When will the Artists take over from the Technicians?

Two ideas to consider...

  1. Focusing on the 'unstructured, intangible and typically unmeasured' will lead to the greatest increase in profits and problem solving over the coming years.
  2. Benefiting from working on the 'unstructured' will only be fully realised when it is possible to see this in the context of new technologies, processes and practices. In other words, the emergence of a new paradigm or theoretical approach.

'Unstructured, Intangible and Typically Unmeasured'

Gartner and others have suggested that

as much as 60% of an organization’s processes are unstructured – and probably also unmonitored, unmanaged, unknown and unruly

In a similar vein, John Hagel of Deloitte writes that

In a rapidly changing world, the knowledge that matters the most is tacit knowledge... Accessing this kind of knowledge requires long-term trust based relationships and a deep understanding of context

The CIPD then offers us the following

The intangible value of an organisation which lies in the people it employs is gaining recognition by accountants and investors, and it is generally now accepted that this has implications for long term sustained performance

There are of course many more examples, one of the most recent being the contrast between Israeli and US airport security. The Israeli's focus on intangible, human factors, having established successful processes, while the US still focus on the tangible, to the detriment of the more subtle¹.

If only 40% of processes within organisations have been mapped, or are formal enough to commit to ERP programs, for example, that leaves the majority of an organisation's activity which might be better tackled from a different perspective.

New Technologies, Processes and Practices

The obvious candidate to fulfil the brave new world of intangibles is Enterprise 2.0 and its collection of internet technologies. While the potential exists for E2.0 to be open, democratic, disruptive and transformative, the jury is still very much out on this.

By way of contrast, perhaps Gary Hamel best sums up the status quo. Quoting research from Towers Perrin on engagement, he writes

barely one-fifth (21%) of employees are truly engaged in their work, in the sense that they would “go the extra mile” for their employer. Nearly four out of ten (38%) are mostly or entirely disengaged, while the rest are in the tepid middle. There’s no way to sugarcoat it—this data represents a stinging indictment of the legacy management practices found in most companies

Interestingly, Gary's recommendations aren't a million miles away from other recent suggestions on the subject

We’ve got to get management’s dirty little secret out of the HR closet and into the boardroom. And second, if we’re going to improve engagement, we have to start by admitting that the real problem isn’t irksome, monotonous work, but stony-hearted, spirit-deflating managers

These thoughts reminded me of a point made by Rick where he writes

That the HR function needs to become more strategic is a mantra I first heard over twenty years ago when I started working in HR...

Just because senior executives are starting to see the importance of managing human resources it doesn’t mean that they will give Human Resource managers a seat at the top table. It might even be that the HR function never becomes strategic at all and that HR professionals are relegated to a support role while someone else does all the interesting stuff

I think Mark and Seth's points light the way ahead, but I wonder how long it will be before people management benefits from something as exciting as 'artists taking over from the technicians'...

Footnote

1. Finding spending comparisons between Israel and the US is easier said than done.

Posted in Culture, General, Intangibles, Strategy, Technology | 2 Comments

Opportunities for HR and People Management in 2010 and beyond…

Looking at 2010 and beyond, HR and people management activities will only increase their value, recognition and influence through the application of new technologies or methodologies.

The first factor which determines the success of this is the ability of something to enhance the economic contribution of people management activities.

The second factor is the ability of the new approach to change people's day to day activities for the better.

Put another way, the acid test of any new method or technology is its ability to convey a sense of intuitive value within minutes, deliver something meaningful in a few hours and ensure that these benefits are sustained over the quarters and years.

What History Teaches Us

Looking back over history, there are many examples of new technologies and methodologies which both increased value and changed processes.

  • Henry Ford's Production Line
  • Containerisation and Transportation
  • Just in Time Manufacturing and Supply Chains
  • Derivatives and Securitisation
  • Enterprise Resource Planning
  • Personal Computers
  • Six Sigma
  • The Internet
  • Mobile Phones

In the main, all of the above have enhanced the economics of the organisations who have employed them. Likewise, they have been significant enough to change the operations of a function or organisation and potentially create a strategy that a CEO can take to shareholders.

It is also worth noting that despite the relative age of the examples above, all are still all very much in use today.

Creating a Context

Naturally at this time of year, there is no shortage of conversations with thoughts for the coming year, along with reviews of both 2009 and the decade that has just passed.

Researching the HR Profession of the Future

Perhaps the most significant contribution to the conversation came from the CIPD and Jackie Orme's speech in November.

That link between culture, leadership and sustainable performance is exactly the focus of our Next Generation HR research... In particular, the need to deliver both short- and long-term results in a way that protects the future. We’ve got an impressive and varied array of organisations taking part in the research. Some are on the stage this afternoon. But they’re all helping us to identify the beginnings of the big shifts that will help define the HR profession of the future.

While these ideas have merit and the research is aways going to increase relaibility, I think the real opportunity lies elsewhere. Likewise, a small survey by Jon Ingham suggests that there are other things to take into account including Social Business and HR 2.0, amonst others.

HR and Technology

What is missing from this is a focus on new technologies or methodologies which impact both the economics and processes of an organisation who adopts them.

There has been a lot of talk around social media and HR. The implications being seen as potentially very positive and transformative. While social media and Enterprise 2.0 is potentially highly disruptive, its very nature suggests that it alone won't re-cast people management or the perceived value it offers. For me, it is a case of 'watch this space'.

Laurie, Michael and Dennis all get this and Steve examines things through the broader lense of ROI (we need more powerful equipment - did someone just turn on the LHC?).

JP then chimes in with an idea that combines the technological (platforms) with the intrisicly human (trust).

Stewardship, my word for 2010, is based on platforms. Those platforms need to be underpinned by trust. Not the trust of physics but the trust of biology. Because that is how value is going to be generated.

Now that's more like it...

Happy New Year!

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McKinsey interview with MIT researcher Andrew McAfee

McKinsey have a video interview with MIT researcher and Mr. Enterprise 2.0, Andrew McAfee.

The two highlights from a HR perspective are below.

  1. 9.08 - A brief mention of the possibility of Enterprise 2.0 increasing levels of human capital
  2. 3.15 - The idea that Enterprise 2.0 tools help increase the effectiveness of human-centric managers

Embedding the video didn't seem to work, but the full interview can be watched here.

Posted in Leadership, Technology, Intangibles | Leave a comment

Re-Writing the operating system for HR

Karl wrote recently on 'Re-Writing the operating system for business' and the impact that technology and the internet is having on business models and entire organisations.

Reading the post, I was struck how much of what is said could apply equally to HR as much as it could businesses as a whole and with this in mind, here are some of my own re-writes from Karl's piece (my changes are in bold!).

The web and social media is going to empower and change EVERY ASPECT of HR

The way human beings are motivated to connect and create value has changed (no re-write on this one!)

HR has to realize that it is a co-creative eco-system that includes employees, partners, competitors and customers and the way people are motivated to create and realize value is the only measure of success

It’s important to mention how HR needs to change as it is one of the greatest impediments to change for a corporation as it is where the culture of value creation is created

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Our current approaches to doing business are fundamentally broken

It hard to both argue with and do justice to John Hagel's work on the Shift Index and his finding that returns on assets in US public companies have been falling since 1965.

Extracts follow and the full pdf is online here. From a HR point of view however, the takeaway seems to be twofold;

  • New technologies and organisational designs lead to improved performance
  • Collaboration curves may make it possible to enable larger numbers of people to create greater levels of value, increasing returns to scale in the process

From John's blog;

The real challenge is to figure out how firms, caught in a pincer move between more powerful customers and talent, can create more economic value and improve their own profitability.

Given the profound performance deterioration that firms have experienced over decades, it is time to step back and reassess our most fundamental assumptions about what is required to be successful in business. If we have any hope of turning this longer-term trend around, we must be prepared to challenge our current approaches to business.

In particular, we believe that the two foundational catalysts driving intensified competition – digital infrastructures and public policy shifts favoring economic liberalization- also create the conditions for dramatic performance improvement.

We believe that for the first time, given a combination of new digital infrastructures and new institutional architectures, it may be possible to turn the experience curve on its side and for the first time generate performance curves with increasing returns – the more participants, the more rapidly performance improves. We use the term collaboration curves to describe this new opportunity.

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Leadership, Intangibles and Talent Review Q3 2009

Welcome to 2009’s third quarterly review, as with previous issues, engagement continues to be at the forefront of people’s thoughts. Behind the engagement debate however there seems to be a growing call for a wider reappraisal of the fundamental way corporations are organised and for me personally, this is the most interesting aspect of this quarter’s articles. Other themes include;

Articles are included from the likes of Harvard Business School, Henry Mintzberg, HR Magazine, McKinsey, the McLeod Review, the Partnership Institute, Personnel Today, Strategy + Business and TED.

Leadership, Intangibles & Talent Q3 2009 - Four Groups.pdf

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Posted in Intangibles, Leadership, Psychology, Strategy, Articles & Research, Culture, General | 4 Comments

Leadership, Intangibles and Talent Review Q2 2009

Welcome to 2009's second quarter roundup of all that's going on in the fields of talent management, innovation and leadership. Articles are included from the likes of the American Society for Training & Development, Aviva, Deloitte, Institute of Employment Studies, Professor David Guest, Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt.

Summary for Q2 2009

Reading through this quarter's articles, there were plenty of pieces rehashing practical tips on how to deal with the recession. However, there are a number of interesting ideas and themes lurking beneath the surface.

Comments and feedback are of course welcome.

Leadership, Intangibles & Talent Q2 2009 - Four Groups.pdf

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Posted in Culture, Intangibles, Leadership, Strategy, Articles & Research | 3 Comments

Leadership, Intangibles and Talent Review Q1 2009

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Albert Einstein

Welcome to the second quarterly roundup of the latest thinking and developments around leadership, HR, innovation, talent management and organisational development. I have tried to pick out the most interesting or thought provoking of the high volume of articles, surveys, blogs and webcasts. In this issue, articles and examples have been included from the likes of Capital One, CFO.com, Cisco, McKinsey, Microsoft, Harvard Business School and Towers Perrin.

Summary for Q1 2009

Unsurprisingly, the financial crisis is still uppermost in people's minds and new ideas and insights are slowly emerging, interestingly not always from organisations which one would term the "HR establishment". Over and above this, other themes for this quarter include;

As always any comments and feedback are welcome!

Leadership, Intangibles & Talent Q1 2009 - Four Groups.pdf

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Posted in Intangibles, Leadership, Strategy, Articles & Research | 5 Comments

Are People Truly Predictable?

We were recently featured in a piece on the HR Matters site. We spoke about our work with 4G and how it can aid understanding and problem solving efforts. Here's a quick introduction.

We discussed the idea that people-based issues can be managed in a systematic and structured manner, something that Bruce is firmly in support of. 4G represents a proprietary approach developed by his company to understand and predict intangible aspects of people's personality, interaction and values. However, our conversation was not so much about 4G itself but about taking a holistic approach and the how's and why's of it.

The full piece can be found here and our thanks go out to Rowena Morais and Isabella Chan for bearing with us!

Posted in 4G, General, Articles & Research | 3 Comments

HR Executive Article – Boom or Bust for HR?

Anne Freedman at HR Executive very kindly published our "Boom or Bust for HR?" article back in January. Thanks Anne!

The introduction is below.

Is 2009 the year the HR function finally enters its ascendancy as organizations place greater emphasis on talent management and putting strategic HR activities at the heart of the business? Or is HR destined to remain a transaction-based cost center as leaders still struggle to rise to the challenge?

If you'd like to read the full version, it can be found here.

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