Negotiating SaaS Contracts - A Fresh Perspective

I recently had an opportunity to hear Thomas Otter's excellent keynote at HR Tech EMEA. He made a number of interesting observations about cloud computing, big data and talent analytics but the highlight might well have the following video.

I hope you all enjoy this short sketch on negotiating SaaS contracts as much as I did... and remember, it's a spoof, people!



You can read Thomas' blog post about the event here.

Martin and Vanessa Play a Trick: A Story About Teamwork

I occassionally write and illustrate - using that term loosely - stories for my daughters, who are 7 and 9.  This is one of them, which I am posting here because it offers a lesson about teamwork.  It's also a reminder to any smartypants amongst us not to act like Mooka...

Vanessa is a horse and Martin is a pig but everyone calls them twins.  The reason is that they were born on the exact same day on the exact same farm and always have the same idea at the same time.

Sometimes their ideas are naughty, sometimes they are wise, and sometimes they're just plain silly!

Once rainy day Vanessa and Martin were in the barn.  They were bored.  They’d already played a few games like Kick the Apple (which Vanessa usually won, although Martin usually could eat them faster) and now they didn’t know what to do.

Also in the barn was a young cow named Mooka.  Mooka a clever cow with lots of energy and thought she could do everything better than everyone else.

Martin and Vanessa didn’t really like her very much because she was such a know-it-all but they felt so bored they thought they’d ask her what she was up to.

‘Hi, Mooka, want to play Kick the Apple’? asked Martin.

‘No, thanks,’ answered Mooka a bit snootily.  ‘I’m so good, it wouldn’t be any fun for me.’

‘We could play Count the Slats,’ suggested Vanessa, before Martin said something rude in return.

‘I already counted the slats,’ answered Mooka primly.  ‘There are 217.’

Martin and Vanessa looked at each other and had the same idea for a prank in that moment.

‘When the rain dries up, how about racing us?’ offered Martin.

Mooka laughed scornfully.  ‘I’m young and faster than any other animal on this farm.  Why would I waste my time racing either of you?’

Vanessa was offended.  Mooka was younger than her, to be sure, but she wasn’t that old.

‘Any animal?’ she asked.

‘Any animal,’ confirmed Mooka confidently.

‘And if you lose?’

Mooka sighed, obviously bored with the conversation.  ‘I’ll clean Martin’s stall and groom Vanessa every day for a week.  But I won’t lose and you’ll have to give me all your apples for a week.’

‘Deal!’ answered Martin and Vanessa together.  ‘See you tomorrow at noon under the big tree with your opponent!’

Martin and Vanessa went off to discuss matters privately.  Although they wanted to teach Mooka a lesson, they didn’t really think they could beat her in a race.  Vanessa wasn’t very fast for a horse, being rather fat and lazy, and Mooka was very fast for a cow.  And Martin wasn’t fast at all.

‘How about one of the chickens?  Sally is pretty fast,’ suggested Martin.

‘I don’t think so,’ responded Vanessa.

‘I suppose the mice are out of the question.’

‘Definitely!’ confirmed Vanessa.  ‘They mean well but they’d just embarrass us.’

Several other animals were suggested and rejected.  Finally they decided to sleep on it and hope for an inspiration in the morning.

But no inspiration occurred.  The next morning they were no further along with a solution than before so they sadly made their way to the big tree.

‘I suppose,’ said Vanessa, ‘I could race her.’

‘Yes…’ said Martin.  He was too polite to point out how humiliating it would be if Vanessa lost.  Or that she probably would lose to Mooka.

A tiny voice interrupted them.  ‘Ahem! Ahem!’

‘Who’s there?’ asked Martin suspiciously.

‘Here!’

‘Where?’

‘Right here!’  Martin and Vanessa looked down and saw a tiny grasshopper waving at them.

‘It’s me, Jacob!’

‘Hi, Jacob, we’re a bit busy right now,’ began Vanessa apologetically, when Jacob interrupted.

‘I will race Mooka,’ announced Jacob importantly, ‘and I will win!’

‘A little fellow like you?’ laughed Martin.

‘I’m small but I’m fast,’ Jacob assured him.  ‘Leave it to me.’

Martin and Vanessa didn’t have a better plan so they decided to let Jacob have a chance.

Just then the animals began arriving for the race.  Mooka was last and she walked very importantly with her nose held high.

‘Who will race me?’ she called loudly.

Vanessa gestured with her nose at Jacob.

Mooka frowned.  ‘I don’t see anyone.’

‘Ahem!’ Jacob jumped up waving his feelers to get her attention.

Mooka snorted.  ‘That little grasshopper?’

Jacob puffed out his chest although no one noticed this because he was so small.

‘I am little but I will win,’ he said confidently.

Shaking her head in disbelief, Mooka strutted proudly to the starting line, where Jacob joined her.

Martin called the animals to order because he had a loud voice and was usually the spokesperson for the others.

‘On your mark, get set, go!’

Mooka dashed off with Jacob immediately falling behind.  He was a quick jumper but so small!   It didn’t seem he could keep up with a large running cow for all his confidence. 

And yet… as Mooka ran behind some bushes everyone gasped as they saw Jacob briefly appear above the same bushes in a great leap.

This happened several times – it would seem as if Jacob had fallen behind then suddenly BOING!! he would appear above the very bush where Mooka was running.

As Mooka, panting and sweating from running so hard, was about to cross the finish line BOING! Jacob jumped right in front of her and won the race.

Mooka couldn’t believe her eyes.  How had that tiny grasshopper beaten her?  While all the animals cheered excitedly at the exciting novelty of a little grasshopper winning such a big race, Mooka slipped quietly back to the barn, furious. 

‘Oh!’ She stopped and stomped her hoof as she remembered she would have to clean Martin’s stall for a whole week AND groom Vanessa.

That night Martin and Vanessa were whispering about the amazing day.

‘How did Jacob do it?’ Vanessa wondered.

‘Ahem!’

‘Jacob!  You were wonderful!  Thank you so much, you really taught that stuck up cow a lesson,’ whispered Martin.

‘Holy cow!' gushed Vanessa.  'How did you do it?’ asked Vanessa.

‘Well, I may be small, but I’m smart,’ boasted Jacob.  ‘My 17 cousins, 20 brothers and 13 nephews helped me win.’

‘How?’ asked Vanessa and Martin together, almost forgetting to whisper.

‘At each bush one of them was waiting and would jump up right as Mooka ran by.’

Martin and Vanessa laughed and laughed.  They realized that teamwork can make the difference between winning and losing.

And Mooka learned not to be quite so vain, although she still thought very well of herself.

Dave Ryan's Leadership Post

The following post was written by Dave Ryan, author of the HR Official blog.

Usually when we speak of the terms 'Leaders' or 'Leadership', it is used in a positive context to describe an endearing quality that an individual posses.  More often than not that is the proper context, but we also need to be wary because leaders are not always good, in fact history has taught us that very charismatic leaders appear to be wonderful, only for the masses to find out later of their sheer evil.

I have come to know this as a nearly life-long resident of the State of Illinois.  We have had some really bad leadership in this state.  Now I have become cynical almost to the point of being jaded.

For the record Illinois has had more than our fair share of bad apples.  But my point is this, look past the leader and what they say. If more people would question leaders about what they say and what they do some of these poor folks would not stray so far off course.  I don‘t know what happens to  folks when they attain power and influence.   It seems to overwhelm their moral compass and they lose sight of right and wrong, and they can rationalize anything in the name of greed.

Fortunately many if not most (at least outside Illinois) leader are honest, moral,  God-fearing people who do the right thing and are guided by that do-the-right-thing attitude.

When I ponder leaders I often think about the past and President Regan talking to Mikhail Gobachev,  they were leaders learning to try to trust each other.



R squared  was just saying check it out. That’s what I am talking about. We can run down the list.  If more folks had questioned Hitler, well,,,.    If some folks, in South Africa would have said “Hey Jim, what’s really in the Kool Aid” perhaps that might have turned out differently.    And not nearly enough folks questioned Ken Lay at Enron, had they, we would not have had the situation that we did there. Those folks were good leaders but they led – the wrong way.

So what you need to know about leadership is this – question it, make sure you are headed in the right direction with your Company, your group, your family.  You don’ t have to be disrespectful or rude in doing so, but always be wary.  You never know what a leader’s true motives are… especially if you live in Illinois.

June Leadership Development Carnival!!

I'm pleased and proud to present June's Leadership Development Carnival here at Working Girl.  Below you'll find a fabulous line up with all your favorite leadership gurus!

As a reminder, here's the topic:  "Although all brilliant submissions about leadership are welcome, I’m really interested in sharing stories from the trenches.  In other words what is the best (or worst!) leadership moment you can remember, either yours or someone else’s. Get personal!"

But before we get to the good stuff, please note I was on vacation all last week and had some odd experiences with disappearing submissions so if you don't see your post here please let me know and I'll add it!

We'll start with the people who followed the instructions. :-)

Best leadership moments:

Wally Bock leads this category with his post Dealing With the Dust Catcher.  "They called her the "Dust Catcher." It wasn't because she liked to clean. It was because she stood so still." 

 Robin McLeod offers some terrific advise about managing people without micromanaging them in her post You Don't Have to be Bossy to be the Boss.  "I can admit today that my move from a strong individual contributor to a young manager of others was not a smooth journey."

Jane Perdue strikes a satisfying blow for early women leaders in her post Stereotype Speed Bumps in My Career Path.  "Little did I realize that one of my first decisions as a newly promoted manager would be to decide if I was going to be the nice girl who poured the coffee or the b—- who refused to do so."

Chris Edmonds offers some personal insight on how leaders can avoid getting out of touch in his post Leaders, Observe and Align Culture Practices.  "Great bosses are keen observers of the human condition. They keep their fingers on the pulse of how safe and inspiring their work environment is, day to day."

Robert Tanner explores how to identify and use your organizational power in his post What's Your Power in Your Organization?  Don't Give it Up!  "I’m tired of giving 150% to this organization and only getting grief back from my boss! I’m going to pull back and just do the minimum until I can get out of here!"

Joel Garfinkle turns a worst leadership moment into a best leadership moment in his post Grow Your Influence by Building Positive Relationships at Work. "With the help of his coach, Alan put together a plan to increase his influence by focusing on building positive relationships at work." 

 Jesse Lyn Stoner offers excellent advice for leading without formal power in her post How to Influence without Authority.  "Back in the good old days, if you were in a position of authority, you could just announce what needed to be done and assume it would be carried out. But times have changed."

Worst leadership moments:

Dan McCarthy kicks off this category with his post 10 (+1) Dumb Leadership Mistakes from Recent Headlines.  "Don't slap your employees.  Two words: anger management." 

 Mary Ila Ward boldly exposes her own work style flaws and invites colleagues to participate in her post Self-Awareness Test! "Today, I sent the list of top 20 flaws or bad habits discussed in last week's blog post  to approximately 25 of my colleagues, clients, friends and family.   I asked them to send what they believe to be my two biggest flaws to a friend and colleague of mine to compile." 

 Mixi Saxon takes off with the poor leadership baton - although not a personal story - to remind us where disengagement comes from in her post Ducks in  Row: Who Cares? "None of them sees “not giving a damn” as a result of the way they manage, but 98% of the time it is."

Joseph Varcasia shares a great example of what happens when you don't move on in his post New Job? Stop Meddling with Your Old One. "The trouble is that I was interrupting my real work responsibilities and wading into an area for which I had no formal responsibilities"

Other leadership topics: 

Mike Haberman explores how you coach an arrogant employee in his post Arrogant versus Confident.  “True arrogance is the belief that you have nothing left to learn, while true confidence is the belief that you can help others to learn as you continue learning yourself.”

Linda Fisher Thornton explores the the role of creativity in leadership in her post What is Creativity?  "In the leadership development world, creativity is getting a great deal of attention.  But what is it?  Can you learn it?  Is it a skill?  How do we lead in ways that encourage it?"

Jesse Lyn Stoner stresses the importance of clear values in business in her post Without Clear Values, You Are Probably Losing Business.  "The nice gentleman spraying my son with chemicals was guided by his personal values of courtesy. He had quite nicely asked my son whether he minded, and he was as nice as could be when he explained to me that there was no problem."

Stephen from NerdWallet explains how travel can improve both your financial and personal leadership skills in his post How Traveling Round the World Enhances Your Financial Prowess / Independence.  "A healthy concern for your finances can help break down social barriers. On the road, it’s helpful to be outgoing and affable. You never know who will be able offer advice or assistance."

 Eric Pennington explains how to recognize quality leadership and why it can be so powerful to the follower in his post Who Would Follow You, the Leader?  "This all should make us remember that how we influence people (every day) is what builds true followers."

 Sean Glaze explains how personality analysis can improve team performance in his post Improve Team Communication with a Style of Influence Personality Profile. "Completing a personality profile and identifying the reasons why you and your teammates act the way you do, or process things in a certain preferred fashion, can be a significant first step in beginning to improve team communication, rapport, and relationships."

 Jim Taggart offers some excellent advice about embracing change in his post Are You a Quick Change Artist? "Break off that rearview mirror; it’s not helping you position yourself for the future."

 Anna Farmery talks about getting the most out of social business in her post Stepping Stones to Social Business Model.  "Think crowdsourcing, think kickstarter, think ideas and creativity like MyStarbucks, think cubify which is creating a community of ideas available to manufacture to one and all......"

Bernd Gerrop shares excellent advice on improving leadership in his post How to Improve Leadership with Only 1 Min per Day.  "Lots of business leaders spend 90 % of their work time on these day-to-day operational tasks – 90 % of their time or sometimes even more!"

Project Social: Work Hard, Play Hard

I recently came across an interesting German documentary called Work Hard, Play Hard, which I wrote about at Compensation Cafe.  The basic premise is that you create an ultra cool and inviting work environment that entices people to stick around longer and work harder.

Oh, and the underlying theme is that they're being exploited.

I thought the idea of deliberately making employees feel at home in the workplace in order to exploit them was interesting so I floated it to Dave Ryan last time we chatted and we decided to write about it as our next project social topic.

Ironically I didn't have time to write about it for several weeks as I was too busy with work.  Let me just say here that I don't have a particularly cool office, I just work a lot.  Dave was very understanding and proposed the following title: 'Making employees slaves & millionaires.'

You can read Dave's post over at HR Official and my post Work Hard, Play Hard... Source Soft can be found at Compensation Cafe.

We'd love to hear where you stand on the whole sneaky employee exploitation question.

Heads Up: June Leadership Development Carnival

The next Leadership Development Carnival will be on Monday, June 11th, hosted here at Working Girl. For this edition:

"Although all brilliant submissions about leadership are welcome, I’m really interested in sharing stories from the trenches.  In other words what is the best (or worst!) leadership moment you can remember, either yours or someone else’s. Get personal!"

Please include:

Your name
- Name of post author (if different than yours)
- Name of blog, with link
- Name of post, with link
- any introductory comments

Dan McCarthy will be sending out an email with my contact details or you can attach your information as a comment to this post.


Looking forward to it!

Compensation Dreaming

In case you missed them, here are my most recent posts over at Compensation Cafe with teasers:

The Grass Isn't Greener:  Paying more for external talent doesn't pay off.  Find out why. "You found a great person, got them to sign and they’re starting tomorrow.  You sent them information about benefits enrollment and a nice welcome video from the CEO.  But how will you convey to them all the tribal knowledge of the company they will need to navigate the new role and succeed?"

Moneyball: Whenever Brad Pitt makes a new movie I try to write a compensation post about it.  Still working on Glorious Bastards. "The reason following the pack doesn't work is that ‘talent scouts’ in every industry tend to write off talented people based on personal preferences rather than actual skills or potential."

Part of the Team: Ever wondered how many companies actually consider the families of their employees when it comes to talent strategy and rewards? "If you pay decently and treat people fairly, families tend to have a stabilizing and retentive effect on employees.  But if your corporate culture is more of the crazy-hours-combined-with-eccentric-incentives variety, you might want to up your family values game a notch."

The Young and the Restless: Written in honor of the hot date I once went on with Michael Damien, this post explores the difficulty of retaining Generation Y. "A recent Mercer What’s Working survey found that although younger workers have a higher satisfaction rating than older workers, they are also more likely to leave their current jobs.  This may seem like a paradox but it isn’t."

Is Viral Pay Contagious:  This post takes a hard hitting look at the modern practice of letting employees vote on each others' rewards. "Who typically gets voted off the island, the least qualified person or the least likeable person?  I don’t want to generalize here but the last person standing tends to be a charismatic buffoon rather than a highly competent person with an offputting personality."