HR to HR 2.0 and Human Capital (HCM)

Ah Nick, you do have a habit of getting into fight...

2009-11-09T21:15:13.067Z

Ah Nick, you do have a habit of getting into fights with people, don't you!

Hi Jon The IES/CAA 'framework' you refer to is st...

2009-11-09T17:10:40.282Z

Hi Jon

The IES/CAA 'framework' you refer to is still subject to legal investigation by ourselves regarding copying of our intellectual capital. IES and CAA are aware and I'm surprised that they've published in strategic HR Review.

It is one of our simpler frameworks that has been in the public domain since 2003 but its original 3D model and approach is far more sophisticated than is being(mis)reported.

NJH
CEO VaLUENTiS

Thanks both, I look forward to meeting both of you...

2009-11-09T14:22:05.337Z

Thanks both, I look forward to meeting both of you at the tweet-ups, if not before.

Thanks once again Yuvarajah. Jon.

2009-11-09T14:19:33.741Z

Thanks once again Yuvarajah.

Jon.

For HRzone.co.uk I'll be(fingers crossed, so long ...

2009-11-09T12:54:58.757Z

For HRzone.co.uk I'll be(fingers crossed, so long at the tech holds out) live blogging and certainly tweeting from the conference and hopefully twitpiccing too. We're also holding an unofficial tweet up for readers during the afternoon coffee break at 15.45 on Wednesday 18 (all welcome, meet at the members area and I will provide coffee). I'll be at the official tweet-up later on too!

Hi great blog and interesting piece. Last year I ...

2009-11-09T08:34:05.435Z

Hi
great blog and interesting piece.

Last year I 'unofficially' blogged ( http://cipd2008.blogspot.com/ ) and will be doing the same this year - although with more of a twitter bias.

I'm aiming to be at the tweetup so would be great to catchup.

The CIPD are getting in to social media (blogs & micro-blogs) but so far seem to have limited messages to that of communication and not embraced the technology for helping people not at the event to learn. I hope we will see a shift in approach from triviality to added value soon.

Mike Morrison
@rapidbi
Mike's HR & management blog

Well today is the day - the BBC has leaked the fin...

2009-10-28T16:47:17.867Z

Well today is the day - the BBC has leaked the findings from the Kelly inquiry into MPs expenses (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8330020.stm) - looks like the 'good times' are over, and not before time. This whole affair has been a disgrace.

Greetings Jon, Pierre Omidyar talks to the perso...

2009-10-23T02:06:24.230+01:00

Greetings Jon,

Pierre Omidyar talks to the person in the mailroom rather than the CEO.

Now, I wonder why?.

Another great place to listen to innovative ideas is the Water-cooler. Grapevines generate some of the best solutions to complex issues, particularly connected to organisational culture, including how to garner top management support for innovation.

I seriously think HR should be realistic with what they can do and what is beyond their capacity. There is too much hype about HR's role in transforming cultural constraints. First of all, we must get rid of the notion of "DRIVING" things without blessing from the top. If you think you can cause a tsunami from a ripple you are in for a suprise. Tryng to bulldoze innovation or any program of change without the need, will and want of top leadership is destined for failure. If the CEO and his roundtable support are not into Creativity and Innovation advocacy, there is little hope for HR to succeed, even in experimenting. You may burn yourself and I speak from experience.

Why speak of Innovation as if it's a one-off thing. Innovation and Creativity is all about free-flow and wheeling of ideas. It ought to be a way of life - culture at the workplace encourage and part-cipated by everyone and let by the top. Get this in order and you are there.

Innovation requires courage to give in to change. There must be a conviction to shift the mindsets across to enculture it, just like buying into TQM. Extrinsic forces like customer needs and competition, but the biggest challenge between the ears.

Yes, building the HC capasity for innovation should be a strategic leadership agenda if companies and societies are to survive. I just wished the new generational workforce can put the pressure in moving towards this.

I work with an HR executive networking company in ...

2009-10-15T17:33:59.820+01:00

I work with an HR executive networking company in Minneapolis. Social media is the number one topic of interest amongst our HR generalist audience. Most of our members have started to do some work in social recruiting.

Yep, just got to the 50 mark think!

2009-10-15T08:18:28.522+01:00

Yep, just got to the 50 mark think!

Wow! what a long carnival!. I think this week will...

2009-10-15T02:49:14.352+01:00

Wow! what a long carnival!. I think this week will be just reading ....reading ...reading...

Holy Crap, and to think I actually asked if you ha...

2009-10-15T00:06:43.764+01:00

Holy Crap, and to think I actually asked if you had enough contributions! :)

Great job explaining the real meaning of Social Le...

2009-10-14T09:57:46.449+01:00

Great job explaining the real meaning of Social Learning.

If learning does not benefit the complete group (Organization or team), it is not a Social Learning, whatever media it uses.

Right now we are probably in stage 1 of Social Learning where individuals are learning using Social Media.

Social Learning 2.0 is yet to happen.

Many thanks for the feature, Jon! Your kind words ...

2009-09-30T19:38:22.131+01:00

Many thanks for the feature, Jon! Your kind words are appreciated.

Travis, you make some good points, and I particula...

2009-09-28T10:18:30.017+01:00

Travis, you make some good points, and I particularly note your challenge on increasing complexity - which is certainly true.

I wouldn't want Netflix to lose their mojo - so I withdraw the point. I'll agree with you and them, they should keep it simple and keep comp focused on high base pay.

(There are some good tips on doing this in a World at Work book, High Performance Pay).

Hi Jon: Thanks for posting about Dan Pink- we’re ...

2009-09-25T15:35:46.625+01:00

Hi Jon:

Thanks for posting about Dan Pink- we’re also inspired and motivated by his work and appreciate your interest in the man behind the groundbreaking bestseller, A WHOLE NEW MIND. I’m excited to let you know that December 29 marks the release of Pink’s latest book, DRIVE. I've pasted a quick synopsis, below, but please contact me at lydia.hirt@us.penguingroup.com if you'd be interested in an advance reading copy for review consideration!

Bursting with big ideas, DRIVE is the rare book that will change how you think and transform how you live.

Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people--at work, at school, at home. It's wrong. As Daniel H. Pink explains in his new and paradigm-shattering book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today's world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does--and how that affects every aspect of our lives. He demonstrates that while the old-fashioned carrot-and-stick approach worked successfully in the 20th century, it's precisely the wrong way to motivate people for today's challenges. In Drive, he reveals the three elements of true motivation:

*Autonomy- the desire to direct our own lives
*Mastery- the urge to get better and better at something that matters
*Purpose- the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

We hope Daniel Pink’s DRIVE will open your eyes and change the way you think in 2010!

Please visit www.danpink.com and www.riverheadbooks.com for additional details.

Best,
Lydia

I like how they define their values as the things ...

2009-09-25T02:14:11.595+01:00

I like how they define their values as the things they would see in an ideal employee or co-worker. I agree that it makes it easier to talk about and when employees do talk about - the values are then reinforced. values must be internalized, but its useless if its not externalized or lived out.

They might not be getting the most out of every employee without a performance-based incentive/pay, aside from the stock options. I think they want to stay away from this since it adds to the complexity - you have to keep track of metrics, setup weekly reviews, benchmarks etc...

On the other hand, I was thinking that the above-market pay combined with their comp. review serves as an incentive. Isn't incentive enough if a company pays you the most competitive salary in the market? Especially if you are aware that they would let go of employees who are not "superstars"?

Wow, there's a lot in here, Yuvarajah. I'm not ag...

2009-09-18T20:06:50.415+01:00

Wow, there's a lot in here, Yuvarajah.

I'm not against basic values (values that everyone / all organisations should share). Firms shouldn't offer / accept bribes. But they don't need a specific set of values, eg including being against bribery, to stop this. They need clear policies, sponsorship, training and monitoring.

It's this specific set of values, the organisational values that should sit over the basic values, and that apply to one particular employer vs all organisations, that I don't like.

And I don't like them because I don't think they work in a lot of cases (eg Enron's values of Integrity, Communication, Respect and Excellence) and because I don't think they're needed.

The ambivalence you're picking up is because I understand that an organisation may want to use values to express what it feels is important - as there aren't many other good words available for this. But I don't like the idea that existing (vs newly recruited) employees should be asked to accept a new set of values just because they're employed by a particular employer.

I think an employer can ask for and expect certain behaviours, a level of commitment etc, but it shouldn't expect particular beliefs, values etc (above those basic values I referred to above) - unless it's hiring people for them. These values 'belong' to the employee, not the organisation.

Of course, if the values are lived strongly enough, and are shown to be effective, then people may chose to take them on (this is what I did in the example I referred to). But I think this is something very different to the values being actively promoted. (In my example, the firm didn't have a set of values, but did a lot of other things to make it clear to everyone what the organisation was about).

So this is why I prefer the term mojo (which I picked for this usage myself - you won't find anyone else - apart from Marshall Goldsmith of course - using it in this context). And I don't use it to convey anything to do with 'magic' or 'mysticism' but something about 'centralism' and 'importance'.

Mojo is a bit broader than values, and a bit more strategic. I've got a couple of case studies coming up that should explain it better.

It's also a bit different to core competencies - it fits with organisational capability rather than these - see http://strategic-hcm.blogspot.com/2007/12/organisational-capabilty.html.

But yes, I think it is directly comparable to internal drive for an individual person. I think this is where Goldsmith is going to be coming from in his blog.

Tim Elkington had a big influence on me. I have ne...

2009-09-18T15:48:50.181+01:00

Tim Elkington had a big influence on me. I have never missed the new entries in his blog, and I like his way of thinking

I am indeed surprised, Jon. Hence, I went into t...

2009-09-18T03:59:34.226+01:00

I am indeed surprised, Jon.

Hence, I went into the link to understand where you were coming from.

Correct me if I am wrong. It seems like you are ambivalent on this. You do acknowledge in value led strategies (and do not mind "adjusting" your values if it's effective (or perceived to be so)in bringing results.

You said you'd rather believe in mojo rather than values. (Actually this word is new to me and does not even appear in my concise Oxford Dictionary that I have been carrying around for ages - time to upgrade!)

Frankly, I don't quite like magic and charm or charisma. It sounds more illusive and mystic.

My understanding of mojo(to some extend thankfully helped by your post on the subject)is that it comprises of the external focus - core competency -(as coined by Hammel& Prahalad) and internal drive - self actualisation" of employees"

As I see it, it is the value system that forms the core in driving both. We all acknowledge it is tough making values stick, but is that not what the challenge to leaders and followers - mankind per se - is?. Is it different in the world of business?. Why?.

I once had a Singaporean expatriate as head of Business tell me, "I will not accept a bribe but would not hesitate to close a deal". It has nothing to do with the country's value, but rather the organisational values imbued into the culture - Ethics is not important.

If an organisation does not believe in values like ethics, integrity and trust, then bribery and corrupt practices and behaviour will be rampant. Is that not how the world got burnt by the spiral of economic mess?.

Let me quote from a recent report,
============================
"Firms gave out RM140bil in bribes
Companies in developing countries have been giving bribes to corrupt politicians and government officials amounting to US$40bil (RM140bil) every year, says a report on global corruption. The Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector (GCR) conducted by Transparency International (TI), also revealed that half of international business executives polled estimated that corruption raised project costs by at least 10%.

Consumers around the world were overcharged about US$300bil (RM1.5tril) through almost 300 private international groups discovered from 1990 to 2005, the report added.
============================
Guess who is being ripped off - Consumers, people like you and me.

When it comes to driving values, I subscribe to "believe in seeing" - I still champion for a value based and driven society both profit and non profit organisations)who can think and shape their "self righteousness" mode of survival.

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing " - Edmund Burke

Hi Bay, Yes, and I think it was what Rowan Willia...

2009-09-17T01:33:06.183+01:00

Hi Bay,

Yes, and I think it was what Rowan Williams was talking about yesterday when he mentioned the whole fundamental principle on which bankers work being unreal and empty...

Jon Another interesting post and timely too. I wo...

2009-09-16T17:37:36.845+01:00

Jon

Another interesting post and timely too. I would be most interested in what your research turns out, because it is an issue that I was thinking about too. Only I was coming at it from the perspective of how many of the great companies were built up from a basis of strong values.

It cannot be coincidence that many of the first of the great 'global' names were founded by Quakers - think IBM, Kelloggs, Cadbury, to name just 3. And it is when values go out the window that you get the kind of shameful situations like Lehman Brothers, the first anniversary of whose demise was 'celebrated' just yesterday.

Hi Jo. Yes, I think the need for narratives / sto...

2009-09-15T10:59:52.445+01:00

Hi Jo. Yes, I think the need for narratives / stories is why they've included the case studies.

But I'm not so sure I agree about the wooliness - after all Ulrich has spent the last 15? years developing the conceptual frameworks behind this book to ensure we do all understand them.

But perhaps people do need to read his previous texts after all.

Agreed - it's both strategy AND execution that cou...

2009-09-15T10:57:17.421+01:00

Agreed - it's both strategy AND execution that count.

I've just been reading SuccessFactors' report on Business Execution, which I've annotated furiously, so I think I'm going to be coming back to this one shortly.

Thanks to you you both. Alexander, yes, I've seen...

2009-09-15T10:55:23.172+01:00

Thanks to you you both.

Alexander, yes, I've seen the UK report (my post on it here: http://strategic-hcm.blogspot.com/2009/07/macleod-review.html) but not the US one, so thanks for the link to this.