crisis from spiraling into an irrecoverable PR disaster and a failure of leadership to boot.

2. Influence Others, Then Let Them Influence You

Successful leaders inspire and influence everyone in good times and bad—their executive team, employees, customers, clients, partners, investors, and many others. That's also part of the job description. Even if some decisions involve the most basic of gut instincts, leaders navigating crises need to tell their teams precisely what they want, when, and why—then help them make it happen. Waiting too long to weigh countervailing opinions can spell doom.

Here's what David Roberts, chairman of Nationwide Building Society, said immediately after the Brexit vote:

Britain has always been at its best at times of high uncertainty and volatility. There are important decisions coming, but for the next few days, weeks, and months, we all have a responsibility to work through the issues in a calm, thoughtful, and positive manner. Despite the naysayers, the economy will continue to function effectively; customers will still need to save, borrow, and invest, and we will all continue to be there for them as we were yesterday and in the weeks past.

Roberts didn't resort to abstraction even while working to calm fears; he concisely describes what the U.K. economy's goals must be and which consumers' needs remain unchanged. It's inspiring talk amid a contextual crisis, but it's also marching orders of a sort—here's what we all need to do next—reflecting Senge's goal of helping people "become more capable of participating in the unfolding of the world."

Communicating effectively in times of uncertainty means not just articulating your point of view, but listening actively—without bias or judgment and with a real willingness to consider different perspectives. Roberts acknowledges this, too, when he notes a shared responsibility for navigating the issues collaboratively.

That means paying heed not just to the content of others' ideas, but to their emotional tone, too. Both are crucial for mutual understanding—and, ultimately, everyone getting back on their feet.


Serial entrepreneur Faisal Hoque is the founder of Shadoka, which enables entrepreneurship, growth, and social impact. He is the author of Everything Connects: How to Transform and Lead in the Age of Creativity, Innovation, and Sustainability (McGraw-Hill) and other books. Use the Everything Connects leadership app for free.

Copyright (c) 2016 by Faisal Hoque. All rights reserved.

6 Questions That Can Eliminate Busywork And Boost Your Productivity

0
0

Do you need to do that task? Really? First, ask these six questions to cut the busywork and take back your day.

Forty percent of U.S. employees feel overworked or burned out, according to the Staples Business Advantage Workplace Index 2016. The report also found that the majority of employees (59%) believed that decreasing their workload could lead to less workplace stress.

But anyone who's avoided a deadline by working on "inbox zero," or overhauling their entire filing system, knows that there is work that needs to be done and work that we use to fill our time—aka "busywork." Sometimes they can feel similar, but chances are, you can eliminate some of the day-to-day grind through delegating, rescheduling, or ditching a task altogether, says executive coach Gretchen Pisano, CEO of p.Link Coaching Center.

"You may be operating in continuous overdrive," Pisano says. "There is strength and satisfaction in achievement, i.e., the successful accomplishment of an effort, however, a strength in excess is experienced by others as a weakness," she says. Pisano believes that healthy striving balances our need for achievement with our need for downtime, connection with others, and good old-fashioned joy in the moment.

So, if you're ready to cut back on your daily tasks, here are six important questions to ask—and what the answers might be telling you.

1. Is This Task Important To My Customers And Responsibilities?

If the task is an expectation of your job or relevant to internal or external customers, you're stuck, says S. Chris Edmonds, founder of corporate culture consultancy The Purposeful Culture Group and author of The Culture Engine.

Just deal with it, and apply yourself fully to ensure you deliver what's expected, he says. Even if doing the task isn't fun or exciting, meet the deadline. Then, look for more long-term fixes if you really hate the task.

2. Is It Worth The Extra Time, Even If I Love Doing It?

"I'm a formatting freak," Pisano says. She admits to spending a great deal of time editing the look, feel, pagination, and spacing of articles, reports, webpages, and other work—more than the job truly requires. However, she likes her work to look clean, easy to read, and professional.

But if spending time laboring over unnecessary design stuff causes her to miss promised deadlines, she's damaging her credibility more than helping it. Sometimes, good enough is good enough.

3. Would Anyone Notice If I Quit Doing This Task?

Edmonds says it's important to ask whether the task is something that really needs doing. Who would miss it if you didn't do it anymore? Sometimes, work that "feels" important really isn't.

Case in point: Edmonds worked with an executive team of a large corporation that was evaluating every task and activity so they could free up time and resources to focus on further managing their culture. The executive administrator had been producing a report from the team's weekly meetings for years. The report summarized decisions and assignments, issues to defer until the next meeting, etc. Each week, producing the report took about two hours, and as part of this "time-saving" effort, she decided to stop doing it but didn't tell anyone.

A few weeks later, one of the senior leaders asked, "Didn't you used to do a meeting summary report for us?" She said yes. He said, "Why did you stop doing it?" She said, "Apparently no one reads it—it took you a month to even remember I used to do it for you." They all agreed that the report was not important, he says.

4. Is This A "Maintenance" Task Or A "Strategically Important" Task?

If you're tied down to doing a lot of repetitive activities—those things you've always done, are used to doing, or are good at doing—you are not available to ponder what tasks you should be working on to grow your business, career, or skills. "Strategic thinking is a requirement in our fast-paced world, yet we don't do much of it. We get in ruts and stay in those ruts," Edmonds says.

Try delegating enough activities to suitably skilled employees to free up 20% of your time to experiment with new ways of working, or engage with customers to learn how you might tweak your services to serve those customers better.

5. Is The Timing To Accomplishing The Task "Now" Or "Flexible"?

Sometimes we don't pay appropriate attention to timing, Pisano says. If the deadline is flexible but the desire to accomplish the task is "now," you may have incorrectly labeled the task as "urgent."

Developing a prioritization matrix using a simple three-column approach can help you visualize what really needs to get done. List the tasks as:

  • Now
  • Flexible timing
  • Nice to have/nonessential

When you don't have a clear handle on what is truly urgent, then everything becomes urgent, Pisano says. Such categorization will focus your efforts and the efforts of your team.

6. Am I Using This Task As A Distraction Or To Procrastinate?

As a small business consultant and coach, when R.J. Redden sees clients working very long hours, she looks at the structure of their days. The longer the workday, the more likely it is that busywork is part of the problem. She encourages clients to have regular planning time for their days and prioritize what they want to accomplish. "People who have daily priorities set are less likely to get distracted by busywork," Redden says.

If the questions begin to uncover a pattern of busywork creeping into your day, then you can take action to eliminate it—or, at least, reduce it—Pisano says. Step back and figure out whether or not the task at hand directly contributes to your success, and what the implications of not doing it at all would actually be. If you don't have to be the one to do it and it's taking up time that could be better devoted elsewhere, it's time to ditch or delegate it to streamline your day, she says.

Related Video: Productivity tips from the world's busiest people

A Giant Corporation Just Bought Your Startup. Now What?

0
0

When a smaller company gets acquired by a behemoth, the leadership needs to get ready for huge change.

Jet.com, the once-scrappy supposed killer of Amazon, is now just another part of the corporate machinery—albeit a corporate machinery that wants to compete with Amazon. Earlier this week, Walmart bought Jet.com for $3.3 billion, an attempt by the big box retailer to boost its flatlining e-commerce presence. Though Jet.com and Walmart.com will remain separate brands, Jet's CEO, Marc Lore, will be overseeing both.

No matter which way you slice it, this will be a huge change for those inside Jet—Lore especially. And it will inevitably bring new and unforeseen challenges to the startup founder. So what should Lore expect with his new role?

I talked with Jonathan Sposato, a Seattle-based entrepreneur who sold two companies (Phatbits and Picnik) to Google over the last 15 years, and I asked about his experience. Both times, his companies were subsumed under the Google brand, with the technology becoming Google products.

And both times, Sposato shifted from startup head honcho to one of thousands of Googlers. He no longer works at Google and is now, once again, a startup founder—this time for the online photo editor PicMonkey.

The Initial Shock

Sposato has nothing but great things to say about Google (which shouldn't come as a shock), but he happily waxes philosophic about this personal transition. He "lovingly" compares the initial experience of joining a corporate structure to joining the army.

"I felt like I stood in line, got my hair cut, got my uniform, and got my badge," he told me. "I became part of a large army or group of people who are motivated by a larger group or cause."

This isn't bad, he added, but it is a huge adjustment, especially for the ego. Sposato's new role at Google after the Picnik sale had him overseeing the entire photo business. While this was a lot of responsibility, it was nothing like building and leading his own independent company.

The difference is especially jarring compared to what a founder does at a smaller company in the throes of a company-wide transition. "You're firing on all cylinders," Sposato said. And then, boom! You're bought.

"All of the sudden you're like, 'Oh heck,'" he said. "You're not making your own decisions here. You have a large amount of necessary cross-communication." Your role changes overnight and becomes a lot more bureaucratic. You're probably going to be attending a lot more meetings packed with dozens more people than you're used to.

Overall, this is one of the biggest changes people at Sposato's (and Lore's) level can expect. Their days working for a corporate overlord will become . . . more corporate. And, as Sposato explained, oftentimes entrepreneurs chose their professional path precisely because they were "eschewing or getting rid of all of that [bureaucratic] stuff."

Reassessing The Role

In order to succeed, startup founders have to channel their energy. They may have been the go-to person at the top, revved up to deal with any potential stumbling block as efficiently as possible.

But a new corporate structure can stratify problem-solving and slow it down considerably. The frenetic startup energy of "go! go! go!" becomes dissipated, said Sposato. "It has to be dispersed across a lot of other things."

Ultimately, the challenge is to figure out how you can fit into the buyer's much bigger landscape. It's not only ironing out a new day-to-day schedule, but also understanding a whole new professional philosophy.

"I would strongly advise that [Lore] spend the first couple of months just understanding the Walmart culture," Sposato said. Big companies like Walmart are trying to make themselves look more nimble and startup-like—which could even be a factor in why it bought Jet—but that doesn't mean that the two worlds will fit together harmoniously right away.

If a founder comes into a new role too cocky, things just won't work. Many CEOs have sizable egos, and strong personalities often clash in new surroundings. He or she has to understand why they are there and what they are trying to accomplish.

"You have to show up to work and behave like a leader," said Sposato.

Why Employers Should Let Staff Watch The Olympics At Work

0
0

Employees will watch the Games at work, with or without permission, so why not use the Olympics as an opportunity to build culture?

The 2016 Rio Olympics pose both a unique challenge and opportunity to U.S. employers, with data suggesting that 37% of the working population will consider tuning in during working hours.

Unlike other recent Games, this year's Olympics are taking place in a time zone only one hour ahead of the East Coast, meaning that many of the main events will overlap with the workday. Furthermore, advancements in mobile technology since the 2012 Games in London have enabled many to tune in on their personal mobile devices, whether or not they've been given permission to do so.

A recent online survey of over 2,000 American adults by the Workforce Institute at Kronos, a workforce management technology company, in conjunction with Harris Polls, found that 77% of respondents who intend to watch this year's Games believe it's appropriate to do so at work. Of those that intend to, 56% feel it's appropriate to spend 30 minutes of their working day following the action, and another 18% believe they can get away with as much as 45 minutes of viewing time.

Perhaps most concerning to employers, however, is that of those 55 million Americans who want to watch the Games during work hours, 17% would make up an excuse to leave work early, come in late, or call in sick to catch an event.

"The worst approach [employers] can take is to try to ban it," says Joyce Maroney, the director of The Workforce Institute at Kronos. "It's kind of like social media strategies that say you can't use social media at work," she says. "So many employees have a device in their pocket that keeps them connected at all times," Maroney explains, "so banning it is unrealistic and sends this paternalistic message, like the bosses are the grownups and the employees are the kids."

The study also found that 60% of employees do not believe their employer would support watching the Games at work, and 35% of those who do not intend to watch are doing so out of fear of getting in trouble with the boss.

Maroney believes employers who ban watching the Olympics at work outright are missing out on an opportunity to build camaraderie and team spirit in the workplace.

"If I'm trying to hide my cell phone in my lap in my cubicle to watch an event, that's not nearly as fun or as engaging as sitting at a table in the lunchroom with people and sharing that experience together," she says. "That bond with coworkers and respect for the manager, those are really important drivers of engagement and creating the kinds of cultures that people want to work for."

Deloitte, for one, is embracing the Olympic spirit throughout the organization. The professional services firm is an official sponsor of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), and boasts two staff members competing at the Games. Foil fencer Gerek Meinhardt is a member of Deloitte & Touche LLP's advisory practice, and Japanese sabre fencer Kenta Tokunan works for Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting.

The company is also engaging staff in the spirit of the Games with a company-wide social media contest that sent 16 winners down to Rio, and has set up screens and viewing parties at each of its offices.

"It really becomes a shared experience for all of our people and reinforces those things we have in common with the USOC like leadership, strength through diversity, a commitment to team building," says Carolyn O'Boyle, the managing director of Deloitte Talent, Strategy and Innovation tells Fast Company from an airport in Houston before boarding a flight to Rio. "This becomes an opportunity to reinforce those."

O'Boyle adds that the organization is practicing what it preaches, as a recent Deloitte study argues the benefits of scheduled recovery time during the workday, which could include activities like watching the Games.

"We really pride ourselves on building a culture of trust and empowering our people, and part of that is empowering them to manage their time and responsibilities," she says.

With workplaces becoming more flexible and as more Americans are working from home than ever before, O'Boyle suggests that employees are now more accustomed to managing their time between work and personal activities.

"Every organization is different, but it's been really powerful for us," O'Boyle says. "If you look at the number of people who were engaged in some fashion, it was off the charts in terms of what we typically would see in an employee engagement exercise."

The iPhone 7 Is Coming: Here's Everything We've Heard So Far

0
0

In a few weeks, Apple will likely unveil a new iPhone with a better camera, a faster chip, an additional speaker, and no headphone jack.

It started with the infamous revelation that the new device would come without a headphone jack. Wait? What? Why? Then came a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over this great indignity foisted on consumers by Apple. Apple is essentially forcing new iPhone owners to use a dongle if they want to keep using their standard analog headphones.

Cascading downhill from the headphone jack bombshell came a series of smaller reveals about the next iPhone, which will likely, but not certainly, be called the iPhone 7. All in all, the new phone (based on what we now know) can't be said to be a massive reinvention of the iconic device. But it may pack just enough new features and component upgrades to tempt you to upgrade.

The iPhone 7 is likely to look slightly different from the iPhone 6s—but not much. The phone will almost certainly come in two sizes, probably the same 4.9-inch and 5.5-inch screen variants as in the iPhone 6 and 6s. The plastic antenna separation inlays at the top and bottom of the device are situated differently and are a little less prominent. One rumor says we may see a new deep-blue color option.

All-digital audio

About that headphone jack, as with most tech advances it comes with the good and the bad. Apple has always been on the front edge of adopting new tech standards. It led the way in ditching floppy drives, 30-pin connectors, and embracing the USB-C port. The rest of the industry usually follows. So it shouldn't be too shocking that it's now moving to ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack—the same jack used on the Sony Walkman back in the '80s!

The upside, we're told, is that the audio quality coming out of the Lightning port to the headphones will be of much higher quality than that delivered through the old analog jack. It could enable some impressive new noise cancellation technology, too.

On the other hand, as digital rights activist Cory Doctorow points out, the new all-digital audio stack in the iPhone may create an opportunity for the record labels to impose new DRM controls on some kinds of audio content. The "analog hole" created by the old 3.5mm jack was the only thing preventing them from doing so, from a technical point of view. Whether the content owners will actually seize on the opportunity is another question altogether.

The removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack creates more space both on the bottom of the phone and inside the shell. It's likely that Apple will use that space to add a second (presumably stereo) speaker.

Haptic home button

The iPhone 7 will have a pressure-sensitive home button. The button, a new Bloomberg report says, will give the user a haptic buzz when pressed. It may also perform different tasks based on the force and duration of the downward press, similar to the "3D Touch" screen press feature on the iPhone 6.

Dual-lens camera

Apple is facing serious competition from Samsung when it comes to the camera. For this reason we're likely to see a dual-lens camera on the back of the next iPhone. This information first came from in-the-know analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, and was later revised to say that only the larger 5.5-inch Plus size of the new iPhone would get the dual lenses.

The two lenses would each take a photograph of the the subject, then the two images would be reconciled to create one higher-resolution image. This would reduce the grainy look you see when you zoom in on your photos, and it might reduce the graininess of images shot in low-light conditions. Overall, photos shot with a dual-lens camera would be noticeably sharper and more accurate.

However, the image files created may be larger, so storage on the phone becomes more of an issue. Also, the phone would need more RAM to handle the graphics processing of dual-lens images. And finally, the new iPhone is expected to offer far more onboard shooting and editing controls, which also require more processing power.

Specs upgrade

Every new iPhone gets a specs upgrade, so the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will have a more powerful processor than their predecessors, and will likely come with larger storage options. One rumor says that the larger "Plus" version of the phone will offer 3GB of RAM to handle increased photo processing chops.

No Pro?

A news report appeared today saying that Apple had originally planned to release three new phones—the iPhone 7, 7 Plus, and 7 "Pro," the Pro being basically an iPhone 7 Plus with a Smart Connector on the back and a dual-lens camera. Then, just months before launch, it decided to 86 the Pro version and give the "Plus" version the dual-lens camera. The decision was reportedly based on highly competitive conditions in the smartphone market.

Waterproof

The new iPhones will be waterproof, possibly to the IP68 rating of the new Samsung Note 7. This means that the phone will be dust-resistant and able to protect itself when submerged in a meter of water.

The next iPhone will likely be presented to the public for the first time at an Apple event this fall. A new Apple Watch (or two) will likely make an appearance.

The new $399 iPhone SE is reportedly selling better than expected, but we've heard nothing about an upgrade to that device—maybe next year.

Related Video: The history of Apple in under 3 minutes

How To Prevent Your Staff From Calling In Sick When They Aren't

0
0

Plenty of workers fib to get an extra day or two off. So ditch sick days for a different policy that can actually boost engagement.

Face it: There are days when you just don't want to go to work. According to a 2015 survey from the job website CareerBuilder, 38% of employees said they've called in sick even though they felt well, up from 28% in 2014. Of the employees who feigned being sick, 27% said they just didn't feel like going, 26% needed to relax, and 21% wanted to catch up on sleep.

To combat this, companies may want to get rid of sick days and instead implement "duvet days," paid time off that can be used for any personal reason, says Karen A. Young, author of Stop Knocking on My Door: Drama Free HR to Help Grow Your Business.

"It's a matter of semantics, but calling them 'sick days' as opposed to 'personal days' tends to make employees fib," she says. "Sometimes we all need a mental health day away from work," explains Young. "From an employee relations standpoint, there is a stronger sense of freedom if I have time to use for personal reasons," she says.

The change in name brings benefits that go beyond eliminating white lies.

Duvet Days Can Boost Employee Happiness

"The new name makes them feel more like vacation or recuperative time," says Sherri Mitchell, the cofounder and president of the staffing franchise All About People. "Employees might be more likely to use more of their personal days than they would with just sick days."

Paid time off can prevent burnout, reduce turnover, and foster happy and productive employees, according to studies. At companies that encourage taking time off, 36% of employees report low stress levels at work and 55% report being extremely happy at work, according to a study by Project: Time Off, a nonprofit coalition that promotes the value of time off.

Time off can be considered part of an employee wellness program, says Claire Bissot, managing director of CBIZ HR Solutions, a human resources outsourcing firm. "The time off helps reduce a lot of issues that cause medical claims down the line," she says.

Duvet Days Can Protect Your Career

A mental health day lets you recharge and reset. Brandon Smith, a leadership and workplace communication expert at The Workplace Therapist, calls the practice a risk management strategy.

"If you don't attend to your stress, anxiety, or depression, it can affect your work performance and composure in the workplace—which could result in a layoff—and even cause physical ailments, which can obviously damage your career and life," he told Shape magazine.

Duvet Days Reduce The Workload in HR

Pooling sick and personal time off into one category is easier for a company's HR department, says David Lewis, president and CEO of OperationsInc, a human resources outsourcing and consulting firm.

"The advantage is that this streamlines things administratively," he says.

Duvet Days Can Improve Company Culture

Personal time is often driven by company culture, and the use of paid time off instead of sick days can encourage employees to feel more comfortable taking days away, says David Barron, a labor and employment attorney for Cozen O'Connor, a Philadelphia-based law firm.

"In some companies, taking time off is viewed as a necessary part of healthy living, and actively encouraged," he says. "In other cultures, absent employees are a real hardship, and time off is frowned upon unless absolutely necessary," Barron says. "The key is to find a happy medium where employees are allowed to use time off without interfering with the operational needs of the company," he advises.

Companies should encourage employees to take time away, but few see it as a priority. Nearly six in 10 employees report a lack of support from their boss, and more than half report that their colleagues aren't supportive either, according to Project: Time Off.

The findings indicate, "There is a direct correlation between employees who feel strong support from their bosses and colleagues and employee engagement. The more support an employee feels, the more likely they are to report higher levels of happiness."

Have Politics Become So Ugly That Educators Are Afraid To Teach Civics?

0
0

Schools wary of Clinton versus Trump minefields are avoiding lessons on government—but it's to the detriment of our kids, say experts.

Mock-election student voters at schools across the country might expect to find useful information on the presidential candidates' policy positions on Scholastic's Election 2016 news site. Instead, Scholastic offers kids preparing to cast a classroom ballot a cheat sheet on Republican Donald Trump's childhood ("As a teen, Trump was a star baseball player"), fortune, and many grandchildren. To introduce Hillary Clinton, Scholastic notes that the Democrat once sold cookies ("Clinton was a Brownie and a Girl Scout"), without mentioning that she later disavowed the idea of staying home to bake them. Foreign policy, guns, jobs—the topics that animate voting decisions in the grownup world—are glaringly absent.

What's happening in classrooms reflects these omissions. In a typical election year, teachers might pin a copy of the Declaration of Independence to the wall, lead a lesson on the branches of government, and moderate a debate. But as the language on the campaign trail continues to polarize voters, those strategies feel both incomplete and perilous; even the driest of lessons can prompt parent complaints or stoke bullying. (Indiana high school students chanted "Build a wall!" at a basketball game in March, an ugly jeer aimed at Latino students on the rival team.) A survey published by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that 43% of K-12 educators are "hesitant to teach about the election," and more than half have "seen an increase in uncivil political discourse" in their schools. Other teachers have been prohibited from discussing the subject; for example, one middle school principal in Portland, Oregon, has instituted a "gag order" on election topics, according to the survey.

"Teachers right now are afraid to teach the election," says Louise Dubé, executive director of iCivics, a nonprofit founded by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor that develops educational games about government. "An election is part of a democratic process, it shouldn't be something scary. We need to help them have those conversations."

Dubé and her peers are fighting an uphill battle. According to researchers, the rancorous political atmosphere is magnifying a secular decline in civics education. "We don't do as much civic education as we once did," says Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).

CIRCLE analysis suggests that schools' narrow focus on math and English language arts, at the expense of subjects such as social studies and history, has contributed to a drop in the number of course hours allocated for government and current events. In parallel, political polarization has made many classrooms more homogeneous, posing a challenge for teachers looking to represent diverse viewpoints.

"Fifty years ago, it was common to have a course called 'Problems of Democracy,'" Kawashima-Ginsberg says. "Young people had an open space to talk about what's in the news, with the goal of forming values and opinions in terms of their political leanings."

Now, she says, "We no longer see or hear from people who are different politically. Parents will say that by talking about politics, 'You're brainwashing our children.'"

The White HousePhoto: Flickr user Kevin Dooley

Some undeterred teachers and curriculum providers are cautiously wading into these turbid waters. In Indialantic, Florida, where seventh graders are required to take a state-wide civics exam, middle school teacher Stephanie Moody has found a way to encourage debate while avoiding ad hominem attacks. She visits nonpartisan websites, compiles profiles on the candidates, and then anonymizes them. "I remove all of the pictures, all the political party names, all the candidate names," Moody says. "The kids go in kind of blindfolded, and it forces them to look at the issues."

One year, the libertarian candidate won her class vote. "That was a great conversation starter," she says. "The kids get really into it." She'd like to do a similar lesson this fall, but isn't sure it will work. "I think the kids will be a little bit more in tune with guessing who each candidate is, because they're such big characters."

When viewpoints from home and digital media overflow into the classroom, she asks students to defend their beliefs with facts. "It has to be evidence-based: What's the quote? Where's your source?"

Civics teacher Erich Utrie, a self-professed "Star Wars geek" who adorns his classroom in Jefferson, Wisconsin, with figurines and posters, has also grappled with establishing classroom norms that clash with what students witness outside of school. "You don't want to stifle what kids are saying, but they have to communicate their thoughts in a civil manner. 'I can say this at home'—but you can't say that here. It's a challenge sometimes," he says.

Utrie sees his own example as central to the solution. "It comes down to modeling. As a classroom teacher you show that, 'Hey, I'm listening to you, I'm listening to both sides.'" He also has an "open-door policy" for parents in his middle school's rural community, located halfway between Madison and Milwaukee, who might be interested in visiting class.

In recent years, Utrie has started using an iCivics game called Win the White House, which puts students in the shoes of make-believe candidates. Via an avatar of their choice, they fundraise, conduct polls, advertise, and give speeches. The game plays out state by state, and rewards smart strategic choices—for example, polling a state to understand its views, and then avoiding topics of disagreement when making an appearance there.

"They might not be voting for president right now, but we want them to develop the skills," says iCivics director of content Carrie Ray-Hill, a former middle school teacher. The game involves challenges like parsing the differences in candidates' policy positions after conducting a side-by-side comparison of their speeches.

Ray-Hill hopes that the game, which relies on party platform statements but sidesteps the most recent and potentially explosive news reports, provides teachers with a neutral foundation for their lessons. Indeed, she knows firsthand how quickly parents and administrators can turn on educators for perceived bias. Once, she presented data on presidents' vacation time. "I was literally showing a table of vacation days, I was saying positive and negative things about both parties, and the kids didn't see the balance that I was providing." Parents called the school to voice their anger.

Dubé remains hopeful that this election season becomes an opportunity for civics education to re-enter the spotlight. "People are coming back to this idea that citizens have to be prepared to pay attention and think the issues through and have literacy skills with respect to media claims or any claims," she says. "It's not enough to sign them up to vote."

Newsela, an education startup that publishes news articles at five different reading levels, has become a leading resource for improving nonfiction literacy. In the process, it reinforces the connection between literacy and the critical-thinking skills that are central to good citizenship. During primary season, the company made that connection even more explicit by organizing a state-by-state mock election that logged over 400,000 student votes.

"The more students get engaged, the more reason they have to read," marketing director Alex Wu told Xconomy.

This fall, Newsela hopes to see 1 million students participate in its online general election. The company has also partnered with Rock the Vote to encourage students turning 18 to register for the official polls.

For many students, the Newsela election became an outlet for their frustrations, and a way to be heard. "My fifth graders are outraged that they can't vote yet—they've even expressed an interest in getting a fake ID so they can show up at the polls," Erin Green, who teaches language arts and social studies in Austin, Texas, wrote in a blog post.

For other students, civics lessons have landed in their backyards—or rather, their school auditorium. This past spring high school students in Sioux City, Iowa, protested when their superintendent let Trump hold a rally on their campus, because the Republican contender had been using language that flew in the face of their school's anti-bullying rules. The Trump event took place, but grownups were forced to acknowledge the students' voices.

"Some promising research indicates that if we give students in high school strong education in civics, parents too can change," says CIRCLE's Kawashima-Goldberg. In one study, students read news articles and discussed their reflections at the dinner table. "They found an effect on the parents' voting, as well as the kid."

It's an encouraging reminder that in this season of rising political rage, a little conversation can go a long way.

How To Work With Coworkers You Distrust

0
0

Have reason to question a colleague's integrity? Here are three ways you can deal with them.

Once, long ago, I worked at a rapidly growing tech company. For all intents and purposes, the organization was nailing it, sending consultants out all over the country to work with organizations on problem-solving, tech-related issues. All sounds great, right? It only took a few months for me to begin noticing things I was far from comfortable with.

Client projects would be scoped to leave out key pieces of the solution, so that when the company delivered work, the client would then need to re-engage us to deliver the chunks that were missing originally. It seemed to be an unspoken sales tactic, but whatever it was, it smacked wholly of dishonesty and a distinct lack of respect for the client and the employees.

In your company, maybe you've seen some similar shady business. Maybe you've seen someone "fix up" a report so that it reads better for the C-suite or for investors. Maybe you've overheard a manager using personal attacks to get people in line. Or maybe you've seen a married colleague in an affair with another coworker.

Which brings us to the idea of integrity. Researcher and author Brené Brown defines it like this:

Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.

Hits the nail on the head, doesn't it? I know you know integrity when you see it. But what do you do if you find yourself working with someone who lacks it? Here are three ways to deal:

1. Own Your Story

When you see someone do something that, in your eyes, lacks integrity, it's easy to leap straight to judgment.

The leaders of that company I described above? I told myself they were awful people of the worst order, and that they had zero right to be running a company. Watch people manipulate facts or just make something up as part of their work? You might tell yourself that they're fundamentally dishonest and be convinced that it's inevitably all going to unravel. If you discover two coworkers carrying on an extramarital affair, you might be disgusted and wonder how they can live with themselves.

Your brain weaves a narrative that puts you in the right and others squarely in the wrong, and that's the story you tell yourself: They're wrong. They're bad. You'd never do something like that, so you're right and good.

You've heard it before, but it's worth repeating: No one's perfect. And your story may not even be the whole story. It rarely is. Instead of letting your assumptions drive the narrative, take what you know to be true and see if you can take a step back to assess untapped feelings of your own. When you notice yourself leaping to conclusions, getting fired up, or labeling people as wrong (and yourself as right), think about these three questions:

  • What story are you creating? Take a hard look at what emotions are getting stirred up and the story you're wrapping around them, even if—especially if—it makes you uncomfortable.
  • What if you let go of that story and the drama?
  • What might happen if you took a more generous point of view?

Asking yourself these questions can help take your focus out of the drama and avoid the blame game. Sometimes, in doing that, you can learn something insightful about yourself.

2. Plant Your Feet

When someone you work with displays a clear lack of integrity, some common options include:

  • Sucking it way down deep and pretending like you never saw anything.
  • Instigating a fight. How dare they?
  • Dropping a trail of insipid little breadcrumbs that you hope will blow the lid off it all.
  • It's hard to know what to do in the face of someone whose character you find questionable, but a more fitting response to a lack of integrity is to honor the boundaries of your own integrity.

This comes down to what you're willing and able to compromise on, and what you're not. If being complicit in something untoward makes your skin crawl, then understand that planting your feet and saying that you can't be part of it is the right thing for you. If the thought of watching a continuing unethical practice goes totally against what you believe, then know that privately voicing your discomfort to a manager will be the right thing to do.

Or if doing nothing while seeing a close colleague fall deeper into an illicit relationship flies in the face of what friendship and support mean to you, then offering a friendly ear may be entirely appropriate. On the other hand, if you aren't close enough to offer support, then perhaps your boundary of friendship will tell you not to meddle or make things more complicated.

When you recognize the values that are in your bones, those things that matter most to you, you'll know in your gut what you need to do. What are the things that matter to you most, the things that would turn you into someone you didn't like or respect?

There's no purpose in being pious or self-righteous about this stuff, but when a lack of integrity is impacting your day to day, at the very least, you owe it yourself to respond based on your own boundaries and strength of character.

3. Professionalism Doesn't Preclude Honesty

When faced with a situation that's less than squeaky clean, professionalism might suggest that you keep your head down and stay focused on the job. Don't rock the boat. Steer clear. Stay out of it.

That makes some sense. The workplace isn't a social club or a family unit, it's a place of work, a place where results trump personal preferences.

But these days, we all know that an organization works best when the people inside it work together with shared values and vision. When the people in a workplace choose comfort over courage, when they choose what's fast or easy over what's right, and when they profess values instead of actually practicing them, the organization is doomed.

The notion of professionalism as "keeping your head down" or "towing the party line" is dead. In today's world, professionalism demands that you act honestly and courageously when you see something that lacks integrity.

You're absolutely right to talk to a manager or raise it with the individual involved if you see something dishonest in an organization that professes to value honesty. Be sure to suggest a different, better approach in your team meetings if you observe something unethical that's becoming the norm. Or lay out how someone's toxic behavior may be impacting others if you see someone operating with a lack of respect; even let the person know that a different standard of behavior is necessary for everyone to do great work.

This doesn't mean being a tattletale; it means demonstrating courage and asking for a better way. It doesn't mean resorting to condescension; it means striving for openness and discussion. It doesn't mean adopting the attitude of a judge, but it does mean expecting a baseline of behavior that's founded on respect.

Speaking up requires courage, of course. It demands you make yourself vulnerable. That's something that will always feel uncomfortable, but if it also feels right, then you're on the correct path.

Fact is, the workplace will always feature people with a lack of integrity, because there will always be people who are struggling to find their way—and that's really what a lack of integrity is.

Perhaps the only way to work with people like this is to work with them from integrity.

It always starts with you. But ultimately, if you still feel compromised, or if your performance suffers after you've found the courage to honor your own values and integrity, then it may well be time to use that integrity of yours once more, and start looking for a new job.


This article originally appeared on The Daily Muse and is reprinted with permission.

How Netflix's Former Chief Talent Officer Shapes Company Culture

0
0

Silicon Valley human resources veteran Patty McCord helps businesses build influence.

During Patty McCord's 14 years as chief talent officer of Netflix, her unconventional approach to human resources shaped the workforce that transformed the DVD-by-mail retailer into a top content-streaming service. Her philosophy, which included unlimited vacation and no annual reviews, is detailed in a 124-page report, "Netflix Culture: Freedom and Responsibility," which Sheryl Sandberg has called "the most important document ever to come out of the Valley." Now a consultant, McCord helps businesses such as Warby Parker and Birchbox hire effective teams. Here's how she forms company culture.

Toss The Employee Handbook

McCord says some startup executives introduce infrastructures, such as complex hierarchies and compensation systems, as soon as they get funding. But imitating a grown-up company can inhibit innovation if employees spend time chasing manager approvals, McCord says. She recommends that smaller startups—a three-year-old company with 75 employees, for example—skip the systems and focus on progress.

Think Like A Coach

When everyone works long hours, relationships can feel familial­—a dynamic that clouds judgment when you need to let someone go. At Netflix, McCord re­­peated: "We're a team, not a family," and encouraged executives to treat employees like players in a sports franchise, where roster cuts aren't personal. This approach led to McCord's own exit in 2012. With Netflix in transition and its culture clearly defined, CEO Reed Hastings asked her to depart.

Give Perks A Purpose

McCord says that some benefits favored by tech companies, such as in-office hammocks and personal chefs, are "a race to the ridiculous." Instead, align extras with your values. If you're running a retail company that donates clothes to kids, send employees to a developing country to deliver the products. "Perks are designed to make peo­ple happier at work, but you're not accomplishing anything just by giving people more stuff," she says.

Be Honest With Inexperienced Hires

McCord says that if Warby Parker had employed only retail veterans, they might have tried to deter the founders from opening a showroom when the industry was going digital. She recommends tapping some amateurs for their openness to risk, but let them know that if things don't work out, you'll do what's right for the company. This kind of transparency, McCord says, is the key to building a company culture that is rooted in trust.


Six Reasons Why Your Company's Board Still Isn't Very Diverse

0
0

Some companies are building much more diverse employee bases while their boards remain heavily white and male.

Many companies are buckling down on their diversity efforts, some with better results than others. But most of those initiatives focus on employee bases, with few businesses giving the same attention to diversity at the board level. That's a problem. Here's why it persists and what it will take to fix it.

1. Most New Board Members Are CEOs And CFOs

In 2015, 73.2% of new public board appointments went to CEOs and CFOs, according to one industry report. Among last year's Fortune 500 companies, just 21 (or 4.2%) of CEOs are women, nine are Hispanic, and five are African-American. In fact, in the entire history of the Fortune 500, there have only ever been 15 African-American CEOs.

As long as new board positions go primarily to public-company CEOs and CFOs, women and minorities will continue to be largely excluded. Considering board members with different backgrounds, from academia to government and nonprofit sectors, would expand the slate of qualified women and minority candidates considered for leadership roles by corporate boards.

2. Many New Board Members Are Retirees

While age discrimination persists in many companies, we're seeing the reverse at the board level: The average age for new board members is 58, and among active board members it's 63, according to the Wall Street Journal. Some 19% of directors are older than 69, but fewer than 1% are under 40. As one Bloomberg editorial puts it, "corporate boards shouldn't be retirement homes."

While experience is valuable and retirees often have the bandwidth to devote to directorships, a well-rounded board should also include people well-versed in the latest technologies and trends—knowledge more likely held by younger, currently employed executives. In age and employment status, as with so much else, finding the right balance is key.

3. Many Believe That Only Engineers Really Understand Tech

There's a well-documented shortfall in women and underrepresented minorities graduating from engineering schools, pursuing technology-based careers, and breaking through to leadership positions. Limiting (non-CFO and non-CEO) board appointments to candidates with engineering backgrounds is a sure route to continuing that trend.

There are plenty of brilliant business and academic leaders who didn't major in engineering but are still qualified to steer a tech business. Can you imagine anyone not wanting economics majors Sheryl Sandberg or Meg Whitman, or psychology major Mark Zuckerberg, on their corporate boards?

4. Most New Board Members Come From Other Board Members' Networks

According to a National Association of Corporate Directors survey, almost 70% of respondents acknowledged that their boards used personal networking or word of mouth to identify the candidate pool from which their newest director was chosen. And this happens even when search firms are hired to fill board seats because many firms are simply asked to rubber-stamp candidates that a board's network have already unearthed. Selecting directors from the board's network is hardly a path toward diversity.

5. CEOs Prefer "Friendly" Bosses

It's only natural to want your friends—or your friends' friends—as bosses. People in CEOs' extended social circles are more likely to support the CEOs in their roles, create a safe place for them to execute their vision, and share common perspectives on how to achieve their goals.

This makes sense. Psychologists know that most people prefer to spend time with people who agree with them. But that's not how good decisions are made. You need to weigh diverse perspectives. You need to be challenged. At the board level, that means that in order to thrive, CEOs have to be held accountable to board members who aren't their buddies.

6. Low Board Turnover Leads To Slower Change

The average board tenure among S&P 500 directors, according to one board services company, is eight and a half years. Think about how deeply most industries change in that time.

It's hard to believe that most directors are still contributing after such a long time—but unfortunately there's no way to know for sure, since most boards don't hold themselves to documented performance standards, nor do they conduct regular reviews on their members. Companies hold their employees accountable for their performances; they should do the same for their directors.

It doesn't have to be this way. Instead of pale, male, and stale, let's make boards diverse, effective, and innovative by expanding the job qualifications considered and modifying the practices used to find qualified candidates. That may not make for a cute acronym, but it should make for better business.


Valerie Frederickson is founder and CEO of HR executive search firm Frederickson Pribula Li. Clients include Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Tesla, SoFi, Microsoft, HP, Genentech, and other technology leaders.

The Album That Plays Itself

0
0

Tristan Perich's new album, Noise Patterns, is a dumb machine that turns data into noise into hypnotic music

You don't need an MP3 player, a turntable, or a CD player to listen to Tristan Perich's new album, Noise Patterns. All you need is a pair of headphones—"not earbuds," says the composer—and a willingness to hear music in noise.

The 34-year-old Perich's compositions push the border between white noise and electronic music, frequently straddling the two as if the static on your old television started emitting a strangely beautiful pattern of sound. But Perich doesn't just compose music: His music is the instrument itself. He composes sound in code, carefully stringing together each 1 and 0 to transform numbers into a symphony.

Tristan Perich

Perich, who studied math, music, and computer science at Columbia and received a masters from NYU's fabled hacking-meets-art Interactive Telecommunications Program, has spent the last dozen years of his life exploring the frontiers of one-bit sound, transforming those lines of 1s and 0s into a living art form. With Loud Objects, a band with college friends Katie Shima and Kunal Gupta, Perich's playful experimentation involved live circuit-bending—soldering the circuit in real time; on his own, Perich has delved deeper into code, and made three chip-based albums: 2007's One Bit Music, 2010's 1-Bit Symphony (an electronic symphony in five movements), and Noise Patterns, released in July.

Like the previous outings, Perich's latest masterpiece is emblazoned on a limited-edition microchip and soldered to a circuit board so simple that it looks like it could be made out of Snap Circuits. Plug your headphones or speaker into the board's tiny jack, turn the switch to "on," and over six sections Perich's cascading waves of "one-bit" sound fill your ears.

"One-bit music is electronic sound that's created entirely with just on-and-off values," says Perich, who grew up composing music for classical ensembles. Compare that to 16-bit sound, which is what is traditionally used on CD albums, where audio is digitally sampled at 44,100 samples per second and then quantized (that's a physics term) into 16-bit quantities, each capable of representing 65,536 discrete loudness values. The fidelity of that CD sound is such that the difference between that sound and the original wave is almost imperceptible to human ears.

Strip that down by half and you get 8-bit sound, which is best known as "chiptune" or the soundtrack to early Nintendo and Game Boy games. "[At 8-bit], you start to get this electronic quality sound," says Perich. There's a cottage industry of musicians on YouTube and elsewhere remaking songs to achieve the sonic quality of the Super Mario Bros. soundtrack, but he wanted to take it a step further.

"I was interested in one-bit sound, which is going all the way down to its most basic digital representation of sound, where the soundwave is composed entirely of ones and zeroes, just on and off pulses of electricity. It's basically the binary language of information translating directly into sound."

A recorded excerpt from Noise Patterns

The end result is music that is simultaneously highly technical and very primitive—with the hypnotic influences of Steve Reich and Lightning Bolt alike—as it makes a direct connection between code, software, data, noise, and sound. "It's very raw and pure in my mind," Perich says of the work. "It's a conceptual aesthetic exploration of the nature of electronic sound."

Perich is often trying to balance the visceral and aesthetic with the mathematical and conceptual. "My aim is to create music that can move back and forth between these different effects," he says. "[There will be] a pulse or a rhythm that's really easy to hold onto and could almost be like a dance track or something, and then slowly that will break down until you're listening to something that's very abstract and noisy and more like a wall of sound. But because of how you got there, you still hold on to the beat in your mind. You can see where these changes came from."

"I'm trying to walk the listener through this process because the process itself is meaningful to me," he adds, "the math behind the sound is meaningful to me."

Tristan Perich performing in 2007[Photo: Flickr user James Everett]

It would be easy to suspect that the noise emitted by Perich's music machine is merely a mathematical potpourri made of random numbers, but it is in fact completely composed. "It's fully written and I don't use randomness in the process, which is to say it's not an algorithmic piece of music," says Perich. He composes and codes simultaneously, writing the music on a computer that is connected to a custom circuit board that he built. "That allows me to test the musical material the exact same way as it would play back on the album."

Next, he distills his code into a "chip-ready version of the music" that he pairs with software he's written specifically to synthesize the code and to sequence or play the music. All of the code must eventually fit within the confines of the chip's 8,000 bytes of memory, about the size of three desktop screenshots. Perich took every byte he could.

The object itself is a handsome matte black machine-made printed circuit board with two barely visible strands of copper for the electricity to run through. A machine solders the components (chip, headphone jack, volume dial, on-off switch, and fast-forward button) onto the circuit board; underneath, an imperceptible layer of copper connects all of the ground pins of all of the parts, grounding the circuit and helping to reduce radio interference.

The board is returned from a factory in China to Perich, who then transfers his software to the chip directly from his computer, turning each circuit board, one by one, into what Perich describes as a "self-contained little computer." The neat package is the epitome of plug-and-play technology, in that you simply plug in your headphones, switch it on, and you're listening to his symphony.

Perich chooses the minimalist look for the project partly for its sleek aesthetic—it comes in a tidy CD jewel case with liner notes that contain the entire code—but also for a more instructive reason.

"I present the music as this raw circuit board so that you can actually trace the paths of electricity from the battery through the on-off switch back to the chip, and then you can trace the output of the chip to the headphone jack, and be part of that process as a consumer," said Perich. "I want people to think about these things, especially in a time where technology is becoming more and more complex, more opaque, and we really don't understand what's happening on our phones or on our laptops or the servers that we're connecting to for our social media and everything.

"I'm trying to at least give a hint at the fact that technology doesn't need to be magical, it doesn't need to be out of reach. It can be very simple."

Because of the intensive assembly process, there are currently only 5,000 physical copies of Noise Patterns in existence. The album is streaming digitally, but the effect isn't quite the same, partially because the streaming version is a recorded version of the album and misses some of the techno-romance of listening directly from the circuit board as it plays its prescribed tones. The online version also doesn't afford the listener the distinct pleasure of fast-forwarding: Press the single black button once to skip to the next song, but hold it down, and you're treated to an accelerated sequencing of the track at hand. The staticky thumps give way to ghostly bloops and the uncanny tremolo of a black helicopter.

Not that Perich particularly minds how you listen to his music, virtually or physically. "While I'm trying to make some commentary on how we listen to music by putting it out as a circuit board, I also don't want to tell people how to listen to music," he said. "If they want to hear it on their computer or on their phones, that's absolutely fine by me."

That pragmatism is typical of Perich. As often as he is invited to share his work in math, physics, and computer science classrooms, at heart he is very much a composer, building machines that build soundscapes. "At the end of the day," he said. "It's music, it's just music."

How To Make The Most Out Of Your Temp Gig

0
0

Working a temporary job this summer? Here's how to make it count before your time's up.

They may not be glamorous, they probably won't be easy, and they might not pay very well, but temp jobs can—and do—lead to successful careers in rewarding fields of work. Just ask Todd Cherches, CEO and cofounder of BigBlueGumball, a New York City–based career consulting, training, and coaching firm:

After graduating from college, I got into the temp pool at Walt Disney Studios in LA. After a series of eight different weeklong temp jobs, the last one led to an amazing full-time assistant-level job in comedy development working for a writer/producer.

Just because you're not on the permanent payroll doesn't mean you can't reap big benefits from a summer temp gig. You just have to put in the effort and treat your temporary job like it's the dream job you're hoping for.

We asked career experts how you should maximize those long hours spent indoors at the office and out of the summer sun. Don't let the calendar hit September without doing these three things at your summer temp job.

If You Want A Full-Time Position, Make That Clear

For many students, temp jobs are a stepping stone to full-time work. Yet too many temp employees don't tell their employers they want to be brought on full-time. Your boss isn't just going to assume you want a full-time job. So naturally, this puts the company in a position where it has to seek outside applicants.

But if you show clear interest—with the right people at the right time—it will greatly increase your chances of changing your job status from "temp" to "perm."

"If you like the company, find out what their forecast for hiring new grads is," says Donna Svei, executive resume writer and interview coach. "Ask someone in HR if they will explain the company's hiring process to you. Ask for an introduction to your most likely hiring manager(s) and express your interest in continuing to work for the company or in coming back after your graduate."

Build Your Professional Network (Quickly!)

Don't let summer slip by without expanding your professional network. This is probably one of your best opportunities when it comes to summer temping—to make connections with people who will be able to help you get hired full-time.

"By summer's end, you should have gathered the experience necessary to become attractive for a full-time position, if not the actual position itself," says WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez. "You should be armed with a new set of skills and the blueprints of a professional network with individuals who are currently working in their field of interest—that's probably the most invaluable thing to have."

Even if you don't get offered a full-time job by your manager, you never know what job they'll have in the future. "Managers change jobs all the time, and they might need to build a team, or they may have friends or relatives looking for help," reminds Cyril Hill, founder of writing and career information site Source Resume.

Do A Project, Leave An Impression

"By the end of the summer you should have completed a project that people can remember you by," says Mia Hall, a career transition consultant based in New York. Show them you've got the kind of hard-to-find skills employers are looking for from new grads.

Executing a project is a great way to pad your resume, and this type of work will give you a great talking point when it comes to your next job interview. Maybe it's a video production, or a building development, or a website. Whatever it is, having something to point to and being able to explain your involvement is key.


This article originally appeared on Monster and is reprinted with permission.

What To Do When You Suspect You Can Do Your Boss's Job Better Than They Can

0
0

Have a sinking feeling (or utterly convinced) that you're more qualified than your boss? Take these three steps right away.

Over drinks a few weeks ago, a good friend vented to me about her job. After several minutes of trying to articulate exactly what she wanted to say, she blurted out, "Bottom line: I shouldn't be working for my supervisor. He should be working for me." Yes, it's quite a bold statement, but after a few frustrating weeks, it was how she felt.

And I don't think she's alone. I've definitely had moments in which I felt similarly—moments in which my supervisor was ill-equipped to lead my team in the direction we needed to go. If you feel this way, it's not fun.

But "diminishing your boss's real strengths, overreacting to his errors, and resisting or resenting his authority are self-inflicted career problems," says Judith Sills, psychologist and author of Excess Baggage: Getting Out of Your Own Way. "You do need to be learning something in your job. You do need to feel personally valued. When you distort your boss in a negative direction, you make both less likely."

So before you throw in the towel or demand change, there are three things you should do first to better the situation. Because the real bottom line is that if you continue to think this way, you'll just enter into a downward spiral that gets harder and harder to recover from.

1. Remember That Your Manager Is Just That—A Manager

Let's say your supervisor's in charge of four people. She is not the sum of the four of you. She can't (and won't) know every single thing each of you knows. If she did, she'd be Superwoman. And she also may not need you (or the others) at all.

Rather, your supervisor has a much different type of responsibility on her plate—managing you and your teammates. In this type of role, she's supposed to be able to see the big picture, support you, and guide you. According to Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback, coauthors of Being the Boss: Three Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader, a manager needs to know "enough to understand the work, enough to be able to make good judgments about it, enough to understand the common hurdles, and enough to coach or find help for those [she manages] when they struggle with problems."

So yes, you're going to need to bring her up to speed sometimes so she can adequately assist you. If you're frustrated because she doesn't know every microscopic detail, perhaps you need to give her a break and remember she's human.

However, if find yourself constantly repeating things to her, asking for guidance and receiving none, or being asked for advice on every decision she has to make, then, yep—maybe she isn't quite as qualified as she should be.

2. Re-Evaluate Where You Stand

Even if you determine the individual you report to should, in fact, not be in the role he's in, that doesn't mean you're fit for it either (at least not yet, anyway). Take a step back and look at your current situation. How are you performing at your job? What was your last performance review like?

"Ask yourself if you're genuinely smarter than your manager, or if it's possible that you're more qualified in some areas but not others," suggests Amy Gallo, contributing editor to Harvard Business Review and author of the HBR Guide to Managing People at Work. It's awfully hypocritical to criticize others if you're not doing what it takes to do your job as well as possible.

Yes, it's hard to provide a completely objective review of your own performance, so this is a great opportunity to ask for input from others (even if it's not annual review time). You can start with your director, as that's a more natural and common scenario, but don't stop there. Ask others you work with, too.

"Soliciting feedback from your colleagues may seem like a scary endeavor," says Muse writer Jennifer Winter, "but with enough time, patience, and planning, you'll set yourself—and your colleagues—up for success with open, honest, real-time feedback." It may be just the reality check that says, "Hey—he may not be the best fit to lead us, but I still have room for improvement, too." And then? Work on those areas that need it most.

3. Identify The Gaps And Fill Them

Instead of whining about what the leader of your team lacks, do what you can to fill in those gaps. Because as Gallo says, "There's no reason not to be generous. If your boss is successful, there's a greater chance you'll be successful too."

Let's say you're part of your company's marketing department, and the creative director has zero Photoshop skills. While she has a great vision, it's frustrating because it limits her capability to jump in and cover when you're gone, as well as her ability to help you when you're experiencing difficulty with the program.

But rather than blabbing to the entire office about how incompetent she is, you can take action. First, make sure you're up to date with the product (because—gasp—there might be something you don't know, either). Then, offer to train her and your coworkers. Sure, it'll probably rub her the wrong way if you say, "Hi. You're pretty horrible at this and it's ruining my life. Let me help you."

A better approach would be something like this: "I just took a refresher course on Photoshop. In the next team meeting, can I review what I've learned?" Not only does this show initiative, but it also provides you the opportunity to learn new skills, gain experience in training others, and add both to your resume. (Which never hurts, right?) And maybe—just maybe—your boss will pay attention and increase her skill set, too.

It can be exasperating to report to someone who, well, really isn't that great at his or her job. And the truth is, you probably can't stomp around and request she be replaced ASAP (without repercussions). Instead, you should try to change your perspective and focus on what you can change. After all, if you eventually do want to land a promotion at this company or even leave for a position at another company, learning how to handle challenging situations professionally is key to anything you do next.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Muse and is reprinted with permission.

I Hire Engineers At Google--Here's What I Look For (And Why)

0
0

This Googler explains how tech recruiting is becoming more holistic than it used to be, and what it takes to stand out.

The hiring experience for engineers isn't what it used to be—and that's partly by design. Here at Google, we've intentionally broadened the number of schools where we actively recruit, from 75 a few years ago to 305 today. We're as interested in English or philosophy majors as we are in computer science degree holders. We don't really care if you have a 4.0 GPA, and we're not interested in whether you can figure out how many golf balls fit inside a 747.

But here's what we do look for in engineering candidates in 2016—and why we look for it.

1. Don't Disqualify Yourself Preemptively

Recent experience has taught us that we can find great tech talent in a much wider range of places than previously thought. For one thing, there are far more qualified college applicants than there are spaces for them at top universities. And for another, computer scientists aren't always aware of their talent for coding by the time they're 18 and have to declare a major.

Google is also trying to challenge some of the industry's stubbornest stereotypes about what computer scientists look like and do in their spare time. Our Google in Residence program, for instance, embeds Google engineers at historically black colleges and universities to teach computer science and coach students about how to position themselves for engineering careers. We have similar initiatives in the works aimed at improving Hispanic diversity, too.

It's important to know this because, too often, the tech sector's well-documented demographics are enough to discourage some of the best talent from imagining themselves as future Googlers. My job is to help change that; your job is to apply.

More broadly, Google's CS in Education initiative works to develop programs, resources, tools, and community partnerships to make computer science accessible to more students during their formative educational years. The goal is to make sure tomorrow's tech industry mirrors the demographics of the people it actually serves.

In the meantime, don't assume you're unqualified on the basis of your educational, professional, or personal background and decide against applying (or, for that matter, let self-doubt get the better of you when you do show up for an interview). Trying to land a competitive tech job is daunting, but it's only impossible if you don't compete.

2. Show Us What You Can Do—Even If You Didn't Learn It In School

Yes, engineers need to be able to code. But we're interested in hiring actual people, not machines. So on your resume, instead of listing your GPA (which we no longer use to determine candidacy), give us details about your experience at hackathons, coding competitions, or programming assignments at work. Just because it isn't an academic credential doesn't make it any less relevant. Not only does this create a more textured portrait of your abilities, it's a great way to prove your engineering chops if you majored in sociology, for instance.

3. Get Comfortable With Coding Exercises

Now for the obvious part: It goes without saying that engineers need to be able to code, so intensive preparation for the coding exercise—the centerpiece of every Google engineering interview—is a must. Candidates should be able to answer three coding questions from scratch (without the help of a library function) within 45 minutes.

I also suggest practicing with a live person, whether they're technical or not. And try going analog—use a whiteboard or a blank piece of paper. And focus in particular on algorithms and data structures. There are some great samples in Cracking the Coding Interview, Topcoder, and LeetCode.

4. Remember What Got You Noticed In The First Place

It's equally important is to keep a lookout for "impostor syndrome," certain high achievers' tendencies to discount their accomplishments and fear being exposed as a "fraud."

Some newly hired Googlers experience it when they first step on campus, and sometimes it crops up periodically during their tenures. While this is a completely normal response, it's a counterproductive mind-set while you're gunning for a tech position. I've seen it get the better of candidates and completely derail an interview.

You might not put relaxation techniques at the top of your checklist for tech-interview prep, but they should be there. Here's a tip: Consider thinking out loud while you complete the coding exercise. Not only can that help you own the task at hand and stay calm under pressure, but this level of transparency helps your interviewer understand how you think.

And why wouldn't you want that? After all, if you've made it to the interview, you can be confident that someone on staff already believes in your abilities.


Keawe Block is a recruiter at Google.

Viewing all 36575 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images