I was reading the newspaper yesterday and I came across two words that just didn’t go together. They weren’t exactly an oxymoron, just moronic. At least that’s how they struck me. “Playboy radio.”

According to the article that I read, one of the satellite services is taking the bunny to radio. This challenged everything that I thought I knew about guys. That we’re visual creatures and that we’re not the best abstract thinkers. Playboy radio?

Okay, I get it that there is a thriving business in 900 phone numbers. So there is some precedence for talking dirty on the radio. But this business summed up to me everything that a real guy would have no interest in. Which got me thinking about other things that I would have never put together—like Poker TV, men’s mousse and “Adult Outlet” (I saw that on a billboard in Las Vegas a few years ago).

Unlikely pairings. And the more I thought about it they’re one of the real keys to innovation; the ability to put things together in a new and innovative way.

Meeting the needs of your existing customers is a challenge. You’ve got to watch and listen. And be prepared to shake things up when they aren’t being served. But the really tough part is serving the needs of your customers that they don’t even know they have. Their unrealized needs.

How do you find someone’s needs that they don’t even know they have? It’s not easy. You’ve got to understand their business so well that you can anticipate totally new solutions for today’s and tomorrow’s problems. For example, how many of you out there ever imagined the Internet or email before you had your first computer. Be honest.

Most of us can’t imagine something that is a few steps beyond anything we’re currently using. Take hybrid cars or the iPod. Both are relatively small leaps from things that already existed. But I’m guessing that they were a totally surprise to most of you. Heck, I’ll admit, I never saw either of them coming. And now I find both essential.

Sure there are some innovations that just come out of thin air. But most of them come in a more pedestrian way, they come from combining two unlikely things to create something totally new.

So the next time you see an unlikely pairing, and trust me you will, appreciate the leap of faith that someone took to create it. Sure it might be a bridge to nowhere, but at least they asked the questions and explored a new direction to take things.

And hopefully the unlikely pairing will motivate you to explore your own unlikely combination. Something that will push you in a new direction. I’d like to continue with this conversation about innovation, but I’ve got an important radio program that I need to listen to.

About the Author: Bob Rosner is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. For free job and work advice, check out the award-winning workplace911.com. Also check out his newly revised best-seller “The Boss’s Survival Guide.” If you have a question for Bob, contact him via bob@workplace911.com.

Microsoft and Yahoo recently received permission to move forward with their joint venture on search from both US and European regulators.

Competition makes strange bedfellows. And nary a day goes by today that Microsoft isn’t announcing a new partnership, or a partnership discussion, with a company that it formerly tried to crush. Real Networks, Palm, AOL, Apple, the list just keeps growing and growing.

Believe it or not, Microsoft’s new make-nice approach impacts each and every one of us who works today. Because it signals the end of the “enemy,” at least as we’ve known it in business for the last hundred years. Let me explain…

The “enemy” has been a great rallying cry in business. To paraphrase General Patton, your goal is to kill the other guy before he has a chance to kill you. And that is how business tended to operate.

We learned from our earliest days in the corporate corridors to identify our enemies and create a healthy disdain for them. And it was so simple to do. G.M. hated Ford. M.G.M. hated Universal. It was easy to identify your competitors and once you did then you let the hatin’ begin.

That is until today. Now, auto companies collaborate on technology to improve fuel mileage with competitors and movie studios collaborate on producing films. And the former 99-pound weakling turned monopolist, Microsoft, can’t seem to find anyone outside of Google that it doesn’t want to take a turn around the dance floor with. What a difference a few years can make.

What is becoming clear is that today’s enemy at work could very well be your company’s next strategic marketing partner, merger partner or the company that purchases your firm. So the enemy is dead, long live today’s competitor who might be tomorrow’s collaborator. Why? Because you can’t afford to alienate your next business partner. Or worse, your next boss.

How do we survive this new competitive landscape? We need to resist the temptation to bad mouth a competitor. We need to always fight fair. We need to reach out to competitors at industry conferences and trade shows. We need to resist short term thinking and learn to adopt a longer view. In short, we need to always anticipate the future where we just might be on the same side with our current competitors.

I’m looking forward to the day when I can wax nostalgically about the enemies that I did battle with at work to my child. Because it increasingly appears that the enemy’s days are numbered. And being a guy who can nurse a grudge as well as the next guy, I think this could usher in a great new environment in which to do business.

About the Author: Bob Rosner is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. For free job and work advice, check out the award-winning workplace911.com. Also check out his newly revised best-seller “The Boss’s Survival Guide.” If you have a question for Bob, contact him via bob@workplace911.com.

I get a lot of wonderful fan mail. But the nasty emails are the ones that you can really learn something from. Take this one (please!), that I received recently:

“You are an idiot; the main thing wrong at my workplace is management. Same as the last job. It would be nice to be treated as an equal in all areas, not just when I come in late once every two years and get dinged for it. Most punks half my age don’t know what work is, just a bunch of whiney spoiled brats with greasy spiky hair. I deal with hundreds of slackers too lazy to click three times to find an answer or listen to a front end message to call the write extension for help, including most of all “management”. What a bunch of losers. 50% of my coworkers have at least two years on the job and are clueless.”

I guess you could call this a target-rich environment, because there is so much to comment on…

Let me start with his opening—“You are an idiot.” What a great way to motivate your reader to want to keep reading what you’ve written. The problem is that most of us forget that old rule that you’ll always get more with honey than with a smack on the butt—at least that’s what my mom told me when I was just a little sprout.

If the game that you’re playing is to be self-righteous and burn every bridge, then of course lead with a vicious attack targeting your reader. Heck, throw in a choice vulgarity while you are at it. However, if you’d like to see something positive come from an interaction, stick to the facts and you just might get your reader to listen to what you have to say. Just a thought.

I do like that he blames management for the problems at this job and his last one. After personally responding to over 50,000 emails from bosses and employees, you don’t have to convince me that there are a lot of bad bosses out there. But there is a point when you have the same problem following you around from job to job—where you have to ask what is the “common denominator” here? And more importantly, there is the “it takes two to tango” rule—how do you contribute to the problem? I always try to ask these questions before I attack someone else.

Then there is his diatribe on the “losers” he is forced to work with. Again it’s all, “they do this,” “they do that.” Okay, you are thinking that I’m beating up on this poor guy. But to me this is the greatest example of why the workplace is getting so nasty and difficult to maneuver through; because this guy isn’t alone. There are so many people out there screaming “they, they, they” when, ironically, they could probably be happier and learn more if they spent more time exploring “me, me, me.” But we can only make this leap when we are thinking rationally and able to muster some real introspection, something few of us have any time or inclination to do any more.

I know that work is tough; even demoralizing some times. But I do think it’s interesting that in just one paragraph this guy attacked me, management and the losers he has to work with. Wow, isn’t this great energy that you’d like to spend 40 hours a week with? Again, it’s too easy to blame just him. The important question is to look in the mirror to ask, “What baggage do I bring to work each day?” And, “How hard is it to put up with me on a daily basis?”

Then there is the key reference that explains the entire diatribe, “Not just when I come in late once every two years and get dinged for it.” The guy clearly got busted for something he did wrong. Rather than acknowledging his mistake, he goes on a rampage to expose every “wrong” and “loser” in today’s workplace.

And that’s why this is the perfect email to sum up everything that is wrong with work. Because rather than taking a slice of humble pie about a mistake, he goes on the attack. So throw stones until your heart’s content—just remember by doing so you blow the opportunity to begin the journey toward a better workplace.

About the Author: Bob Rosner is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. For free job and work advice, check out the award-winning workplace911.com. Also check out his newly revised best-seller “The Boss’s Survival Guide.” If you have a question for Bob, contact him via bob@workplace911.com.

I read an article about a school in Washington State that allows students to search the Internet during tests.

Yes, you read that correctly. Students at Mill Creek Middle School can go online during tests to search for information. But some schools don’t stop there; they even allow students to beam or IM information to other students during a test.

Beyond wishing that we had such tools when we were in middle school, this raises a great question about the essence of education. Is the goal to cram information in our heads, or should the goal be the know how to get the information that you need?

Let’s not forget that a student can burn a lot of time searching for information on the web. Or information that is beamed to them by a fellow student could be wrong. Rather than seeing this sharing of information as cheating, I believe that it is creating a generation of students who are more discerning about information—where to get it, how to evaluate it and how to use it.

What does this have to do with business? Plenty.

As more of us find our interactions with coworkers limited to three sentence emails, we are rapidly moving from organizations with many brains to constellations of individuals who are increasingly flying by the seat of their pants as they go through their work day.

Think about it. When was the last time that you brainstormed with a colleague over coffee or lunch? When was the last time that you networked or checked in with a colleague that you hadn’t seen in a while? Heck, when was the last time you didn’t eat lunch at your desk?

Technology was supposed to bring us all together. Yet, the connections between people are at an all time low.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating a 40 hour a week coffee klatch. But I do believe that each one of us should all institute a policy where we follow up ten emails with a phone call and twenty with an actual face-to-face conversation. (Remember those?)

Organizations talk a great deal about team work. That people are the greatest asset. Yet, when it comes to paying people, recognition and priorities, it’s all about individual effort.

Great teamwork isn’t cheating. But to achieve it organizations need to do a much better job of cultivating it, rewarding it and encouraging it. Wouldn’t it be amazing if our organizations truly became the sum of their parts?

About the Author: Bob Rosner is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. For free job and work advice, check out the award-winning workplace911.com. Also check out his newly revised best-seller “The Boss’s Survival Guide.” If you have a question for Bob, contact him via bob@workplace911.com.

Last time I discussed the top “mindsets” that we bring to work. For those of you who like things defined, here goes—mindset is “a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations.”

Most of us bring some “habits” to work on a regular basis. After doing a lot of interviews and research, I came up with five. What I like to call the 5 M’s. Machine, military, motivation, measurement and entrepreneurship (okay, that’s not an “M” word. I put it in because that is one of the problems with mindsets, they tend to lock us in to a limited way of viewing the world).

According to your votes, the mindset that you most often bring to work is machine. 35% of you chose it. Next was military with 27%. Followed by motivation, the choice of 17%. Measurement, 15%, and entrepreneurship at 6%.

Each of these mindsets served a purpose at one time. The problem is that they tend to live on long past the point they continue to provide value. Take the top response, machine. A smooth running machine is a very effective way to run a business. The problem? Machines don’t do so well when it comes to creativity and initiative. And those are two things that most businesses can’t do without today.

In addition, all of the mindsets share two basic problems. First, they tend to struggle when it comes to handling complexity. A new competitor, a worker shortage or a lawsuit against your company aren’t things that any of the 5 Ms can really cope with. The problem is that today’s workplace is all about complexity.

But there is an even bigger problem—control. All of these mindsets do best when there is a heavy hand running the show. And that heavy hand may have helped 60 years ago to make the trains run on time, but today many businesses are starting to realize that the brains of their people are a terrible thing to waste. So rather than trying to produce a certain result from people, more organizations are realizing they have to create a place where the best efforts can flow out of people.

So we need to develop a new mindset, one that gives more control to the people who actually do the work. Not for some soft headed share the wealth idea, but because organizations need to extract everything they can from their people’s hands, heads and hearts (okay, that will be the last bit of alliteration for this column).

Ultimately I’m not going to try to sell you on exactly what new mindset to adopt. My point is simply that we need to become more aware of the mindset we bring to work each day. And not forget the creativity and control as we go along our journey at work. Just realizing this should help us all to better navigate our workday more successfully.

About the Author: Bob Rosner is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. For free job and work advice, check out the award-winning workplace911.com. Also check out his newly revised best-seller “The Boss’s Survival Guide.” If you have a question for Bob, contact him via bob@workplace911.com.

I once ran an online contest asking a very simple question—what is your biggest complaint about work? The responses flooded into Costco.com and were not at all what I’d expected.

I was totally prepared for a ton of responses about low pay, disrespect, poor working conditions, etc. Actually more than half of the responses all touched on the same topic—people who steal food from the company refrigerator. I couldn’t make this up. At first I thought that they’d all come from the same company. But as I read through them I realized they all had different details.

Choosing a winner from all of these tragic cases of lunches lost was a challenge. Until I came across the most painful and pathetic story. This poor person described how her lunch thief not only ate your lunch, but they managed to rub your face in what remained.

She described in painful detail about how her thief opened a box of chicken wings, ate half of them and then carefully put the bones back in the box and resealed the container. Ouch.

Besides being thankful that you don’t have to work with this person, why should you care about this isolated case of cruelty?

Because when it comes to our jobs the big stuff—not getting a big promotion, having a really tough competitor, not feeling like your work is appreciated—fades in comparison to the little annoying stuff like people stealing your lunch. I call it the pebble in the shoe vs. getting hit by a boulder rule. Over time the pebble drives you the craziest.

Don’t believe me? There was another study that asked what is your biggest complaint at work? The number one response? It’s too cold. Wanna guess the second most common complaint? Yep, it’s too hot.

Granted this study was done by the International Facility Management Association, but it does point out that power of the little annoyances can have at where we work.

What is the moral of this story? Management tends to focus on the big stuff in those rare times when it focuses on employee morale. Issues like bullies, food thieves and temperature are not the kind of stuff that most managers think of when they focus on employee satisfaction. Yet these are the very issues that are wearing down your people.

I’m not discounting the big stuff. I’m just trying to shine the spotlight on the little annoyances that have a big impact at work.

Lest you think I’m making a mountain out of a molehill here. I recently saw a remarkable survey from the Conference Board. They asked employees in 1995 if they were satisfied at work. 61% said they were. The survey was repeated recently. The number of satisfied workers has dropped to 45%.

About the Author: Bob Rosner is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. For free job and work advice, check out the award-winning workplace911.com. Also check out his newly revised best-seller “The Boss’s Survival Guide.” If you have a question for Bob, contact him via bob@workplace911.com.

I was talking with a friend yesterday who described a time that she was unemployed. She got a call from a potential employer asking if she could come in for a follow up interview the next day. She said no she couldn’t, she had another interview already scheduled during that time. But she could come in later that week.

She was lying. She didn’t have an interview, in fact she said she ended up spending the time eating ice cream and watching TV. She turned them down for their short notice request for an interview because she felt it would be dangerous to appear too available. So she lied to make the company think that there was competition for her services. Oh, yeah, she ended up getting the job.

I don’t think that I would have been able to pull that off. I tend to be all about enthusiasm when someone is interested in working with me. I also tend toward the truth, the whole truth and nothing but when I’m applying for work (not because I’m doing my impersonation of Mother Teresa, but because I think it’s a real bummer to get a job and then to lose it because one of your lies ended up biting you in the butt).

And I also don’t think that I could recommend this strategy for someone else to follow. But I did have to give my friend credit—she realized that getting a job is much more like a date than applying for a bank loan.

In other words, getting a job should be a two-way street. The employer doesn’t hold all the cards, unless you give ‘em to them. So in interviews it makes sense to ask questions. To not be too accommodating. To make it clear that at the same time they’re interviewing you, that you are also interviewing them.

But it’s not limited to just getting a job. A while back there was an article in the Wall Street Journal that talked about “tribal” or “voodoo” knowledge. This is where an experienced worker has learned things about how to do the job that they refuse to share with the company. According to the article, this was mostly about older workers who knew that if everyone knew what they knew, they would get pushed out the door for a younger, and often cheaper pair of hands. These older workers maintain their value, and their jobs, precisely by not being “team” players.

Maybe there was a time where the relationship between worker and company was totally based on honesty and trust. Maybe even you have that kind of relationship now with your current employer. But unfortunately this is often the exception and not the rule in today’s lean, and really mean, workplace.

I like to call this the “dance” at work. It would be great if we could get by playing fewer games, but given the lack of loyalty and trust in the vast majority of workplaces, the “dance” is the only way to survive. Or as a friend once paraphrased the old saying “It takes two to tango,” by saying, “It takes an organization to really do the tango.”

About the Author: Bob Rosner is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. For free job and work advice, check out the award-winning workplace911.com. Check the revised edition of his Wall Street Journal best seller, “The Boss’s Survival Guide.” If you have a question for Bob, contact him via bob@workplace911.com.

I was flipping around the channel and came across George Carlin’s last comedy special on HBO. I started thinking about his famous list of the seven things you can’t say on television. So this week I’m going to present a work variation on Carlin’s list — a list of five taboo words for today’s workplace.

The first taboo in today’s workplace is the word “felony.” Corporations don’t like prison records. However, ex-offenders don’t need to worry too much, because this will change for two reasons. First, the dramatic increase of executives who visit the big house. If these guys keep getting arrested, every head honcho is going to have a rap sheet, and they have to work somewhere.

The second taboo at work is not a word but an acronym: “TMI” — too much information. This can apply to all manner of information, but of particular note is the often uncomfortable revealing of personal medical situations. People don’t want to hear about your medical challenges, your itchy rash, your surgery or your prostate, etc. Yes, the practice of avoiding running your mouth and disclosing TMI rules at work today.  Find a therapist, a mate or a relative who really cares about the medical details of your life. But don’t share it with your coworkers, because hearing about those things makes them uneasy and can make work an uncomfortable place to be.

The third taboo at work revolves around the word “relationships.” Don’t go there. People don’t want to hear about your marital or relationship problems. Through the years I can’t believe how many people have shared intimate information about their relationships with me. Call me a prude, but I think pillow talk should be reserved for conversations that actually take place over pillows.

The fourth taboo is the word “why.” As in “Why did you…” “Why do we…” Most corporations don’t take kindly to being asked this simple question. Sure, there are bosses who can handle it. I just think that they are rarer than most people think. Sometimes it’s better to just bite your tongue and forge ahead with an assignment, even if you’re not totally sure about the outcome. People who constantly question the worth of a project or a boss’s decision often get tagged as malcontents. So be careful when you drag out the “W” word.

And finally, the fifth taboo — “bravado.”

Most of us learn at a very early age that we are never to show weakness or vulnerability at work. Bravado is the way; do what you can and fake what you can’t. I personally believe that the lack of vulnerability weakens organizations because it prevents real connection and real interactions between people.

If I had a magic wand I’d hope that we could all do a much better job of being more vulnerable at work. Sure it’s tough, but isn’t it time that we all brought a bit more humanity to our jobs? And what better way is there to do this than being genuine and vulnerable with the people we work with? So stash that bravado and learn to show a softer side — it will humanize you in the eyes of your coworkers and probably encourage them to do the same.

My five taboo words at work — felony, TMI, relationships, why and bravado. Of course I left layoff off the list. Just too painful to go there right now. I’d love to hear your suggestions.

About the Author: Bob Rosner is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. For free job and work advice, check out the award-winning workplace911.com. If you have a question for Bob, contact him via bob@workplace911.com.

According to my email, today’s workplace is full of bosses who seem more focused on baubles and bling than on their organization’s well-being. Bosses who yell, bosses who have their own set of rules or even bosses who ask their assistant to type her own termination letter (a true story from one of my presentations) seem to be all the rage (pun intended).

Think I’m exaggerating? Then listen to what people talk about on airplanes, in restaurants and on street corners. It’s all about work. And the one work topic that dominates all others is bad bosses. Sorry to break this to you if you are a boss, but chances are that your employees are talking about you and what they are saying will make your hair curl.

Which got me thinking, is there a particular group of bosses who are worse than another group? So as a community service, the nominees for worst type of boss are:

FINANCIAL people—accountants, CFOs and finance types who are totally focused on money, usually at the expense of any ability to actually deal with people. Or in the words of my MBA Finance professor, “Cash flow is more important than your mother.” At the time I thought he was joking. Having gotten to know a few CFOs, I think many of them actually think this is true.

SALES people—marketers and sales people who are totally focused on getting people to want to buy whatever they are selling at the expense of actually listening to what people really think. A great salesperson can easily create an environment where everyone is drinking from the same batch of Kool Aid and where any voices that disagree are silenced or discredited.

TECHNICAL people—engineers, CTOs and techies make the worst bosses because they are often favor machines over people. They like the “0” and “1” logic of computers and hate how messy actual people can be with their needs and wants. Technical people can always be looking for the logic in a situation, a logic that seldom exists when dealing with real people in a workplace.

LEGAL people—lawyers, need I say more?

Vote in our online ballot and tell us what is the worst type of boss that you’ve run across in your career. I’ll admit that this column and poll can be considered a cheap shot; at the same time, aren’t you curious to see the poll results identifying the worst type of boss?

About the Author: Bob Rosner is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. For free job and work advice, check out the award-winning workplace911.com. If you have a question for Bob, contact him via bob@workplace911.com.

Studies show that good looking people have an easier time at work.

I still laugh when I remember the Daily Show’s segment on John Roberts Supreme Court hearings, entitled, “Judge Cutie” (with the same logo as Judge Judy). And that wasn’t the only press coverage that included a reference to the fact that Roberts was good looking.

And here I thought that the only candidates for high office who were selected on the “babe” factor were John Edwards, Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin. Before you jump to the conclusion that this workplace blog has been hijacked by a political commentary, studies show that good looks don’t only resonate in Vice Presidents and Supreme Court Justices; they also carry a great deal of weight back at work.

According to an article in the USA Today (a newspaper, by the way, well known for its appearance) male CEO’s were, on average, 3 inches taller than the average man. Another study found that an increase in a woman’s body mass resulted in a decrease in her family income and job prestige. And finally more than 20% of very overweight employees have low morale, double the average for employees with healthy weights.

Will the tyranny of the pretty ever end? The good looking people called the shots in high school and it looks like they’re still calling ‘em all these years later.

I decided that rather than complaining and criticizing people who are good looking, I would interview a bunch of attractive people to get their take on this issue (it’s a tough job and I decided to make this sacrifice for you, dear reader). What I learned was fascinating. Every good looking person I talked to admitted that there were many times in their lives that they had stuff handed to them. But they also described times where their ideas weren’t taken seriously or where there was retribution simply because of their looks.

These conversations were a revelation to this average-looking blogster. I knew from personal experience that not-pretty people suffered because of their appearance. I was fascinated to discover that pretty people also experience rejection for—yes, you guessed it—their looks.

So I’m making a plea. Let’s all move past high school and start to judge people for the content of their character and for the quality of their ideas. People Magazine’s best looking people issue may be a fun read—but it’s an ugly way to do business.