Ask yourself this question, “What do employers owe the people they do not hire?” I asked myself that question more than a decade ago and it changed my life forever. On Sunday, January 18, 2004, I ran a help-wanted ad in the New York Times that read in its entirety, “Programmer – Will train, enjoyment ofContinue reading “How my life was changed when I began caring about the people I did not hire.”
Author Archives: Brooke Allen
URGENT: Help Make Work More Fun
Over Super Bowl Weekend (Feb 1-2) some friends and I will be attending an Education Start-UP Weekend to develop tools that will help people bring more fun to work. WE NEED YOUR HELP. Here is how you can help us: 1) Tell us your stories: How did you or someone you know make an onerous taskContinue reading “URGENT: Help Make Work More Fun”
What questions should we ask ourselves?
Researchers have shown that it if you want to do something it is better to ask yourself questions rather than to tell yourself things. Ask, don’t tell by Brooke Allen If you want to exercise today then it is not a good idea to get up in the morning and say, “I will exercise today.”Continue reading “What questions should we ask ourselves?”
Do Traders and B-School Grads Play Fair?
I am a securities trader with a business degree, and I wonder if we are like normal people. Let’s find out. Imagine $10 has to be split between two people who will never meet each other. The first person can propose how the money will be split and if the second person accepts the proposalContinue reading “Do Traders and B-School Grads Play Fair?”
Practical Wisdom for Management
In the middle of July, 2013 I presented at the Practical Wisdom for Management conference at Yale. Click on this image to see my slides on SlideShare:
Should Caring Be Part of Every Job description?
About a decade ago someone in accounting, or personnel, or wherever, asked me for job titles. I said, “We don’t have job titles in our group.” She went away. Soon she was back saying that a new policy required that we have job titles, and that I had to give them some. I said, “IContinue reading “Should Caring Be Part of Every Job description?”
Karma – The only currency the IRS cannot tax and the FED cannot devalue.
by: Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com The InterContinental Hotel Group (NYSE Ticker: IHG) is the largest hotel group in the world with seven brands (Intercontinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge, and Candlewood Suites). They claim more than 645,000 rooms in over 100 countries. If I take the time to joinContinue reading “Karma – The only currency the IRS cannot tax and the FED cannot devalue.”
How to hire good people instead of nice people
What follows is an advertisement for an assistant I ran in early 2013. It goes with a story I wrote published in Quartz magazine called: How to hire good people instead of nice people. Read the story to understand what would have happened if you had responded to this ad.
Second Greatest Generation
by: Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com Paul Krugman wrote a piece in the New York Times in which he wonders if Congress will vote on a stimulus package to head off the Great Depression II. Some believe that it was World War 2 that got us out of the depression because it was the greatest stimulusContinue reading “Second Greatest Generation”
Stories from Germany
by: Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com A Luftwaffe Airman’s Daughter In 1980, my girlfriend and I were traveling on a rail pass. We left from Milan bound for Frankfurt only because that is where the train went. A German businessman sat across from us and asked, “Where are you going?” “Frankfurt.” “Why? Frankfurt is so boring.Continue reading “Stories from Germany”
Brooke Allen 