Talentism

Strategic Response - Steve Levy

I have heard people talk about Steven Levy for years. Reading his blog (The Recruiting Edge) is a must for both information, insight and great “fiction.” Whether it was the outrageous costumes or the piercing insights, Steve is a the recruiting industry’s answer to Tom Peters. So I was surprised and pleased when he started commenting on the Strategic HR posts. His comments are fantastic, but I was especially intrigued with this one:

Strategic Response - Nancy Gray-Starkebaum

Today’s strategic response finds me totally off in left field. I have to apologize to my readers for this exploration, but it is not often that I get to talk about the second law of thermodynamics, military strategy and Burt's ex in the same post. So I decided to just go into the proverbial void and see where it leads.

Strategic Step 3 - Draw the Lines

Go to a white board or take a blank piece of paper. Draw a line vertically from top to bottom. Put arrow tips at each end of the line. On the left-had side of that line, at the top, write three words: “Maximum Sustainable Advantage.” On the bottom of the vertical line (board / page), write the words “No Requirement, No Advantage”. In between those two phrases write the words: “Required, No Advantage.”

On a separate board or piece of paper, write down all the things that your department does. Payroll, OD, T&D, etc. Get as detailed as you can given the time you have. Include everything that others do for you (other departments, HROs, vendors, etc.) Your list should include everything that your department is responsible for or oversees, and it should be as complete as possible.

Strategic Response - Andrew Marritt

Third in my series of an ongoing attempt to respond to the wonderful comments that are being offered on the “Strategic HR” series.

Andrew Marritt is a bright light in the chaos of the blogosphere. His biography describes him as an economist by training, which is a rare starting point for a career in the qualitative world of HR. I started reading his blog (Resourcing Strategies) before I started writing my own, and often have felt that the clarity of his thinking and force of his arguments would be a high standard to meet indeed. Andrew works for a big company (another situation where I could tell you more, but then he would have to kill you and me both). He works in the recruigting department there, and therefore has an inside scoop on the realities of trying to make HR a strategic corporate asset.

Andrew and I have always had a cordial correspondence, but in his comments to my post It's Not About the Plan Andrew really let me have it. I can’t tell you how excited I was to get his comment. Andrew is absolutely spot-on to question whether I know what the hell I am talking about. I tried to clarify some of what I am trying to accomplish here , but his detailed comments deserve specific treatment.

Strategic Response - Regina Miller

Second in my series of an ongoing attempt to respond to the wonderful comments that are being offered on the “Strategic HR” series.

Regina Miller is the CEO of The Seventh Suite, a strategic HR consultancy. I found Regina’s blog by following the links from the Recruiting.com blogroll. I have since grown into a fan of Regina’s insights and wisdom. Reading her bio reminds me that there are business people out there that get into HR because they believe it is the best place to get strategic leverage in and for an organization.

Regina wrote:

My take is that the best way for HR to be strategic is to get focused on how to deploy the company strategy so everyone understands it and has what is necessary to get it done.

I love this perspective Regina. I think it is a winner. There are some organizations (like Royal Dutch Shell) that have more formalized strategy communication processes, but most organizations have no way to communicate what the corporate strategy means to a department and individual contributor. I think that HR frequently believes that the line manager will handle this task. I think line managers believe executives will handle this task. And I think executives believe that strategy should be obvious, since they have been working on it directly. But at the macro level, there is a generally a huge chasm between the strategy and the translation of that strategy into tactics that achieve results that achieve the strategy.

HR must never assume that line managers have that translation ability. Since this translation capability is a critical competency in all organizations, HR should either help hire line management who have that capability, or (more likely) be the translators themselves. This is a role that most HR generalists are not equipped to undertake. It might have to come out of the University or Learning side of the HR house.

Thanks for the comment Regina. And keep up the great work on your blog!

An Actual Conversation with "Bob"

It is 1999, the heart of the Internet bubble. I am CEO of a software and services company. We make advanced technologies to create killer HR apps. We are growing rapidly and just got a big chunk of funding. Our business is changing fast and we need to react. Both the threats and the opportunities are people-centric, so I hire a new director of HR. Bob (obviously not his real name) comes highly recommended and had many other offers. I feel lucky to get him. I give him a couple of months to settle in. Then we have “The Conversation.”

Strategic Response - Colin Kingsbury

Colin Kingsbury over at HRM Direct left the following comment at the post Strategic Step 1 – 3 Questions. It was such a good one that I decided to publish it in its entirety (as I will be on many of the other comments). You can read more of Colin’s writing on his blog. Colin works at HRM Direct. I can’t claim to know a lot about them, but I am very much looking forward to learning more. Colin is giving to the network before he expects anything in return, a concept I wholeheartedly endorse.

Strategic Response (Dubs)

Wow! What a great response to the Strategic HR discussion. I started writing these responses a couple of days ago, and for every response I wrote four more good comments came through. I am going to try to get to all of them, but it may be sporadic and take some time. It won’t be in any particular order.

I believe this is one of the most important discussions that we can be having. It doesn’t matter whether you worry about the human, business or social cost of bad business practices… HR’s failure to be a strategic asset to an organization is costing all of us a lot. But there are so many intelligent and thoughtful people commenting on my site that I thought I was just in the dark. Maybe HR is really in great shape and I just don’t know about it. I have been working with HR organizations for a long time, but maybe I just missed it.

The Prophet (Not Profit) Guys

I spent a fascinating couple of hours yesterday with two innovators in the Talentism space (they may not describe the space that way, but I would): John and Steve Chaisson. They are the founders of Prophet Group, an organization that has the opportunity and the talent to really impact our industry and help HR along the strategic path.

Strategic Step 2 – Map the Inside

One might suppose that the first step to getting strategic is to be a hard-nosed friend of finance. One might be inclined to identify how one is going to get rid of all the tactical baloney that leads everyone to believe that HR is a cost-center run amok. But one would be wrong. Don’t start on the road to getting strategic by addressing ways to reduce cost. This will only reinforce that HR is a cost center, not a profit center. Think of it like a battle. Go to where your enemy (corporate perception) isn’t.