Since 2003 I have experimented by writing blogs on several different topics. I ended up with 4 blogs oriented to my major interest areas. Last year it became clear that it is time to focus-but where to focus as giving up an interest can be difficult. It occured to me that my research and writing have led to looking at collaboration as an important area that is critical to Change, HR/OD/Leadership and Social Technologies. So, starting today, the only blog that I will continue to contribute to is my Leadership, Change and Social Technologies blog and the focus will be on how each of these areas are related. As we move into an increasingly Web 2.0 or "Social" world this focus seems the most appropriate way to bring years of learning together to continue the process and share information with others trying to make sense of it all.
I sincerely hope that my followers on this blog will join me there as I value your ideas, thoughts and opinions. My first post on that blog since the shift (February 07, 2011) can be found at the link below. I look forward to your comments!
http://leadershipchangeandlearning.blogspot.com/
Monday, February 7, 2011
Thursday, November 25, 2010
HR, OD and Training – Collaborative?
Holly MacDonald of Spark + Co. http://www.sparkandco.ca/home/, wrote a blog post http://sparkyourinterest.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/questions-im-no-longer-answering/ that inspired me to write this post.
Holly and I met for the first time over coffee last month, but had some awareness of each other because of our work in HR/OD and Training. We had a lively discussion about the various approaches to HR/OD and Training that we encounter when talking to managers about what those professions have to offer and when talking to employees that find themselves in ‘learning opportunities’ that are required by their management team. I also belong to several LinkedIn groups that are oriented to those professions and have encountered some members that post interesting articles and comments and some that make me wonder if we live on the same planet. Yes, this post is going to talk about my favorite HR, OD and Training competency-collaboration.
In one LinkedIn group the members tend to have discussions that use purely academic information and terminology that is specific to the OD profession but is rarely used in business. The discussions rarely even skirt the very real concept that business executives need to hear specifically and in the language of business how the theories will perform in their business. In other words, how will this affect our bottom line, how will this help us attract and retain the best employees, and how will this aid us in representing our business to the external world.
As Holly mentioned in her blog it is not unusual for managers to tell a Trainer or HR person that their staff or a staff member “needs training” in some area. If the HR, OD or Training Professional starts asking the right questions it often becomes apparent that it isn’t training that is required but something else entirely; or that training is required but it isn’t the training the manager thought was needed. Yet how many HR or Training professionals simply say-okay, and go ahead and organize whatever course the manager first suggested without ever investigating what is really going on? If our conversations with employees who find themselves in not so helpful courses are any indication it still happens more than it should.
Perhaps I have been more shocked by the negativity towards HR Professionals exhibited in some of the online forums on LinkedIn by people who describe themselves as OD Professionals. In my opinion, OD Professionals should be people oriented and that means respectful. Is the HR profession in need of upgrading, sure, and many of you who read my blog know what I think about that-but the vitriol expressed by some of the OD Professionals, often in language that few outside the profession would even understand or relate to, crosses a line. OD Professionals that use elitist terminology and denigrate people who don’t meet their idea of perfection are not, in my opinion professionals at all. One of the key competencies for HR, OD and Training professionals is collaboration and this must cross all cultural and organizational boundaries. From a business perspective, having HR, OD and Training professionals work together, collaboratively, makes sense. Maybe in 2011 we can start to work together and demonstrate respect through the way we treat each other.
Holly and I met for the first time over coffee last month, but had some awareness of each other because of our work in HR/OD and Training. We had a lively discussion about the various approaches to HR/OD and Training that we encounter when talking to managers about what those professions have to offer and when talking to employees that find themselves in ‘learning opportunities’ that are required by their management team. I also belong to several LinkedIn groups that are oriented to those professions and have encountered some members that post interesting articles and comments and some that make me wonder if we live on the same planet. Yes, this post is going to talk about my favorite HR, OD and Training competency-collaboration.
In one LinkedIn group the members tend to have discussions that use purely academic information and terminology that is specific to the OD profession but is rarely used in business. The discussions rarely even skirt the very real concept that business executives need to hear specifically and in the language of business how the theories will perform in their business. In other words, how will this affect our bottom line, how will this help us attract and retain the best employees, and how will this aid us in representing our business to the external world.
As Holly mentioned in her blog it is not unusual for managers to tell a Trainer or HR person that their staff or a staff member “needs training” in some area. If the HR, OD or Training Professional starts asking the right questions it often becomes apparent that it isn’t training that is required but something else entirely; or that training is required but it isn’t the training the manager thought was needed. Yet how many HR or Training professionals simply say-okay, and go ahead and organize whatever course the manager first suggested without ever investigating what is really going on? If our conversations with employees who find themselves in not so helpful courses are any indication it still happens more than it should.
Perhaps I have been more shocked by the negativity towards HR Professionals exhibited in some of the online forums on LinkedIn by people who describe themselves as OD Professionals. In my opinion, OD Professionals should be people oriented and that means respectful. Is the HR profession in need of upgrading, sure, and many of you who read my blog know what I think about that-but the vitriol expressed by some of the OD Professionals, often in language that few outside the profession would even understand or relate to, crosses a line. OD Professionals that use elitist terminology and denigrate people who don’t meet their idea of perfection are not, in my opinion professionals at all. One of the key competencies for HR, OD and Training professionals is collaboration and this must cross all cultural and organizational boundaries. From a business perspective, having HR, OD and Training professionals work together, collaboratively, makes sense. Maybe in 2011 we can start to work together and demonstrate respect through the way we treat each other.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Social Media-The Human Factor
Having read literally thousands of articles, blogs, opinions, comments, several books on Social Media and had many face to face conversations on the topic I recently began to think more in depth about the human factor in using Social Media in Organizations. This may seem like an obvious aspect to think about yet when I review everything so far one thing becomes clear, most of the information talks about how to use the tools, how to apply the tools to further your business, how one should think, behave, brand and represent yourself and your organization in the realm of Social Media networks. In other words like so many introductions to change, it is all about how, what and why you ‘should’ use Social Media but largely skims over personal preferences in how we interact with others and how we learn and teach.
Information that discusses Social Media purely from the human perspective is almost non-existent. So, what do I mean by the human perspective (factor)? Essentially it is the same perspective that often gets too little attention in any change in organizations, knowing how and why one should adopt the change is rarely the problem when people fail to do so. People don’t adopt some changes because despite being ‘told’ why they should, they are not able to see any real benefit in their day to day work life. Some bloggers have suggested that adoption of Social Media tools is a generational issue, but it isn’t, it is a preference issue which crosses all generational groups.
Perhaps the collaborative, relationship building aspect of Social Media use has created a new imperative for organizations to pay attention to the human perspective when adopting new technology. If the people in your organization do not see the real benefits of using the tools in successfully reaching their goals they are not going to use them. If the people in your organization do understand the potential for using the tools to share and gain knowledge regarding their jobs they might half-heartedly use them once in awhile, but they will choose the face-to-face option more often, because that is their personal preference. You can inundate people with the whys and musts of using Social Media, much like organizational leaders do with any change they introduce, but can you change their personal preferences?
The answer is likely, ‘to some degree’, you will not change personal preferences but you may be able to engage them in some useful adoption of Social Media if you offer opportunities and uses that provide an actual benefit that makes sense to them. Leaders in organizations can also maintain some important balance in the adoption of Social Media tools in the organization by listening to and employing the perspectives of those who prefer face to face interactions. Social Media means we have expanded our ability to build new relationships in new ways but it is important to maintain face to face interactions as these interactions remain a very valuable means of keeping strong communities going. Face to face interactions can also be more efficient – if you have ever found yourself engaged in an endless email string that could have been resolved in a short 5 minute face to face conversation you know what I mean.
What personal preferences affect your decisions as to whether you will enthusiastically embrace social media tools in your day to day work life, reluctantly and half-heartedly try it out because you keep hearing you ‘should’ or avoid it as much as possible? Does all the rhetoric about Social Media simply turn you off? Have you tried some tools and simply disliked the forum?
Information that discusses Social Media purely from the human perspective is almost non-existent. So, what do I mean by the human perspective (factor)? Essentially it is the same perspective that often gets too little attention in any change in organizations, knowing how and why one should adopt the change is rarely the problem when people fail to do so. People don’t adopt some changes because despite being ‘told’ why they should, they are not able to see any real benefit in their day to day work life. Some bloggers have suggested that adoption of Social Media tools is a generational issue, but it isn’t, it is a preference issue which crosses all generational groups.
Perhaps the collaborative, relationship building aspect of Social Media use has created a new imperative for organizations to pay attention to the human perspective when adopting new technology. If the people in your organization do not see the real benefits of using the tools in successfully reaching their goals they are not going to use them. If the people in your organization do understand the potential for using the tools to share and gain knowledge regarding their jobs they might half-heartedly use them once in awhile, but they will choose the face-to-face option more often, because that is their personal preference. You can inundate people with the whys and musts of using Social Media, much like organizational leaders do with any change they introduce, but can you change their personal preferences?
The answer is likely, ‘to some degree’, you will not change personal preferences but you may be able to engage them in some useful adoption of Social Media if you offer opportunities and uses that provide an actual benefit that makes sense to them. Leaders in organizations can also maintain some important balance in the adoption of Social Media tools in the organization by listening to and employing the perspectives of those who prefer face to face interactions. Social Media means we have expanded our ability to build new relationships in new ways but it is important to maintain face to face interactions as these interactions remain a very valuable means of keeping strong communities going. Face to face interactions can also be more efficient – if you have ever found yourself engaged in an endless email string that could have been resolved in a short 5 minute face to face conversation you know what I mean.
What personal preferences affect your decisions as to whether you will enthusiastically embrace social media tools in your day to day work life, reluctantly and half-heartedly try it out because you keep hearing you ‘should’ or avoid it as much as possible? Does all the rhetoric about Social Media simply turn you off? Have you tried some tools and simply disliked the forum?
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Social Media – HR and Training & Development
The decision to embrace the introduction of Social Media tools to an organization is best followed by some fairly standard business practices, deciding what goals and objectives are to be met by the use of the tools and developing governance protocols for the use of the tools.
When developing governance policies at some point the decision making will shift into two streams of consideration:
1) External use of the tools-marketing, branding, customer service and recruiting are the most common uses as well as awareness, community building and fundraising for not for profit organizations.
2) Internal use of the tools – inside the firewall-opening communication channels to improve expertise/knowledge sharing and disseminating information rapidly, training and development, increasing cross functional collaboration, reducing the need for traditional surveys, detecting and addressing rumours earlier.
Many organizations have introduced technology solutions to their training and development efforts in the past decade but the user interface is most likely user to technology rather than embracing the use of community interactions to improve the learning opportunities. One of the biggest complaints about traditional online learning, whether at an educational institute or within a corporation is that it reduces the opportunity to share experience and ideas with others in the learning community. The use of Social Media tools has now changed that concern simply because it simplifies and encourages such sharing and allows users to share across a broader knowledge base than ever before.
When looking at internal uses of Social Media it is easy to see that collaborating with marketing and customer service teams that have already entered the world of Social Media will bring valuable experience to the use internally. Interacting with the public at large provides insight to what to expect within the organization as to the behaviour, needs and wants of the end users of the tools.
What other potential uses do you see for the internal use of Social Media tools? What do you think the biggest challenges will be to introducing the tools? What is your current practice for developing governance policies for new technologies in the organization? Do you have union contracts that include clauses related to the introduction of new technologies? How does that affect your process?
When developing governance policies at some point the decision making will shift into two streams of consideration:
1) External use of the tools-marketing, branding, customer service and recruiting are the most common uses as well as awareness, community building and fundraising for not for profit organizations.
2) Internal use of the tools – inside the firewall-opening communication channels to improve expertise/knowledge sharing and disseminating information rapidly, training and development, increasing cross functional collaboration, reducing the need for traditional surveys, detecting and addressing rumours earlier.
Many organizations have introduced technology solutions to their training and development efforts in the past decade but the user interface is most likely user to technology rather than embracing the use of community interactions to improve the learning opportunities. One of the biggest complaints about traditional online learning, whether at an educational institute or within a corporation is that it reduces the opportunity to share experience and ideas with others in the learning community. The use of Social Media tools has now changed that concern simply because it simplifies and encourages such sharing and allows users to share across a broader knowledge base than ever before.
When looking at internal uses of Social Media it is easy to see that collaborating with marketing and customer service teams that have already entered the world of Social Media will bring valuable experience to the use internally. Interacting with the public at large provides insight to what to expect within the organization as to the behaviour, needs and wants of the end users of the tools.
What other potential uses do you see for the internal use of Social Media tools? What do you think the biggest challenges will be to introducing the tools? What is your current practice for developing governance policies for new technologies in the organization? Do you have union contracts that include clauses related to the introduction of new technologies? How does that affect your process?
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Social Media and HR
Ready or Not, It Is Here
Are you using Social Media for recruiting or are you thinking that you should be using it but feel overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information in cyberspace and being touted at various conferences and seminars? If you are somewhat tentatively using it for recruiting purposes or made some attempt to learn more, you are in good company and it is understandable if you have merely dipped your toe in the waters not quite sure what to do with it all.
Social Media is simply a series of tools that uses technology to build communities that share information, ask and answer questions, educate, collaborate, and connect. Why do we want to build internal and external communities that use Social Media tools and what does this have to do with HR? Let’s start with asking the same question about HR - what does HR do? Share information, ask and answer questions, educate, collaborate and connect. Social Media tools create the ability to start, monitor, and participate in discussions about your organization both among the employee base and with everyone outside of the organization. HR professionals can use Social Media tools to monitor and participate in discussions within the organization but also gain knowledge about what is being said about their organization on various Social Media sites and develop cost effective and wide ranging recruitment programs.
If the organization is not participating in a meaningful way they not only lose the opportunity to build communities and present a balanced discussion about it but they take the very real risk of allowing the conversation to go unchecked. And it will, actually it is whether you are paying attention or not.
HR professionals have a great opportunity to take the lead with adopting Social Media and demonstrating how effective it can be by using the competencies that all great HR professionals develop as part of their practice. In previous posts I commented that collaboration may be the most effective competency that HR professionals can use in their work. Being skilled at collaborating can help develop communities within an organization and externally with customers (both business to consumer and business to business organizations will benefit from such communities). A must have for developing strong collaboration skills is to also continuously update your communication skills and in the world of Social Media, communication skills can make all the difference to attaining your goals and minimizing or mitigating negative outcomes.
A real world example of one thing that Social Media tools can do to help you in your work occurred in a LinkedIn group for HR professionals in British Columbia. A member of the group asked for sources of information to help write a Social Media policy. Within a few hours he had three of the best resources and examples available on this topic. This saved him hours of searching for the information himself and the cost of paying an external consultant to help with his project. It is fairly easy to imagine how many other uses of Social Media are available to help you in your work.
We are currently working on a book that takes Social Media out of the realm of hype and conflicting sources and uses plain business protocols to start the Social Media journey for professionals. This book will provide references to sources that our research over the past year unearthed as reliable and user friendly for those of us that are not technical whizzes but use technology to improve our work.
Do you feel like you want to take the lead on Social Media in your organization but are not sure where to start? Does the constantly evolving world of Social Media create confusion about how to choose which tools that will help accomplish your goals effectively? My goal is to bring the discussion down to earth and help untangle the complexities of Social Media. I will continue to post on this topic over the next while based on the thoughts raised in conversations with HR professionals.
What thoughts cross your mind when you think about Social Media? What do you wish would exist to make the learning process easier and faster?
Are you using Social Media for recruiting or are you thinking that you should be using it but feel overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information in cyberspace and being touted at various conferences and seminars? If you are somewhat tentatively using it for recruiting purposes or made some attempt to learn more, you are in good company and it is understandable if you have merely dipped your toe in the waters not quite sure what to do with it all.
Social Media is simply a series of tools that uses technology to build communities that share information, ask and answer questions, educate, collaborate, and connect. Why do we want to build internal and external communities that use Social Media tools and what does this have to do with HR? Let’s start with asking the same question about HR - what does HR do? Share information, ask and answer questions, educate, collaborate and connect. Social Media tools create the ability to start, monitor, and participate in discussions about your organization both among the employee base and with everyone outside of the organization. HR professionals can use Social Media tools to monitor and participate in discussions within the organization but also gain knowledge about what is being said about their organization on various Social Media sites and develop cost effective and wide ranging recruitment programs.
If the organization is not participating in a meaningful way they not only lose the opportunity to build communities and present a balanced discussion about it but they take the very real risk of allowing the conversation to go unchecked. And it will, actually it is whether you are paying attention or not.
HR professionals have a great opportunity to take the lead with adopting Social Media and demonstrating how effective it can be by using the competencies that all great HR professionals develop as part of their practice. In previous posts I commented that collaboration may be the most effective competency that HR professionals can use in their work. Being skilled at collaborating can help develop communities within an organization and externally with customers (both business to consumer and business to business organizations will benefit from such communities). A must have for developing strong collaboration skills is to also continuously update your communication skills and in the world of Social Media, communication skills can make all the difference to attaining your goals and minimizing or mitigating negative outcomes.
A real world example of one thing that Social Media tools can do to help you in your work occurred in a LinkedIn group for HR professionals in British Columbia. A member of the group asked for sources of information to help write a Social Media policy. Within a few hours he had three of the best resources and examples available on this topic. This saved him hours of searching for the information himself and the cost of paying an external consultant to help with his project. It is fairly easy to imagine how many other uses of Social Media are available to help you in your work.
We are currently working on a book that takes Social Media out of the realm of hype and conflicting sources and uses plain business protocols to start the Social Media journey for professionals. This book will provide references to sources that our research over the past year unearthed as reliable and user friendly for those of us that are not technical whizzes but use technology to improve our work.
Do you feel like you want to take the lead on Social Media in your organization but are not sure where to start? Does the constantly evolving world of Social Media create confusion about how to choose which tools that will help accomplish your goals effectively? My goal is to bring the discussion down to earth and help untangle the complexities of Social Media. I will continue to post on this topic over the next while based on the thoughts raised in conversations with HR professionals.
What thoughts cross your mind when you think about Social Media? What do you wish would exist to make the learning process easier and faster?
Monday, May 31, 2010
Change and Shifting Frames
This weekend, Chris Brogan, http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ posted an interesting article on frames. The content isn’t new to me as it is an important component in change management that often doesn’t receive enough attention by business leaders when their organizations take on significant change projects or experience change from external forces. However, the timing was perfect as I have been struggling to fully shift from my old frame to my new frame for several months now.
While my personality is one that often seeks out change and enjoys the benefits that can come with it, this change requires a shift that means adopting core competencies that I have previously felt were not well suited to my abilities.
It also means that some of my core strengths are not as applicable going forward as they used to be. It felt a bit like putting one foot over the edge of that proverbial cliff and a bit like leaving behind some old friends-those competencies that I was so comfortable with. This weekend I realized that it was time to take both feet off the cliff. The option is to fly or drop, the choice is mine.
Considering the idea of frames and change is an important concept for HR practitioners to consider as they are often in a position to help others with the change process.
Are you in a position of having to choose a frame and shift fully into it? What is helping you do this? Where do you seek help as you work your way through the process?
While my personality is one that often seeks out change and enjoys the benefits that can come with it, this change requires a shift that means adopting core competencies that I have previously felt were not well suited to my abilities.
It also means that some of my core strengths are not as applicable going forward as they used to be. It felt a bit like putting one foot over the edge of that proverbial cliff and a bit like leaving behind some old friends-those competencies that I was so comfortable with. This weekend I realized that it was time to take both feet off the cliff. The option is to fly or drop, the choice is mine.
Considering the idea of frames and change is an important concept for HR practitioners to consider as they are often in a position to help others with the change process.
Are you in a position of having to choose a frame and shift fully into it? What is helping you do this? Where do you seek help as you work your way through the process?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The Role of HR and Intra-Organizational Social Media Use
I have conducted extensive research into the use of Social Media in organizations over the past several months. It started out as a bewildering and massive array of information while I sorted out which 'experts' really are experts. I quickly came to realize that the world of Social Media is like many other professions (such as HR) in that one must learn as much as they can in a 'generalist' sense, then choose an area of specialty.
As a person with an extensive HR/OD background the concept of the use of Social Media in an intra-organizational sense is intriguing. I have also read reams of information on using Social Media for marketing and branding. While my future use of Social Media will be in a new business launch later this year, the idea of using Social Media for HR and OD purposes still captures much of my interest.
One thing that is clear is that many organizations still fear opening the gates to Social Media in their organizations. The key is to treat it in a similar manner that you would any other major business process or program. The organization must first hold discussions on what the implementation of Social Media can do for various aspects of the business. Once that is determined the leaders (including a starring role by HR/OD) must develop a well thought out policy for the organization's Social Media strategy. IBM has one of the best I have seen so far and it is easy to find via Google.
The next step is organization wide communication and education on the strategy, the policy, the roll out and the expectations of all employees regarding the use of Social Media in the organization.
This should sound familiar and if it seems daunting it is a little, however the rewards of a well thought out strategy and roll out will be evident within the first six months.
The benefits of Social Media for improving organizational communication, recruiting and training and development programs are significant if the organization takes time to develop and then follow an effective plan first.
What steps regarding the use of Social Media have been taken in your organization? Have you proposed or initiated any Social Media related projects in your HR/OD role?
As a person with an extensive HR/OD background the concept of the use of Social Media in an intra-organizational sense is intriguing. I have also read reams of information on using Social Media for marketing and branding. While my future use of Social Media will be in a new business launch later this year, the idea of using Social Media for HR and OD purposes still captures much of my interest.
One thing that is clear is that many organizations still fear opening the gates to Social Media in their organizations. The key is to treat it in a similar manner that you would any other major business process or program. The organization must first hold discussions on what the implementation of Social Media can do for various aspects of the business. Once that is determined the leaders (including a starring role by HR/OD) must develop a well thought out policy for the organization's Social Media strategy. IBM has one of the best I have seen so far and it is easy to find via Google.
The next step is organization wide communication and education on the strategy, the policy, the roll out and the expectations of all employees regarding the use of Social Media in the organization.
This should sound familiar and if it seems daunting it is a little, however the rewards of a well thought out strategy and roll out will be evident within the first six months.
The benefits of Social Media for improving organizational communication, recruiting and training and development programs are significant if the organization takes time to develop and then follow an effective plan first.
What steps regarding the use of Social Media have been taken in your organization? Have you proposed or initiated any Social Media related projects in your HR/OD role?
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