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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.

Going Out on a Limb, Here is a post from: The HR Whisperer

 Toyota’s recent woes with automobile manufacturing defects and the dragging of their feet in responding to the resulting safety and customer issues has left a lot of people feeling cold right now.  This, combined with the record brisk temps we’ve been having anyway  is wreaking havoc on the car buying public and our collective psyche. 

Well, maybe I’m the only one who’s collective psyche is cold.  

 John Rosevear of the The Motley Fool points out that the problem really isn’t so much the safety issues, which are bad and need fixing, but more with the “company’s longtime pattern of responding to problems with a mix of denial and foot shuffling.”

 And apparently it is going to get worse. 

John goes on to say that,

 “Officials in high places in the U.S. are getting cranky…on Tuesday [February 16^th], the Department of Transportation ordered Toyota to turn over documents related to various safety issues.  That may not sound like a big deal, but it is — the DOT is aggressively looking for evidence that Toyota knew of safety defects but didn’t take appropriate action. And if they find that evidence? Oh boy.”

Suddenly, it’s getting hot in here.

Many companies have faced recalls – I distinctly remember Johnson & Johnson’s recall of its Tylenol product  as I worked for The Southland Corporation (parent company of  7-ELEVEN food stores) at the time and in the absence of our area manager had to tell our franchise owners to remove the analgesic from the shelves.  Bad situation.  Good decision.

But the product recall itself is not the entire issue; the more important issue is how the company deals with the recall. 

Which really is trust, isn’t it  – customer trust in whether or not it is safe to purchase the company’s products, and employee trust in whether or not leadership is upfront in walking the talk.

J&J’s doing a great job.  Toyota’s not.

The president of Toyota’s Georgetown, KY plant says company workers are taking the series of recalls personally.

Of course they are.

It seems that Toyota built its reputation on excellence, reliability, customer service and value.  But the company values listed on its website say:  “We believe…in hard work…that good neighbors make good company and vice versa…that the world is getting bigger, but resources aren’t…in the value of diversity – it’s what makes life interesting.”

I don’t about you, but I don’t take away anything about integrity and trust from those values.  Maybe they are implied, but if company leadership refuses to accept responsibility for its mistakes and doesn’t even acknowledge that trust and integrity are important components of doing business, then what can employees believe in?

Now, I’m not saying that if it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist.  But we do know that mutual trust is a critical factor in the employer-employee relationship.  If trust exists, employees have a pretty good idea of what company life they can expect and how the company will behave.  When that trust has been breached, as it has been with Toyota, that relationship changes dramatically.

Or maybe the relationship really wasn’t there to begin with.

The best way to maintain trust is to keep from breaking it in the first place.  Leadership integrity, as demonstrated by behavior, is crucial.  That’s Leadership 101.

So, it really is not just Toyota’s products that need to be recalled; I think it’s also time to recall its leadership.

The Eroded Trust of Toyota is a post from: The HR Whisperer

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned.  It has been 20 days since my last blog.  Boy, time flies doesn’t it.  Between consulting, teaching, volunteering, a husband, two active teenagers, three cats, a dog and a rat (and not necessarily that order of importance!), I’m constantly looking for time to get creative and write for the blog.  Yes, I’m one of those girls who multitasks like crazy and also the one on the crackberry while driving. (Maybe in the interest of safety, I shouldn’t confess to that!).  Anyway, I LIKE being busy and do consider myself organized in spite of all the chaos.  But, pondering this dilemma got me thinking about the concept of time management and what that truly means today in the world of work and people.  Behaviorally speaking, if someone has problems organizing his or her time, just what obligation, if any, does the employer have in fixing that?

None.  I don’t think employers have any obligation in fixing how a person spends their time – the only influence they have and should have is in those 8-12 hours a day that the person is at work.  And even then, the amount of control should depend on the job function.  Employers can expect and measure results, though, which is completely different from expecting and measuring activities.  But to get results, you have to manage time well.  And of course, some do it better than others.

We can’t deny the importance of really good time management, especially today in the crunch of work and life and the messy blending of the two.  Researcher that I am, I took to the web to find out what others have to say about time management.  Came up with an oldie, but goodie – The book, First Things First by Stephen Covey (1994) .  Covey is an old fav of mine, back from the early 90s when he came to the forefront for his management thinking.  Written with Roger and Rebecca Merrill, Covey’s First Things First offers a time management approach that helps a person to focus on priorities or the “first things first.”  Suffice to say, this comes from one of Covey’s more inspirational books, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  [Quick aside – my alma mater AT&T was one of the pilot companies for Covey’s training on the Seven Habits; I got my golden egg, but never made it to the golden goose.  If you got the goose, please let me know – I want to hear about it!]

Covey talks about the four generations of time management:  task lists; personal organizers; goal setting and prioritization and finally, values clarification.

The first generation focuses on using notes and checklists that serve as reminders.  I find that people who are highly task- and quality-focused like to do this.  As things get done, they get checked off.  I confess, there is some sort of emotional satisfaction about checking something off the to-do list.

The second generation uses planning calendars and appointment books, a.k.a. MS Outlook, Blackberries, iPhones, Palms, etc.  Electronics now take the place of paper and pencil calendars.  Lord knows what I’d do without my Blackberry.  Still know people who like to buy paper calendars though and write on ‘em.  Like me – if I don’t get my annual Yorkie calendar in my Christmas stocking, things get ugly!

The third generation of folks take TM to the next level by scheduling and prioritizing goals.  These individuals identify the stuff they need to do first and arrange their activities around getting those things done.  That’s me – on a good day.

The gods and goddesses of all generations, the fourth generation people are the ones with the line of sight.  They understand the difference between something urgent and something important.  They are the ones who can and will make decisions based on their moral compass and so don’t forget about the things that are important in their lives.  Like family, friends, and down time.  I like to think that this is me most of the time.

Covey asserts that people have a need “to live, to love, to learn and to leave a legacy.”  If a person can move beyond “urgency addiction” into “quadrant two” management, then he or she can begin to prioritize work for achieving both short and long-term goals, while still maintaining a holistic life balance.

So what can you do to help your time management?  Focus on what YOU believe is important.   Plan the work and work the plan.  The 80:20 rule argues that 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results. The other 80% are achieved with only 20% of the effort.  Good things come to those who sweat.

Managing time well does take a sustained effort.  Look at the roles you play in life – which are the most important?  Which are the ones that you can put to the side now and then? 

Think about what you must do to ensure you play each of your chosen roles well.  Can you distinguish between urgent and not urgent?  The answers all of these questions will help you focus your energy on the things that matter.  My chosen roles are family woman, HR pro, volunteer and blogger; in that order.

And that’s why I only write when I have something to say.

Time to Make the Donuts is a post from: The HR Whisperer

Living in Florida has really gotten me accustomed to thunderstorms. I was driving in the car with my husband the other day and we were looking at these gorgeous fluffy clouds that were stacking up on top of each other. My husband, the wonderful scientist that he is, put on his meteorologist’s cap and educated me on the concept of convergence.

CAUTION: THUNDERSTORMS AHEAD!

The University of Illinois defines convergence as “an atmospheric condition that exists when there is a horizontal net inflow of air into a region. When air converges along the earth’s surface, it is forced to rise since it cannot go downward.” This happens a lot in Florida. Since the state is a peninsula, it gets battered with moist cool air coming in from the Atlantic and the Gulf coasts. When that air interacts with the heated land mass it forms those beautiful stacks of clouds called cumulonimbus. If the convergence is strong enough, which it is during the summer months in Florida, those cumulonimbus clouds often end up turning into thunderstorms.

Of course this discussion on convergence got me thinking once again about human behavior. What if a team has people with both “hot and cold air,” who are converging at a rate that makes them clash, causing massive thunderstorms?

Now, when we talk about convergence in an organizational teaming sense, it means that the group has come together to complete a task in which the impact that each person has on the task and on the team is profound. We could also define this as synergy – when the outputs are more than the sum. Bruce Tuckman is probably most famous for his “form, storm, norm, perform” model, in which he illustrates the development of teams. He says that when teams are in the storming stage of development they are not yet a team as they are internally focused or driven by personal agendas. It is when the group moves into the “norm” stage, where social and other rules have been established, that the group transforms into a team. At this point things do become very powerful and electric – and this spark of energy is just what the organization needs.

But what if this convergence is more like Florida’s thunderstorms rather than a Fourth of July celebration?

Here are some things you can do to help move your group from storming to norming:

• Educate the team on the concept of social/emotional intelligence; that while they cannot control what other people do or say, they can control how they respond. When we are aware of how our emotions control our responses and how our responses control our behavior and ultimately our success, we are more apt to modify our behavior to be more effective. It’s the concept of calm, assertive energy.
• Make sure there is a team mission that clearly identifies what the team is to do and how it will go about doing it. A good team mission will provide clarity, delineate a reason for being in existence and align members around a common goal. Once the mission is in place, you can start dealing with the issues of trust and integrity to help develop and strengthen the teaming relationship.
• Make sure that everyone on the team has an individual role to play. People want to be a part of something bigger, but they also want accountability. When they know what individual success means, they will be more apt to exert the effort to contribute to the team goal as well.
• Develop some team ground rules or a working agreement. If everyone agrees on a certain way of behaving, individuals are more apt to adhere to those roles since they had a part in making them.
• Serve as a coach, no matter what role you play in the team. Most often the coach role is reserved for the team leader or facilitator, but I personally feel that when we all have accountability for building the team, we can build that trust through our demonstration of compassion and empathy for other team members. It takes patience and courage, but you can help move the team from storming to performing through the consistency of your behavior.
• Don’t let the conflict stay in the clouds. Help the team leader or facilitator draw out and resolve differences before they get to critical mass. Conflict in teams is normal; it’ how you deal with it that is important. Not acknowledging conflict just makes things worse.

Remember, in a team sense, thunderstorms can be a good thing.

It’s Not Nice to Fool with Mother Nature is a post from: The HR Whisperer

You know, as the HR Whisperer, I’m really enamored with the whole idea of creating top performing organizations through positive behavior change. One of my favorite mentors, Cesar Millan, says, “A dog that doesn’t trust its human to be a good pack leader becomes unbalanced and often exhibits unwanted or antisocial behaviors.” It struck me that the same is true for people in organizations. We need to have strong leadership because in many cases our very business survival depends on a stable, organized and motivated team. Business survival instinct is perhaps one of our greatest natural motivators in the workplace and if a person is not guided well, it can not only result in unwanted behavior but total chaos in the long run.

So, I’m digging this concept and working it through in my brain as to how this relates to human capital and wouldn’t you know, I web-stumbled across an article recently published by Harvard Business Review (September 2008). Written by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis, “Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership” discusses new studies of the brain that show that business leaders can improve team performance by understanding not the psychology, but the biology of social intelligence. How cool. It struck me that scientists have discovered a biological underpinning to what makes a good leader great, which could toss more fuel on the fire in the “leaders are born, not made” camp. (Which I don’t subscribe to, by the way. I believe that anyone, given time and effort can change their behavior – even interpersonally. That’s why I’m in the business I’m in. Oh, I feel another blog topic coming on! <huge grin>)

More on the biology of leadership from Harvard Business Review:

“The salient discovery is that certain things leaders do—specifically, exhibit empathy and become attuned to others’ moods—literally affect both their own brain chemistry and that of their followers. Indeed, researchers have found that the leader-follower dynamic is not a case of two (or more) independent brains reacting consciously or unconsciously to each other. Rather, the individual minds become, in a sense, fused into a single system. We believe that great leaders are those whose behavior powerfully leverages the system of brain interconnectedness…If we are correct, it follows that a potent way of becoming a better leader is to find authentic contexts in which to learn the kinds of social behavior that reinforce the brain’s social circuitry. Leading effectively is, in other words, less about mastering situations—or even mastering social skill sets—than about developing a genuine interest in and talent for fostering positive feelings in the people whose cooperation and support you need.”

Wow. The idea that leaders need good interpersonal as well as functional skills has certainly been around for quite some time. As a matter of fact, Goleman coined the phrase, “social intelligence” to discuss this very thing. But what he and Boyatzis are talking about here is different – they’re saying that we have these things in our brains called mirror neurons that mimic what another person does. As social beings, when we “consciously or unconsciously detect someone else’s emotions through their actions, our brain’s mirror neurons reproduce those emotions and allow us to instantly share that experience.” Ever notice when two people are deep in discussion they tend to hold their arms the same way or cross their legs at the same time? That’s the mirror neurons in action.

 So, how can leaders take advantage of this brain interconnectedness? If it stands to reason that followers will create a social connection with their leader, it also stands to reason that they will emotionally feel whatever it is the leader is feeling and behave accordingly. If leaders are emotionless, don’t smile or otherwise engage their followers, they will not activate the mirror neutrons in a positive way, leading to distressed and nonperforming followers, and thus the potential for business chaos. Body language plays a great part also. If a leader’s body language doesn’t jibe with what is being said, the follower will go with the body language. Bodies don’t tell lies, mouths do.

 The bottom line is that when people feel good about what they are doing, when they have a social connection with their leaders, when they feel part of something that is bigger than them, those mirror neurons come in handy. Reinforce the brain’s social circuitry — if you want to motivate those around you, create a positive atmosphere. If you want higher performance or enhanced creativity, be in a good mood and show you care.

If you truly want the best from your followers, kick those mirror neutrons into high gear and create an environment where sincere respect, fun, laughter and performance are a serious part of your business operations.

Social Intelligence and the Biology of the Pack Leader is a post from: The HR Whisperer