Learn from the "leavers"

In the last post, I discussed how culture eats strategy for breakfast, which is almost a well-accepted mantra in the business world. If I elaborate on that train of thought, then I believe we can almost certainly say that culture eats processes for lunch and dinner. Not only because processes are the consequence of a strategy, but also because we even look at the theoretic idea of a process versus the practical application of a process.

A strategy is an overarching plan for an organization on how to achieve its business goals. From the strategy, we derive tactical and operational plans and create processes to ensure that we achieve the goals of those plans as efficiently as possible.  

When we look at the general idea of a workplace, we see that the overarching framework for a lot of workplaces is very similar. People travel to an assigned geographical location, have a time that they start and finish, have colleagues they work together with, and collectively they work towards an objective. Apart from that, professions differ in a lot of different ways. A police officer has a distinctively different set of tasks and responsibilities than a receptionist or software developer. Still, they have a lot in common too. One major thing that most jobs have in common is that they must deal with a lot of ambiguity. Whether you ask a police officer, receptionist, or software developer what they do on a daily basis, a lot of the answers boil down to a variant of “every day brings new unforeseen challenges”. It is hard to describe daily activities as they can vary immensely. No day is the same. Still, each one of those people knows what is expected of them in various situations. They know how to behave, even when the situation is new to them.  

Structures & Processes

One way of dealing with this problem is to build processes that give people guidelines on how to act in different situations. These processes are good to show other organisations on how you intend to run your businesses. A prime example of this is ISO certifications. Huge amounts of documentation on how an organisation has set up its processes to be able to guarantee a certain level of standardization and quality. But even the detailed documentation of ISO certifications leaves room for interpretations and ambiguity and requires employees to be adaptive and creative. Do not get me wrong; ISO certification can be critical for organizations to improve both the quality and efficiency of their work. I merely argue that it is not the ultimate tool for guiding your employees in their everyday work. These are often sophisticated texts and process flows to guide individuals on how to deal with complex issues, hidden in manuals or quality support systems. Only a small proportion of people have read these manuals and to make matters worse the theory always slightly differs from reality. This means that we need to give our people more guidelines on how to act, even with ambiguity and ever-changing situations.

Culture to the rescue

This is where culture comes in. I have already extensively talked about how decision-making, culture, and empowerment are correlated here. But besides taking decisions, we also behave in a certain way as people. Our behaviours are shaped by motivations, that which drives us individually, and by what is acceptable in a group, that which drives us collectively. As I am not a psychologist, I will not speculate too much here on how individual motivations are shaped, but as an HR specialist, I can tell you that group behaviours form and are shaped by company culture. In other words, as a company we cannot determine the motivations of an individual person, however, we can influence the overarching culture of our organisation. The culture that we create will in turn influence group behaviours, which in turn will influence individual behaviours and decisions.  

By creating the right culture, we can create the right group behaviours which will provide guidelines for individuals on how to behave and make decisions. This is the set of guidelines that help people make consistent decisions despite ambiguity and ever-changing situations. A good example of this is the cultural value of Facebook “Move fast and break things”, which got adopted by a lot of small fast-growing companies. Why? Simple: these companies often lack the structure to properly guide their employees through their decision-making process. A company value like that shows your employees that they should not be afraid and wait too long with making decisions. They are rather encouraged to rely on their own strengths and “Move fast and break things” instead of “Going slow and steady”.  

Although I am not arguing that this is a good cultural value (Facebook had to roll back its original bold value), it is a clear guideline and message to people on how to act in unclear situations that demand adaptability and creativity. That is something that processes can never give your employees. Processes can only help you with the predictable, but culture can help you with the unpredictable – and remember it is the case for most jobs that “every day brings new unforeseen situations”.  

‍

Change management is important. We are living in a vibrant ever-changing world where what we call new today will be tomorrow’s yesterday’s news. Change will come more and more often, so it is important to have the leaders who how to deal with change.  

Change has been a part of everyday life for centuries. However, in the 20th and 21st century, with a global 24-hours economy, change seems to be a faster reoccurring process than ever before without any sign of this process reversing. Knowing that, you know that change will come to your organisation as well, sooner or later. You should therefore be prepared to have the right leadership-skills in your company to drive home certain changes. Why leadership? Because the success of change does not depend on which software tool you acquired, which consultants have advised you, or which market research drove you to change. The success of change is dependent on whether or not you can get your employees to accept and work with change.  

The necessity of a good story

The first step of creating leadership that knows how to deal with change, is that the leadership needs to understand the foundation of the change itself. Leaders and managers need to have a crystal-clear idea of why change is necessary and how it can help the company to achieve its vision, mission and goals. There should be no question or doubt in the mind of a leader or manager about upcoming change, or this might affect the effectiveness of the implementation. A newly implemented project or change often fails because a lack of managerial commitment through understanding the change and translating this to employees.  

Once a leader or manager thoroughly understands a change in the company and how it can improve the company, the leader or manager needs to connect this to the goals of the company. Change or improvement itself is not that inspiring. Your vision, mission and goals are tools to create inspiration. So, to convey an inspiring message about change which shows commitment and has the capability to persuade people into adhering to change. The manager or leader needs to show how this change or improvement will lead to the accomplishment of the goals of the company.  

Now that the manager or leader understands why the change is necessary and can formulate the argument for change, connected to the goals of the company, it is time to communicate this to your employees. The communication of change is often not done by a simple power point presentation in a singular meeting. You will need to address the upcoming change on a couple occasions, not only because some changes are quite big and therefore complicated to explain, but also to let change ‘sink in’. Give your employees the opportunity to overthink change, to understand what it will mean for them, and to provide an opportunity for their feedback to perhaps even add value to your idea for change. So, plan in a couple of meetings, coffee breaks, group discussions or presentations to bring across your points, because remember: it does not only take effort to convince people, it also takes time to get them on board.  

Communication in this sense is a two-way street. You should be in close contact with your employees throughout every stage of change. This brings us to our second, and perhaps most important, aspect of change: your people.  

People

Change is not natural for most people. Most people work out of routine and experience. It is not so much that they are stuck in their old ways, but it is more that they know what works for them right now. Therefore, change can be scary and spark certain concerns. It is important to address these concerns because they can be a root cause for unhappiness, demotivation and stress, even if, in hindsight, there was nothing to be concerned about in the first place. Concern itself is, although very important, relatively unharmful for your employees’ wellbeing. A side-effect of concern, however, is stress. Stress is very harmful for the wellbeing of your employees. Not only for their individual mental wellbeing, but also for the atmosphere on the work floor. Stressed employees have a tendency to emphasize the negative and ignore the positive, which deteriorates the work atmosphere in the long run. This should give you more than enough reasons to address concerns fast and continuously.  

So, from the moment you announce change, also simultaneously provide opportunities for your employees to express their concerns. Not only because you want to be a good boss and listen to your employees, but if you can even take away their concerns and show them the advantages, then you can transform those previously concerned employees to be your champions of change. Don’t see concerns as a problem. They are a sign that people care. Concerns are even an opportunity to transform concerned employees into change champions.  

Another component that you might encounter when working with your employees towards change is resistance. Resistance is the natural result of experience. People know how they have to work from the past and are cautious to give up their usual ways with which they have familiarized themselves. This is unavoidable and there is generally not much more to it than to engage with resistance. Debates during meetings are a good way to engage with resistance and just like concern, you need to either take resistance away or you can use it to create something better. Resistance in this sense is a useful tool to optimize change. The people on the work floor have the best idea of what they encounter in their daily work, so if there is something which will not work according to their views, then you need to address that. Use the experience of your employees in such a way to optimize your change. Do not just let them be idle bystanders, but show them that their input is valued and that it can improve the process of change. So instead of seeing resistance as a nuisance, accept and embrace it. It is a sign that people care and an opening to let experience shape and finetune the planned change. After all, your employees are the experts on your daily business, so use their experience to criticize and finetune your ideas for change. Their insights will drive improvements, but most importantly also the acceptance and engagement towards the upcoming change.  

Accountability and adjustments

Do we get everybody on board? Good. Have all the concerns been addressed? Good. Has the resistance been met and has everybody had a chance to ventilate their criticism? Good. So, then we are done here, right? Wrong.  During the process of change there can still be topics where your employees do not agree with the decisions being made. That is a natural part of the process. In this sense it is important to remain critical as a leader, also towards the decisions being made. If something is not working out, then this has to be addressed and the people involved have to be held accountable. This is not only important to ensure that there are no rushed decisions being taken, but also to uphold the legitimacy of your managerial team. Think about it his way, if managers consistently take wrong decisions and are not being hold accountable then this will not only upset your employees, but it will also undermine the general legitimacy and credibility of your entire management staff. Mistakes can be made, decisions can turn out to be wrong, that is a normal part of change. However, in this sense it should also be normal to hold the responsible people accountable. From that point onwards it is important not to let pride and stubbornness take over from reason and responsibility. If a decision for change turns out to be a mistake, it is time for an adjustment of the original change. This in and of itself is a new point of change in the organisation so it is again important to consider all the points made above when it comes to leadership.  

Conclusion

Change is a constant process. New decisions are made daily so it is important to have leaders who know how to deal with change. This starts with understanding change and knowing how to communicate it to your employees. They will subsequently respond with concerns and resistance. These are, however, not a bad thing. They are a sign that people care and they provide opportunities for improving and finetuning change. If it turns out that some decisions in change are not working, then you need to hold the right people accountable and take adjustive action. At this point, you are preparing new change, so it is important to again go over all the important points related to leadership and change management.  

‍

Times are changing, not the products, not the machines, but our human capital is our unique selling point. So why then is the most important function in a company not occupied by a HR-professional?

In this blog I want to open a new discussion. The highest functions in companies are often occupied with professionals who often have their specialization in a certain occupation, these are often specialities in: sales, productivity, the product itself, and sometimes even finances.

However, it is very rare that we see an HR professional on the highest seat of a company (read: never). Why is that? I would argue that HR has the most important role in a company in the 21st century and therefore it only seems natural that somebody with HR-affinity holds the highest office.  

The highest office – a brief history

Historically the highest functions in previous societies were either ranked by ‘birth right’ or age. A prince was born to be a king and a farmer’s son was born to be a farmer. Additionally, the elder brother (because in those times we are not even talking about equality between genders) often held the highest regard in the family.

When we transformed from a feudal society to a capitalist society our order of who holds the highest function and why also changed. Birth right and age made place for private property and capital. In the beginning of our capitalist society, it was the people who were most skilled in their profession (artisans, craftsmen and guildsmen) who held the highest offices in their organizations.

With the industrial revolution in full force, these professionals had to make place for the people who knew most about machines and production. After the second world war these mass-producing professionals had to make place for productivity professionals. Average output and efficiency became the drive of many companies to outperform the competition.

Shortly thereafter the golden age of capitalism required professionals who knew how to handle flows of money. The highest occupation became related to financial specialization. Fast forwarding to current day, the highest office is often related to specialization in terms of sales, productivity, the product itself or finance. CEO positions are, more often than not, occupied by somebody who has a technical skill.

What is important?

Let’s do a recap, what have we had so far; we picked our leaders based upon: birth right, age, artisanry, skills related to production, productivity, finance, sales and the product itself. Are we missing something? Well, I believe we do.

Now in the 21st century human capital seems to be the most important asset for most companies. The people who walk in our hallways, sell and produce our products, facilitate finance, logistics and purchasing, it’s the people who are the beating heart of an organisation. They are our unique selling points. That has not gone unnoticed. More and more companies are busy trying to retain and develop their talent, and more and more companies are started to provide the means of doing so. Especially in niche industries, any industry remotely dealing with software and industries which require specific skills (I think this captures our entire economy), employers know how important it is to retain and develop their talent.

From this I can only conclude one thing, the most important focus of our companies now should be the people working in them. This means that we need leaders and CEO’s who not only understand HR, but who are also proficient in the HR world.

Shifting focus

Why would you go through the trouble of finding a CEO who has a focus on HR? Why do we require such emphasis? Well, because every time before us also required change and new ideas based upon what was important at that time. Now we entered the era wherein the most important part of our company is based on our people and their, often irreplaceable, talents. Society is focussed on letting each and everybody develop their talent to maximise our output. Schools, universities, training centres, they all know the importance of a development focussed approach. Therefore, it is time that companies adopt the same focus, which requires the same type of leaders.

It is therefore important that our future CEOs not just understand a recruitment process, but that they are able to build up an entire talent acquisition strategy. That they are not only able to see the value of teambuilding exercises, but that they understand how to shape and create cultural change. That they are not only concerned with training their employees to stay up to date with technologies, but that they can shape trajectory and development plans to provide opportunities for growth.

In short, it does not suffice anymore that our leaders know and do the basics. It is time that HR takes its rightful place in the centre of a company whose main unique selling point is its people. It is time that we accept that the centre stage of our time belongs to HR and development, but that also means that it is time for our HR professionals to step up to the plate. It is not enough to stand in line and to ‘offer service when asked’, HR departments need to transform themselves from administrators to proactive managers.

We need to find value which we can contribute to our employers. Find cultural problems and solve them, develop training and development strategies and empower our co-workers to be co-champions. It is only by doing so that HR will be lifted to strategic importance and that we get leaders who understand and are proficient in the realm of HR.

In conclusion

For me it is only clear that the next generation of new leaders has a background in HR. We are broadly agreeing that our human capital is in the widest sense the most important aspect of our company. We are recruiting, coaching, training and developing our employees, but to truly stand out for our employees, HR needs to be lifted to strategic importance. Therefore, I believe that we need leaders who understand this importance and have the capabilities to do so.

‍