Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Book Reviews

Horizon Point writes about dozens of leadership, career, workplace, and workforce topics, and we love to feature other researchers, writers, and practitioners who are doing similar work.

2024 Book of the Year
Productivity has always been one of our five operating values at Horizon Point. We tie it intimately to our value of passion, which looks something like this: Get stuff done. Get stuff done that is important and that we care about.

We are adamant about protecting the fact that productivity doesn’t dictate how and where and when work’s done, but that it gets done and meets the need.
This mindset hasn’t changed, but throughout 2024 our idea of what it means to be productive has grown and it is captured in our 2024 Book of the Year: Slow Productivity by Cal Newport. Seemingly an oxymoron – How can you be productive and slow? – Newport’s book gets to the heart of what it means to get stuff done that is important through his three premises:

Do fewer things

Work at a natural pace

Obsess over quality.
He points to the fact that, often, we are doing too many things AT ONCE and in an effort to be “productive” we are sabotaging the exact thing we are trying to accomplish. We are also being “pseudo-productive”- acting like being busy is being productive. It is not.

We can actually be more productive if we focus on one thing at a time and hone in on what those things should be – what brings the greatest return? Working at a natural pace helps us maximize our productivity and bring those greater returns, as does obsessing over quality.

If you are like many who think, ha, this is funny, I have zero control over what work I have to do. How can I do fewer things when I’m not in charge of those “things” I have to do? Newport will challenge your thinking on how to reframe your situation. He gives practical solutions on how to execute his three premises.

And if you are leading people and pushing those “things” around to others, Newport’s book may help you rethink your views on productivity and who actually adds and creates the most value on your team. Looking or being busy isn’t productive.

We often overestimate what we can get done in a day, multitasking our way through them, but slow productivity might just be the way we can multiply the underestimation of what we can get done in a year and very well save our sanity in the process.

As always, we are so appreciative of our clients and supporters. We are beyond blessed to do work we can all be productive and passionate about. Thank you for your trust in us and your willingness to innovate the workplace with us.

We hope you enjoy our selection! Happy reading!
December 10, 2024
How HR Can Actually Use AI
As we wrap up our series on Artificial Intelligence, we’ve learned that AI isn’t as scary as some people make it out to be and that we can use it in a variety of ways- but with some caution- in order to impact our workplaces in a positive manner.

We’ve tried to emphasize that AI is best to leverage when:
You do the task a lot,
It is a manual process,
It is prone to human error, therefore:
It’s time consuming.
So if you have the data sources you need and the technology to do it,
Let AI help.
And go do something more value added with the time you save.

As I’ve wrapped up my personal deep dive into AI for HR, I’ve found our friend Ben Eubank’s book Artificial Intelligence for HR to be a useful tool in framing the technologies that can impact HR by functional area. Here, I’ll summarize some practical uses by functional areas based on Ben’s insights as well as some of my own. I’ll also recommend some tools I have seen in action.

Workforce Management (Time & Attendance)
- Clocking in and out with facial recognition
- New companies are capturing the market of the uberfication of staffing with AI tools to provide labor on demand to fill gaps in staffing. Check out Onin Flex as an example.
Payroll & Benefits
- Automating many of the payroll processes and checking for errors that many companies still do manually.
- Analyzing pay data for pay parity issues
- Offering on demand pay. Check out Immediate as an example.
- Voice activated and/or chatbot technology to respond to benefit inquiry questions or how employees can perform certain tasks on his/her own.
Recruiting/Talent Acquisition
- Screening resumes by keyword search (you’ve probably been doing this for quite some time)
- Take it a step further, once you have your technology query candidates by your filters, have the technology reach out to them to schedule the first step in the selection process
- Use tools to rediscover applicants and match old candidates for other jobs
- Use tools to rank candidates and let it learn from your rankings to screen candidates (caution: if you put bias in, you will get bias out)
- Check out LinkedIn Recruiter that has a variety of features to help identify candidates based on a variety of criteria. One criteria that I find most interesting (and Ben points this out in his book) is Candidate Receptivity. In other words, how likely will a potential candidate be interested in your opening and company?
- Use some pretty cool assessment tools. One company I’ve been following since 2018 when I met them at the HR Tech conference is Pymetrics. They are worth checking out.
Learning and Development and Talent Development and Management
- There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t hear about the “skills gap”. It’s a macro issue and an issue at every company with internal talent. There are tools on the market now that help you understand your internal talent’s skills and then help you hire internally or place people on projects based on skills analysis (Remember, tools like this are only as good as the data you put in them. If skills aren’t in the database or aren’t accurate, it won’t work.) A quick google search will give you a list of software tools in this space.
- Tools to recommend learning content for users at the individual level and at the organizational level. Think of your Amazon Recommendation list for learning content. Take a look at page 153 of Ben’s book to understand how this works.
- Giving leaders tools for coaching based on performance data and feedback so learning content is customized by user. Voice technology tools that can listen and help coach a manager through specific issues.
- Insights to help you better understand correlation and causation between a number of dimensions and employee performance and engagement. Features can include what if analysis (What if employee engagement rose by X percentage points, how much would turnover decrease?) to sentiment analysis (taking a large amount of qualitative employee survey data, summarizing it and making recommendations for action).
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
- Identifying biased communication in email, Slack, etc. and in job postings. Check out Textio as another company I’ve been following since 2018 in this space. Their technology helps with bias and receptivity in job postings and they also have a product for writing better performance feedback.
- Blind screening tools for recruiting, removing information that would indicate dimensions in which bias may occur.
Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list of things AI is doing in HR, but it is a start. If you are thinking about vetting technology vendors, this may be a good list to begin with by walking through these items and asking, can your technology do this?

If it is a comprehensive list HRM system and it can’t do most of these things, or provide API technology to connect to tools that can, you may need to vet other vendors.

What functional area in HR are you most interested in leveraging AI technology?
August 6, 2024
2022 Book of the Year

“Gratitude became my door to grace.”

Alexsys Thompson The Power of a Graceful Leader

This year at Horizon Point, we launched a training curriculum called Illuminate, seeking to further our mission to innovate the workplace through people practices and bring light to all that we do.

The training idea came about from our work seeking to help organizations adapt in a rapidly changing workplace environment and from our personal experiences of trying to do the same.

What seemed to resonate the most in all the concepts taught was the practice of gratitude. Each participant was given personalized thank you notes and encouraged to write one note a week for a year in order to express gratitude to people that had an impact on them.

We realized there wasn’t enough gratitude going around. That’s why it was so impactful, because there was a scarcity of it instead of an abundance.

And with this, we realized that in order for gratitude to go around, we needed to focus on what it means to be a Graceful Leader and hold ourselves and others to Graceful Accountability. We needed to help people see that they could exist in a place where accountability and expectations can and should coexist with empathy and grace.

That the duality of things actually improves upon all things. As Aleyxs Thompson quotes Richard Rudd in our book of the year, grace is “careful without being fearful, caring without being overbearing, candid without being cruel.”

Our book of the year states that “grace is the key to sustained happiness, more fulfilling work, and performance that impacts the world” and that gratitude is the door to accessing this kind of grace.

So with this, we decided to present two gifts to you this year in appreciation of your partnership with us. You’ll find our book of the year- The Power of a Graceful Leader, as well as twelve personalized thank you cards. We hope you will use the book to fuel your thoughts on leading with grace. Chapter three specifically focuses on how gratitude is the entry point to grace. As we move into 2023, we hope you’ll write one note a month to someone to whom you owe an acknowledgement of your gratitude and how they have impacted you.

One is the means and one is the end. Our habits form us and shape who we are becoming. We hope that the habit of gratitude will mold and shape us all into graceful leaders.

We are incredibly grateful for your partnership with us this year. Thank you for trusting us to walk alongside you to impact people and workforce practices. Many blessings to you and your family during this joyous season!

December 13, 2022
Are You (or Someone You Know) a Jerk at Work?
We’re fortunate to work with hundreds of different people across industries and state lines, and we learn something new with each project and grow personally from every relationship. We also hear many, many stories about bad managers and toxic coworkers. Back in 2019, Lorrie addressed the question, Are Your Top Employees Also Your Most Toxic?.
When I’m facilitating leadership or communication training, I often get the feedback, “I think I can try these strategies and behaviors with most of my coworkers, but what do I do with someone who is just a jerk?”. If we have the opportunity for more conversation, I can usually help get to the root of the behavior and suggest a strategy or two. Sometimes I just have to shrug my shoulders and say, “I’m sorry, that’s tough”. It really stinks when I feel like I can’t help.

A few weeks ago, I discovered Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them by Tessa West, and I am here to sing praises! Tessa, an Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University, defines seven types of work jerks and how to deal with them. She also provides three practical resources:
- Am I a Jerk at Work? (take this quiz online!)
- Am I an Effective Ally? (take this quiz online!)
- What Type of Jerk Do I Have at Work?
I took both quizzes, and not only did I get clear insight into my results, the quizzes themselves challenged me to think critically and honestly about how I would respond in real-life scenarios.

Here’s Tessa’s definition of an Ideal Coworker:

Even in tough situations, you try to take the perspective of others. When there’s conflict at work, you don’t run and hide. Instead, you have difficult conversations, even if it means finding out a thing or two about yourself that you don’t like.

In groups, you’re willing to lead without dominating conversations and agendas. As a boss, you’re careful not to fall into micromanagement traps. When you feel overwhelmed you accept help, have your direct reports prioritize work, and figure out what projects need the most attention.

Do you see yourself in that description? What about your direct supervisor? If you have direct reports, do you think they view you this way?

Let’s look at Tessa’s definition of the Effective Ally:

You respond to jerk at work behavior with a combination of appropriate confrontation and advice-giving. You realize that the solution to jerks at work is to form allies at work, and you’re quick to help victims find the right people to buffer and protect them. Grand, public gestures of support are not your style. If confrontation is called for, you prefer one-on-one meetings. You realize that public shaming rarely gets you to where you want to be. Instead, you use tactics aimed at reducing conflict rather than exacerbating it. You prefer open and honest communication between those who are involved as an initial strategy.

Often you find yourself in a mediator role, helping two people with conflict work it out. Boss’s love having you around because you know how to ease interpersonal tensions without creating the appearance of taking sides. If you aren’t a leader already, there’s a good chance you will be some day.

Same questions as before: Do you see yourself in that description? What about your direct supervisor? If you have direct reports, do you think they view you this way?

Jerks at Work defines seven types of toxic coworkers, including four specific types of toxic bosses. For each type, Tessa provides “sneaky behaviors to watch out for”, specific strategies to try, and insight for bosses to help prevent toxic behaviors on teams in the first place. I won’t spoil the reveal for you, but suffice to say, you will see people you know in this book. It might even be you.

I’ll leave you with this excerpt from the book’s conclusion:

For most of us, sustained conflict at work causes stress and anxiety and interferes with our ability to get stuff done…[None of the] strategies I recommend in this book cost a million dollars, or hours and hours of precious time, to implement…Jerk-at-work problems can be the death of a team. And luckily for you and me, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to solve them. It’s about looking out for warning signs, understanding why someone behaves the way they do, and learning how to open the lines of communication so you can solve the problem quickly and with as little stress as possible. That way you have time for real rocket science.

At the end of the day, we all want to do meaningful work alongside people who support us. No one wants to deal with jerks at work. But sometimes we have to. And sometimes we find that we are the jerks ourselves. Are you (or someone you know) a jerk at work?
September 20, 2022
Atomic Habits: A Book Review
As summer turns to fall, and the busyness of the last quarter of the year approaches, habits have been on my mind. I recently had a routine doctor’s appointment where my blood pressure was slightly high, and my weight had increased more than I’d like. Following a conversation with my doctor, I reflected on a book I’d read recently about “atomic” habits.
The book is called Atomic Habits by James Clear. Clear said it best in this quote: “The most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do.”

Atomic Habits is a practical guide with several tips that you can implement immediately to change your habits. Here are a few of my favorite takeaways from the book:
1. Aim to get 1% better every day – Just a 1% increase every day yields a 37x improvement by the end of the year. He writes, “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement” and “You are what you repeat”. Continuous Improvement: How it Works and How to Master It provides more insight from James Clear.
2. Habit Stacking: Everyone has daily habits already in place: brushing your teeth, making coffee, etc. Why not tack on a positive habit to something you already do? While making coffee, drink a large glass of water to help you stay hydrated during the day. Habit stacking is a great way to start a new habit by adding it to something you already have in your daily routine. Check out How to Build New Habits by Taking Advantage of Old Ones by James Clear to for more ideas.
3. The 4 Laws of Behavior Change are Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward. This can be used to build new habits and to break bad habits. Check out How to Start New Habits That Actually Stick by James Clear to learn how to implement behavior change with this technique.
What habits do you need to break or start today?
August 30, 2022