31 May 2010
Successful Intentions Newsletter
Hi ,
Are Human Resources professionals being taken seriously post-GFC?
At a business breakfast I attended recently the question was asked, "what are the issues facing the uptake of team development in organisations today?" Discussion at our table circled around questions such as: How to define outcomes? How to link to ROI, ROE, lead and lag measures? How to get business colleagues to understand the investment in team development?
"But these are the wrong questions", I said.
They derive from the (sometimes bitter) experience that HR, L&D, OD, and People & Culture functions typically have to prove their existence and fight to demonstrate relevance. Their budgets are the first to be cut and often they're outsourced in part or completely.
Yet, it seems to me that the enterprise exists to support sustainable human being, not human doing. All business activity is now demonstrably interconnected in terms of capital flows, sovereign government interests, community and global survival. It no longer makes sense for people to serve a company which might adversely affect their own and others' being.
The current hierarchical power structures have reached their use-by date. Events from Enron to the GFC (and now the pan-European GFC-Mk II) have proven this. No single enterprise stands alone anymore. No one is immune from the effects of their actions.
Instead of the typical structure of distributed power from the CEO down we need a new model of the firm where the CEO is actually at the "bottom" providing servant leadership. At the "top" is a collaboration of counsellors who ensure alignment of business processes with sustainable benefits for all human beings. In such a model the HR function would exist at the core of meaningful business, not at the margins. It becomes a case of "build the sustainable philosophy and the business processes will come!'
If we accept the argument that companies exist solely to benefit their equity holders then we have a circular argument. The enterprise becomes a lumbering elephant tugged this way and that by a retinue of nervous riders, stumbling about in a dangerous forest under a moonless sky.
It may seem radically unreasonable to propose that organisations should be serving their people rather than people serving their organisations. Others have suggested a similar re-engineering of the employee-employer contract during times of historically unprecedented changes. And it may take a generational change for the message to sink in and become accepted as part of the wisdom of leadership.
Yet, there is evidence of a change in philosophy. Companies which fund their employees to go and build schools in Africa, or sponsor disabled or rehabilitated employees, or champion programs of kindness or compassion. Even the petrochemical companies are beginning to recognize the futility of steering geo-politics and are reckoning for a post-oil world.
But if we lose the polar bears in our lifetime then wise leadership is going to become a whole lot more meaningful for all of us!
Our company specializes in researching and delivering wise leadership practices in: Innovative intelligence, wise decision-making, managing change, team wisdom, resilience, and authentic leadership. Find out more here.
, what do you think? Have your say on my "Wisdom Circle" blog for musings, research, and applications of practical wisdom!
Keep your intentions clear,
Peter Webb
If you like this newsletter, please forward it to a friend (subscribe here).
Home |
Blog |
Manage subscription (Unsubscribe, change e-mail, text only)
