On Thursday, I will join three of my colleagues behind the 8 Man Rotation in Las Vegas (we always leave one behind to keep it going in case something befalls the rest of us) for two to three days to catch some NBA Summer League action.

Why do we want to head to the desert in summer time to spend 8-10 hours a day in a gym watching exhibition basketball when those games don't matter?

Because, in actuality, the games DO matter....for those playing.   In his piece on Grantland, Steve McPherson describes what it is like for those involved:

These are guys who have worked their entire lives to be one of the 450 players in the top basketball league in the world. Guys who spent their whole lives being one of the best basketball players in any situation they ever found themselves in. And now it’s just the grind. They’re simply looking for their shot.

The ones hoping for that shot are almost universally flawed in one way or another: undersized or stuck between positions; not good enough at one specific thing to be useful to a team; dogged by problems we can’t even see, the kind of stuff many of us carry around.........

But for these players — who are among the top one or two percent of basketball players in the world — it’s their big chance. Not to become something they’re not, but to see their years of work turn them into what they’ve always been striving toward.

In late April, Robert Galbraith published his first novel - a mystery called "The Cuckoo's Calling" -  to rave reviews but relatively few purchases.  Yesterday, Robert Galbraith's book was languishing at 4,709 on Amazon's bestseller list with 1500 sales. Now, the book's sitting at number 1; a 156,866% sales increase in 1 day.

What was responsible for such a dramatic change in fortune?

The Prince can be read like a self-help book for someone who openly aspires to be depraved: This is what's important to believe, this is how the powerful should act in public, this is how you need to behave in private, et cetera.  It's a clinical dissection of how to be tyrannical.  Whether Machiavelli believed these things is beside the point - what matters is that he presented them as pure stratagem.  It was not an emotional reaction to a specific circumstance; it was a calculated design for life, usable by anyone, applicable anywhere.  He turned an autocratic template into entertainment.  This is what makes Machiavelli culturally unlikeable. It make him cold.  The mere fact that he could conceive of these strategies - even if he'd never have used them himself - is what makes him sinister forever.

 In any situation, the villain is the person who knows the most but cares the least.

• Despite the reader's contention above, has LinkedIn replaced the traditional resume for most, and individuals should be directed there to see the details?
• Personal preference?
• The author hasn't updated the resume in quite awhile? 

As a recruiting practitioner I really see no value personally or professionally in being a SHRM member or gaining a certificate. Unless someone could give me a really good reason to the contrary.

• show you know the most current principles and core practices of HR management
• become more marketable when you compete for top HR positions
• raise your professional confidence among your staff and your peers 

• certified HR professionals earn 13.2% higher salary than their non-certified peers
• organizations with certified HR professionals have 12.2% greater retention of high performing employees
• organizations with certified HR professionals have 14.6% less EEOC complaints than organizations led by non-certified HR leaders

With the increasing popularity of the SHRM certification program as well as the proliferation of other similar certifications, it is time to determine (1) what certification measures and how well it does it; and (2) what difference having certification makes to individuals, to organizations, and to the HR profession.

The figure depicts three important elements: (a) time, (b) macro-level effects, and (c) micro-level effects. First, the starting time begins with the implementation of the organizational staffing practice of using HR certification as a selection tool. This staffing practice represents a contextual (top-down) effect on the organization's individual KSAOs because all potential HR professional employees will be recruited using the HR certification predictor. HR certification is used as a selection tool because it measures human resource management knowledge

• Proposition 2: Individuals with undergraduate or master's degrees in human resource management or related disciplines will not benefit as much (increased hiring probability, higher salaries, and faster promotion rates) from an HR certification compared to individuals without such degrees
• Proposition 3: As assessed by longitudinal research, we predict that individuals with undergraduate or master's degrees in human resource management or master's degrees in business administration will obtain more C-suite positions and perform more effectively in these roles compared to individuals who have certifications such as SHRM's PHR or SPHR
• Proposition 4: Using HR certification as a selection tool will be positively associated to individuals' HR management knowledge
• Proposition 5: Certified HR professionals will perform better (i.e. effectively diagnose and resolve HR problems, design and implement HR programs aligned with organizational objectives, etc.) on the job than do non-certified HR professionals
• Proposition 6: A greater proportion of certified HR professionals who have shared HR knowledge in an HR department will lead to higher unit-level performance
• Proposition 11: A greater proportion of certified HR professionals in the HR function will lead to more favorable perceptions by multiple constituents regarding the value-added contribution of the HR function in the organization and thereby enhance HR department reputation
• Proposition 13: A greater proportion of certified HR professionals in an HR department will lead to higher HR department effectiveness

In order to test Proposition 2, data would need to be collected from a single huge organization with a large enough population of HR professionals who are covered by the same compensation plan to test the proposition. You would need archival data of salary trends, certification status, educational achievements, promotions, performance data, and so forth to comparatively test for the differences in salary and advancement.  A study of just HR professionals, outside of the archival factors mentioned many not provide accurate or generalizable information.  Titles may or may not be comparable across organizations so unless the data comes from a single organization where title, responsibility and other variables can be controlled, the results may not reveal anything meaningful.

• Only 21 individuals had listed they had earned PHR or SPHR certification (none listed GPHR).  This number could be higher, but some either chose not to list it, or they may have let certification lapse.
• Less than 60 had a formal business education (i.e., a BBA or post-graduate degree in a business-related field).  Some only listed their college, but did not list their educational background.  Others did not have education as part of their LinkedIn profile. 
• Of that 60 or so, less than 25 concentrated in human resources as part of their undergraduate or graduate education.

1. Is pursuit of certification perceived as valuable?  If a significant portion of those who are perceived as being knowledgeable on the field of HR (or at least a major subset of the field) do not possess certification from SHRM, will some choose not to pursue it as well, as they do not see it as necessary to succeed in the industry?
2. Barriers to entry in the field of HR continue to be low.  Again, many of the individuals on this list have demonstrated through on-the-job experience and success that they deserve to be lauded.  But, it should concern SHRM that many apparently do not need a HR education to be successful in HR.
3. The need to embrace social and its impact on membership.  SHRM has done a wonderful job over the past couple of years of working with many on this list.  Over 50 on the list served on the social media team at the 2013 SHRM Annual Conference in Chicago.  However, with many on the list having little to no affiliation with SHRM, will some HR professionals wonder why they should join SHRM when others are possibly providing valuable information for free?

• At the Tribe HR blog, Katy Innes shares  7 Goal and Management Tips for New Supervisors
• At the Four Groups blog, Michael Folkman wants us to Rethink the War on Talent
• At the Inflexion Advisors blog, Mark Stelzner thinks about HR innovation and suggests we might "Maintain Optimism and Fresh Eyes"
• At the Canadian HR Reporter, Stuart Rudner share some tips on hiring and firing.
• At the Great Leadership blog, Dan McCarthy tells us How to Overcome the 3 Barriers to Leadership Development
• From the Human Capital Strategy Blog of the Rainmaker Group, Chris Young shares 7 Things I Wish I Knew When Founding This Company
• The Godfather Steve Browne shares 5 New Ideas he gleaned from the 2013 SHRM Annual Conference 
• At the Toolbox for HR, Ian Welsh queries, "What Kind of Passion is Best At Work?" 
• At the Humor That Works blog, Andrew Tarvin has Advice for People in Job Transition
• At Welcome to the Occcupation, Paul Smith wants your Subscription to HR Leadership
• At the HR Introvert, Tim Gardner tells us Why Everyone Should Have A PIP
• At UpstartHR, Ben Eubanks suggests "Maintaining Your Culture As You Grow."