Photo courtesy of Emma's Teashop for Old Ladies
Didn’t get to go to the SHRM annual conference in San Diego this year (or any year for that matter), so I took it upon myself to try to read as much as I could about all the conference doings and such. After my bazillionth blog, it hit me. A LOT of these fine folks are saying similar things.
And I kinda got pissed off.
You know, I’m going to go out on a limb here and respond to all the Bloggers, Tweeters, SHRMers, etc. that are saying that, for HR to be effective, it must hear from its practitioners in the field – not from the consultants, academics, etc. who have been populating the national, state and local HR and related conferences around the country and probably around the world. Such as from:
Tim Sackett from Fistful of Talent, “When I was preparing to go to SHRM and deciding on what sessions to attend – my very first impression was “seems like I’ve been here and done this before” – my next impression was “why does 90% of presenters have either consultant or speaker as their title? Where have all the real HR Pros gone?”
Ben Eubanks from Upstart HR, “Some of the sessions I went to were wonderful, and I took a lot of notes (and even wrote about some, too). Others didn’t turn out so well. I went to two or three sessions where the speaker read off of slides or just didn’t hit the topic the session was supposed to be about. That’s fine, when that happened I just left or started talking to someone in the crowd. I did my best not to waste any time during the event…”
Another comment from Ben, “One of the most profound statements I’ve ever heard from Eric was this: move up, not out. So many amazing HR pros eventually take off and leave the profession instead of continually climbing to be Directors, VPs, and Chief HR Officers. We need more great people to ascend to those positions instead of leaving them to the people with seniority by default (even if they don’t have the skills or passion to be great at it)…”.
Michael VanDervort from The Human Race Horses, “My big learning was really just a verification of what is an old discussion – HR needs to reinvent itself, and it is the practitioners who need to make that happen through aggressively transforming the way we think and work…”
Mark Stelzner from Inflexion Point, “Second, I was sadly disappointed by the attendee reaction to a keynote featuring a panel of HR leaders, including Google, Northrop Grumman, Kaiser Permanente and Deutsche Bank. SHRM’s membership is generally not comprised of the senior-most HR professionals from the world’s largest firms, so when they actually take the time to show up, share best practices and offer advice, you damn well better pay attention. Attendees swarmed from the session, first in 2’s and 3’s and then by the dozens. Are you there to listen to Steve Forbes and Al Gore or should you perhaps learn from those who have theoretically arrived at your career destination? And if you did walk out early, you missed a gem from Deutsche Bank’s Conrad Venter when he predicated that HR will be obsolete in ten years if we stay on our current course…”.
Kathy Rapp from Fistful of Talent, “When people ponder the future of HR or ask, “What’s wrong with HR?!” it’s my belief we don’t have enough HR pros who possess the attitude of “Give ME the ball or I want to win the game.” If there were, we’d have more HR practitioners teaching at SHRM conferences and sharing their own personal stories of achievement and beating the odds. We’d have more HR folks who move into top leadership roles in their companies outside of HR vs. those non-HR executives who “land” in HR to finish out their careers. Frankly, we’d have more students coming out of college wanting a job in HR because of the opportunity to build successful business careers and make a better than average living…”
And, Charlie Judy from HR Fishbowl, “Much of what I see today seems oriented too much toward developing pansy HR subject matter experts and not focused enough on injecting the HR professional pipeline with people who are Ninjas in navigating workplace complexities, sorting through emotional dynamics, acting with agility, and thinking critically. Without that stuff, you’re just a commodity; after all, anyone can learn to manage a benefit plan…sorry. If as a profession we are really committed to making HR more crucial to an organization’s value stream, I think we should see stuff like this in the syllabus…”
What’s the common thread here, people?
What I interpret is that HR has to change. No ands, ifs or buts about it. And I am totally up and down with that. But change is NOT going to come from the folks who have been doing the same things year after year after year – the HR generalists and practitioners slogging along, waiting until retirement.
You know, the ones who run to the conference expo hall for all the free swag.
The ones who leave when senior HR leaders do participate and try to help start the transformation.
Makes me mad as hell.
Here’s the thing – I have consultant and speaker in my title – and guess what? I was still am an HR practitioner and OD specialist. As a consultant I get to go into a lot of different organizations and see what’s happening at the macro and micro levels. As a speaker, I get to share ideas –in an interesting and engaging way – that hopefully serve to inspire and get people to start thinking and doing things a bit differently.
That is what a teacher is, you know. Someone who is focusing on the future and hopefully opening new minds to new ideas.
So, that is what I take from all these comments. We don’t just need practitioners to share their thinking; we need new minds, new ideas, and new ways of doing things – no matter where they may be. And that is going to take some serious shaking up and shaping of up of HR. It’s time.
That’s why I love reading the comments and blogs – new minds, new thinking, new ways.
Makes me aim to misbehave.
I’m getting ready to attend the 2010 HR Florida State Conference & Expo in Orlando, which starts Monday, August 30th. If you want to join me, head over to www.hrflorida.org to register. State conference director Carol McDaniel (@carolmacd) has worked hard to ensure that this year’s conference will be a crowd pleaser and attendance breaker.
