^The APQC Blog

We all make some bad decisions: small ones, like buying those adorable shoes that were on sale but hurt your feet. Or colossal ones, like taking a bad job, investing in a doomed start-up or doomed-to-fail product, marrying someone obviously incompatible or invading a country. 

Why do smart people make dumb decisions?

Well, I happen to believe that the confirmation bias is often the culprit and pretty much at the root of many bad decisions and most human nearsightedness and meanness. It is why we get blindsided when the clues were there all along.

I confess that I have a burning passion for movies.  I constantly seek out new movies to watch and I am always at least somewhat (and often very) distracted if a movie happens to be playing wherever I am.  My girlfriend knows this and, quite kindly, acts as a second set of eyes out there for me, helping me make sure that I don’t miss out on any great films.

Tech savvy Sweden’s high utilization of electronic payment technology has the country on pace to become the first cashless society. While widespread credit and debit card usage is fueling the trend, the rise of mobile pay apps is also a key factor. According to a recent article in The New York Times, bills and coins make up approximately 2 percent of Sweden’s economy.

In November 2015, APQC hosted a two-day MENA Knowledge Management Conference in Dubai, bringing high-caliber speakers from APQC’s membership to share their experiences and expertise with an eager international audience from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Every December I take a close look at the most popular APQC knowledge management content for that year. In part, this is just a fun exercise to see what resonated with our audience. But it also gives me ideas for where KM is headed, what topics and formats people are most hungry for, and what we should focus on for the coming year.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have issued their long-awaited converged standards on revenue recognition. The rules govern how and when revenue can be recognized in different industries. In essence, the new rule will do away with current industry-specific accounting practices and instead apply a single set of principles to all revenue transactions.

As the end of the year approaches, I have been reflecting on the concept of wisdom.  Supposedly wisdom results from knowledge and experience. What are the characteristics of wise leaders? Here is what I think is the #1 characteristic:

They don’t sacrifice our collective future for their current gain.

Performance reviews can incite fear, confusion, frustration, and even tears. Fortunately, the process that provokes dread from both employee and manager alike is predicted to change in 2016 and beyond. APQC’s Talent Trends Survey Report: A Positive Outlook for HR not only debunked long-standing HR myths, but also revealed the most significant HR needs and HCM predictions.

If you’re like me, or any of the other folks responsible for running some part of a growing concern, you probably spend a lot of time in performance dashboards like this one.

Traditional Performance Dashboard

I hate files like this.

Attracting talent to the supply chain field has and continues to be a hot topic among organizations as many supply chain professionals prepare to retire. A couple of years ago an APQC study revealed that 67 percent of surveyed organizations had made talent management initiatives a top priority in their supply chain functions.