Attracting The Right Talent for Your Firm

The environment is still difficult for top talent and the options in demand employees presents a challenge. In a market with limited labor pool (based on what you need) it is better to have the right candidates versus many candidates. You can review SHRM's 2024 Talent Report

The talent you hire can make or break your company’s competitive edge.

The "right kind" of talent in a world that is demanding higher intellectual capital can be the difference between short- and long-term success. If you attract the right employees to the right positions, they will naturally be able to overcome workplace challenges and innovate their environment.

A few ideas on how to attract top talent:

-Create a profile of the skills, knowledge and abilities (might add attributes) of the desired employee.

-The profile should be based in the strategic initiatives and needs of the organization.

-Fewer applications but the right kind. Less is often more.

-Industry experience in similar type companies.

-Consider if you need adaptable broad or specialized skills.

-Consider looking for lifelong learners. People who engage in training, education or self-improvement enhancing pursuits.

-The personality and adaptability of employees could indicate long-term retainability.

-Social clubs, community volunteering, and other pro-social behaviors that indicate personal responsibility over the environment.

-If objective benchmarks are the same go with your gut.

A Few New Escanaba Businesses: Are You Thinking of a New Northern Town to Invest?

A couple of new businesses opened up in town recently and they were well done in the northern style. The downtown has seen significant investment and growth that ranges from a plan for a new hotel all the way over to a number of new businesses. Some of that may be enhanced by thinking about marketing, exporting, attracting entrepreneurs, low interest finance for business and/or building beautification, grants to update store fronts, branches, seed money, larger scale investors, etc. 

Your business
could be in Escanaba!

Tips for Attracting Businesses to Rural Cities

You will also want to consider what type of business to start. Typically you want to put this context of tourism, suppliers to anchor businesses (a cluster concept), or start ups. For example, our data infrastructure has been improved and events are rising so digital nomad type businesses might work as well. 

These two articles are related specifically to the area. However, understanding some of the expectations of development are helpful and knowing why poeple visit can provide some insight into tourism interests.

Delta County Developer Qualifications 2019 (I would check to see if  its the latest and greatest.)

Why People Visit Escanaba?

A good resources to look at is the Delta County Chamber of Commerce

Do Gifted Think Differently? (Education Implications)

This blog is about national development, and it delves into education and the advancement of people and ideas. One population that has often been ignored are the gifted who can invent and create things that others either struggle with or cannot do. Smart, rich, supported, easy access to Ivy League schools, etc. do open doors and make huge disparities between populations but the gifted are a different breed. The poor, minorities, and others can be born gifted and then the world gets very difficult for them until they fully develop and understand the limitations of their environment and can move around obstacles (i.e. the gifted curse).

Understanding the gifted provides a new framework for understanding how complex learning can occur in an online environment. It may be possible to accommodate standard and gifted learning in the same medium. One possible way to do that is to consider incorporating different learning styles into the same coursework. It is possible but would take some ability to understand these styles and complex layers of learning that the gifted often understand their world. 

Information can be provided on one level and deeper exploration on another so that each person can use their style and move to the depth they are capable of understanding. Moving into depth is one sphere of learning and connecting crosswise is others (interconnected curriculum). Even the idea of symbolism (mini symbolic subconscious puzzles) can be brought in as an additional pathway that enhances neural cognitive pathways built to understand complex problems (In theory.)

Others may naturally opt for a more standard approach and forgo the other complexities. The capacity to understand and the ability to dig into ideas is based in part in motivation. We see this now with some students who do the minimum and some who do a lot. Gifted are generally highly motivated when the coursework matches the interest and capacity.  They can solve a bigger problem that leads to insight. 

The advantage of this may be that one could then take what works out of the gifted learning approaches to enhance the speed of learning in the standard route thereby increasing total outputs of learning by objective measurements. This could be good for average students, and it could be used in application to enhance strategic thinking. (Remember this is in theory so we are sort of exploring it by possibility. It would appear on the surface that this is possible and there are mechanisms to do it. Some have done this already in a more face-to-face setting.)

A few questions….

Can you enhance and select the gifted virtually within the same curriculum as other students? Would it allow some to advance and highlight their skill in a way that is removed from the false anchoring’s of wealth and privilege? Could it enhance the training and development of some of our needed institutions (i.e. military)?What does that mean for future innovation and development nationally? I'm just thinking about the silliness of it all but it’s fun to think about it a little. 

You will notice from this example that the gifted think a little differently when compared to others and their thought processes often find many more variances as well as multiple heirarchies and associations between interconnected concepts. Some of this population might even be able to calculate probabilities based on real life scenarios and learned outcomes while still being able to give room for chance and variability. Are Gifted Minds Wired Differently?

The video below discusses some of the different learning styles. It is older but you can see the complexity by which the gifted learn. It can be enhanced with the right learning environment.

Should you Eat or Not Eat Breakfast for Fitness and Weight Loss?

A couple of us went over and grabbed some breakfast this morning and it was delicious! Despite the tastebud tantalizing tongue teasing nature of the meal I was also concerned about calories and carbs. I engage in some fitness training on the side (trying to find clients part-time), a yoga instructors license, and combat sport lover (boxing, fencing, etc.) as well as engage in some firefighter stuff from time to time. So being in shape is very important for my health and full functioning. 

The veggie omellet at Rosy's Diner.
Switch the hashbrowns
out with fruit and your golden!
If your visiting stop here and eat.
They close around 2pm.

Let me say that the battle of breakfast is a big one because some have said its good and some have said it makes little difference. Study: No Real Difference in Breakfast and Weightloss

What I have learned is that as long as you manage the food properly breakfast is likely to lead to greater fitness for the active if they need the protein and can get their veggies in. What and how much you eat are most important. 

Also you can consider the amount of calories eaten. Breakfast can be loaded so ensure that you manage the food intake well by eacting half and saving half for lunch. If you stuff your face your not going to lose any weight. Unless you are into serious body building it isn't going to help. Break up meals and keep them small 300-500 cals each and do like 4-5 meals depending on your goals.

To answer your question yes breakfast is good for fitness but is neutral on weightloss (calories and what you eat). If your interested in some fitness training we can do some stuff online or if your local I can help. Send me a message. Not sure what the rate should be but as a hobby I'll make it reasonable.

Good Advice on Breakfast Eating

Rumors and Community Concerns in the Process of Dehumanization (Dehumanization Thought Experiment)

Continuing down the line of thought and discussion on this hypothetical example of dehumanization (after an initial 4 waves of hate) and how rumors seem to be a connection between the two sort large stages (i.e. hate and then dehumanization). False rumors are part of  mechanism of control and abuse that is prevelent among hate groups and interconnected clan members. When aggression mixes with religion, race, clan, politics, etc. you may find a type of extremism seeping in which makes aspects of the environment intentionally toxic and charged. 

Let us kind of explore a crazy little example a little Wild and crazy! Your enjoying time with friends and everyone is getting along splendidly. There have been incidents in the past of group aggressions, rumor spreading, putting people at risk, harming kids and elderly, so on and so forth (We are not saying this specific person is putting someone at risk but there has been a history of it by some clan members.).  Basically it was a large scale group aggression because someone told their leader "no".

Some person you never met before starts staring at you, displaying micro aggressions, and you overhear them talking negatively about you. You scratch your head in confusion because you know nothing of them and they know nothing of you. 🤔🤷 You don't have any issue with them and never met them but they seem to know alot about you even though none of it seems to apply (i.e. the hate narrative from rumors.).

Keep in mind its an example so it doesn't matter if it is true or not. We are just assuming it is true for the moment to illustrate a point. That is why you should not jump to quick conclusions. Let us say it is clear it is about you and you further find out they are associated to the same group of individuals who have a history of spreading rumors and bullying people they don't like and/or don't want in the community.  Its like immature poeple trying to run something that is sacred to our society.

Certainly you would raise an eyebrow....

Let us go back to the odd display of behavior that lacks civility and good taste. Now, much of that misbehavior is not based in the person/people they are/have targeted. The target (s) could be super nice, kind of a pacisfist, capable physically/actualized sports player versus talk, friendly to everyone, fairly intelligent but also pretty honest even when they know they or the other person are not going to like what they are going to hear (I guess you would have to be a little of a philosopher to understand why someone would even try to get to the root of truths).

Perhaps a little jealousy and a few other factors are mixed into the motivations to create a toxic environment. There could also be some attempts to dehumanize and demasculate the target (assuming a guy) based on some groups members more shakey sexual image (i.e. lots of intentionally "manly" displays that are monochrome and seem more for shallow overintentional displays of imagery of manhood and not as something that moves across multiple realms of a persons values and life. People who have been texted to act with courage and integrity for the betterment of society even when placed under serious risk would be one type of manhood while another sign of manhood might be how many times you swear and stare kids down in a parking lot. Maybe not? 🤷 Manhood can't be summed up with items such as a truck, a dog, so on and so forth. Btw I love trucks as I'm looking to buy a 1970/80's truck to fix up, fishing, dogs, want to hunt more, hike, kickbox, so on and so forth so I'm not stereotyping. Half of me is country!). Why Poeple Spread Rumors?

Other people have complained about the group and its influence and how they are immune and protected in criminal behaviors. Prior complaints by community members were quickly retaliated against with intimidation, violence, and hiding of evidence to ensure the perpetrators are not held to account. The unwritten codes seem to be at play here and that immunity and immaturity toward our Constitution, human rights/civil rights and oaths have created an unsafe environment for good people that fall outside the clan's good graces. Encouraging a higher moral conscious and order has fallen on deaf ears but knowledge of other victims keeps piling up.

The Dynamics of Hate and Misinformation

Let us ask a few questions that we can explore some other time. 

1.) Do the men that spread these rumors feel someone demasculated by the target? Men to men aggression. Maybe if we reverse around the sexes a litte would there be some other factor and that is why they spread rumors about female friends of the guy (i.e. trying to ruin their reputations even though they are just friends. The readers who are ladies should be somewhat offended that these people do this. Reputation is important)? One could think of how intentionally spread rumors create a group type of social damaging and bullying to force people to ostracize through fear of association. 

2.) Is there a level of hate and bigotries involved or does it have more to do with clan loyalties? Fear that they could not have unchecked influence on their environment (including institutions)? Clans can be powerful things and hard to control. Extremism can be sort of amebic and where one starts and one ends is difficult to decipher. What might happen if the in-group clan becomes an out-group and the clan network and those who are misusing institutional authority collapses?

3.) What happens if they cannot intimidate/bully the victim (s), can only encourage the most shallow of people to ostracize, or that people general know the target and find them of higher character than the rumor spreaders? Would that frustrate their effort, would they escalate or would they quiet the rhetoric and go back to focusing more on themselves?

4.) Do we have checks and balances in place to handle these amebic group behaviors and at what point do these behaviors look intentionally harmful? What about the rights of all the victims or are they not particularly important?

5.) What kind of strategies do we devise that might limit such group aggression and ensure that the environment is safe and positive for everyone? Should that be for some or for all people? Are there differentiators based on locality, clan, race, religion, politics, etc.? 

6.) Are there long term consequences to unchecked groups like this that warp the social environment in a way that impacts the business climate? i.e. disdain for outsiders, lack of retention of professionals that move into the area, declining population, mistreating people who want to move to the area,  accepting only some type of people (homogeneous.) almost losing an anchor business, etc. (One might need to look at the literature to see if such groups can influence economic development. There is some research on corruption but I would suspect it would be similar with hate groups and/or clans and toxic environments.)

7.) Would a outside investigation and audit of cases and behaviors by clan affiliated officials lead to the discovery of new victims, save future victims, enhance trust, so on and so forth? Could it help retain good officials and attract the best talent? Could it reverse the trends of decline and rising crime by creating the highest functioning system possible? I guess it depends on how well you want these systems to run and what values they should align.

They are some good questions. I'm sure you can come up with a few of your own. Its sort of fun to explore these thought experiments and what markers to risks can be used for other places as well. These do create markers meaning that certain characteristics found in one place could indicate similar behaviors in others and that can lead to better management and avoidance.

*This is an ongoing thought experiment on dehumanization. It is second in a series that included hate. It is hypothetical for learning purposes only so take with a grain of salt. We can learn from exploring ideas and what things might look like using one strain of logic. There are others. The end result is positive but we have to get through the ugly stuff. 

The Interconnectivity of Firms-Delta County Business Filings (Economic Cluster Theory Development)

Continuing to work on my book. These are more or less drafts and I can think about when I'm in the editing process. In this theory clusters develop around shared resources but can be designed in a way to offset market changes through hedging. in this cases we were just discussion how businesses are connected and sharing such resources and if we find those that fit within the existing structure they are more likely to be successful attracted and retained.

The Interconnectivity of Firms

There is interconnectivity between firms that includes shared resources. However, putting those internal and external resources in an environment that is designed to interact and connect in a way that they enhance each other is a different sort of plane of performance. It takes a level of collaboration internally to achieve certain milestones and requires a basic understanding of community and cluster identity to encourage coordination. among anchor industries, suppliers, entrepreneurs, and the community. 

All firms have and use resources to achieve their goals and missions through active options and choices. They do so within the context of their local (national, and international) environment and the opportunities that environment presents. Often these resources take on various forms that include financial, physical, human capital, geographical, etc. The type of buisnesses present will determine the type of resources the cluster will need

Some could rely more on wood products, others may rely on steel, rail infrastructure might be important, some could rely on intellectual capital, and others on various forms of energy. Each cluster will be a little different in its origin and make up. Most are going to have a few things that are similar for many of the businesses within the cluster and in turn designing the inputs and outputs like a system helps to ensure the right resources are present at the right time. 

Supply changes may need to change to feed the cluster and provide resources where they are needed.  The inputs and outputs of a cluster impact not only local economic development but because of the supply chain differences are also likely to impact everything vertically and horizonatally on that supply chain. This means that if you enhance a cluster in one area you are also likely to enhance other areas along the way. There could be additive effects.

In this example of Delta County/Escanaba a developed cluster of businesses would likely have an impact on all of the smaller communities in the area as well as possibly help support Marinette-Menominee as well as Manistique. That doesn't even include the places that are sending the supplies and those receiving the products/output of cluster creation. Thus developing one area could create new growth patterns in other areas. 

Internal-Transactional: The environment within a cluster will determine the success of businesses. There are a range of factors that are going to influence investment, performance and industry adaptation. They include investment capacity, infrastructure, skill development, recreation, etc. People, information, resources and money are shared within a cluster and knowledge on the type resources, flow of resources, and the transactional nature of a cluster as an entity can be measured (i.e. amount of dollars, contracts, labor spill over, return on investment infrastructure, etc.)

At present there are about 7 business filings in Delta County in 2023. With additional effort on bringing forward entrepreneurs and drawing them to the area it could not only help in supporting our downtowns but also the diverse make up of those businesses ot ensure economic resilience. We can think of what things a local community can do to impact the most amount of businesses and encourage new investment in the area. Would that include zoning changes, finding financing, a stronger coordinated marketing campaign, export focus, etc..? New Business Filings

A Few Key Ideas

-Firms are based on interconnectivity

-The firms within the cluster share resources

-Cluster development impacts the supply chains, regional, and surrounding development.

-Thinking about the resources needed to supply and enhance most amount of businesses can be helpful.

-Businesses should be attracted that have the greatest amount of success for themselves and the cluster.

Giglio, C. et. al. (2023). Cooperation between large companies and start-ups: An overview of the current state of research. European Management Journal, ISSN 0263-2373, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237323000919

Which is More Important? Corruption & Hate or Justice? (Dehumanization Example)

 We make choices everyday. Sometimes those are bad choices and sometimes those are good choices. The problem is when good choices are bad choices and bad choices are good choices. What I mean by that is this hypothetical example for learning purposes only of hate, people utilized rumors and clan based social structures (..including those impacting justice) in order to avoid responsibility (Its not about getting in trouble is is about doing the right thing.). In the process of violating numerous laws and human/civil rights a much larger network of corruption was discovered and there was an attempt to intimidate multiple poeple who came forward to express concerns. (i.e. an official complaint results in a quick retaliation by those who were supposed to be protecting people.) 

In this sort of silly and ludicrous example let us pretend that all of the complaints by the whistleblower (s) who was/were trying to protect their community came true. It was a reasonable complaint based on facts, some unsubstantiated rumors, observation, and eye witness accounts. Others unconnected to the situation have argued that local justice is based on clan heirarchy and there are all types of conflicts of interests when deciding affairs and justice. A number of people came forward and pushed a reluctant investigation that ended up justifying their concerns.

The primary reason why hate, extremism, and corruption existed in the same sphere was because the goal has been to protect the clan over fulfiling one's roles and obligations (i.e. good old boy networks which we believe are more or less fantasy because they could not happen in modern logic or times.) This example highlights the difference between good officials and people not qualified for their roles.

Much of this is done through the hate rumor network of a social group connected to each other. Let me give you an example of how this works. Your minding your own business, enjoying your evening and you notice someone staring you down and scowling. A few minutes later they are making negative comments that you can overhear. You never met the person but you find out they are connected to the same hate group that caused all the problems. The use of rumors and bullying is so common that it has been normalized and legalized. People you never met are creating issues and being aggressive based on the false rumors spread by hate network members. These rumors were started to ensure certain clan members were rewarded financially through exploiting hate (We have seen this with Native Americans, we have seen this with African Americans, but here it doesn't exists. Its just for illustrative exploration. Could never happen.). 

What might we learn? First, keep in mind that the end result is different then what is proposed here because one has to flip the pages of this book called life. As a rational optimist most things get better based on necessity; even when morality and commitment to a bigger purpose is lagging.

1.) Clannism is a good old boy network.

2.) Racial and religious bigotries exist within the clan and that impacts justice. Rumors and bullying are the methods by which they cleans their community and promote their clan networks.

3.) Communities are aware of the bad behaviors but there are no checks and balances and those who reported crimes are quickly threatened and silenced (...except those who believe their oaths are more important then their safety. Try and find people like that in modern society and politics. They are rare. Leadership and Moral Integrity) 

4.) The initial perpetrators that enriched off of hate rumors, aggression, manipulation (especially of the vulnerable) for money, and other bad behaviors were rewarded for their crimes. They were coached by corrupted officials and knew they were and are immune (This is based on racial, religious and clan affiliation. Research on lying and gain.). 

5.) There are no corrections where there are no checks and balances. The higher moral purpose of the law isn't encouraged as much as it should. If it was people would have corrected right away.

6.) Good officials must suffer when clan officials warp institutions. When poor behaviors make their way into good systems it can have a corrosive effect. 

7.) The higher moral order of the law and the swearing of oaths is less important when compared to extremism, clannism, corruption and hate.  (Most of us swore oaths but those that keep them even when putting themselves in danger are a little different. Oaths and Office).

8.) Those who support our Constitution and want to strengthen our institutions are still out there seeking justice and a level of reform to protect their communities and minorities (US. Constitution).

9.) At present in this example the purpose of the law is subjugated by its technicalities (An audit of all clan affiliated official's behaviors where conflicts of interest are present could come to interesting results. One might use local/not local, religion, race, friend networks, etc. to just see if there are statistical differences. ).

10.) Dehumanization is a social affair but once you understand it, its power begins to wain. Positive, peaceful, polite, truthful, engaging, and thoughtfulness is in a direct moral battle with hate, aggression, dishonesty, criminality, and corruption. So far the later has been more supported then the former.

We all then make a choice? Would you choose a world of striving for a better world or a world of a sliding democracy? What does it mean to be an American? What does it mean to be unAmerican? Are we more focused on nationalism or patriotism? Is the Constitution or clan laws more important? You can sort of ask a lot of questions and where their is unclear answers, there is room for improvement and commitment to a higher ideal.

You sort of get the split in two logics of which one seeks the highest state of development and the other seeks to crumble what generations of people have created. It is one moral line of argument. There are other moral lines. The only thing I can say is that intent and integrity sort of mitigate whether good or bad will be the result. It is encourage for the youth to learn about our laws and encourage officials to accept the diversity of our nation and minimize the negative influence of hate networks.

*This is a hypothetical learning example on dehumanization and its impact. It is a philosophical and theoretical discussion so take with a grain of salt. If is ok if you come to a different conclusion. The key point is to help learn about a deeper moral conscious and enlightened behaviors that lead to stronger communities.