• Charity Poker as a Part of Recruiting Events. There's a reason that politicians and lawyers shy away from poker and stick to golf. Professions with less than stellar reputations for honesty and ethics try not to reinforce that image. Most standard jokes about Recruiting focus on the deception that can be a part of the interview and hiring process.  Why would we voluntarily engage in fund raising events that play to the dark side of our reputation.
   
• Official Recruiting Condom. If it's good enough for New York City, why not embrace it as an industry. The prevention of HIV and STDs is a critically important challenge. Let's mount a campaign to have all recruiters have a bowl of condoms on the reception desk. After all, who sees more people in any given organization. We're open to suggestions about the campaign slogan.
   
• Headhunters as Collectors of Heads. Online Social Networking emphasizes value received rather than value given. "I've got 25,000 members in my network" is an unreasonable description of a network. Real and effective relationships come from a tireless delivery of value without counting or bragging. Be ware of people who say, "I personally organized the thing so that 100 people showed up." They are going to have very, very short runs.
   
• How Networks Work. Give value without the expectation of return. Giving value with the expectation of a return is called "lending." Good networks are not financial alternatives. Jeff Hunter's recent unconference was an example of giving without the expectation of a return for both Jeff and his employer.
   
• Assessment is Predictive in Large Groups and Descriptive in Small Groups  We heard this half-truth mumbled repeatedly at the recent unconference. The trouble is that the idea creates a permanent back door for excusing performance failure. The truth is that assessment rarely works as advertised because every situation is unique." Your large group contains my small group. The real idea here is that assessment is never applicable to a single individual, only to a group. Assessment can not weed out specific bad apples, it can just decrease the likelihood that there will be any. That's why it is dangerously close to employment discrimination.
   

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