Copyright 2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC

"Deep Cover: The Nameless Man" tells the story of a 1989 hate crime and the investigation to find not the killer, but the person who was killed.Courtesy of Pushkin

I was interviewed by The Philadelphia Inquirer, along with my former FBI partner, and others, about the racially motivated, cold-case homicide we investigated together. The investigation was initiated by the Lord Who said clearly to me one morning in 2004: “I AM giving you a very important assignment - you better take it seriously!”

Please use the link below to read the full insightful article:

https://www.inquirer.com/crime/deep-cover-nameless-podcast-thomas-gibison-20240426.html

FBI Retired Case File Review Live!

I’m very honored to join Jerri Williams, FBI Ret., on Sunday, April 28, 2024, as she hosts her FBI Retired Case File Review Live! at the Punch Line Comedy Club in Philadelphia. Jerri will do her live case file review with Scott Duffey (FBI Ret.) and me about the racially motivated cold-case homicide investigation we lived and breathed together for more than a few years. Without exaggeration, from the beginning, Scott and I were clear that we were carrying out an “assignment” from God Himself, although we didn’t initially know what it was or where He would lead. It is a hard-to-believe but true account about the intersection of crime, race, justice, and Divine intervention.

Deep Cover: The Nameless Man

I am privileged to be a part of author Jake Halpern’s latest podcast, Deep Cover: The Nameless Man @ jakehalpern.com and @ Pushkin Industries. Jake interviewed my good friend and former FBI partner, Scott Duffey @ Scott Duffey LI, and me about a racially motivated, cold-case homicide investigation that we lived and breathed together for more than a few years. Jake also interviewed former Philadelphia Homicide Detective Leon Lubiejewski @ L. Lubiejewski LI, Assistant District Attorneys with the Philadelphia D.A.’s Office, and others.

Without exaggeration, from the beginning, Scott and I were clear that we were carrying out an “assignment” from God Himself, although we didn’t initially know what it was or where He would lead. It is a hard-to-believe but true account about the intersection of crime, race, justice, and Divine intervention. The first of six episodes will be released on April 22, 2024, and the podcast trailer can be heard here:

The Nameless Man: Deep Cover Season 4 | Deep Cover: The Nameless Man (pushkin.fm)

Deep Cover: The Nameless Man by Jake Halpern

Wisdom beyond their years...

As I was meeting with a close colleague, I noticed a young man wearing this motto and sensed we were supposed to ask him about it. Meet entrepreneurs and business partners, Jackson Erminio and Chris Labat, partners at Start My Store and SOLIEX. These business owners and students at the University of Mississippi blew me away with their business insight...another occasion to better understand how much I don't know. #businessacumen #culturalintelligence #leadershipinsights #coachingbusiness

The Best Candidate (not in politics)

please spill the beans

It's always interesting to me the really unique ways some employers determine their next company hire. At the heart of their efforts is a compelling desire to understand who their best candidate is at their core. Who are they genuinely, and are they the best person to contribute to their company culture?

In a recent article by the New York Post entitled "Coffee cup test”, they write that "former managing director for Xero Australia Trent Innes explained how he refuses to hire anyone if they fail to return an empty cup to the kitchen at the end of an interview."

“I will always take you for a walk down to one of our kitchens and somehow you always end up walking away with a drink,” Innes said in a resurfaced 2019 interview with the podcast “The Ventures”.

“Then we take the drink back, have our interview, and one of the things I’m always looking for at the end of the interview is, does the person doing the interview want to take that empty cup back to the kitchen? “You can develop skills, you can gain knowledge and experience but it really does come down to attitude, and the attitude that we talk a lot about is the concept of ‘wash your own coffee cup.’”

I also read of a West Coast tech company that used another novel way to determine their best candidate. When the candidate flew in for their scheduled interview at the company headquarters, the company provided a car and driver to get them there on time. During the drive to the interview, the driver would strike up a conversation with their passenger about the reason for their travel and eventually why they wanted a job with the company. The candidate very often candidly told the driver what they really wanted to achieve with their interview and potential job. What the candidate didn't realize was that the driver was a company employee sent specifically to conduct an interview before the interview. It wasn't uncommon for the job candidate to arrive at the company's headquarters, immediately be informed that they wouldn't continue in the interview process, but they would be provided transportation back to the airport.

In other words, skills can be taught but true character and maturity are forged over time and not easily, something which the traditional interview process often fails to determine.

How to navigate the dawn of AI and HR?

Not long ago I had an interesting conversation with a very skilled Human Resources Director about the emerging use of artificial intelligence, ChatGPT specifically, in the hiring and retention of people for businesses. The question arose, ‘Is something like ChatGPT bad for business, bad for HR, harmful to accurately know whom to hire?’ The question’s inference was how can we tell when a hiring candidate used ChatGPT to falsely create their resume giving them an advantage to gain an interview, or if an employee uses the same platform to create inauthentic work product not their own?

In our short discussion, I think we both agreed that AI tools, like ChatGPT, are here to stay and can be very helpful to people and businesses, if navigated correctly. The use of it, for example, for research already seems to have awesome results. Therein, however, makes the second half of the AI-HR equation, the human interaction and decision-making part, even more important. In fact, my prediction to my HR friend was that the dawn of AI will actually reveal those truly skilled in understanding people and how they communicate, and those that are not. The necessity to understand what the potential or current employee is truly saying to business owners, executives, HR professionals, and others in interviews and conversations - in making an authentic human connection - will be far more important than ever before in human history.

#authentic #conversations #interviews #humanconnections #business #humanresources #artificialintelligence #chatgpt

Whose Truth Do We Know?

In an insightful commentary posted by Mike Evans, Chairman of the Corrie ten Boom Foundation, et al., on CBN News, he wrote:

"The West is in the midst of high stakes hostage negotiations with a trillionaire who has the third-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons on the planet. The West has naively defined the terms of the debate, believing that Putin is attempting to rebuild the former USSR. They have waged an economic war and are winning a media war and a proxy war. They will shortly have poured a trillion dollars into Ukraine with aid and weapons, believing they can also win the proxy war as they did in Afghanistan that collapsed the former Soviet Union in humiliation.

The only problem is that the West is playing Russian roulette with a trapped rat who can attack its throat with nuclear weapons, not understanding why Putin is doing what he is doing and why he is attacking Ukraine may end up being the biggest mistake of the 21st century..."

This commentary reminded me of an axiom I believe and use consistently:

'The truth we must understand in any conversation is the truth sincerely held by the other person, not our own version of it.'

This is the case no matter how much we disagree with the other person or wish they didn't believe what they do. Without it, authentic communication cannot be established. Without it true intentions are missed, ignored, or disbelieved until after a catastrophe. So the question is, did more than a few Western leaders miss, ignore, or disbelieve the many 'signals' about Ukraine Vladimir Putin has been sending for more than a few years? Did we fail to understand what the other person was truly communicating, and if so, why? This is the same question every leader must ask themselves, whether on the international stage or leading a small business. The authentic answer for each leader may be of very great consequence.

#leadership #authentic #communication #truth #ukraine #russia #usa #europeanunion #invasionofukraine