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.