Category Archives: HR Influence

Trench HR: Closing the Credibility and Impact Gap?

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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?

HR Antiques Road Show

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If you are a history buff, or just a hoarder, then you might be a fan of the Antiques Road Show on Public Television.  While I’m sure that many of you are familiar with the program, the premise is as follows:  the show brings together a variety of experts to a single location where locals can have anything they own appraised, from attic-junk to family heirlooms.  Every once in awhile you see a person who made a five-dollar purchase at a garge sale years before with an item that appraises at tens-of-thousands of dollars.  Of course, virtually every item that is brought to the Road Show has personal value to the owner; the question is whether that value translates to monetary value for others.

Healthcare Value Network

I spent a couple of days last week in Appleton, Wisconsin with 17 other healthcare HR leaders to learn and share how HR systems and processes can drive real change in a Lean organization.  The only things we knew going into the session is that our organizations were part of the Healthcare Value Network, and through some pre-planning we surmised that we were all struggling with similar HR, organization development, and leadership challenges.  Our brief time together confirmed these assumptions.

I left the land of the Green Bay Packers with a bag of cheese curds, and a number of key takeaways.  However, there is one simple concept – although not a new concept – that has stuck with me more than others:  The development of HR systems and processes in a Lean organization occurs in the Gemba, and not in an HR conference room.  In non-Lean language, we need to develop our HR approaches with our clinical (operations) leaders and employees.  In the end, our work must be redesigned to support what is really needed on the rapidly changing front lines of healthcare.

Get Out of the HR Attic

Our traditional approach to HR administration is that we have done the bulk of our process work and planning behind closed doors, or in the attic.  We are the experts in regulatory and compliance matters, organization development constructs, and we have the unrivaled talent to create reams of forms.  When we were feeling more “strategic,” we might have included, or sought real input from others outside of the HR kingdom.

When our new systems were defined, and the ink was dry on the new forms, we took the process/system on the business version of the Antiques Road Show.  What we often discovered was that the heirloom-quality HR process that we had masterfully created was appraised by operational leaders (experts) to be of little or no value to them, or the work that they were doing.  It was easy to become that person on camera at the end of the Antiques Road Show who whined about how unappreciated our process was – at least it was highly valued by us, and we are going to hang onto it.

Strategic HR:  Solving Other People’s Real Problems

Strategic HR today, particularly in a Lean sense,  means that we are solving our customers’ problems through the ongoing, real-time design of better HR processes and systems.  By better I mean:  they are intentionally designed to add value to clinical (operational) people and processes, as their needs evolve; they are not mired in meeting the strictest interpretations of government regulations; they are not derailed by an unreasonable aversion to business risk; and, they accomplish what is most needed by the people in the Gemba, and ultimately our customers.

It seems that the only way to accomplish the strategic work of HR in a Lean organization is to design it with the people in the Gemba.  So while the “what” is settled in my mind, and the minds of many other Lean healthcare HR leaders, the “how” is an entirely different challenge. 

What have you done to engage your operations leaders in redesigning HR systems to meet their needs?

[Photo Credit:  anankkml via freedigitalphoto.net]

Indicators of Change Resistance

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I am on a ”change” kick lately because so many organizations seem to be struggling with the speed and complexity of monumental change.  While it is not difficult to identify the change resistant employees who conspicuously dig their heels into the ground, it can be more challenging to identify the more passive signs of resistance.  Here are 4 indicators of change resistance that I’ve observed over my career; the behaviors are listed in an ascending (often chronoligical) order:

  1. They attack the data relentlessly.  This is often where the subtle signs of resistance first appears.  I’m not talking about someone asking the tough and challenging questions to ensure the data are valid and reliable – that is good leadership in practice.  I’m talking about the person who launches a relentless, full-frontal attack on the data, even though the data is statistically sound and reliable.
  2. Rather than debating the logic, they wordsmith your proposal or presentation.  This is a common early indicator when making formal, written change proposals.  Rather than debating the overall proposal, or the reasons for the change, a form of avoiding the root issue is to negotiate changes in specific words or language – the intent is often to soften the approach, or to water it down.
  3. They counter with highly personal examples to articulate why the change will never work.  Reasonable, rational, and objective people begin an assessment by understanding the problem, and gathering facts and data – that is the scientific process.  Those who fire out of both barrels with personal stories about how they’ve been wronged, or how the change will negatively impact them are working from a state of emotions.
  4. They use sweeping assumptions to support their arguments.  As a discussion becomes more personal, and the emotions ramp up, the assumptions used by resistant people become progressively more audacious.  What might have begun with a personal example can quickly escalate to examples about how the change will impact an entire population; this is often accompanied by little or no evidence to support the claim.

What early signs and behaviors do you look for regarding change resistance?

Recovering From A Blogging Stumble

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Standing On The Ledge

Earlier this week, I arrived at a firm decision to pull the plug on HR Soot.  After eight months, I was done with blogging.  I was confident enough in my decision that I had drafted a final post, with a firm date for taking down this site.

My decision was based entirely on the gift of honest feedback that I had solicited and received from a few trusted sources concerning my blog posts, and how they thought the voice with which I’ve written on this site represented who I am and what I stand for as a professional.  While I have intentionally pushed the envelope with the goal of inviting respectful debate, I am also conscientious of my professional voice.

The painful truth is that others saw a disconnect between who I am, and how I’ve sometimes reflected that through my blogging – honest feedback is sometimes painful.  They suggested that the tone and approach of my blog posts is not representative of the way they see my approach to life, my relationships, or my HR work – OUCH.  My tone has been consistently snarky – true, but OUCH.  My initial reaction was to cut my losses.  I concluded that this was a valuable lesson learned, and I was ready to move on.

A Project Social Mentor In Action

I had a phone call this week with my healthcare HR colleague and Project Social Mentor Lisa Rosendahl to talk through my decision.  If you have the privilege to know Lisa, you understand the value of her friendship, feedback, guidance and perspective.  She talked me down from the ledge, and walked me through a more comprehensive reflection on the situation.  In her calm, wise and inquisitive manner, she had me evaluate my intentions from a variety of perspectives.  In the end, she reminded me that the original intent for my writing this blog was to share the lessons learned from my professional HR experiences – OUCH.

The Taste of Tail Feathers

I am now also going to very publicly eat some crow.  You see, my wife Heather, who is my best friend in the world tried to tell me this months ago.  Of course, I knew better than she did and didn’t take the time to really listen.  She said on many occasions that my blog posts lacked the personal stories, humility and emotional content that was demonstrated in much of my other writing (for the record, this would exclude benefit summaries).

I reasoned that she did not connect with my blog posts because she is not in the human resources profession and misunderstood what this new, edgy writing style was trying to accomplish.  The feedback now reveals that in specifically trying to create some debate and dialogue around HR and traditional business assumptions, I had missed out on communicating the very thing in which I most ardently believe:  HR, like writing, and like everything else in life is about people.

A New Beginning

I hold no aspirations for becoming a professional blogger.  I have no goals for establishing a ridiculously high number of followers.  But, I do love to write, I enjoy blogging, and I want my writing to accurately reflect who I am, and what I stand for as a HR professional and a human being.  I want to connect with other HR professionals, business professionals, and great people.  Blogging has been an avenue for achieving that.

The plug will remain in the virtual wall for awhile longer, with some new approaches to sharing my HR-related experiences, and maybe some more personal observations and experiences like my wife suggested from the beginning.  But to achieve the things that I originally set out to accomplish, a facelift is in order and I am not exactly sure how to do it.  I am seeking some advice and feedback from other bloggers, readers, HR pros, and people.

Should a HR Soot facelift involve the elimination of some of my more intentional and caustic posts of the past?  Or, do you think that I should leave them posted and move forward?

Experiential Soot (lesson learned):  Listen to the women in your life!