Organizations looking to truly break performance/innovation barriers and optimize their organizations leverage of talent need to do something few organizations ever do; they need to engage in battle with the other back office functions that make up the modern organization.
This past week I found myself fixated on an episode of Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs entitled Dirty Innovators. While the entire episode captivated me, it was a statement by the show’s host, Mike Rowe, that encouraged me to write this post. In wrapping up the show Mike Rowe said “most people don’t think like an innovator, they’re too busy staying within the lines.”
For anyone that has ever worked inside a decent sized organization, Mike Rowe’s statement should ring true. Lots of organizations talk about championing innovation, wanting speed and outside the box thinking, but in reality those same organizations erupt significant barriers to obtaining them.
One of the biggest barriers to implementing a world-class HR strategy isn’t the absence of tools to support such a function or a willingness of progressive practitioners to staff it, but rather a corporate environment not willing to let a progressive HR strategy do what it needs to do.
As an advisor, time and time again I have heard HR leaders exclaim “we can’t do that, IT will not support such a solution.” The list of functions with undocumented veto power over HR strategy seems to be nearly endless. In recent weeks I have heard stories of IT, PR, Finance, and even sales functions preventing the execution of HR strategies the leaders of said functions either disagreed with or didn’t understand. A growing source of strategy conflict seems to be social media councils preoccupied with preventing negative comments from being shared online versus leveraging social media tools to enhance customer service and workforce productivity. While it seems common for other functions to veto HR strategy, I can’t say I have ever encountered the opposite.
A few years ago while at an executive committee retreat for a major global company the CFO shared the following when discussing the corporate counsel’s role in organizational governance:
“It’s not the corporate counsel’s job to tell you what you cannot do; it’s their job to help you figure out how you can do what you need to do within the law.”
This should be the case for all back office functions inside the corporation, HR included. Back office functions exist to lend capability and capacity to the enterprise to accomplish work. That said, optimizing that capability and capacity requires each and every function to pursue strategies steeped in best practice. No function should veto another function's strategy simply because it makes execution of their strategy more difficult.
Nothing defines the capability and capacity of an organization to achieve more than the quality of the people that comprise the organization and the systems that let the organization successfully leverage the people’s motivation and skills. For far too long HR leaders have accepted being vetoed by other functions, but the current challenges facing organizations require that practice to change.
Master Burnett is the managing director of Dr. John Sullivan & Associates, an advisory services organization dedicated to emerging issue research, thought leadership, and talent management best practice evangelism. As a talent management strategy advisor, Master Burnett’s role is to partner with organizations to identify and develop innovative solutions to emerging talent issues that leverage the latest global thinking and technology. He has worked with leading organizations in more than 37 nations and is an avid proponent of taping the wisdom of crowds. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him via LinkedIn, or friend him on Facebook.
Image: Amanda M Hatfield
