R u busy usually indicates an attempt to gauge productivity or to determine whether business activity is up, which it always is anyway so why even ask.

This idea of measuring productivity by how busy we are begs another question that few seem able to answer. Are we more inundated with essentials than a decade or generation ago? Or has technology deluded us into thinking we're busier than ever? Some are doing more with less, which creates a higher work burden in a compressed time frame. That's fair. But does doing more always translate into more value? You may want to find an answer for yourself. Productivity experts, we are not.

A personal favorite is the term, "slammed," as in so busy we don't know which end is up. No effective leader should be slammed, and if they are, the situation generally reveals challenges in discerning what's urgent vs. important.

Oh, if you were wondering -- we're slammed, busy and "in the weeds" right now. But thanks for asking.

Alliance Partner Terry Bradford Cox, PhD, has an effective approach to shared values worth your review sometime. And no, it's not available on the consultancy's web site. When was the last time you downloaded something business-driven off a web site anyway? Please let us know if you would like to review a process that addresses this issue, or better yet, talk to clients who have benefitted from doing so.

As in -- read our prose, which you can find here http://www.povblogger.blogspot.com/.

"The Garlington Report (TGR)" has been quiet this summer, but we expect to be more active in the coming months.

As to the spoken word, we're taking part in a panel discussion titled, "Social Media and Recruiting -- Interactive dialogue with the experts" this week at the OnRec Expo in Chicago. Thanks to several loyal readers for their contributions on this subject.

Bottom line: Social media tools have a long way to go before any supplant what human ingenuity already provide. Twitterers, beware. Old school still runs the show for now.