This post originally appeared on the Discuss HR blog for the LinkedIn Group Human Resources UK
http://discusshr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/roar.html?goback=%2Enmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1%2Egmp_58949%2Egde_58949_member_265136563#%21
There were some excellent comments
Roar!!
Meeting for coffee dates back to 14th
century Turkey and coffee houses remain a cultural hub for people around the
world. The coffee house concept was
first brought to London in 1652 by Pasqua Roseé, an eccentric Greek who had
worked in Turkey. By the early 18th
century London had over 3000 coffee houses.
They are not to be confused with the Starbucks and Caffè Neros of today
– the coffee was dark and almost unpalatable and the conduct of patrons greatly
differs from us, who now sit in solitary silence sipping our Lattes. You were expected to talk and debate. Button’s coffeehouse (located 300 years ago
in the site of the current Starbucks on Russell Street near Covent Garden) is a
good example – it was frequented by playwrights, poets, thinkers and
journalists. It was customary for a
stranger to sit himself beside you and immediately demand your opinion on the
news or place the text of a novel before you and seek your criticism and
comments. Button’s was famous for the
head of a roaring lion affixed to its wall – the public were encouraged to feed
the open mouth this statue with letters, tales and testaments; the most
appealing of the lion’s weekly diet were published in Joseph Addison’s Guardian newspaper, under the heading
“the roarings of the lion”.
 |
| 18th Century Coffee house - courtesy of British Museum |
It was apt that I started last Friday with
a cup of coffee, when invited to have a discussion about HR and its role going
forwards with Peter Cheese at the CIPD. Peter
joined the CIPD in July last year as Chief Executive, following a successful career
in Accenture, which culminated in a seven year stint as Global Managing
Director leading the Talent and Organisational Performance Consulting Practice
and three years as a senior consultant with various non-executive roles,
including Chairman of the Institute of Leadership and Management (where he has
continued as a Board member). I was
joined by a couple of inspirational leaders from the HR community - both
exceptional bloggers who are not shy in stating their opinions (see http://flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com/
and http://adjusteddevelopment.wordpress.com/).
I must confess to not being a member of the
CIPD – despite having spoken at a number of Institute conferences and being
invited to various events over the years, for which I am very grateful. I have never seen the need to belong. I did not require the qualification to
succeed in my job – I was one of the fortunate few to experience the excellent two
year modular HR leadership development programme devised by Lloyds TSB, in
conjunction with Roffey Park, which covered much more than the CIPD curriculum
did at the time – I can understand a balance sheet, spot anomalies in data and
am comfortable being consultative, questioning business approaches and testing strategic
plans. Perhaps I was at ease challenging
members of the executive team because I am a “quarrelsome lawyer” who has crossed
into HR from a commercial role and was already known as a business leader. For me, the CIPD seemed to have little to
offer, indeed I found it frustrating how tied it was into the production of
“best practice” policies and procedures, rather than encouraging its members to
get under the bonnet and really understand the drivers for their organisation
and its people. I have always believed
that HR’s role is to enhance the lives of workers and through them to enable the
achievement of desired outputs for the organisations in which they are based.
We had a robust discussion about the role
of HR and hence the purpose of the CIPD.
Peter is passionate about people and what makes them work. Being an ex-consultant, he looks at business
from a number of angles and is mindful of the need to have strong foundations on
which to build for the future; it is no surprise that Peter is a European Board
Director with Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Europe (which focuses on the
encouragement of financial, entrepreneurial
skills that enhance employability in young people through business
involvement in universities and schools).
He also sits on the Council of City & Guilds and is an Executive Fellow at the London
Business School, with close links to the faculties of Organisational Behaviour
and Strategic Management. He has not
come from the conventional ranks of HR and he brings a fresh pair of eyes and a
commercial but compassionate mind.
Peter sees a broad role for HR that can
ensure that the function adds value. Currently,
in many organisations, HR practitioners concentrate on only a small part of the
overall requirements of the function.
Cost-cutting and dogmatic espousing of “The Ulrich Model” to the
exclusion of all else has not helped. I
think Peter is right, to add value, HR needs to think “in the round” – how can
a person expect to talk with authority unless they are:
·
aware of the context in which a
business operates (economic, social, political, environmental, etc...);
·
appreciate the underlying
drivers of people (psychology, cultural impacts, behavioural traits, neuroscience,
etc...);
·
understand the business in
which they are based, its strengths, weaknesses, competitors, opportunities and
planned future direction; and
·
can devise approaches that will
encourage optimum performance and instil job satisfaction and genuine
appreciation of worth in the workforce and those with whom they interact.
However, there is more that is needed. HR is often its own worst enemy – people in
HR devise their award winning policies and procedures, often copying what is
perceived as best of breed, without giving due consideration to the business that
they are supposed to be supporting.
Frustrated employees and individuals vent their anger in blogs on the
subject and apocryphal stories abound illustrating what I mean (http://www.timsackett.com/2013/08/09/reason-2763-people-hate-hr/
) We people working in HR need to stand back and consider our role in a
business and what we can do to add value.
I am not saying that there is not a place for good policies and
procedures – we all benefit from appropriate structures and knowing what is
expected of us – but HR is best placed to view what’s going on across the whole
business, to hear things from employees at all levels, to have access to data
that can be applied to enhance understanding where there are issues and to make
proposals as to how to improve things.
Many in HR need to change their attitude
and start to roar.
We must join the
debate, challenge when we see that things that could or should be done better
or that would be more effective if approached in a different way. The time has come for HR to start leading by
example, rather than sitting back, observing the business and waiting to be
told what to do. Being a “support”
function, HR usually sees its place as being subservient to those who are
client-facing or who make the products.
However, HR has the knowledge and insight to make a real difference and
that opportunity will be lost if we won’t join the debate. As Edward de Bono says in his book Think:
“provocation
provides a means by which you can unsettle your mind in order to increase the
chance of having a new idea.”
In a world of almost constant change, new
ideas are needed. When will HR be
capable of synthesising and provoking ourselves and others to enhance the world
of work? How can the CIPD best help our
industry?
I have placed my comments in the lion’s
mouth, now let’s hear yours...
