Optimizing Work Management

HR organizations are being asked to become strategic business partners yet at the same time do things more efficiently – and, of course, these two items are often mutually exclusive.    Compounding the situation, current HR technology environments are often a barrier and not an enabler of achieving these goals.  A common complaint we hear from companies regarding their HR technology is that employees don’t use it much.   Why?  It is too complicated, fragmented – to many URLs, user Ids, passwords.  If the system isn’t used ROI suffers.& more »

I have never seen anybody become good at strategy without practice. It may happen, but I have never seen it. I doubt that I will see it, because strategy is a discipline. Like any discipline, you have to believe in it and work at it to become skilled; both mindset and effort are required to make progress and become adept at the strategy.

The word agile became a business buzzword with the publication of The Agile Manifesto over ten years ago. The Manifesto pled for a flexible, iterative approach to software development as a faster, more efficient alternative to the classic waterfall method, with its rigid sequence of cascading phases.
The word has since been used to describe a variety of flexible and nimble management approaches. Thus, agile has come to mean the opposite of bureaucratic (it’s probably as good as any, as there is no other official antonym for bureaucratic).

A little bureaucracy can be both positive and necessary. Aside from the obvious benefit of helping to ensure legal compliance, a measure of bureaucratic structure is necessary for organizational life on a large or even medium scale. The greater the organization’s size and degree of centralized authority, the greater the level of bureaucracy necessary.

Even many proponents of agile software development confess that there are legitimate needs for the more bureaucratic waterfall method. For example, large enterprise ERP deployments would literally disintegrate into chaos using agile methods.

Yet, no one would deny that bureaucratic processes can waste time and slow things down. And, in most organizations (yours?), HR is a promulgator of bureaucratic inefficiency. Clearly, there is a balance to be struck. That’s what Agile HR is meant to accomplish.

Technical workers--analytical, engineering, mathematical, research and development, scientific, and technology employees--look for different things from their employers. Understanding these differences is essential for attracting and retaining these workers who are highly sought after, but in short supply.