Cast of Characters

Cast of characters
Originally uploaded by steveboese

Are you only bringing one thing to the table?

This picture is the cast of characters from my 8 year old son's latest creation, a comic book based on the Lego 'Power Miners'. What I found amusing about the page was the specific roles he has assigned to all the characters, and the descriptions he chose for each one.

For example on the good guy side we have 'Ace the Engineer', 'Brains the Scientist', and 'Tom the Reporter'. The villains have the expected sinister sounding names like 'Boulderax', 'Sulfurix', and 'Glaciator'.

Each character fits neatly into their assigned role, you know what to expect from them as the story progresses. Granted, 8 year olds (and most TV sitcom writers) usually haven't mastered the concept of complex character development. In this story, Glaciator will be evil throughout, and there is no way he will ever change.

What does this have to do with HR Technology? Well, nothing really.

But it does raise a question that almost all of us who are lucky enough to still be employed need to ask ourselves. That is, are we as one-dimensional and predictable as the characters in my son's comic? Are we only bringing one thing to the table? Even if that one thing that we do, we do fantastically well, it is still only one thing. When it comes time for the organization to decide who will be in the next group to be shown the door, if you can be so easily defined by your 'one thing', you are bound to be at more risk than a more fully developed character.

To use another analogy, when Kirk, Spock, Bones, and a random crewman beamed down to the hostile planet, it was pretty much a given that 'Crewman XYZ' was the one not coming back.

Do whatever you have to do to not be branded as a one-dimensional character like 'Glaciator' or 'Crewman XYZ'. Learn a new skill, badger some colleagues to let you in on a new project, connect with peers in your industry and start sharing knowledge and insight.

Don't be so easily defined.

Who's on first?

'Who's on first?', is a classic comedy routine by the legendary American comics Abbott & Costello. Aside - even 1940s comedians are on the net check out A&C's website here. The routine is essentially a play on a failure to communicate, Costello wants to know the name of a certain baseball player, and Abbott can't seem to get across clearly that the player's name is 'Who', thus the recurring theme of the bit, Costello keeps asking 'Who's on first?' and Abbott keeps saying 'Yes'.

Video of the classic bit can be found here.

The idea of Who's on first? makes me think about who (customers, employees, shareholders) is 'first' in most organizations today. Many organizations will have well-defined, budgeted campaigns and programs specifically centered on the customer, how to find them, how to keep them, how to get them happier, spend more, tell all their friends, and otherwise 'delight' them.

But very few put similar emphasis and focus on programs aimed at their employees, getting to understand them better, keep them motivated, discover their hidden talents and aspirations.  Systems and processes are usually not centered around employees leading to the often noticed phenomenon in many organizations - 'LinkedIn knows more about your employees than you do'. Think about it, are your employees current skills and profiles easily accessible in your HR systems? Are they up to date? Are you saving 20 year old resumes in a file somewhere?

The astronomical growth and popularity of Social networking sites reveals that people want to share experience, knowledge, and learn from each other.  Why not shift some of your 'customer' focus to an 'employee' focus? 

Find out where and how your employees are congregating, self-organizing, and otherwise connecting with each other, as well as your industry, customers and the marketplace.

Does it make sense for your organization to develop your own 'place' or network for your employees?  

Check out what Best Buy is doing with Blue Shirt Nation, or from a vendor perspective check out SelectMinds.

Should we focus more on our employees?

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