Long Term Investment

Good HR practices are a long term investment, there are no quick wins or guaranteed short term returns. If companies truly want to reap productive rewards from their employees, good HR practices are not discretionary spend, but an investment that should be protected at all costs.

It is disappointing therefore that in times of financial crisis that generally one of the first areas slashed are the HR programs that take years to embed into an organisation. All the previous investment and potential opportunity to improve the organisation are quickly dissolved. The ground to make up when the financial situation turns becomes even greater.

I was speaking with a friend the other day who quoted some recent research showing that companies that continued to invest in training and development of employees during a downturn were likely, when the cycle turns, to have growth 30 times greater than those companies that abandoned these practices in the downturn. This is not surprising as there is no ground to make up, and the continued investment during the tougher times will pay dividends.

Obviously in a financial crisis, companies need to reassess their financial spend and balance sheets. There are always opportunities to reduce discretionary spend. However, rather than completely abandon good HR practices, assess how the company uses these practices, and make sure that the benefactors are targeted, that your high performing employees are still being rewarded through training or development opportunities even in the tough times.

In a financial downturn, companies will still want to keep their best performers, and they will still want to be rewarded for their contribution – even if the rewards are not financially based.

Illegal Parking

I got a parking fine today, when I went to the local shopping centre to meet a friend I have not seen for a long time for lunch. I know everyone complains about parking fines but on this occassion I have 3 specific complaints.

Firstly – the car park is one of those “free” car parks for a certain period of time. What I did not know was that the period of time – has changed. For years it has been 3 hours free parking, but it appears that now that the local council has decided to do some major re-development in the area and parking spots are a premium, that the “free” period is now only 1 hour parking. My fault – I didn’t read the sign, but I have parked there a million times (and never for an hour – who can get there grocery shopping done in an hour). Obviously this is simply revenue generating activities – supply/demand thing going on.

Secondly, I should have listened to “the universe”. When my friend did arrive at the agreed meeting spot, she mentioned that she had seen a parking inspector marking cars in that very same parking yard and this had made her look at the sign which said that parking was for 1 hour – so we should really check. I was so keen to have lunch and catch up with her, that I convinced her that we’ll be fine.

We had a great lunch, and then walked back to our cars. Low and behold – there flapping under the windscreen wiper on the front of my car was “The Slip” which leads me to my third complaint.

The time on the ticket indicated that my car had been marked at 10.55 am, and the time I had been awarded the fine was at 12.13pm – 1 hour and 18 minutes. The thing though is that I was not even in the car park at 10.55. I was actually still in my car driving to the shopping centre because I listened to the 11 o’clock news, and was running late because I was supposed to meet my friend at 11am. So technically I was not illegally parked for the time period claimed on the ticket, although in reality by the time I got back to my car, I would have been parked for over an hour (but only just).

I will pay the fine because yes I did illegally park over the prescribed free period, but it was not at the time indicated by the phantom parking inspector. I would actually prefer “non-free” parking – in the long run it is so much cheaper – and I am sure raises more revenue than illegal free parking.

P.S. my friend didn’t have a ticket, obviously her spot had already been passed by the inspector before his/her rounds.

Lunch with my friend is priceless, I just hope the local council puts the 81 bucks to good use!

The new me, rings me

My mobile phone rang this morning with a number that seemed very familiar too me, but with no name connected to it. I am a little funny about answering the phone, if I don’t know who is calling – too many telemarketer, and slimy consultant experiences from the past. However, this morning I picked up – I wasn’t getting any negative vibes from the number.

It was only when I answered, that I realised that the number was my old work number and that it was the new me, that was ringing me. No wonder the phone number was familiar – it hasn’t even been two months since I left that old life behind. We talked about “stuff” briefly, when the new me said – “Well you know you will probably get the blame for everything over the next few months, but just to let you know that I would never do that”.

It is a sad indictment that in corporate life, we have this propensity to lay blame on those that are not in a position to defend for themselves. Obviously, I am already being blamed for stuff since my departure, and for me this is not unexpected. I actually would joke with people before leaving that it was only “x” weeks or “y” days before they could blame me for it. I had forefeited my rights of reply when I walked out of those corporate doors for the last time.

So at least for now, the old me has not been forgotten – any press is better than none. But it is sad that corporate politics will quickly diminish the work and efforts of those who have left, take those earlier decisions out of context, simply to pursue an agenda for a different time and space.

The guise of originality

Will the owner of originality, please step forward? I woke up this morning with a gripe about “Originality” – it is a word touted about all too often. In corporate life, I particularly found consultants prepared to describe their modus operandi as original, unique and wrapped around the silver bullet that would solve all my organisational problems. The problem with this was that, if you scratched just below the surface, this “original” perspective was the same old models rehashed and redrawn.

Perhaps, I am taking the meaning of “originality” too seriously but I think most developments in any field – be they human resources, science, engineering, music are evolved from something else that has come before, or a fusion of all that has gone into the mixing pot. Does this make the end result fundamentally original?

To synthesise disparate ideas or concepts into something new is an extremely creative process. The other night I was watching a documentary on “The Doors” and as much as their music was different at the time, what particularly interested me was the way in which they created their music by fusing together such different styles of world music that were floating around. At the time, their music was a unique combination of sounds and beat, but the ingredients were not original.

Yet as humans, we seem to have this endless individual desire to be different, to be unique, and to be original. Many of us are unwilling to reveal the true sources of our inspiration – perhaps we don’t even think too much about the actual process of creating, because to acknowledge that our idea was actually derived from something else, would that diminish our creative effort?

Personally, I think originality is a very rare and powerful event and as such should be celebrated. For me, it is perverse, when we credit imitations, rehashed models and ideas, blatant plagiarism with “originality” to market our wares and services.

It is just so unoriginal to claim “originality”.

A Rose by Any Other Name

The web is littered with learned commentary as to how to successfully manage projects and lead change; how to avoid the pit traps, and analysis as to why a project may fail. However amongst all that commentary, I have yet to find any consideration that a project is doomed for failure or marked with potential success depending on the project name.

Names are powerful things. As humans we name everything, if we can’t name “it” we struggle to understand “it”. As a team working on a particular project, coming up with a project and team name(s), gives us an initial sense of euphoria, a common platform, a stake in the ground. If the project works smoothly, we will proudly label everything in our office from our attire, to our screen save, to our coffee mugs with “THE NAME”.  If the project is not going according to plan, we find ways to ridicule “THE NAME”.  Some projects even struggle to get stakeholder engagement from the outset, because “THE NAME” has no credibility or dubious references.  We cannot do away with Project Names, sometimes the hidden code in the name, allows member of the organisational community to work on “secret squirrel business”

Some companies are obviously unconsciously aware that a project name is all important.  They develop project naming conventions to “scientifically” avoid the key issue that Project Names will give the project some sort of energy from the outset.  I once worked for a company that used the names of birds for all its projects.  All I suggest that if you intend to follow a similar path, using the names of birds that are on the extinct or endangered species list may not be a smart move.

However, there is also the risk that through naming a project, you end up with analysis paralysis.  It is not a good look, if the first project deadline has passed and you are still trying to work out a name.  Similarly doing a pseudo “brainstorming” session with the senior management is unlikely to deliver a creative solution.  They tend to stick with the colour of the company logo, or words that have zero degrees of separation from the project undertaking.  

I would love to hear from you, if you have any project names that in hindsight jinxed the “planned undertaking”.  I’ve started to collect some of mine on Random Project Names