It’s Not You, It’s Me

Posted on November 16, 2011 by William Gould

Before you dive into this post, I want you to pause and place your fuzzy, warm thinking cap squarely on top of your melon. Think about the most pathetic breakup line you’ve ever heard? Perhaps it is a line that YOU have used to end an intimate relationship? A line that boggles my mind is the proverbial, “It’s not you, it’s me.”

Now think about the most pathetic breakup line you’ve heard in an employee-employer breakup. Please tell me that it is not one of your’s. The most pathetic termination line I’ve heard of – outside of anything discriminatory – is, “we are going in a different direction, and your services are no longer required.”

Photo Courtesy of nuttakit

In either case, the breakup lines say absolutely nothing! We’ve ended relationships with people who have been an important part of our lives/organizations, yet have managed to give them no feedback, reasoning, rationale, or explanation for our decision. In a word, this is “cowardice.” But, what if it is true?

Employer Breakups are Easier to Do

When the decision to end an employment relationship is our’s as employees, we tend to sing a different song. How many disgruntled employees do you know who have written, “it’s not the company, it’s me” in their bitter letters of resignation? When we leave a job, particularly out of anger or frustration, we almost always put the blame squarely on our employers. In fact, we are quite effective at rationalizing why the sour relationship wasn’t our fault. It is clearly ________’s fault.

The Grass Isn’t Any Greener Over There

I have hit the wall a few times in my career. These are times when I become profoundly frustrated by my inability to get things accomplished. While I am as happy as anyone with swimming in abstract ideas, and visioning grand plans to solve employee engagement issues forever, in the end I need results – that’s what I get paid to deliver. I always expect to accomplish that which I set out to do. I take pride in delivering measurable organizational results. And, when I am unable to deliver results, I become frustrated.

Like many, I have been quick to blame others for the barriers and resistance that have prevented me from achieving my goals, and initiatives. I have broken up with employers. The funny thing is that given enough time, the same frustrations inevitably appear in subsequent roles.

Hindsight is Always 20/20

The common theme in my times of frustration is that they occurred during times of change. Conspicuous organizational changes (e.g., mergers, CEO changes, organizational structure redesigns) have always precipitated my periods of frustration. I’ve blamed organizations, leaders and colleagues for creating these unnecessary barriers. I am a master of narrating elaborate stories to justify my vilification of these good people – privately, of course.

What if my frustration had less to do with outside changes, and more to do with my inability, or unwillingness to change my leadership approaches to achieve results in a new environment?

That Question Just Sucks!

What if it really isn’t them, and it is me? Simply asking a different question forces our brains to search for a different answer. If it is done honestly, we sometimes won’t like the alternative answers that we realize. I’ve learned that just because I am an HR leader, experienced in organization change, and knowledgeable about helping others through change, it doesn’t mean that I am personally exempt from the same change experiences. I now understand that many of the times I have blamed organizational dynamics for my woes, it was really about me.

I would love to hear some of your best breakup lines!

Photo Credit: nuttakit at freeddigitalphotos (dot) net

The Elegance of Simple Fixes

Posted on November 10, 2011 by William Gould

I had a problem over the past several weeks that needed resolved. I had been running without music. I acknowledge that this was not the end of the world. While I found that it is sometimes peaceful to run without the likes of Disturbed screaming in my ears (i.e., it gave me time to think), I also missed the the invigorating pulse of semi-angry music to push me through the end of my long runs.

The root of the problem is that I had managed to rust out my “running” headphones. Yes, I literally rusted them out. The sweat-induced corrosion had eaten through the speakers, and into the wires (I actually dissected them to discover this). I am either the only person in the world who sweats in his ears, or this was a design problem – I’ll go with the latter.

What I needed was a pair of earphones that would withstand sweat and corrosion, and that would actually stay in my ears when I ran. In addition to being the only person who sweats in his ears, I must have the oddest shaped ear canals in the world because earbuds NEVER stay in when I run – they rarely stay in when I am sitting calmly.

The Social Solution

I read a post on a running blog I only recently started following. katieRUNSthis mentioned in one of her recent posts a product called Yurbuds, which claims to be a product for athletes, developed by athletes. The website said that the simple technology of medical-grade silicone, and the unique, ergonomic design combined for a fit that was guaranteed to stay in place during the most rigorous physical activities.

While I tend to lean more toward skeptical regarding advertising, I found myself at BestBuy last Saturday purchasing a pair of Yurbuds. On Sunday I put them to the test with a 9-mile run. Yes, my ears did sweat profusely. The result? This product absolutely rocks!

So What?

In a day when innovation is king, I was excited to find a simple product that managed to meet my simple needs. The innovation in this case was not the design of a product that I didn’t know I needed until I had it in my hands (e.g., my first iPhone); it was a significant improvement on an existing product that had yet to fully satisfy my wants.

Simple is Elegant

This has caused me to think about innovation in my work. Like many, I tend to think largely about creating the next great innovation to meet the needs of my organization, even if our people don’t yet realize that they need it. Don’t we all want to design the next iPhone?

What I realized is that my time and energy would be better spent redesigning existing systems to better meet the current needs of organization, and our people. I wonder what sweaty-eared employee need could be met with a simple, yet elegant redesign?

What kind of innovation are you scheming?

Blue Fridays, Diabetes, & Employer Health Plans

Posted on November 4, 2011 by William Gould

Today is the first Friday in the month of November, and I will be wearing BLUE. If you are not aware, November is American Diabetes Month. A goal of this effort is to bring attention to the fact that nearly 26 million Americans are living with diabetes, and another 79 million are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

Blue Fridays is an initiative to bring attention to World Diabetes Day (November 14th), American Diabetes Month, and the impact that the disease has on those who are living with it. World Diabetes Day signifies that the disease is impacting more than Americans, but rather is a world-wide health issue. I encourage you to check out the links in this post for more information.

Employer Health Plans

I realize that the overwhelming majority of HR Soot readers are above-average people with an interest in human resources, or a loosely related professional discipline. As I recently disclosed, diabetes has become a very personal issue for me, and has also changed my world views concerning employee benefit plan design and administration.

From a HR/benefits perspective, we should all be concerned that the 26 million Americans currently living with diabetes, and the additional 79 million who are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes are the participants and dependents in our health plans. According to studies cited by Aurora Health Care, diabetes has been identified as the 3rd most costly physical health condition for employers, and the average diabetic plan participant has an annual cost of approximately $21,000. The good news is that several studies conducted by health plans (including those cited in the Aurora link) demonstrate that diabetes costs can be effectively managed in health plans by helping participants to actively engage in treating and managing their disease.

It Begins with Awareness

The effort to support our employees, and control our health plan expenses begins with awareness. We can help our diabetic employees to better understand and manage their disease by providing ample resources and liberal, first-dollar plan coverage that more than pays for itself. We can also help those employees at risk for type 2 diabetes to understand and eliminate many of the risk factors, which are little more than lifestyle choices. Even if you are among those who believe that it is not a moral imperative for employers to engage employees at this level, at its core it is the right economic choice to help mitigate the rising cost of your employer’s health insurance.

I invite you to join me in wearing BLUE each and every Friday during the month of November.

I would be thrilled to spark a dialogue among HR and benefits professionals around strategies to reduce health plan costs through better diabetes management. What do you think about the employer’s role in chronic disease management?

Trench HR: Closing the Credibility and Impact Gap?

Posted on November 1, 2011 by William Gould

I recently conducted an informal, unreliable, and not-too-scientific study. The kind of study that many of us do to support our hunches.

I went to a couple of websites for HR associations and pulled up the agendas for their most recent annual conferences; I read the speaker bios for the keynotes and breakout sessions. I then went to the monthly magazines for a few HR and benefits associations to which I belong, and I flipped through a few of the most recent editions to read the articles’ author bios.

The question I had was this: “How many of the conference sessions and article contributions were from Trench HR practitioners?” What I found was that roughly 85% of the conference speakers at these events were professional speakers, consultants and vendors. The article submissions, except for one, were from staff writers, consultants and vendors. While the voice of the HR practitioner is growing in the non-traditional media spaces (e.g., blogs, websites, etc.), it seems to be largely absent from the more traditional “media” venues.

So What?

I had the opportunity to attend the Health Care Social Media Summit at Mayo Clinic a couple of weeks ago. One of the many interesting stories that I heard was from a social media pioneer named Dave deBronkart (@ePatientDave), who delivered one of the best keynotes I’ve ever experienced, in which he explained how he used social media in his fight to beat stage IV kidney cancer. In his keynote address, Dave demonstrated how new media (e.g., blogs) gives us freedom of the press, but that it is still the traditional media that gives us credibility and impact. In other words, we may have the ability to share our Trench HR wisdom more freely through the new media platforms, but we will not have mainstream credibility, or impact, until our message is published through traditional media.

Even if you don’t necessarily agree with the gap that I am proposing, Trench HR pros still seem to be largely voiceless on the conference platforms, and in our own professional publications. To me, that speaks volumes about the perceived gap in our credibility. If the traditional media theory is true, I can’t help but notice that it is easily remedied.

What do you think? Why aren’t more Trench HR practitioners speaking and publishing?