HRism

At the first stroke of this I would like to believe that People are not resources & challenge the premise of we as Human called as “Resources” this is too inhumane, isn’t it? I am sure in this world of HR many Evangelist would agree with me and do away with this title.

Today the vocabulary for managing the employment relationship had made a paradigm shift. Humans can be atomized into physical facts they are energy, today they are “self aware”; they see self as instrument & part of ecosystem. Self- Awareness has become the new panacea and differentiating factor from other resources.

We are dreamers, builders, experiencers, experimenters, we are destroyer, realist, we love, we feel, we have emotions, we have potential to understand & read potential, we can ignite potential, we can measure potential… Still resources? I feel have a good case study and premise to built on…

We are redefining the economy to meet our true needs, people economics is directly propellant to balance sheet with social foundation and creating community capital. 

Show me any industry or company who is not in Talent business. Today Talent is only differentiator between competitors. Vexing challenge corporates are investing millions to have best on board. We live in the world of empowered candidates.

By choice and with all morale courage my love at first sight was for Human Resources & next love that came true is Organization Development. Both professions are noble with humanistic & heuristic Value into it. Brutal truth and non-changeable reality is this has to be practiced in controlled environment of political structure known as “Organization”.

Our HR studios undergo gentrifying each day. We construct, we redefine and challenge our boundaries whilst we have a say across the table. We are the Prometheus who provides wealth of anchors to drive the business to vision.

HR today for some people are like cricket commentary with free advice, our technicalities are known as Jargon in world of work!! This may sound bit technical to many but I draw a line for free commentary. Artifact of HRism is deeply rooted in its being strong observer, processing the data, using science & delivering artistically.

Being there and practicing it, thought to canvass my option HR and HR leadership, which has changed my world of view and practice. 

Leadership by Head & Heart together: Have you heard of a phrase drag your body to work and mind will follow? How is that you bring head to office and not heart?  Bring your head to office and allow heart to follow, right mix & balance approach works wonder.  

Allow that softer side of your leadership trait to rule, it is a traditional/orthodox approach if you see leading by heart as weakness, I understand that this would be hardest of all pedagogic tasks but be that “Subversive Showman”. I still vote for emotions as most powerful drivers of behavior than logic. "To handle yourself, use your head. To handle others, use your heart. ".. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt

One need to be Human with self:  Everybody is product of their own experience and choices. Greatest abuse of self is self, one need to liberate self from self & allow that interrogator to ask question. Everybody need to remember that they are unique to this world and human history that they are creating. We follow shared corporate charter and Values, take a deep dive in your own values and own system/body charter.

 Understanding Karma(Action) & Akarma(Inaction) is most important; We think the job that we do is “Karma” or what we do is “Karma” but most of time we only react and not act. Karma in action is state which comes from your soul, with vision, or with awareness or with consciousness which is free from any negative or positive feelings. Akarma (Inaction) is the state where there is lack of reaction in inner side (soul) but not at your outer side. Akarma(inaction) is a state in which there is no desire to react (Reaction) but full of action outside.  Advaita propagates and fundamentally believes that soul and God is one. In the same context and reference Advaita propounds that world is illusion (all emotions sorrow is fake). Dvaita says world is real and so as supremacy of God who created all of us. Watch your actions & belief.  

HR need to be away from Frankenstein fate:  Reading Physiognomy of HR, one thing that is very prominent is Human Resources organization is making tall promise extrapolating without understanding ground realities and not able to respect those promises. Frankenstein monster phenomena triggers in & it derails Human Resources strategies, people & culture. We as Human Resources practitioners need to feel the organization, Illusion of validity is a cognitive/mental bias in which a person overestimates his or her ability to interpret and predict accurately the outcome when analyzing a set of data. Data need to be sexy & powerful, analytics of it should tell a coherent story.

HR Leader as Decision Lab: Mind by design will make meaning of everything as process and it is non-wandering by character. Mind collect data and reflect through experience (i.e., childhood memories and impressions formed, respectively); wandering mind helps widening, collection of accurate data, processing of data with larger & deeper lens. Decision making is ones’ psychological process of understanding analysis, process the data and making choice out of repertoire. It reflects more of  individual’s learning, ability to understand and process the data.  Understanding perception & risk perception is very important part of decision making.  Intuition is knife but it requires data to be sharpen. One need to sharpen it with data for better results. Suspending biases is key to HR leaders and fraternity. Stop presupposing meta-rationality, truth may be resting some where else. Knowledge acts as a control on behavior and drives decision making, it helps separate concept from context be it ethical, rational, data driven, impromptu, intuitive or shared decision making.  

Corporate character: Today one of the biggest obligation on corporates it to behave humane with humans. I would like to draw this from my belief that it is competition that is nudging corporates to understand the feelings of employees more deeper and in more humane way. It is also a changing culture that takes away credit for this initiative. As per one of the report only 3% of organization qualify for good corporate character. It is so important for this legal entity to become human entity now and have feelings and respect emotions at workplace.

ODWay or HRWay:  Not that cynical about my profession but many times we look for shortcut or we are made to take that lane of band-aid approach or quick fix tool. Allowing & making management aware of Bottoms -up approach that should be healthy for inner working of Organizational-intestinal tract. Better HR takes a OD corridor & use a surgical approach equip with better diagnosis tools. Let that lactose intolerance of management be challenged and HR conducts a well-informed, unbiased diagnosis to clear the problem statement with larger understanding of premise. Let the HR stories be the language of diverse lens backed by qualitative & quantitative data. HR need to gather their morale courage and take help of most underrated organ of their body that is “GUTS”.

 Hedonic & Eudaimonic : Well-being is a complex construct that concerns optimal experience and functioning. Well being of employees is derived from two general perspective (Hedonic is + pleasure  - pain) i.e it dwells more on high positivity and low negativity It is proposed that an individual experiences happiness when positive affect and satisfaction with life are both high (Carruthers & Hood, 2004).

Eudaimonic happiness is based on the premise that people feel happy if they experience life purpose, challenges and growth. It derives cords from Maslow theory. Hedonic is subjective wellbeing but Eudaimonic is psychological wellbeing. HR interventions should be more derived from Eudaimonic perspective.  

 Toxicity & Antidote: HRism is about being good observant to culture toward the organization behavior and trait. If HR leaders understands the science & Nano particles behind organizational behavior and leaders, it can take some good holistic intervention to unearth the issues and clear from root. It is important that as a HR leader one understands and read the toxicity syndrome and symptoms. Doctor HR can be antidote to the toxicity, they can give an intravenous or local anesthesia to get the desired result. Toxic leaders breed toxic culture, this is one dysfunctional behavior that is supremely self-centered and disturbs the fabric of team and culture.

Let us drive this human potential movement and we become good human in journey. Let HR be away from bias and awareness trap, whose fear and suspicion of art is nakedly repressive

I see being HR is a gift, but although it may come at first unbidden, as what Percy Shelley called a “speechless swoon of joy,”

This is an extension of my individual thoughts and not of any of the organizations that I represent