Communities at Work

What is place at work for communities? 

 

With our workplaces becoming more ‘virtual’ and ‘spread out’, there’s a fair chance that those with similar skills/specialties may not have opportunity to be co-located and or meet frequently.

 

Communities can be an effective way to ensure that these common interest/skill/specialty groups work towards a common goal.

 

There are a few principles that might help in ensuring an effective community:

·       Community needs to shape, drive, and own its agenda.  Hence it is important that most of the planning and execution is done by team/sub-team members.

·       Community will have need for resources, organization champions, and/or alignment with work in organization. It helps if community has sponsorship of a senior leader.

·       Way community functions is more in realm of group functioning than of subject matter knowledge. Having a HR partner who can provide a SME perspective on group functioning can help.

·       The scope of work needs to be relevant for individual team members. Outcomes of work should be something which team members can implement in some form or the other when they go back to their day jobs.

What’s been your experience with effective communities?

 

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Sourav

 

A Good Read – Mc Gregor!

Well! When you come across a good read, you can’t let go off the book.

Douglas Mc Gregor is known for his work on Theory X and Y. I have been reading his seminal work ‘The Human Side of Enterprise’.

For the first half, the book trudges along. Like me, if you have read about and have some kind of a grasp of motivation theories then this part may not provide you any new insight.

In second half, the book really lights up. Mc Gregor delves into application of Theory Y in different contexts – staff-line relationships, development of managers, leadership style, HR processes (incentive plans, performance systems), and effective/non-effective teams.

I can safely say it is one of the best HR works I have read in recent times. Given I am in midst of partnering new leaders- I took away really valuable inputs on ‘staff-line’ relationships.

Certainly recommend this book. Do give it a read!

 

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Sourav

Organizational Change

There are times when change is more top down driven and the perceived need for it may not be immediately obvious within organization, e.g. – when change is necessitated primarily by changes in environment and there’s a quick need for response.

How do you ensure that organizational change efforts stay on track during such times?

A few things can help:

·       A shared understanding of what are change outcomes being targeted. These need to be something that’s easily understood.

·       A deeper level understanding of what’s needed to change at individual level. If you feel powerless in entire change, then you just flow along.

·       Frequent communication on progress against change, and frequent re-iteration of change objectives.

·       Some celebration. Organization change can be hard. Celebrations when key milestones are reached can be a motivation booster.

 

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Sourav

HRBP - Partnering Leaders

In a HRBP role, you partner senior leaders. Why should they see you as a valuable partner?

If as a HRBP you are thinking about what will give you success or satisfaction, you are on wrong track. At best you will be tolerated.  You need to think ‘what’s right for business?’ and need to be perceived as ‘thinking about business’.

As a HR partner, you are going to have sometimes sensitive/confidential conversations with leaders. These conversations can only happen in a ‘safe space’.   Hence think of how to build ‘trust’ in partnership.

With different leaders, different styles of partnering work. Some like to use you as a sounding board, some prefer getting recommendations, some are more action oriented, some prefer thinking through problems before acting.  You need to spend time with leaders in various forms – individual meetings, staff meetings, town halls, etc  - to start understanding what style of partnership might work with him/her.

These are some of principles I find relevant when I partner leaders.

What are principles you use? What’s been your experience?

 

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Sourav