Why the HR industry needs to 'blow up the table'

Let's get straight to it.

Back in 2018, as part of researching HR industry trends for my first book, I attended a leading North American HR Innovation conference. It was facilitated by Mark Edgar and Naomi Titleman .

The conference was aimed at the most innovative HR practitioners in the HR industry and during one collective Q&A session, I grabbed the mic and wanted to find out how innovative these wonderful people truly were.

I shared some insights about the HR industry from my experience of working with hundreds of HR functions around the world over a 25 year plus career being part of HR transformations. I offered up insights that many in the HR industry (and in that room) knew to be true but didn’t openly voice:

And that's when the moniker 'blow up the table' was born and used to test how 'innovative' the attendees (and their ideas) really were.

Let me explain:

20-25 years ago the HR industry was typically perceived as 'transactional' in nature (benefits processing, advice on vacation accruals, pink slips etc). During this time, HR did not really have what I refer to as 'a seat at the table

10-15 years ago, the HR industry began being involved in strategic level conversations with CEOs and CFOs about talent management, workforce mapping, projection and planning. It was around this time that HR began to have a 'seat at the table' as their role started to evolve into a more 'transformational' one

Fast forward to the last 5 years and the rise of HR industry titles such as CHRO, Chief People Officer, VP of HR and now HR is sitting alongside other C suite peers at the 'head of the table' playing a key role in strategic direction setting

I'd argue that as an industry, HR is now at the 'head of the table' with its C suite peers.

After a brief pause, I said in a soft tone:

'You're at the forefront of innovation in HR and 'you're still assuming it’s a table'.

?

On display (perhaps unwittingly) in this conference was what I refer to as 'HR industry groupthink' and a real concern for 'biting the hand that feeds us', as well as a lack of truly appreciating divergent perspectives.

To that extent, true divergent thinking was discouraged, although the conference did adopt the moniker ‘blow up the table’ to gauge the level of innovation being generated by attendees for the rest of the conference…

Fast forward to today as I write this newsletter edition - as an industry, HR now gets to choose whether the future of HR remains as a table or something else…

Since that conference in 2018, we've experienced what I refer to as the 'largest global human capital experiment in history (Covid-19) - this is the time, right now, that every HR practitioner in the HR industry gets to ‘blow up the table’.

My invitation to you is to ask yourself as an industry, as a practitioner, or as someone who interacts with those in the HR industry, how can identifying, cultivating and embracing people who think differently benefit what you're doing?

In recent research conducted by 麦肯锡 , they illustrate how HR is increasingly in a critical strategic position to build the organization of the future. Having a clear purpose of why HR exists is core to this and will enable this continued transformation. To achieve this, however, McKinsey advocates that HR must 'look in the mirror', arguing that HR must first transform itself as an industry.

When asked in the research what their top 3 priorities were over the next 18-24 months, over 25% of HR leaders say 'they are prioritizing initiatives that strengthen agility and identity'. Whilst its applaudable to see HR begin to reimagine its role, much more needs to be done to make the HR industry 'fit for future purpose' and be at the forefront of championing ongoing innovation.

Consider this - a recent report from the Financial Conduct Authority recognised diversity of thought as a fundamental factor required to tackle the complex and evolving issues across the financial sector and wider society.

If, as an HR industry, you are truly open to looking in the mirror, I'd invite you to try the following:

1. Gather a range of representative roles from within the industry and ask yourself individually and as a group' how can we build leader level identification and recruitment systems and processes that seek out and embrace cognitively diverse candidates'
2. Using the outputs, put together a one page 'manifesto' of what that end state looks like - this gives you a blueprint for how, as an industry, you can evolve your leader identification and recruitment systems and processes
3. Review this manifesto every 6 months by practicing 'divergent thinking' on your own industry

Or when you next attend HR industry 'roundtables', forums and industry wide conferences, look for opportunities to hold peers accountable for seeking out divergent thinking and ways to 'blow up the table'.

Cognitive diversity in general is an emerging topic and even a newer concept in the HR industry, with a growing number of HR practitioners aware of it at a high level.?

To fully understand, embrace and act on it will require those in the HR industry to be open to seeing, owning and addressing their own individual, organizational and industry biases in this area.

Being aware of cognitive diversity will be critical to an organization's continued ability to innovate, adapt to change and disrupt in the future as it identifies and recruits new leaders.?

Some closing thoughts

I found research that was conducted by Scottish Widows (a leading UK based financial service group) and the 英国巴斯大学 to explore the impact that cognitive diversity in leadership at boardroom level has on 'long term value creation for the companies they invest in and their customers'.

The authors concluded that this is an emerging topic of importance and yet few organizations know how to address ‘diversity of thought’ during their talent recruitment processes.?

Pew Research Center estimates there are approximately 15 million managers in the US, as well as almost 11 million millennial-level managers who are new to their roles. Millennials now form almost 53 million of the total US workforce with almost 2 billion worldwide

Future leaders will be more disruptive than the current generation of leaders in our organizations and they will also expect to be more proactively involved in how they are identified and recruited into your organization.

They also think and act differently from today’s leaders, so it will be critical to that the HR industry is open to evolving leader identification and systems if organizations wish to attract and retain these future leaders.

If your current leader identification and recruitment systems are not set up for embracing cognitively diverse leader level candidates, or you're interested in chatting about any of the content and research in this edition, reach out via LinkedIn or my website for a confidential discussion and I'll help you navigate this emerging topic.

Please feel free to share what we're doing here with those in your network who might benefit from it.

Thanks for reading this far. If you or your organization needs any help with preparing for the future, please email me at [email protected]

Cheers

Paul Mac