What's Your Question for the CHRO?

This week I'm on my way to New York City to attend and co-present along with Trish McFarlane at the Conference Board's Senior Human Resources Executive Conference. The Senior Human Resources Conference this year has as its theme The Future of Work: Growth, Innovation, and People. The event takes place tomorrow, Tuesday November 15th, and Wednesday November 16th.

The Conference Board has organized a phenomenal set of sessions presented by a cross-section of  the most accomplished Human Resources leaders from some of the world's largest organizations. Just a few of the companies that will be presenting their perspectives, philosophies, and strategies for adapting to this new world of work are Nike, Pitney Bowes, Abbott Laboratories, Boeing, American Express, and more. 

With the really ambitious theme of 'The Future of Work', Trish and I plan to outline and discuss some of the ways organizations can and are leveraging social tools to foster growth, development, innovation, and give themselves an edge in an incredibly challenging and competitive market.

Trish and I are looking forward to attending and presenting, and if you could not make it to New York City to attend in person, you'll want to follow along virtually on Twitter on hashtag #TCBSRHR, and look for reports here, and on Trish's HR Ringleader blog. 

But perhaps the best thing about the Senior HR Executive Conference is the unique and fantastic opportunity to meet, connect, and talk about the important issues facing some of the most senior Human Resources leaders at some of the largest companies in the world today. There are few events, at least ones that have agreed to let me attend, that offer this kind of access.

So since I get to spend a couple of days in this kind of company, I'll put it out there to you faithful readers.

If you could get a few minutes with the CHRO of a Fortune 500 company, what would you like to ask? What are the burning questions or comments you'd like to pass on? What do you think these senior HR leaders need to know?

Please share your ideas and comments, I promise I'll do my best to get the questions asked, and I'll share the answers I receive here.

Notes From the Road - #1 - Technical Instructions

This is the first in what I hope will be an ongoing series of quick dispatches from the trail - things I pick up from airports, hotels, cabs, meetings - anywhere really, in hopes that at least some of the observations will be interesting and even worthwhile. And also, since being out on the road for work usually throws off the schedule and gives me less time to worry about the little blog here, these Notes from the Road pieces have a internal timer set at 15 minutes. Whatever ideas, no matter how half-baked or thinly developed, get the 'Publish' treatment at the 15-minute mark.  

Ready, set, go. Fifteen minutes starts now.

So if you spend any time in hotel rooms you've probably came up against the scourge of many a traveler - the 'in-room coffee maker'. These tiny, devious machines are notorious for being impossible to operate, usually having a series of cryptic line drawings that pass for operating instructions, producing horrible coffee, and generally leading to a disappointing experience overall.Coffee!

I've had many a run-in with these little devils, and two days ago made a gigantic mess by overfilling the machine and spilling hot coffee all over the place, (sorry Aloft Hotel). So this morning when I cautiously approached the in-room coffee maker at the Sheraton in Reston, VA, I was stunned and grateful to see the little instruction card you see on the right of this post propped up in front of the machine.

Why are these technical instructions so effective?

1. They are written in plain language. No jargon, no weird or awkward phrases. They are written like someone would tell you how to use the machine.

2. They address common concerns without condescending to the user. The pod did seem too big to fit in the machine, but it worked just fine.

3. They are dirt simple. Making in-room coffee should be easy. And it almost never is. But by combining a well-designed machine with a just-right set of instructions, (and some quality coffee as well), the entire experience was positive.

Simple, simple, simple. Don't over think your messages, instructions, communications. Write like you'd speak to people, like adults, and like adults that are not necessarily experts in your wonderful new technology or process.

Well done Sheraton. 

That's 15 minutes, (give or take), and I am out.

Just Because You Can... You Know the Rest

A video clip of the comedian Louis C.K. bemoaning social media and Twitter as being 'awful' made the rounds on the internet in the last few days, where the funnyman has a go at the service, and the kind of shallowness that underpins much of the activity on Twitter and many other social networks. Initially my reaction was that the routine was kind of funny, but that it also was a little narrow-minded; after all, for every silly and insipid update on Twitter one can also find examples of progressive, authentic, and meaningful applications of the service for business, community, civic, and other benefits.Why can't I have a Google Plus Page? Why?

Social networks are altogether a personal experience, and we all run the risk of gross oversimplification by assuming our experiences are somehow indicative or predictive of anyone else's experiences. So if Louis C.K. or your Mom, or your CEO tries Twitter and finds it 'stupid' or 'awful', well all that really proves is just that, and while their conclusions are perfectly rational and reasonable, they shouldn't matter to anyone else. 

Who cares if Louis C.K. thinks Twitter is stupid? No one should. Even if he is possibly right.

But one thing Louis did say in the video does have merit, the social media take on the old advice of 'Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should'. 

I was thinking about this late last night when I discovered that some friends and colleagues had opted in to the new capability Google had released for it's new social platform, and created new Google Plus pages for their businesses or blogs. It hit me, that I too should have a Google Plus page for my blog or for the HR Happy Hour Show.

So I raced over to Google Plus to stake another claim to a tiny portion of the internet, and much to my frustration and confusion, I was not able to create either of the new Google Plus pages I wanted. No real reason, just some unexplained 'Unable to create page. Try again later' message from the great Goog as soon as I clicked the 'Create Page' button.

I kept trying, maybe four of five more times, before giving up in a ticked-off huff. Never mind that I have no real idea or plan for a Google Plus page for the blog or for the show. Never mind that I hardly even go on to Google Plus right now. Never mind I have a million other things to do and don't really need to add 'Google Plus page administration' to the list.

Nope, forget all that. Google Plus pages are there. And darn it, I had to have mine too.

Finally I (sort of) snapped out of it and quit trying to create something I don't really need, don't have time for, won't help me write better posts or have better radio shows, and won't really accomplish much of anything except give Google Plus a little bit more of my time and attention.

The lesson in this little tale? None, really. My experience and conclusions are valid only for me. Just like it doesn't matter if Louis C.K. thinks Twitter is stupid, it doesn't matter that I felt like a doofus trying to set up Google Plus pages. It might make a ton of sense and hold a lot of value for you. Your mileage will vary.

But the ancient advice is still valid though - just because we can, doesn't mean we have to, or even that we should.

And Louis C.K. does use Twitter.

And I probably will try again to create those stupid Google Plus pages. 

Just because it is good advice, doesn't mean we know how to follow it.

Yes! Automation! Now let's hope the volume picks up

This weekend while perusing the Human Resources news and headlines, (in the almost unusable 'new and improved' Google Reader), I came across this story from the Wisconsin State Journal:What's the URL again?

City's Job Application Process Goes Online.

The 'city' in the headline is Madison, the capital of Wisconsin. Madison has a population of about 230K, and employs about 3,000 or so people in a number of professional, technical, service, and administrative positions. And the linked story describes Madison's transition to a new system for posting available jobs and for accepting job applications.

While in late 2011, a city and employer of that stature and size to finally move to an automated online job application process might paint them as being a little late to the HR and Recruiting technology party, it still is a move that should be recognized and congratulated. Progress is progress, and it stands to reason that whatever the new technologies being implemented would have to be an improvement over what was likely a combination of paper, email, and disconnected databases that would have been used to keep track of job openings and applications.

So being the curious guy that I am, and interested in checking out the new applicant tracking system and process, I hit up the City of Madison's Human Resources and Employment page here. If you visit the page you will see a normal, if uninspiring career information page, with links to the different areas of employment, pages to get additional information, and a front and center 'Welcome' message that is kind of too long, (about 300 words), and does not really do anything to 'sell' the city as an employer.

But to check out the newly designed and launched online application system, I actually had to perform a search for open jobs, to see the search functions, how the open jobs present, how the registration and application process would work - things the average HR Tech geek finds fascinating. So I clicked the link titled 'Job Openings' to do what I figured was a 'blind search', one with no filters or screens entered so as to return all the open jobs at the City.

The new system immediately returned the list of open jobs. All one of them, an opening for a 'Streets Superintendent' with a pay range from $84,616 - $114,231 - not a bad gig at all. But that was the only job listed on the site. Pretty disappointing even for me, who only wanted to check out the new system and process, imagine what a real Madison, Wisconsin job seeker must have thought after reading all about the new online technology, and how it would be sure to streamline and improve the job application process. Streamline and automate? For one entire open job?

I get that times are really hard, particularly for cash-strapped cities and towns. And eventually, hopefullly, the City of Madison will soon be able to resume more 'normal' hiring for a 3,000 employee organization. But after reading about the new system and process only to find that the shiny new process is essentially useless, (unless you are a potential new Streets Superintendent), you're definitely left a little disappointed and perhaps even angry.

New systems for online job application and posting aren't free, and installing a new one, and then issuing press releases and statements indicating the same, at a time when there is almost no practical application for the system strikes me as a little unwise. Let's hope the new system was put in place at a downtime in hiring so that it will be ready and have all the bugs ironed out for when things turn around.

Until then, Madison you better make sure each and every candidate for Streets Superintendent gets the A-treatment. 

The Invented Crisis

Many years back when a few friends and I were plugging away deep in the bureaucracy of a massive American corporation, occasionally the lunchtime conversations would veer from fantasy football to strategies for how we might get ahead and progress our careers, (and earnings), in such a large organization where it was not always easy to get noticed for doing good work.Crisis? - Stay on the Line

Then as now, simply showing up on time, getting your job done quietly and efficiently, and not drawing attention to yourself might have been a little more welcome an approach to career management in the eyes of most of our managers, but to us, it never seemed like a strategy that would adequately separate you from the army of similar looking, sounding, and performing staffers that had the same aspirational ambitions as you did. Back then for sure, remaining anonymous would probably only guarantee you one thing, you'd definitely stay anonymous.

One guy in the group my colleagues eventually settled on a personal strategy to help differentiate himself, a little plan we ended up calling 'The Invented Crisis'. The details were fairly simple, for every problem you solved, for each even small process improvement you developed, and for any new idea to improve information quality or service levels, you first 'invented' and communicated a 'crisis', that your eventual solution, (one that you had already figured out), would be the salvation for.  As my friend saw things, there was not much value to solving problems if no one, especially some well-place managers and executives, did not have a sense of the nature and scale of the 'crisis', before he stepped in to save the day and deliver a solution. I think his strategy worked to some extent, over time he began to be seen as the kind of person that was a 'problem-solver', and occasionally would get assigned some interesting and challenging, (and higher profile), kinds of projects because of this reputation.

It is kind of common for some people to have a hard time taking credit for the good work that they do and to have their accomplishments duly noted and registered by those leaders in positions in power. By generating a sense of artificial tension and drama by virtue of the Invented Crisis, my friend never seemed to have that problem. Whatever good work he did, he made sure not only did the 'right' people know about it, but they also knew about the dire consequences and outcomes that had been avoided by his quick thinking, intelligence, and ability. He ended up moving up the hierarchy somewhat faster than the rest of his peers.

Was the Invented Crisis kind of phony, devious, and self-serving? Yep. 

Was it a pretty successful approach (for him), to competing in a tough and crowded organization? Yep.

What do you think - how do you make sure you get credit, recognition, and reward for the good work you do?