What Men Really Think About Workplace Gender Bias

In the past few years, American corporations have increased their focus on attracting and retaining talented women to build gender diversity. Companies tout everything from diversity targets to enhanced maternity leave to bias training to flying nannies. Many leadership experts, such as Harvard Business School Professor of Leadership John Kotter, believe that change needs to be driven from the top down. And yet evidence from over 10,000 employer reviews analyzed by Fairygodboss suggests that the top down approach is necessary – but not sufficient to build a path to a truly gender diverse workplace.

Nearly half of women on Fairygodboss, an online career community for women, say that women are not treated equally at their workplace. Even at the most highly rated companies, women often report that experiences can vary greatly depending upon the department. One-third of women on Fairygodboss say that their workplace experience “depends on their manager.” In other words, whether women face gender discrimination at work is generally not driven by corporate mandates or a CEO’s proclamations, but in day-to-day interactions through the chain of command. That’s why understanding the male perspective is so important: In corporate America managers are still disproportionately men.

If a woman’s workplace experience is so dependent on her manager, how can companies begin to make improvements? In other words, how can they change culture quickly -- especially among male managers? That was the question that Artemis Connection, a consultancy that focuses on aligning strategy and team, and Fairygodboss tried to answer by honing in on the behavior and attitudes of men in the workplace.

This summer, we surveyed over 300 U.S. full-time working men. Our survey was not random, nor was it intended to be. We simply wanted a cross-section of perspectives on how men felt about women’s workplace inclusion. And while the sample was not representative of all working U.S. men—three-fourths of participants have incomes of $100,000 or more, almost half work in the technology, Internet, or telecom sectors, and over half in management, finance, or technology roles—we did end up gathering a wide range of opinions on women at work.

Here are some of the most revealing insights men shared about women at work:

• “It’s a problem, just not where I work.” While a full one-third of men think women are treated unfairly in the workplace in general, just 10 percent of respondents agree that women are treated unfairly in their workplace. In other words, the men we spoke to don’t believe that gender bias happens in their own backyard.

• “Diversity is a culture issue. There is no gender wage gap.” When asked what challenges women most faced at work, men pointed toward an overall feeling of inclusion as the single biggest issue (by over 50 percent of respondents). Work-life balance, childcare, and mentorship came in a close second, but other more fundamental issues, such as compensation, promotion, harassment, and even flexible work options, were named much less frequently. Less than 25 percent of men, for example, named compensation as a big challenge faced by women at work, and similarly, less than 17 percent men viewed harassment as a challenge. Compare this to what women tend to say about the gender wage gap and sexual harassment, and you begin to see a real schism in what women and men say about workplace issues.

· “I want to help, but it’s kind of awkward.” When asked, men say they are eager to help women. Almost half say they have advocated for equality, inclusion, and diversity publicly, and over half have done it privately. A full one-fifth, however, admitted that they have not yet acted as an ally.

What should companies do in light of these insights?

1) The first step - Get the facts: We recommend every company perform a brief survey about gender diversity in their workplace, and gather side-by-side responses from men and women. Laying bare the facts about how men and women perceive gender diversity issues in their own workplace differently would be the first step to helping everyone recognize how deep the perception gap can be.

2) Have honest conversations: Employees should be encouraged to have open and candid discussions about how gender bias impacts their workday. If men hear from female colleagues about the barriers they face at work, they may feel more compassionate and more motivated to help eliminate them.

3) Hold managers accountable: A commitment from the top to build a diverse, inclusive workplace is not enough—managers have to be held accountable. Rewarding managers for creating an environment where diverse talent can thrive is important.

4) Train managers: How managers manage truly matters. Research out of Stanford highlights that when people are assigned to better bosses, they are less likely to leave the firm. The first year as a manager is key for developing skills and habits. Often, managers are judged solely on financial performance; yet structured training and clear expectations for leadership quotient should be an essential element of every company.

5) Try, learn, iterate and share results: Finally, at an organization level, companies should continue to experiment with different approaches, or at least dialogues, to pinpoint their firms’ unique gender-related strengths and challenges.

Not all of the above strategies will work for everyone, but experimenting with them will help you find the right activities for your team and culture. Actively including men in these efforts, is vital—without it, women’s workplace progress will continue to stall. And the more companies are willing to share their results with each other, the faster and smarter we can all forge a path to more gender inclusive workplaces everywhere.

Written in conjunction with Christy Johnson, CEO Artemis Connection, a strategy and design firm that is reinventing consulting and providing meaningful work for women. Christy was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Co, was a VP at several corporations and was an award winning high school math and economics teacher. Christy holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a MA in Education from the Stanford School of Education.

Disrupt or Be Disrupted: How Legacy Businesses Are Changing the Game

Jeanie Caggiano, EVP, Executive Creative Director, UnitedHealthcare at Leo Burnett USA

Evolve or die. It’s as true in business as it is in biology. Just ask Kodak.

Problem is, legacy businesses—let’s say those born before the digital age—can’t always move quickly when something upends their model. Little things slow them down. Like factories, inventory, infrastructure, equipment, processes, franchisees, federal and state regulations, and hundreds of thousands of actual employees. Unlike, say, Uber. With its independent subcontractors who own, operate and maintain its virtual fleet, it can turn on a dime.

But most businesses are legacy businesses. And as the Ubers and Googles and Instacarts mature and become more regulated (and themselves work to evolve or die), they too will become legacy businesses. And some yet-undreamt-of new model will arise and scare the pants off them. It will happen: 86% of the companies on the Fortune 500 in 1955 were history by 2015.

The good news? There is something a legacy business can turn on a dime: its image. Nearly overnight, I have seen a great idea stop people and change how they feel and think about a brand—even if that brand has been around for more than a century. Creating disruptive ideas happens to be our agency’s “legacy” talent. And has been ever since Leo Burnett opened the place in 1935.

“Advertising is the ability to sense, interpret…to put the very heart throbs of a business into type, paper and ink.” – Leo Burnett

In today’s world, I’d add “words and pictures, sounds and stories, bits, bytes, context and algorithms.” Legacy agencies, too, have had to evolve or die. But technology hasn’t changed the need to engage people in a great idea. It simply changes how and where we execute it. And dumb or boring creative will be ignored even faster.

Here are three ideas, created for three of our legacy clients, that can’t be ignored:

The Art Institute of Chicago (founded 1879): “Van Gogh’s Bedroom”

“Come look at old paintings on a wall” has been the traditional art museum pitch. But though old, the Art Institute of Chicago is anything but traditional, especially when it comes to the immersive marketing experiences they’ve created with Leo Burnett.

For the Van Gogh exhibit, we took one of his famous bedroom paintings and lovingly re-created it as a real bedroom, right down to the brush on his nightstand. But the real genius was letting people stay in the “painting” via AirBnB. “Van Gogh’s Bedroom” sold out immediately, generating massive PR and a 250% increase in online ticket sales—the highest attendance of any exhibit in 15 years.

Allstate (founded 1931): “Mayhem Sale”

Mayhem was created to disrupt the insurance category. If you bought on price—not realizing you’d also cut your coverage—Mayhem would find you. This led to a unique event where Mayhem showed homeowners how important it is to have the right coverage.

We started with an increasingly common behavior—sharing on social media. We added a fact: 70% of burglars use social media to target homes while their owners are away. Then we found an oversharing couple—Matt and Shannon—who’d posted on Facebook that they’d be at the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

Mayhem broke into their home (actually, a reproduction meticulously re-created on a Hollywood set) and started selling exact copies of all their personal possessions online, from a cheesy squirrel statue to their new car. Seeing their stuff being sold by Mayhem on the Jumbotron at the game gave Matt and Shannon the shock of their lives. And had the rest of America laughing, logging on and learning about how Allstate home insurance protects you differently.

UnitedHealthcare (founded 1977): “Ways In” Campaign

Despite the fundamental changes shaking up health care, all health insurance brands looked the same. They featured vignettes of happy people and vague promises of “wellness.” To stand out, UnitedHealthcare decided to do something different: Use humor to help people notice and like their brand.

Inspired by the more than 76,000 official medical codes used to track how people get into the health-care system, we told funny back stories. For example, code “Y93.4 Activities Involving Dancing and Other Rhythmic Movements.” That became the story of a middle-aged couple making dinner, getting carried away when “their song” came on the radio, attempting the lift from “Dirty Dancing,” and destroying the dining room table. One tele-doctor visit over a laptop later, courtesy of UnitedHealthcare, they were bruised but unbowed. Our films stopped people, were widely liked and shared, and set UnitedHealthcare apart from the rest.

What wasn’t (outwardly) disruptive was our media choice. Yes, we live in an omni-channel world. But our target was so broad (adults 18 to 100+) that micro-targeting wasn’t the answer. TV and online video was. And it worked. With only 25% of category spend, the campaign has driven 97% of category engagement.

The moral of this story? Disrupt or be disrupted. A great idea can retool a legacy business faster than it can build a new factory or re-do its website. And that holds true whether your brand is 200 years old or 2 months old.

About the Author

Jeanie Caggiano is executive vice president, executive creative director and business lead on UnitedHealthcare at Leo Burnett USA. Jeanie’s Advertising Week panel, “From Legacy Business to Disruption Enabler: Meeting the Challenges of the Digital Age,” is on September 29 at 9 a.m.

Top Reasons Why Investors Would Switch Online Stock Brokers

By Kevin Voigt

The top reason why investors would switch online stock brokers? Lower trade commissions, according to a recent NerdWallet/eTrade survey.

That is, except for millennials, who say that fees are their top reason why they would change to a different online brokerage.

NerdWallet teamed with eTrade as part of the online brokerage's quarterly Streetwise survey to ask investors what factors are most likely to make them switch online stock brokers, including lower commissions for each trade, lower fees to maintain the brokerage account, more investment offerings, better customer service and better site usability and tools.

Key findings

• The reason most commonly cited by investors to switch brokers: lower trade commissions (34%), followed by lower account fees (22%) and better website usability (18%). Better customer service (12%) and investment offerings (7%) were the least likely reasons overall.

• The picture changes by age and type of investors. Unlike other age groups, millennials were more likely to switch for lower account fees (31%) than lower trade commissions (28%).

• Active investors, those who trade more than once a week, are more likely to leave for lower trade commissions (37%) than lower account fees (20%). Investors 55 or older had the largest split on the commission-versus-fees question: 36% would leave for lower trade commissions, while 15% would leave for lower fees.

• Investors 55 or older also are more likely to leave for better site usability (20%) than other age groups. Active investors also rate usability higher (22%) than other investor types.

Commissions versus fees

The fact that millennial investors favor lower fees more than other age groups do holds some logic. A May study by J.D. Power and Associates found that millennials were much more interested in fee-based robo-advisors -- 72%, compared with the 47% average for all age groups. Also, as a recent NerdWallet study shows, millennials have the most to gain or lose over time by shaving fees from their retirement savings.

Active investors are wise to examine the commissions for each of their trades. But they are the exception: A 2012 NerdWallet analysis found that the average online stock brokerage customer executes fewer than two trades a month.

To know which is best for you -- lower commissions versus lower fees -- requires an analysis of your investing habits. As my colleague Arielle O'Shea writes: Start by understanding what features you want in an online brokerage, then compare the costs of fees and trade commissions. For example, if exchange traded funds are a priority, look for an online stock broker that allows commission-free trades on ETFs.

Shop around and select the broker that delivers the features you want with the lowest commission on the securities you trade frequently.

Survey methodology
This online survey was conducted from April 1 to April 8, 2016, among a U.S. sample of 907 self-directed active investors who manage at least $10,000 in an online brokerage account. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.25 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. It was fielded and administered by ResearchNow. The panel is broken into thirds of active (trade more than once a week), swing (trade less than once a week but more than once a month) and passive (trade less than once a month). The panel was 65 percent male and 35 percent female with an even distribution across online brokerages, geographic regions and age bands.

Kevin Voigt is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: kevin@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kevinvoigt.

This Family Went A Whole Year Without Buying New Clothes

This article is part of HuffPost’s “Reclaim” campaign, an ongoing project spotlighting the world’s waste crisis and how we can begin to solve it.

In June 2015, Emily Hedlund gave herself a challenge: She would go an entire year without buying any clothes. 

At first she thought she’d try it out on her own. But because she was also in charge of clothes shopping for her husband and young son, she expanded the experiment to also include them. Hedlund calculated that she spent hundreds of dollars each year on thrift store finds and cheap fast-fashion impulse buys, stuff she and her family didn’t feel any connection to and never actually wore.

Together, they had enough of a stockpile to keep themselves dressed for a year, Hedlund thought. There was just one potential hitch: She was pregnant ― her second child was born two months after she started the challenge ― and would need clothes in various sizes. Fortunately, she had a strong rotation of summer dresses, activewear, leggings and jeans, including items from the first time she was pregnant. 

Hedlund shared her pledge on Facebook and her personal blog to keep herself accountable. And to eliminate temptations, she unsubscribed from emails from companies like Old Navy, Victoria’s Secret and American Eagle, which peppered her inbox with emails about sales.

It worked. With the exception of a single pair of running shoes, Hedlund succeeded in not buying any clothing for anyone in her family for one year. Along the way, the exercise in frugality brought her attention to something else entirely: the clothing industry’s staggering wastefulness. This problem, Hedlund realized, was fueled in part by people like herself, who bought too many clothes they didn’t need or even really want.  

Worldwide, people buy more than 80 billion pieces of clothing each year. Compared to other household expenses, Americans are buying more clothing than ever before but spending less. These purchases power a fashion industry where pollution, waste and unsafe working conditions are too often seen as simply the cost of doing business ― unsettling truths that Hedlund realized as her experiment progressed.

“There’s this whole dark side of the fashion industry that I’d heard of but wasn’t really aware of,” Hedlund told The Huffington Post. “It definitely wasn’t at the forefront of my mind when I started the ban, but now it just makes me want to keep not buying clothing.” 

There’s this whole dark side of the fashion industry that I’d heard of but wasn’t really aware of.Emily Hedlund

It’s not necessarily naïve to think that one person’s actions can impact a trillion-dollar global industry notorious for its lack of transparency. Consumers can pressure retailers into slowing the hyperproduction that leads to so much waste, said Christina Dean, founder of the fashion waste reduction organization Redress. 

By controlling their consumption ― that is, buying less stuff ― consumers can “send a clearer signal to the big players that are producing billions of garments a year that they don’t want to buy so much and they don’t want to buy cheap stuff that’s badly made,” Dean said.

Hedlund, who lives in St. Louis, began to think about her own place in a larger system when, in the midst of her yearlong experiment, she invited a group of friends to her home for a clothing swap. They arrived toting garbage bags full of unwanted items, many of which were from fast-fashion brands like H&M and Forever 21. When they’d finished picking over each other’s stuff, most of it remained unclaimed.

“There was so much left over,” Hedlund said. “I could not believe how much.” Afterward, the bulging trash bags sat in her dining room, waiting to be donated. “It just gives you an idea that there’s so much overconsumption going on.” 

Courtesy of Emily Hedlund

Hedlund began hosting clothing swaps at her St. Louis home. The sheer number of unwanted items opened her eyes to problems of overconsumption and waste. 

Hedlund has assigned herself other challenges, including frugal grocery shopping and buying (almost) nothing at all for an entire month. She’s part of a community of bloggers responding to consumer culture with an ethos of minimalism, a lifestyle category containing everything from decluttering to tiny houses.

Even some businesses, counterintuitively, are encouraging people to buy less. Cladwell, a minimalist clothing app, helps customers curate a wardrobe of fewer, higher-quality items, with a stated goal of crusading against the fashion industry’s wastefulness.

“As a society, we’ve consumed our way into this mess,” Cladwell founder Blake Smith told HuffPost. “So it’s my belief that we can’t consume our way out of it.”

Self-congratulatory expressions of minimalist living have earned plenty of critics. To people who don’t have enough in the first place, celebrations of “less is more” can sound more like a luxury than a sacrifice.

“Minimalism is a virtue only when it’s a choice, and it’s telling that its fan base is clustered in the well-off middle class,” Stephanie Land wrote in The New York Times in July. “For people who are not so well off, the idea of opting to have even less is not really an option.” 

Hedlund gets this. She was able to go a year without buying clothes for her two children because she was able to inherit hand-me-down coats, mittens, socks and shoes from a friend with four sons.

Courtesy of Emily Hedlund

Hedlund's sons Shiloh and Malachi, pictured here in hand-me-downs from a family friend.

For those who take dramatic steps to curb their shopping habits, it’s about bringing sustained attention to a part of everyday life they once took for granted.

When Andrew Morgan began making “The True Cost,” a documentary about the human and environmental consequences of the fashion industry, he vowed not to buy any clothing until he finished the film ― which ended up taking two years.

“I just wanted to reset. I wanted to step back and say, ‘I want to figure out what I believe in and where I want to buy stuff,’” Morgan said. “And that was an awesome exercise.” He kicked his habit of buying cheap, poorly made items at fast-fashion companies and now shops almost exclusively at secondhand stores.

For Hedlund, changing habits took some time. At first, she missed the feeling of buying and having new things, and even the act of shopping itself. As summer turned to fall, she felt the urge to rush out and buy fleece-lined leggings, leather boots and other cold-weather comforts. She even kept a list of things she planned to buy once her yearlong embargo lifted.

But as time went on, the urge to shop began to fall away. In the three months since her challenge’s end, she has treated herself to two $3 dresses from her local Goodwill. She hasn’t even looked at her list, and doesn’t intend to.

“I didn’t actually need those things,” Hedlund said. “I just thought I did.” 

More stories like this:

• We Buy A Staggering Amount Of Clothing, And Most Of It Ends Up In Landfills.
• The ‘Chilling’ Moment This Father Realized Where His Kids’ Clothes Come From
• Before Buying More Clothes At H&M, Read This
• Dressing Like A Cartoon Character Made Me Happier, Calmer And A Better Consumer
• This Company Is Basically A Hospital For Sad, Damaged Clothes
• Why This Company Wants You To Fall In Love With People’s Old Jeans
• These African Countries Don’t Want Your Used Clothing Anymore

Using Insurance to Pay for Mental Healthcare: A Therapist's Perspective

Authored by Molly Merson for Psyched in San Francisco. Molly is a relational, psychodynamic psychotherapist in private practice in Berkeley, CA. Molly works with adults and adolescents of all genders in approaching uncomfortable feelings, working through stuck patterns and creating room for joy and desire.

While I'm pleased to read NPR's ongoing investigation into mental health access, therapists like myself face a lot more when considering taking insurance, including mental health stigma, private practice costs, assumptions about "helpers," and client/patient privacy and confidentiality.

Mental health stigma is alive and well, and plays a part in the insurance conversation. When patients use insurance, they reveal the fact that they are in therapy, as well as a mandatory diagnostic code, to a third party. The problem is, therapy doesn't lend itself well to third party scrutiny. Therapy is often like a dream, where strange thoughts and uncanny relationships between images and sensation arise. It's a language that doesn't really hold itself up to conscious, logical assessment. Maybe you don't actually want to kill your father and have sex with your mother (thanks, Oedipus), but your unconscious doesn't know that. Therapy works because it helps you deeply get to know yourself and process your feelings in a safe environment. Worrying about your insurance company requesting your records and declaring your therapy "not medically necessary" could pose a challenge to that safety.

In the fine print of your insurance policy, you might discover that your insurance company has the right to audit your diagnosis, treatment plan, and progress notes to prevent fraud and determine whether the treatment is medically necessary. But having a non-clinician look into the deepest secrets of my patients feels like an unethical breach of patient confidentiality, and makes me uneasy. I'm not sure I trust the auditor more than I trust myself and my clinical consultants to understand and care for my patients' needs.

Additionally, since many people come to therapy to better their lives and relationships, it can be difficult to find a medical reason for the treatment. Yes, intervening when someone is suicidal is medically necessary, but what about everything leading up to and following the crisis? Some therapists are willing to juggle the risk to confidentiality with the need to make mental health care financially accessible.

But there are two people in a therapeutic relationship (three, if you count managed care, or if you're a relational psychoanalyst). Therapy must also be financially viable to the therapist. The truth is, someone has to pay us. Our profession is not a hobby. Up to six years of graduate school and 3,000 hours of mostly unpaid training is expensive. In private practice, therapists pay for office space, electricity, and furniture. We provide our own health insurance, disability, and retirement plans. Vacation and sick days don't exist. There's transportation, record keeping software, an accountant, business license, continuing education, personal therapy, and consultants to help with complex cases. And taxes, including the special "self-employment tax" that small business owners have to pay on top of regular taxes (usually about 15%).

It adds up.

If I see on average 14 clients per week (many therapists, myself included, stay under 20 clients to provide competent care), I charge $100 for each hour (just for round numbers' sake, not my actual fee), and all those hours are paid, I'll make $70,000 a year with two weeks vacation. Factoring in overhead, estimated at about $30,000 by Zynnyme, then self-employment tax and income tax, that comes to about $23,000 in take-home pay. That's 50% of median income for the SF Bay Area and qualifies me for reduced income housing (rent or mortgage being anywhere from $2,000-$6,000 per month in the Bay Area).

Finances are a huge consideration for therapists wanting to take insurance. I wish I could share the contracted rate I was offered the last time I inquired, but I can't. I'm not allowed to talk about what insurance companies actually pay, and therapists cannot unionize to advocate for better rates from insurance companies. That would violate the Sherman Act and the Cartwright Act. In fact, therapists are not even allowed to talk to each other about their fees. That could be interpreted as conspiring to monopolize. However, I can share that some rates I've been offered are less than half my fee, and not nearly enough to live on. In addition, insurance companies don't pay for missed sessions, so the hypothetical income calculations above could end up being even lower.

I know a few therapists who take insurance. They have to overbook their practices in order to meet their bottom line. They report feeling burnt out, tired, overextended, still don't have enough for retirement or emergency savings, and struggle to take vacations.

The helping professions, indeed.

But here's the thing: Many of us want to take insurance. We went into this profession to help everyone who needs it, not just those with financial means. I am hopeful for change with Hillary Clinton's new bill attempting to expand Medicare and Medicaid. But since MFTs are barred from accepting Medicare, this proposed bill may still be paying lip service to a deeper problem.

I think about the patients I see who can't afford much (if anything) out of pocket, who are wrapped up in so much childhood trauma that they could benefit from multiple sessions per week. One-third of my practice is sliding scale or pro-bono, and the rate I charge factors for that. But I wish I could work with anyone whose need fits my skills, regardless of their financial means. I wish I could accept insurance without feeling like I was compromising the integrity of my practice, or feeling resentful about rates so low that I couldn't pay back my debts or take care of myself and my family.

These are heavy things to consider as a private practitioner. I constantly support my patients in developing healthy boundaries and increasing abundance and self-esteem. What kind of therapist would I be if I could not do the same for myself? Unfortunately, for many of us, accepting insurance would make our own survival impossible. Until something changes, we are caught in a conundrum: able to help some, but not all, who need our care.

America's Richest (And Poorest) States

The U.S. Census Bureau released on Wednesday new data from its 2015 nationwide population survey. According to the annual survey, the national median household income rose to $55,775 in 2015. No state reported income declines. While 39 states reported significant increases in household income, income levels in 11 states remained the same.

24/7 Wall St. ranked all 50 states according to the newly released median household income figures. Annual income levels range from $75,847 in Maryland to $40,593 in Mississippi.

High-income states typically share certain social and economic characteristics. For example, residents of states with the highest incomes also tend to have high education levels. In 17 of the states reporting higher than average household incomes, college attainment rates also exceed the national attainment rate of 30.1%.

Click here to see America's richest (and poorest) states. 

While it certainly does not make up the difference between a poverty wage and a six-figure salary, residents of low-income states enjoy cheaper goods and services than residents of high-income states. For example, goods and services cost 10.3% more in Maryland than they do across the nation. In Mississippi, meanwhile, goods and services cost 13.4% less than the national average.

Similarly, home values closely mirror household incomes. In 18 of the states with high household incomes median home values exceed the national median home value of $194,500. The opposite is the case in the nation’s poorest states.

To identify the richest and poorest states with the highest and lowest median household income, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed state data on income from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 American Community Survey (ACS). Median household income for all years is adjusted for inflation. Data on health insurance coverage, employment by industry, food stamp recipiency, poverty, and income inequality also came from the 2015 ACS. Income inequality is measured by the Gini coefficient, which is scaled from 0 to 1, with 0 representing perfect equality and 1 representing total inequality. We also reviewed annual average unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for 2014 and 2015.

These are America’s richest and poorest states.

The Poorest States:

• 5. Kentucky
• Median household income: $45,215
• Population: 4,425,092 (25th lowest)
• 2015 Unemployment rate: 5.4% (20th highest)
• Poverty rate: 18.5% (5th highest)

Like most states, Kentucky’s median household income of $45,215 a year has increased since 2014, when the median income, adjusted for inflation, was $43,014 a year. Residents are still quite poor, however. Kentucky’s poverty rate of 18.5% is the fifth highest poverty rate of all states. While no guarantee, a college degree substantially improves the odds of finding a job with a good wage. In Kentucky, just 23.3% of adults have a bachelor's degree, considerably lower than the national college attainment rate of 30.6%.

• 4. Alabama
• Median household income: $44,765
• Population: 4,858,979 (24th highest)
• 2015 Unemployment rate: 6.1% (8th highest)
• Poverty rate: 18.5% (5th highest)

Alabama is one of the poorest states in the nation with a median household income of $44,765 a year. However, this figure is notably higher than in 2014, when the median income, adjusted for inflation, was $42,895.

Like in many of the poorest states, Alabama’s poverty rate of 18.5% is among the highest of all states. Other problems the state faces are a high jobless rate and a high proportion of households relying on food stamps. Last year, 6.1% of workers were unemployed, the eighth highest jobless rate of any state. With low incomes, home values are also low in Alabama. The median home is worth $134,100, or more than $60,000 below the national benchmark of $194,500.

• 3. West Virginia
• Median household income: $42,019
• Population: 1,844,128 (13th lowest)
• 2015 Unemployment rate: 6.7% (the highest)
• Poverty rate: 17.9% (7th highest)

The typical West Virginia household earns $42,019, compared to the national median income of $55,775. Individuals struggling to find work who live on little to no income contribute to low household incomes in West Virginia. Of workers in the state, 6.7% were unemployed in 2015, the highest annual unemployment rate of any state.

West Virginia’s population is one of the largest recipients of government assistance programs such as SNAP, which each year help millions of people cope with poverty. Of households in the state, 16.0% use food stamps, the ninth highest share.

• 2. Arkansas
• Median household income: $41,995
• Population: 2,978,204 (18th lowest)
• 2015 Unemployment rate: 5.2% (24th highest)
• Poverty rate: 19.1% (4th highest)

Goods and services in Arkansas cost less on average than almost anywhere else in the country. While the relative affordability certainly helps low income households, state residents are still quite poor. The typical household earns $41,995 a year, second lowest after Mississippi. Also, 19.1% of people live in poverty, the fourth highest poverty rate of any state. Homes tend to have relatively low values to match the low incomes. At just $120,700, the typical home in Arkansas is valued at more than $70,000 below the national benchmark of $194,500.

• 1. Mississippi
• Median household income: $40,593
• Population: 2,992,333 (19th lowest)
• 2015 Unemployment rate: 6.5% (4th highest)
• Poverty rate: 22.0% (the highest)

With 2015 median household income unchanged from 2014, Mississippi is once again the poorest state in the country.The typical Mississippi household earned $40,593 last year, well below the national median income of $55,775. Mississippi also has the highest poverty rate in the country, with 22.0% of residents living below the poverty line. A relatively large share of state households are very poor. Some 11.5% earn $10,000 or less annually, the highest extreme poverty rate of any state. Similarly, there are relatively few affluent households in the state. Only 2.1% of Mississippi households earn $200,000 or more a year, the lowest such share.

The Richest States:

• 5. Connecticut
• Median household income: $71,346
• Population: 3,590,886 (22nd lowest)
• 2015 Unemployment rate: 5.6% (18th highest)
• Poverty rate: 10.5% (6th lowest)

A typical Connecticut household earns $71,346 in a year, considerably higher than the national median income of $55,775. With such high incomes, residents are better able to afford more expensive homes. Connecticut’s median home value of $270,900 is among the highest nationwide. A portion of every state's population is extremely wealthy, and the share of such high earners is especially large in Connecticut. More than one in 10 households earn $200,000 or more a year. Connecticut's relatively high education attainment rate partially accounts for the high incomes in the area. More than 38.3% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree compared to 30.6% nationally.

• 4. New Jersey
• Median household income: $72,222
• Population: 8,958,013 (11th highest)
• 2015 Unemployment rate: 5.6% (18th highest)
• Poverty rate: 10.8% (8th lowest)

While New Jersey households report some of the highest incomes in the nation, living in the state is not cheap. Goods and services cost an average of 14.5% more in New Jersey than across the country. Housing is also very expensive in the state. The median home value of $322,600 in New Jersey is considerably higher than the national median home value of $194,500.

Few states have a higher proportion of high-income households than New Jersey, where 10.9% earn $200,000 or more a year. While certainly not a guarantee for such high wages, high college attainment among adults in New Jersey partially explains the high median income. More than 37.6% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, compared to 30.6% nationally.

• 3. Alaska
• Median household income: $73,355
• Population: 738,432 (3rd lowest)
• 2015 Unemployment rate: 6.5% (4th highest)
• Poverty rate: 10.3% (5th lowest)

A typical Alaska household earns $73,355 annually, nearly $18,000 more than the typical American household. While the price of oil has fallen considerably in recent years, Alaska still relies heavily on its traditionally high-paying oil industry. Of workers in the state, 5.6% work in the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting, and mining sector -- which includes the oil industry -- the sixth highest such share of any state. State workers who are employed in the industry likely still earn relatively high wages.

Like the nation, the percentage of people without health insurance in Alaska dropped substantially in 2015. However, 14.9% of residents still do not have health insurance, the second highest rate in the nation.

• 2. Hawaii
• Median household income: $73,486
• Population: 1,431,603 (11th lowest)
• 2015 Unemployment rate: 3.6% (6th lowest)
• Poverty rate: 10.6% (7th lowest)

With its picturesque island scenery, Hawaii attracts some of the world’s wealthiest individuals. The state is also home to some of the more valuable real estate. Hawaii’s median household income trails only Maryland as the highest in the country, and the median home value of $566,900 is the highest of any state and several times greater than the national median home value of $194,500. Even the richest states do not necessarily have especially healthy job markets, but Hawaii’s unemployment rate of 3.6% in 2015 was one of the lowest in the country.

• 1. Maryland
• Median household income: $75,847
• Population: 6,006,401 (19th highest)
• 2015 Unemployment rate: 5.2% (24th highest)
• Poverty rate: 9.7% (2nd lowest)

Maryland leads the nation with a median annual household income of $75,847. The state’s poverty rate of less than 10% is also nearly the lowest of any state. The prosperity can be partially explained by high levels of education among state residents. More than 38% of adults have at least a college degree, many of whom are likely among the state’s high-income residents. The state also contains Washington D.C., home to some of the nation’s highest-paying government occupations. More than 10% of Maryland workers are employed in public administration, which represents only one portion of such government jobs.

Didn't see your state? Click here to see the full list.

Click here to see America's most segregated cities.

Click here to see the healthiest city in every state.

Click here to see America's most violent (and peaceful) states.

What You Can (Still) Learn From Donald Trump

I know. Risky topic. Read on.

In recent weeks, Donald Trump has become a political “powder keg” characterized by various gaffes and bumpy poll numbers. His early cycle rise to the 2016 Republican nomination however was truly remarkable.

So…what got him there?

In a word: communication. Correction…two words: communication style.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/27151701353

Donald Trump speaking with supporters

That’s right… love him or hate him Trump is (or was, depending on your view) an effective communicator. His success lies in his mastery of four components of communication that can make anyone effective in conveying ideas and persuading listeners. Even if your personal mission is not to lead the free world—these are techniques that YOU can use to positively impact your communications with clients, colleagues, board members and juries:

1. Pith – “The Donald” has mastered the art of expressing himself concisely and forcefully. He says what he wants and does so using word economy minus painstaking attention to grammar or syntax. This allows him to message to a wider audience by avoiding meandering prose or “big words.” He is a sophisticated man, but he speaks the language of the masses. What he says, sticks. Take note.

2. Suggestion – Recognize that suggesting something to a listener can be extremely powerful if done forcefully and succinctly. The right suggestion can alter a listener’s mindset. Consider Trump’s past success derailing Jeb Bush’s candidacy. He did it by repeatedly suggesting that Mr. Bush was a “low-energy” candidate (i.e. the exact opposite profile of a person you want in the White House). It became a quiet mantra that resonated and ultimately, I believe, got into Jeb’s head. Result: one less competitor for the nomination. Suggestion is power.

3. Synchronicity – Mr. Trump’s verbal message is very well coordinated with what his body is also saying at the moment. In other words, Trump is pithy and powerfully suggestive when speaking and uses body language that fully supports and reinforces the message coming out of his mouth. There is no disconnection between the two. Each of his several “stock” body movements (e.g. the finger wagging “no, no you’re totally wrong” motion ― or the arms spread wide “get on board, folks” move) fits perfectly with what he is saying at the time. It takes years to reach this level of communication expertise, but the results are well worth the effort. So, merge your words and body movement. By the way, Steve Jobs was an absolute master of this as well. Practicing in front of a mirror helps. I’d bet my last dollar Donald does it ― daily.

4. Authenticity – This is the bow on the packaging. Donald Trump is comfortable being Donald Trump. The man knows who he is and this conviction comes through in his speech. Whether he is engaging an audience of die-hard supporters or speaking to a skeptical reporter the subtext is the same: “I know who I am and I am comfortable with it.” People appreciate and respect that—even if they disagree with what you are saying. Proof: more than one of Mr. Trump’s opponents has fared poorly by attempting to be something they are not. Be yourself. People always know.

Fortunately, Donald Trump doesn’t have a monopoly on any of the traits or techniques listed above. He just merges them superbly and uses them effectively. You can too.

About the author:

Ernesto Sigmon is an attorney in Houston, TX. He has an LLM in International Law from George Washington University Law School, and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

13 Signs Your Mall Is Dying

Does your town have a mall? Do you have a sneaking suspicion that it’s on a downhill slide? We have a handy little list here to help you know for sure:

13. It’s the weekend. The mall is open. And this is the parking lot.

Elford Alley

12. The entrance appears foreboding, a yawning abyss awaiting you and anyone else who dare visit the Sears within.

Elford Alley

11. There’s a guy selling swords and laser pointers in the same store.

Elford Alley

Other stores will come and go. But swords and laser pointers are forever. Like the diamonds in the jewelry stores that are no longer here.

10. You see signs of the world that once was. Pac… Sun?

Elford Alley

9. You can navigate a third of the mall without seeing an open store.

Elford Alley

Also: If you hear children’s laughter emanating from the dark corners of the mall ― which you will.

8. You see an abandoned store that was converted to a church… that has also been abandoned.

Elford Alley

The power of Christ compelled them... to new digs! Boom! Take that, struggling businesses.

7. Some stores escape. Others are not so lucky...

Elford Alley

6. They still have a place for kids… to disappear without a trace.

Elford Alley

5. Hey, where did you go to college? By the Dillard’s? Me too!

Elford Alley

4. All that remains of the food court are the bygone signs of the long extinct maintenance crew.

Elford Alley

3. The fabulous ‘90s carpeting mysteriously vanishes.

Elford Alley

2. Hey, look guys, a teen hotspot! For teens!

Elford Alley

Hey, look guys! The teen hot spot has... German military paraphernalia…?

Elford Alley

1. It looks like someone is living in one of the stores…

Elford Alley

Oh shit...

Elford Alley

I think I found him. But seriously, if you disturb his final resting place, you’ll suffer the same curse that brought down the Sbarro.

Elford Alley

How did your mall do?!

One to two things apply: Not looking good.

Three to four things apply: Someone is going to try and stab you in the parking lot.

Five or more things apply: Seriously, was that a Halloween costume or did I photograph a dead guy?

What a Boomer (or Gen X) and Millennial learned from each other

My birth year straddles the Baby Boomer and the Gen X boundary so depending on what chart I look at I could be either. I kind of like that actually -- because I think we over generalize the traits about generational groups and end up with even more bias.

Earlier this year, I moderated a panel on "millennial myths" at the HR Policy Association conference, a gathering of CHROs from around the country. We brought together four millennials from different companies to talk about myths and truths about their generation. It was eye opening.

The most important lessons I learned? Take the time to learn more about each other as individuals instead of putting people in a box. And, that a "what can I learn/what can I teach" mindset is extremely productive.

One of our panelists was Daniella Patrick. Daniella is a product manager at Accenture's Talent Innovation Lab - a creative team within HR that is charged with researching, ideating and developing innovative solutions that improve employees' experiences here at Accenture. She is a valued colleague of mine and I check­-in with her often to bounce ideas around.

In the spirit of our "what can I learn/what can I teach" philosophy, I thought it would be fun and insightful for us to co-author a blog together--blurring the generational lines to share what we've learned from each other.

Thank you, Daniella, for adding your voice to mine ... over to you!

Daniella: Things I've Learned from Ellyn

Be willing to teach and learn. One of my earliest "Accenture Adventure" experiences was when Ellyn and I coached a client together on ways to attract and inspire top talent. Ellyn modelled what it means to teach and to learn. First, she actively involved me in the conversation and asked for my opinion. And, afterward we discussed how the meeting went and she offered invaluable insights that I carry with me today on the importance of establishing collaborative and trusting professional relationships.

Meaningful Connections. I've seen Ellyn work collaboratively with others inside Accenture as well as with other CHROs to ideate and bring solutions and experiences to life. Take Hackfest 2016 for example, where Ellyn is collaborating with LinkedIn's CHRO, Pat Wadors. This upcoming hackathon gathers students from all over India to solve complex human challenges in the workplace. It's clear from seeing them work together that Ellyn and Pat are friends first and coworkers second. Putting people first and connecting with them in a genuine way is what Ellyn is all about.

Love what you do! I don't think anyone loves their company and their work more than Ellyn. It's infectious. While her demanding schedule and frequent travel are certainly challenging, her high energy and passionate way of working show that she simply thrives here at Accenture.

Lead from Within. Ellyn takes on great challenges and brings bold ideas to life, which inspires others to take on greater challenges and be their best. In her few years as the Chief Leadership and HR Officer at Accenture, Ellyn launched Performance Achievement and in a very bold move shared Accenture's diversity stats with the world to push us all to do better.

Thank you, Ellyn, for being the inspiring leader, mentor and colleague that you are, and for letting me co-author this blog with you!

Ellyn: Things I've Learned from Daniella

The bottom line is that Daniella helps me look at old problems in a new way. Here are some of things I've learned from her:

Importance of being tech savvy - even when you aren't solving technology challenges. Daniella brings a technology lens to every problem, which is essential in the digital age. It's very important to bring both the human and digital perspective when looking at solving complex challenges. And, with her and others' help, I'm also very proud that I've become very tech savvy and active on social media.

Straight talk. One of the things I value most about Daniella is that if asked for her opinion she shares it - unvarnished. Hierarchy does not get in the way. We view each other as equals. We listen to each other, share ideas and ultimately co-create together.

Give people a voice. In this spirit of collaboration, it's important to give people an opportunity to step up -- early and often. Nine times out of ten they will grab ahold of that challenge and knock it out of the park. Daniella is proof of that. Hierarchy doesn't have a place in the workplace of the future. Collaboration across levels and tapping people for stretch assignments fuels innovation and helps people flourish both professionally and personally.

Diversity brings greater creativity. We have an unwavering belief at Accenture that our diversity makes us smarter and more innovative. The relationship that I've forged with Daniella is a prime example of that. The different perspectives we bring because of our age, life experience and ethnicity all contribute to new ways of viewing the world. Talking things through with Daniella opens my eyes to things that I wouldn't have otherwise seen. And that is a really beautiful thing.

It all starts with a meaningful conversation. Think about how you can broaden your circle to include older and younger colleagues and simply reach out. It comes down to connecting with each other as individuals to break through the myths and learn from each other.

Daniella mentioned Hackfest 2016, planned for September 24-25 in Bangalore, where students will innovate solutions that elevate human performance at work. And, breaking down generational barriers at work is an important issue because for the first time in history, we have five generations together in the workplace. This presents a tremendous opportunity to innovate - by leveraging the unique strengths we each bring to the work environment. I'll share the great ideas that the hackers come up with in a future post.

How do you break down generational barriers at work? Share your comments below and let's start a meaningful conversation now.

The Importance Of Thick Skin And Giving Feedback With Grace

“I don’t love it...” is a phrase I don’t hesitate to use if my team presents me with an unpolished product or project. The good thing is that this phrase never stops them. They absorb the feedback, head back to the drawing board, make necessary edits or additions, and come back to me for a round two.

According to Quantum Workplace’s 2015 trend report, “one in five employees are not confident their manager will provide regular, constructive feedback.” No wonder so many of us are still uncomfortable giving and receiving constructive criticism—the unfamiliar can easily inspire fear.

And in a study of more than 65K employees, Gallup found that “those who received strengths feedback had turnover rates that were 14.9 percent lower than for employees who received no feedback.” Of course, not every piece of feedback is going to be golden, but this does demonstrate the power of communication and its role in organizational health. So with so much data pointing to the fact that consistent feedback is a must, how are so many of us still missing the boat?

I think one of the issues is that “feedback” can have a negative connotation. People sometimes think it means you’re doing a bad job when, really, it just means that a conversation needs to happen. In fact, these conversations often lead to opportunities for growth and continued learning. We would all be better served to view those moments as prompts for personal and professional development.

Here, I explore a few ways to ease the pressure of the feedback loop, including how to give and receive it with grace (and when to have thick skin).

1. Be direct and as clear as possible.

In other words, don’t sugarcoat or pad feedback in a way that dilutes the message. As an empathetic person, it can be tempting to “nurture” when what you really need to do is be direct about what went well or didn’t and why. My team and I are very direct with one another and I expect them to tell me how it is, even if I’m the one who has misstepped. Feedback isn’t something that only a manager can give to their report, after all. Employees should be communicating in this way with their managers and peer-to-peer, as well.

2. A healthy feedback loop requires trust.

I happen to be an extremely candid person, and my team allows me to be because I’ve earned their trust over time. They understand that my feedback comes from a place of wanting them to do great. They also know they are protected. You get to that place of trust by having open, candid, sharp, and honest conversations on a regular basis. If you give an employee a piece of feedback at their annual review and it surprises them, you haven’t done your job.

3. Separate the personal from the professional.

Easier said than done if you or the person on the receiving end of the feedback feels personally invested in the work, and hopefully they do. Even though receiving feedback can be an emotional experience, it’s important to put your personal feelings aside so you can discuss your professional work and how efficiently it is supporting the objectives of the business.

The ability to listen, take a deep breath, and let something sink in (versus being defensive or reactive) says a lot about your professional maturity. Instead of focusing on how the feedback makes you feel, consider how it can improve your final product. In the end, it’s a valuable opportunity for growth, and growth tends to happen in the struggle, not the stride.

4. Remember that feedback is a two-way dialogue.

It’s easy to feel attacked if someone gives you feedback and you don’t have the opportunity to participate. You should never feel that way because feedback, when conducted in a healthy manner, is a conversation. Really listen, ask questions, and be present so it feels like a conversation and not as though you’re having a fact handed to you. It should always be a two-way dialogue.

5. Don’t give feedback when you’re upset.

Instead, give yourself some time to calm down and process, then approach the issue a day or so later. Some people may advise the opposite, nipping the issue in the bud as soon as it arises, but I’ve found it best to hold off for a moment. If you give feedback when you’re upset, there’s no way it will be a two-way street.

The Golden Rule

Give feedback in the way you’d like to receive it. And if you’re struggling with a piece of feedback you’ve been served, ask yourself how your favorite manager would handle it. Would they take it in strides and, perhaps, even be thankful for it? My guess is yes.

Annie Appel is an executive vice president at The Bay Club Company, an active lifestyle and hospitality company with a network of modern country clubs across California.

Teen Cries Foul After Bakery Refuses To Make 'Trump 2016' Birthday Cake

Make America cake again!

McKenzie Gill was hoping to celebrate her 18th birthday ― and the fact that she would be eligible to vote ― with a cake that said “TRUMP 2016” on it. But the bakery department at Albertsons supermarket in Bossier City, Louisiana, denied the teen’s request.

“The woman behind the cake counter just refused to make me a birthday cake because I wanted ‘Trump 2016’ on it,” Gill wrote on Facebook. “Did that really just happen?”

Right-wing media attempted to draw parallels to Sweet Cakes by Melissa, the Oregon bakery fined $135,000 for refusing service to a same-sex couple in a 2013 incident that made national news. In addition, the supermarket chain received a flood of angry comments on its Facebook page, and some Twitter users called for a boycott.

However, in this case, Albertsons said no one was trying to deny Gill. Connie Yeates, a spokesperson for Albertsons, told local CBS station KSLA: 

“Our Bakery staff member misunderstood the training provided regarding copyrighted phrases, and incorrectly informed the customer we could not fulfill her request. We would be happy to provide the cake as the customer requested.”

The teen bought her cake elsewhere. 

 

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

(VIDEO) Publicis' Hartell: Media Plays A Key Role In Agency And Marketer Transformation

A couple of decades has brought about massive transformation for both brand marketers and their media agencies. One linguistic but telling example offered by Publicis Media's Richard Hartell is that when Zenith was created and before it became part of Publicis, it was called Zenith Media Buying Services.

"They never really back then had any aspirations to do anything differently" than buying media, Hartell recalls in an interview with Beet.TV. "It's the importance of media for clients that has made that change happen" for both marketers and agencies.

The Global President of Business Transformation at Publicis Media notes that understanding the customer journey had traditionally been viewed through a paid-media lens, but now media agencies need to be transformation partners with clients. "Now it's much broader end to end," Hartell says.

With this in mind, Publicis Media earlier this year "unfolded" its global operations by executing broad changes in structure and leadership roles "in order to be able to make it much easier for clients to navigate our organization," Hartell says. "They can come into Publicis Groupe from wherever they need to but can access the best talent and the best skills and capabilities. We've made ourselves much simpler for clients."

He points to the acquisition of Sapient Corp. for its technology and consulting credentials as augmenting Publicis' brand, creativity and media skillsets. "We stand alone as agencies but can snap together around client problems or solutions whenever we need to," says Hartell.

Looking ahead to DEMEXCO 2016 in Cologne, Germany, the global business and innovation gathering, Hartell expects to hear more discussion of topics that were front and center at Cannes: data and "the ability to get the right AdTech and MarTech in place for clients."

Additionally, Hartell believes there is "a big conversation still to be had about trust," as the Association of National Advertisers and American Association of Advertising Agencies continue to parry with each other over issues of transparency in media agency compensation.

This video is part of "The Road to DMEXCO '16," a lead-up series with key influencers on the topics and trends to be addressed at DMEXCO. This series is presented by YuMe. Please visit this page for additional segments.

You can find this post on Beet.TV.

Agile Innovation for Jobs of The Future

Across countries in various offices many employees are developing more agile outputs in their workplace.

Agile approach in project management entails that every aspect of project can be continuously iterated and revisited during the project lifecycle. With this strategy, the waiting gets shortened and the sequential development is optimized: there is no need to complete every phase of the project before the next phase can begin.

What does it mean to be agile now?

Thanks to Dr Winston Royce who wrote a paper "Managing the Development of Large Software Systems" in 1970 knowledge workers in various industries have started to realize that projects and software could not be developed like automobiles on an assembly line.

The most wide-spread version of Agile, called Scrum focuses on obtaining empirical team feedback, creating incremental innovation in real-time as well as testing products or services with iterations that can be adapted easily.

When you compete globally and when you look at the time as your most valuable resource, your main metric for success becomes to get things done. In other words, you strive to produce tangible and measurable results every single day.

But in order to get things done we need to get down to work. How do we start working?

If we react to every single stimulus we receive, we will never get anything done.

For example, studies have indicated that on average three minutes pass by before an employee gets interrupted or switches to a new task. And usually after interruption it takes us around 23 minutes to get back to the state of flow and performance we had before the interruption.

Gloria Mark, professor at the University of California, Irvine elaborated on the aforementioned research results with the thought, ''We don't have work days - we have work minutes that last all day.''

This may sound grim, but it is a starting point to figure out where we are right now and where we are heading to. So many times per day we interrupt ourselves when we switch tasks and so many times we receive external interruptions as we made ourselves available to others.

Although task switching is unavoidable and everyday emergencies will continue to pop up, the focus is created when we pair similar tasks in advance and we organize priorities around three to five items that we must accomplish in a day. Also, it helps us to identify one of our activities that we will try to do better today than yesterday.

Now that I figured out how to laser focus and mitigate interruptions, how can I delegate non-core activities to others?

Yes, you need to learn how to empower your teammates to make decisions for two very simple reasons. First of all, you cannot be everywhere at the same time and you need to create the organization where people expand their knowledge by widening their comfort zone. On a daily basis we make around 227 decisions according to 2007 Cornell University research.

Therefore, it should be clear which teammate is responsible for the each project task. It would be ludicrous that the leader becomes the bottleneck in communication without whom not a single decision can be made.

Let's look how agile methodology can be implemented in three different industries: textile, law and healthcare.

No longer should management experts and futurists tell us which industries got disrupted. We just need to look at the way how we consumed information before social media boost in 2008 and nowadays that Snapchat targets marketing segments with minute precision and within a minute.

Twenty years ago it was difficult to predict in advance such a massive upheaval in retail, travel and ICT sectors we witness nowadays but in retrospect those incremental changes seem quite reasonable.

In textile industry you may adopt the entrepreneurial, agile approach both as you grow big or decide to stay small.

The towel company Southern textiles has optimized its production process since their technicians handle every single step from customers' perspective. Their system behind manufacturing, dying, printing, processing and packaging led them to produce up to 60,000 towels per day. Brands can also get personalized representation on towels thanks to advice and customized solutions of the company team.

How could you test a small retail business before launching it full upfront?

You should get agile in your approach again. You make an item of clothing by sewing and cutting; you post a photo of your creation on social media and you boost it to a pre-determined audience; then you test the demand and tweak the promotion. Go where the market is and instead of getting into the saturated area, create your own niche on marketplaces such as Etsy, Ebay or Amazon.

The first step in harnessing your fashionista entrepreneurial juices is to decide about the serger machine you will need to make items of clothes or accessories. Go to this serger comparison chart and decide what machine will satisfy your needs at best. Tech tools also become an agile ace up your sleeve because you can figure out how to push demand, decrease waiting times and engage those who may not have previously thought about buying from you.

Move beyond healthcare as we know it.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on agenda of all committed individuals, institutions and businesses, thus reminding us that fundamental healthcare needs to be provided for all people on our planet by 2030 latest.

If we apply agile principles in our work, we realize that there are several roads to take in meeting this lofty goal. The first one is to educate more medical staff for the higher demand not only because of the SDGs for the impoverished ones who lack basic medical amenities at the moment, but also for the aging population that wants to invest in prosperous and healthy longevity.

In order to coordinate the increased workforce, the new generation of experts with knowledge of medicine and project management needs to be trained. The profession of a healthcare administrator is on the rise since the ones who can supervise the medical staff with their flexibility and reliability get to mentor their colleagues and receive higher salaries.

Finally, medical services on demand and remotely will become the new standard since the virtual and augmented reality are developing at a steady pace. In the world where 2.2 million surgeons, aestheticians, and obstetricians are required for 143 million operations, the impeccably focused and coordinated staff which communicates remotely via VR and AR solutions may bridge the gap between the demand and supply in medicine.

Law services get also more agile and disrupted.

By now we have learned that agile teams which work side by side, especially in software industry, get to produce new products or features and to test them within several weeks.

When it comes to legal offices, the incredibly successful ones focus on the niche service they can provide better than anyone else. They both acknowledge possible glitches which may occur along the process and continue to expand on the expectations of their users.

Legal project management is different than industrial project management because the focus is not on creating uniformed products, but on personalized outcomes for clients.

For example, Mastriani Law Firm has identified eliminating debt for their clients as primary value proposition. Their process of protecting clients' interests focused on the results and for more than 95% of clients they have managed to completely eliminate interest or reduce the principle, without debt consolidation or bankruptcy.

Attorneys that want to adopt Scrum in their work will need to face the music like professionals in other industries. They will get exposed to a steep learning curve as they realize exactly in which segments their firm has not been managed completely efficiently. Likewise they will implement IT tools and new procedures in their own legal field, but with a new perspective.

Because agile project methodology focuses on rapid team feedback and fierce collaboration, it can be implemented in law offices fantastically because high demands of this job may require ''fighting in trenches''. Californian-based attorneys at Mova Law Group have specialized at helping clients experiencing traffic accidents and their value proposition is not to charge any fees upfront unless they win in the court. This strategy takes the pressure off clients and embodies greater trust in the legal team who can focus on their best performance.

It was noticeable in legal companies which became more agile that there was an overlap in responsibilities among staff, so once they re-organized a task list so that one key person was required to deliver results, the efficiency increased significantly.

Sometimes law experts create innovative compensation schemes so as to incentivize their staff or contractors. Air miles may be the perfect gift for driven people fond of travel. That is why The Smith Investigation Agency has decided to award those who engage in activities such as Private Investigator Training course, Investigative Research Services or Reward Milles for Surveillance. Apparently, for those interested to contribute to investigation niche the sky is the limit.

Hopefully, now you feel more at ease to question your work methodology until now and to use processes so as to deliver more successful, efficient projects.

Agile method and Scrum in particular will increase your productivity, but you need to spark creativity in your life occasionally, which is measured by a gut feeling and intuition rather than different charts and bars. From this week onward start question yourself more often not only what you do during your working hours, but also how you do it.

Photo credits: Daily Burn, Stroke Interiors, Setster

Edward D. Jones Accused of Cheating Its Own

A participant in the 401(k) Plan administered by Edward D. Jones for its employees has filed a lawsuit alleging breach of fiduciary duty and prohibited transactions by the broker-dealer under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (known as ERISA). All of the claims in the Complaint are allegations that will have to be proven at trial.

The irony

It's ironic that these claims will be initially decided by a United States District Judge. That's a privilege denied to customers of Edward D. Jones and other broker-dealers. They require their customers to submit to mandatory arbitration of disputes, administered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). I am among the many who believe this system is rigged against investors and should be abolished. To date, Congress has not had the political will to do so.

The flawed 401(k) system

In 2008, I wrote The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read. I asserted the current system benefited" brokerage firms, brokers, pension consultants, insurance companies, insurance agents, the mutual fund industry and employers." I noted that employees "get the short end of this stick" and stated that "this must be changed."

It took a while, but the system is starting to reform. Not because the securities industry suddenly believes it has an obligation to do so, but rather it's a result of a combination of the DOL's new 401(k) rule mandating that advisors to these plans must put the interest of plan participants first, and a spate of lawsuits (like the one against Edward D. Jones) that expose the excessive costs and other conduct harmful to participants which is at the core of many of these plans.

The allegations against Edward D. Jones

The Edward D. Jones plan has 35,929 beneficiaries with assets of over $3.9 billion. The complaint notes that Edward D. Jones has a fiduciary obligation to these plan participants which is "the highest known to the law." As a fiduciary to its plan Edward D. Jones was required to act prudently and "defray reasonable plan expenses."

In my view -- which has not been accepted by any Court to date -- the only way to fulfill this high standard is to limit investment options in the plan to low cost target date funds, or portfolios of index funds, exchange-traded funds or passively managed funds, at different risk levels.

Retirement plans should accept no payments from fund managers (known as "revenue-sharing payments"). The receipt of these payments compromises the objectivity of the plan sponsor and encourages the selection of expensive, actively managed funds, likely to underperform comparable index funds over the long-term.

The complaint alleges that Edward D. Jones accepted both revenue sharing fees and "Networking and Shareholder Accounting Fees" from both affiliated and partner mutual funds companies, who were rewarded by the inclusion of their funds as investment options in the plan.

The revenue sharing fees were significant. The Complaint alleges that, in 2014, Edward D. Jones received $153 million from mutual fund revenue-sharing.

The Complaint alleges "The Plan's investments show a high correlation to mutual funds offered by mutual fund families that pay Edward Jones the most money." If true, it's a classic example of "pay to play." Everyone's a winner -- except plan participants.

The Complaint asserts that Edward D. Jones made decisions about which funds to include in the Plan (and remain there) based on the amount of revenue-sharing fees paid by those funds, rather than which funds were in the best interest of plan participants.

The Complaint has a number of other allegations, including the failure of the Plan to include lower cost share classes of identical mutual funds. Instead, the Plan allegedly kept higher-cost share classes, resulting in an excess cost to the participants of over of $13 million.

Significance of this case

This case places the issue of whether plan fiduciaries have an obligation to consider low-cost index alternatives to expensive, actively managed funds squarely before the Court. The complaint summarizes the impressive array of academic evidence supporting its position that plan fiduciaries do have this obligation, including this quote from Jill E. Frish, in an article published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Ms. Frish is a Professor of Law and Co-Director at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Institute for Law and Economics: "The most consistent predictor of a fund's return to investors is the fund's expense ratio."

Class action attorneys and plan participants will be closely following this case and hoping the Courts are persuaded by the academic evidence supporting an "evidence-based" approach to managing retirement plan assets.

The present system is in dire need of an overhaul.

Dan Solin is a New York Times bestselling author of the Smartest series of books, including The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read, The Smartest Retirement Book You'll Ever Read, The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read and his latest, The Smartest Sales Book You'll Ever Read.

The views of the author are his alone. He is not affiliated with any broker or advisory firm.

Any data, information and content on this blog is for information purposes only and should not be construed as an offer of advisory services.

Top 10 New Books On My Nightstand as a Business Owner

You would think as an entrepreneur and new parent that I would have no time for reading, but I'm working on catching up with Warren Buffet who reads thousands of pages a day.

While I'm not there yet, I do like to read all types of books in my free time as it helps me relax by helping me disconnect from work so I can get a good night's sleep, and be more creative.

Here's an eclectic mix of new books that are currently on my nightstand - all in various stages of being read:

1. Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living, by Shauna Niequist and Brené Brown.

The title caught my eye because I tend to be a perfectionist and, while there is nothing wrong with that, I've learned that it can also cause a lot of undue stress plus I miss out on enjoying some pretty special moments in life. This book has helped me a lot to prioritize and enjoy what I have rather than always trying to make it better. It's a refreshing, positive read that changes your perspective.

2. Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch.

This guy wrote the Wayward Pines trilogy, which I love and now enjoy on television. It's a total page turner with more action than his previous books. Now, I'm hoping that they make this into a television series or maybe even a movie. It has a little science fiction and a whole lot of thriller.

3. Mindscape Book 1: Engineering the Past, by N.A. Fleischer and V.W. Bauman.

This is a truly unique book that harkens back to the days of my youth with the, "Choose Your Own Adventure," series that, as the reader, you can control the story. The book offers a way for me to decide where the main character should go to find his daughter and has me making critical decisions along the way that lead him to a dead end, death, no information or eventually to the end of the book and an answer for him and for me.

I've enjoyed following the page pathways as well as returning back to a certain point to start down a different path. Cool idea!

4. Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World, by Rachel Ignotofsky.

As an entrepreneur, I enjoy reading about other people's success, their passions, and what makes them tick so I was instantly drawn to this book because it's motivational to hear all the great stories of these women working in the scientific community.

It's what I imagine for my new baby daughter when she grows up, and the kind of book I plan on sharing with her when she gets older as there are women who have excelled in science, mathematics, engineering and more so she can see the world of opportunity waiting for her without boundaries.

5. Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley. 

This is another book written by a writer who has penned television shows and other books. In this case, Noah Hawley is behind the television version of "Fargo." However, this book is more of a suspense drama that focuses on the idea of fate and human nature - two concepts that really fascinate me. This book draws you in and I finished it in a matter of few days it was that good!

6. The Awakened Family: A Revolution in Parenting, by Shefali Tsabary.

Now that I'm a parent, I never thought I'd actually pick up a book about parenting but would rather just dive in and go with it. However, a friend had given me this author's other book called "The Conscious Parent," which led me to this new book.

This book focuses on the idea of how to raise kids to be their true selves rather than having them focus on what others want them to be. Sometimes this book gravitates to the other side of the bed as my wife is enjoying reading the perspectives the author provides as well.

7. Ego is the Enemy, by Ryan Holiday.

The concept of the ego is fascinating to me because there is a need to be confident and take charge but then there is going overboard with confidence where the ego seems to take over.

As a leader, this book has offered many good points about how an ego can get in the way of real success. What I love in this book are all the stories from across history that tie all the authors ideas about the ego together. It's a fascinating read!

8. Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortunes and Random Failure in Silicon Valley, by Antonio Garcia Martinez.

Seeing that I live and work in Silicon Valley, this book immediately caught my eye. It has some juicy stories and interesting takes on the various companies, movers and shakers, and industry changes that have evolved over the last few years in my neck of the woods. Whether you are deep into it or just interested in how business seems to tick nowadays, this is a good book to pick up.

9. Guilty Minds, by Joseph Finder.

This is a real action-packed book that I highly enjoyed because it involves mystery, suspense, the legal system, and reporters that are trying to  get to the truth and get it out there. The story revolves around what is good, bad, and questionable, which I love reading as a diversion from work. This is a quick read but one I could read again.

10. Enlightened Entrepreneurship: How to Start and Scale Your Business Without Losing Your Sanity, by Christopher Myers.

As a fellow writer in Forbes, I knew I'd want to grab his book immediately as I had read some of the excerpts from essays that have appeared in the magazine previously. It's an inspiring book for existing and new entrepreneurs to learn from and is related to running a business, getting funding, and making those inevitable hard decisions. It's given me a lot of food for thought.

Well, this is the top 10 new books I've discovered. There's plenty more stacking up on my nightstand to crack into next. In the meantime, be sure to check out these 10 great reads that are all available on Amazon right now!

Top 10 New Books On My Nightstand was originally published on Duecom by John Rampton at Due.

Does Size Matter?

Growing up, I fondly remember picking and eating wild blueberries growing in our backyard. As a kid, it was a delicious treat that added fun to our summer traditions. As an adult, I still enjoy eating blueberries especially once I learned about the disease-fighting antioxidants contained in this wonderful little blue berry.

In 2009, I was approached to carry a bill to create a California Blueberry Commission and I thought "who doesn't love blueberries?" Well, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger thought my AB606 was a "dumb" idea, saying "I remember when I went into politics, the legislature wanted to create a blueberry commission. Who's gonna say no to a blueberry commission? Well, I said no. I thought they should fix the budget before they do the f*ing blueberry commission. "

What I don't think he realized at that time is that California produces more than 60 million pounds of blueberries every year and it is one of the more than 400 commodities we harvest here. More than one-third of our country's vegetables and two-thirds of our country's fruits and nuts are grown in California.

Other states are aggressively marketing their agricultural commodities. Washington State's Blueberry Commission was established in 1969 and is among the 23 commodity commissions in that state. Georgia has 12 commodity commissions, with their Blueberry Commission established in 2008. And Maine's Blueberry Commission was established in 1971. With these and other states promoting their commodity, it was clear California's farmers needed their own agricultural commission (which, by the way paid is for by farmers) to promote the value of our blueberries.

Well, Governor Schwarzenegger must have learned these facts over the ensuing months because he ended up signing my bill that November and the California Blueberry Commission was established in March 2010.

As we celebrate National Blueberry Popsicle Day on September 2, go out, stay cool, enjoy, and post on social media with #NationalBlueberryPopsicleDay.

If you missed Popsicle Day, don't worry, there are many other days during the year to celebrate the mighty blueberry:

• National Blueberry Pancake Day (Jan 28)
• National Blueberry Popover Day (March 10)
• National Blueberry Pie Day (April 28)
• National Blueberry Cheesecake Day (May 26)
• National Blueberry Muffin Day (July 11)

And finally, to answer the question "does size matter?" Well, when it comes to blueberries...our Blueberry Commodity Commission believes that "naturally sized berries are always best!" Good answer!👍

Selfish Donald Trump versus Selfless Mother Teresa

We live in momentous times. Everyday a new surprise, a new shock, something new to get our heads around.

Mother Teresa has this week become a saint. A saint of Selflessness. At the same time, in the US, we have the Saint of Selfishness, Donald Trump with his red ties and bellicose divisive style. In echoes of Gordon Gekko, Donald once proudly declared; "You can never be too greedy"

Saint Teresa and Donald Trump represent the opposites ends of the Selfless/Selfish dichotomy. All of us grapple between the two, trying to balance what's best for us and the needs of others.

In this blog, I suggest that we are trapped in this dichotomy, that it causes enormous distress, and that there is a way out.

I'm going to introduce you to a word, a new concept that doesn't yet exist, but should.

The word is: Selfist

I define being Selfist as;

"Caring for one's own needs, so as to be best able to support others"

As an Organisational Consultant, I work up close and personal with hundreds of senior managers every year. I hear about their painful struggles reconciling their own needs to be well, healthy and balanced with the unending needs of their teams, their business, their families and the crazy expectations of our Western culture.

People manage poorly within the selfish/selfless paradigm.

Selfish people superficially solve the problem by being focussed on themselves and getting what they want first. Attention paid to others' needs is dependent on their usefulness to Self. Such people, typically male in gender or style, can get quite far, quite fast. Their ability to climb higher up the greasy pole is compromised because we simply don't trust selfish people. Gaining and maintaining power depends on building trust.
Even when selfish people seem to care, we don't believe them. We assume they are using a ploy, a tactic to appear that way for an ulterior motive, to look after No 1.

The Donald's and wannabe Donalds of this world focus on achieving transactional goals using charm preferably, or when that fails resort to bullying and manipulation.

Selfless people (typically female in gender or style) believe that others' needs are much more important than their own. They are here to serve. Others come first, second and third. Of course colleagues usually love and trust Selfless people, let's face it, working life is often easier when they are carrying the heavy load. Real saints, however, are thin on the ground.

The common or garden Selfless person holds a guilty secret. They are often angry, exhausted and resentful because they are caught in a trap of their own making. Selfless people get lots of strokes for their hard work and have become addicts who can't say no.

By being so involved they get to exercise their secret desire for control, thus ensuring the job gets done to their standards.

Sometimes the stress causes a fuse to blow, in burnout or freakout or both.
In the mini emergency which ensues, the team are forced into the front line. Because they've been mollycoddled by the Selfless one, they haven't mastered the task. Short term underperformance then ensues, as they ascend the learning curve. When the Selfless one returns, she gets the booby prize of proving to herself that, without her the task just doesn't get done properly. The sour martyr can be born.

The sad truth is, most Selfless people suffer in silence and don't blow their top, just slowly exhaust themselves with complexity and worry. The price is also paid by their neglected loved ones (partners, children and friends).

Without the concept of 'Selfistness', there is no healthy alternative to Selfishness and Selflessness. Consequently, people typically organise themselves along the continuum.
"Well, I am about in the middle, I can be Selfish sometimes, but at others I am more Selfless."

'Selfist' isn't in the middle of the line between Selfish and Selfless, it sits above both, forming a triangle.

Remember, Selfist people are able to care for themselves, so they are best able to support others.

Selfist people think; "I know that if I look after my needs, I will be fit, strong and clear headed. I will have lots of energy to help others. To do so sustainably means learning to look after myself."

Selfist people know that having clear boundaries works for everyone. They can take a long weekend, a lunch hour massage, a walk in office hours, or say "no, I am afraid I can't today, let's discuss alternative options".

Miraculously, being Selfist is a win win, you feel balanced, the team grows in stature and the world keeps revolving. The team learns to become more independent and resourceful, rather than relying on mum or dad.

I have witnessed the huge relief chronically Selfless people express when they first encounter the notion of being Selfist. At first they are somewhat skeptical. As the idea percolates and makes sense, they start to become cheekily defiant.

"So, does this mean I can tell my team that I won't now be attending the XX project meetings?"

"Does this mean I can convene a meeting to focus on how the team can improve their collaboration and decision making, rather than relying on me?"

"Does this mean I can set a good example to others and go home on time?"

For self identified selfish people, it is relatively easy to reframe selfishness to selflessness. After all, it involves putting oneself first, that is the familiar part. The challenge will be to focus on a Win/Win. I gain, you gain.

Being Selfist is healthy, adult and grounding. It enables others to grow faster, and a healthier team dynamic to emerge. A Selfist team is a powerful and effective team.

We need to be out, loud and proud to be Selfist. Try it!

Simon Confino Aug.2016

Coca-Cola Has Always Had A Connection To The Cocaine Business

When news broke yesterday about the discovery of $56 million worth of cocaine at a Coca-Cola plant in France, the press was all abuzz. But as it turns out, this Cocaine-Cola connection is not entirely new; Coca-Cola has been intimately linked to domestic manufacture of cocaine in the United States for years.

A little glimpse into Coke’s history reveals all.

Yes, most people know that Coca-Cola’s first president Asa Candler became concerned about cocaine in the early 1900s and decided to remove any trace of the drug in the company’s famous drink, but few people know that Coke continued to use what is called “decocainized coca leaf extract” in its signature beverage. In company ledgers, this―mixed with kola nut powder― is what is known as Merchandise #5, one of the “secret ingredients.”

Here’s how the process works. Beginning in the early 1900s, Coca-Cola partnered with a company called Maywood Chemical Works based in Maywood, New Jersey (now the Stepan Company) to import coca leaves (which contain small quantities of the alkaloid found in purified cocaine powder) from Peru for Coca-Cola. The company removed the cocaine alkaloid from these leaves and then sold Coca-Cola the leftover extract. As per the cocaine, Maywood sold it under close federal supervision for approved medical uses.

Federal law sanctioned this practice. Legislators wrote a special exemption into the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, the Jones-Miller Act of 1922, and subsequent counternarcotics legislation that allowed “decocainized coca leaves or preparations therefrom” to be sold in the United States. Some lawmakers called this clause the “Coca-Cola joker” because it was clearly designed to protect Coke’s secretive coca business. 

Over time, Coke’s demand for coca leaves grew so great that legislation had to be passed to allow leaves to come into the country beyond what was needed for the manufacture of cocaine for medicinal purposes. These laws specified that alkaloids extracted from these coca leaves had to be destroyed with federal officials bearing witness.

All was well for Coke for many years under this arrangement, but in the 1960s, the company got a crazy idea: why not grow coca leaves secretly in the United States? That way the company would have a domestic source of supply.

It may sound outlandish, but that’s exactly what happened. In the 1960s, Coca-Cola, working with its partner, the Stepan Company, gained federal approval to begin a secret coca cultivation operation in Hawaii called the “Alakea” project. University of Hawaii scientists agreed to participate in the project but were prohibited from publishing any reports about their work because Coke did not want the public to know about its relationship to these coca leaves. 

Within months, those working on Alakea could happily report that coca shrubs were growing in Hawaii, but celebrations lasted only so long. Soon a fungus wiped out the entire crop and the project was abandoned.

The failure of Alakea was really no matter for Coke, which simply continued sourcing leaves from Peru. All of this was channeled through Stepan, a third-party buffer that helped keep Coke’s coca trade out of sight. Import records show that Stepan is still happily bringing in coca leaves in the 2010s.

David Mercado / Reuters

What’s problematic about all this is that cocaleros, coca farmers in Peru, have been getting a raw deal. For years, Coca-Cola has enjoyed exclusive access to coca leaves coming into the United States and cocaleros have been prohibited from selling other coca products—teas, candies, and flours—to American markets. Coke has no doubt liked it this way because competition for coca leaves would drive up prices, which is never good for business. 

But cocaleros see it differently. Peruvians with intimate knowledge of coca production in the Andes told me back in 2012 that coca farmers would love nothing more than to “revalorize” the coca leaf and once and for all quash the misconception that the coca leaf and purified cocaine are the same thing. Then cocaleros might experience a commercial boon that would allow them to abandon exploitative relationships with drug lords and monopolistic buyers.

Today, if I were to travel to Peru and try to return home with a small batch of coca leaves (perhaps to brew tea), I would be detained by border officials. 

So here’s the essential question: if Coke can work partnerships to bring coca leaves into the United States, why can’t the rest of us? That’s the real story behind the Cocaine-Cola connection.