What is the role of HR in driving and enabling innovation?

HR has a great opportunity in the next 10 years to do a very similar thing that marketing has done - to understand, leverage and then be able to scale and be seen as a leader on how to reinvent organisations

Unicorn startups are brilliant, but let's be honest, very few of us will become, found or work for one. Many people listening today will work for large companies struggling to keep themselves relevant for the ever changing customer. A handful of these companies are very good at reinvention.

My guest on this week’s podcast is Peter Hinssen - and he calls these organisations 'Phoenix companies'. They are able to rethink themselves in cycles time and again, they rise from the ashes of the old and they come out stronger than ever before. How do they do this? What is the cultural leadership that drives this and what is the role of HR?

Peter is a serial entrepreneur, advisor, keynote speaker, lecturer at London Business School and MIT, and author of a fascinating new book, The Phoenix and The Unicorn. He is one of the most sought after thought leaders on radical innovation, leadership and the impact of all things digital on society and business.

Like I imagine a number of you reading this, I first came across Peter when he keynoted at Unleash in London a few years ago. He has since spoken at subsequent Unleash conferences in Amsterdam, Las Vegas and Paris - a testament not only to Peter as a speaker but also the resonance of his message for HR professionals.

You can listen by clicking on the image below or by visiting the podcast website here.

In our conversation, Peter and I discuss:

• Why organisations need to become better at focusing on the day after tomorrow ("I think we have seen enormous change, but we really have to brace for fundamental change and a never normal."
• How the Hourglass Model (see FIG 1), Peter has designed for innovation (Sense, Try, Scale and Run) can be applied to HR ("You need to understand, you need to experiment and then you scale")
• The role of HR in enabling and driving innovation in their organisation
• What HR can learn from marketing when it comes to delivering on the employee experience and understanding its customers, in this case, employees ("Marketing has been transformed in the last 10 years in a significant way and I think HR needs to do exactly the same")
• Why the technology HR uses requires a serious upgrade ("I am often amazed if I walk into an HR department of a big organisation that even the tools that they use are very 20th century tools")
• Why there needs to be a fair exchange of value where employees benefit personally from sharing their data with the organisation
• The enormous potential of combining people analytics and technology with an understanding of organisational networks ("If you can put the power of analytics and AI and combine that with a network based approach, you have an enormous potential to actually make HR stronger")
• Whether AI and automation is a threat or an opportunity for HR

This episode is a must listen for anyone frankly, but especially HR and business leaders looking to develop their organisations and their culture, enhance their leadership models and also to understand the role that HR can play in driving innovation within an organisation.

HR could be a Phoenix in the next 10 years

FIG 1: The Hourglass Model (Source: Peter Hinssen)

How much of the budget or the resource of HR is spent on running HR and how much is it on having that wider lens to look at new ideas or concepts or technologies that could influence the bottom part of the hourglass?

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

To listen to the Podcast and read the transcript of the discussion with Peter, head over to myHRfuture by clicking on this link: What is the role of HR in driving and enabling innovation?

WATCH THE VIDEOS

As well as the podcast, there will be a couple of videos available on the myHRfuture YouTube channel highlighting two of the topics Peter and I covered in our conversation. First up, watch Peter explaining: Why HR organisations need to build an innovation mindset.

GET INVOLVED

If you enjoyed listening to this week's podcast episode, I'd be grateful if you could take the following steps:

1. Please subscribe to the Digital HR Leaders podcast and weekly newsletter to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
2. Please take the time to rate the show on iTunes. We rely on your feedback and support to make the podcast, so this is very helpful!
3. Who would you like to see me interview in future episodes? Let me know in the comments below.
4. Lastly, don’t forget to share on social media with your friends and colleagues, your support is always greatly appreciated!

THANK YOU

A huge thank you to Peter for such a stimulating and enjoyable conversation and for sharing his time and considerable expertise. You can follow Peter on LinkedIn, also follow Peter on Twitter @hinssen, and visit his website at peterhinssen.com where you can also order his new book 'The Phoenix and the Unicorn' and the other books he has published (click on image below).

I also recommend seeking out the articles Peter has published on his blog and on other sites including:

• What HR Can Learn From Marketing About Employee Experience
• Do You Know What Your Company Culture ‘Smells’ Like?
• Why Your Organization Needs To Put Culture Before Structure
• You can also see Peter's latest online keynote: The Never Normal - How to thrive as a company in VUCA times

Thanks also to Ian Bailie, Manpreet Randhawa and the myHRfuture team, and last but not least Crunchr for sponsoring Series 7 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast and video series.

Stay safe, stay healthy and if you are in a country locked down due to Coronavirus, please stay at home.

CATCH UP ON THE DIGITAL HR LEADERS PODCAST

If you haven't listened to all of the episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, you can catch up now by clicking on the links below.

• EP 34: Bruce Daisley - What do business leaders want from HR?
• EP 33: Dirk Jonker - Why People Analytics needs to behave like a start-up
• EP 32: Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic - The role of storytelling in People Analytics and Data Visualisation
• EP 31: Piyush Mathur - How Johnson & Johnson uses People Analytics to drive business outcomes
• BONUS EPISODE - Heather Whiteman, RJ Milnor & Ian Bailie (Live at PAFOW) - How to develop the HR skills of the future
• EP 30: Katy Gray - How Arup uses reward data to drive behavioural change
• EP 29: Uri Ort - What is the future of talent assessment?
• EP 28: Zara Nanu - The role of People Analytics in Gender Pay Analysis
• EP 27: Julia Shaw - How can technology reduce bias in the workplace
• EP 26: Stela Lupushor - How HR can be a Catalyst for Change
• BONUS EPISODE: Volker Jacobs - How to scale Employee Experience
• EP 25: Julie Digby - How HR Drives Transformation and Org Design at Mars
• EP 24: RJ Milnor - How McKesson uses ONA to identify what drives high performance in sales
• EP 23: Rupert Morrison - Rethinking Workforce Planning & Organisation Design
• EP 22: Dawn Klinghoffer - The Evolution of People Analytics at Microsoft
• EP 21: John Boudreau - Reinventing Jobs: The Future of Work and it's impact on HR
• EP 20: Tanuj Kapilashrami - How Standard Chartered designed an exceptional Employee Experience
• EP 19: Anna Tavis: What is Agile HR and how are companies adopting it?
• EP 18: Sarah Johnson: How to use employee surveys to create strategic value
• EP 17: Leena Nair - How HR drives business value at Unilever
• EP 16: Keith McNulty - HR 3.0: more data driven, more agile and more business focused
• EP 15: Jason Corsello - The Shift From HR Tech to Work Tech
• EP 14: Jill Larsen - How does the CHRO successfully partner with the CEO
• EP 13: Frida Polli - How AI and Behavioural Science can reduce bias in recruiting
• EP 12: Ian O'Keefe - The Workforce Analytics journey at JP Morgan Chase
• EP 11: Dave Ulrich - The role of HR in the Digital Age
• EP 10: Jordan Pettman - How Nestlé uses People Analytics to measure Gender Pay Gap and Equity
• EP 9: Catalina Schveninger - The Evolution of Corporate Learning at Vodafone
• EP 8: Richard Collins - How is Automation, AI and Analytics changing recruiting?
• EP 7: Katarina Berg - Spotify's CHRO on Leading HR in a digital world
• EP 6: Nick Holley - How HR can become more business relevant 
• EP 5: Eden Britt - How to build a People Analytics team in a global organisation | The People Analytics journey at HSBC 
• EP 4: Yvette Cameron - How Blockchain will disrupt the Future of Work and HR Technology 
• EP 3: Didier Elzinga - How to Create a Culture First Company 
• EP 2: Edward Houghton - The Head of Research at the CIPD on Driving Business Performance with People Data 
• EP 1: Sharon Doherty - How to transform HR to be more digital and building a culture of diversity

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PAFOW EUROPE ONLINE 28-30 APRIL

The conference world has been decimated by Covid-19, so a big shoutout to Al Adamsen, Barry Swales, Lara Osborne and the PAFOW team for quickly transitioning the PAFOW show in London from a traditional in-person event to a virtual conference from 28-30 April.

I'll be resuming my traditional role at PAFOW as co-chair with Al, albeit from the confines of my home office.

You can find out more about PAFOW Europe Online and how to join here, but with the program still coming together it's heartening to see that the likes of Josh Bersin, Madhura Chakrabarti, Patrick Coolen, Stacia Garr, Frida Polli and Adrian Medhurst are already confirmed alongside Al and me.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David is a globally respected writer, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As an Executive Director at Insight222, he helps global organisations create more cultural and economic value through the wise and ethical use of people data and analytics. Prior to joining Insight222 and taking up a board advisor role at TrustSphere, David was the Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM Watson Talent. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations embark upon and accelerate their people analytics journeys.