I love and hate playing the game of golf. There is something inherently peaceful about walking around a carefully landscaped course and there is something inherently vengeful and ridiculous about trying to get a small white ball into a cup 300 yards away. When I lived a bit closer to my dad, we’d play quite a bit in the season.
Now there is something in golf called a mulligan. After you take a terrible shot, you are told to take your mulligan and try again. With the pressure off and the mistake made, I’ve typically done considerably better after my mulligans. I remember one memorable shot as I was lined up to go over the water hazard and on to the green. I lined up, took my shot, topped the ball and it rolled into the pond. I went down to the pond, grabbed my ball, took it back to the spot and shot again, this time hitting the downhill side of the green several yards away from the hole.
A Work Story
I believe HR is in a tough place and in need of innovation and reinvention. I also know that change doesn’t come from people who talk about it but from people who execute and initiate. And when you have ingrained systems with a stake in keeping the status quo, execution is the most difficult thing in the world. Think I am joking? Just ask President Obama (or, if your politics prefer, President Reagan).
HR’s situation is the same. We’ve progressed down a path decreased relevance and stature in organizations. The people who worked the staffing functions in the olden days would be ashamed at some of the disconnects between HR and the organization. The need for change is bigger than ever but the ability to change is seen as less possible due to those ingrained systems driving organizations today.
What Does That Mean?
HR needs a mulligan. Or we need to at least explore the possibility of what we would do if we had a mulligan. That’s what Talent Camp (being organized by the great Susan Burns) is all about. A dozen or so diverse minds coming together to tackle that question. We’ve got practitioners, recruiters, consultants and technologists all thinking about these issues. For a couple of days, we are going to focus on thinking about it and brainstorming frameworks, solutions and answering bigger questions than we can do ourselves.
The Challenge For Me
I consider this a personal development exercise for myself and I’ve rarely done much personal development in the past five years. For me, doing this blog, talking to people about talent and technology and going to conferences? That’s the easy part. Being deeply introspective, strategic and thoughtful about future direction? That’s still something I am working on making a more natural part of my daily routine.
The Challenge For Us
I really envision this process to produce action. Whether that means a written manifesto, framework, specific action points or bringing other key influencers to the table, I am game. If we can be renewed and changed in our processes and our actions going forward, that would be a big step in the right direction too. Here are a couple great posts on the subject from attendees:
- Talent Camp and the BIG “What If?” by Susan Burns
- The Future of HR, Susan Burns and Talent Camp by Jeff Hunter
- #talentcamp by Steve Fogarty
Let me also just say that, very selfishly I might add, I really like that this is showcasing some of the great Northwest talent professionals. We so rarely get events out this direction (and a lack of Fortune 100 companies certainly doesn’t help) so this is a nice change of pace.
Looking forward to exploring this camp and the ideas that come out of it on this blog in the coming weeks!
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