Possible Reasons I Will Be Speaking at SHRM 2012

Last year about this time I published a kind of whiny, (hopefully) slightly amusing recount of the possible reasons I was not selected to present at the 2011 SHRM National Conference. Long story short, I had submitted a session proposal that involved the staging of a live HR Happy Hour Show from the SHRM event, incorporating a live guest panel, in-person audience questions, and questions and comments from the show listeners and the Twitter backchannel.

It would have been epic. And a real pain in the neck to stage properly, to get the audio and internet connections sorted, and execute the live show effectively. Plus, there would have been the added challenge of explaining what the heck the HR Happy Hour Show is to the average SHRM conference attendee, probably ensuring low interest in the session. So looking back on it now, SHRM probably made the right call in passing on the session proposal.

Fast forward about one year, and in the interests of fairness and openness, I am pleased to report that next year, at the 2012 SHRM Annual Conference in June, I actually will be speaking, or more accurately participating on a panel discussion on Social Recruiting along with Robert Hohman, Glassdoor.com Co-founder and CEO; John Sumser, Industry thought leader from HRxAnalysts; and Chris Hoyt, the Recruiter Guy from PepsiCo.

Our session is called 'Is Social Recruiting Really Working?', and during the session we will take a closer look at the changes and influences on recruiting brought on by the rise in importance of social networks, how behaviors and approaches by job seekers and organizations are changing with respect to social, and some thoughts on the direction and future of social recruiting. It should be a fantastic session and I am really pleased that it was selected, and that I will get a chance to share the stage with such an esteemed group of experts.

So back to this post's title, and a closer look at the possible reasons that the session was selected?

Well, first and foremost it was mostly due to the excellent work and ideas from the team at Glassdoor.com who had the idea for the session, and kindly offerered me the chance to participate. No doubt their professionalism and demonstrated domain expertise was far superior compared to the sad attempt I made at presenting at SHRM in 2011. Second, I think with each passing year 'mainstream' Human Resources and SHRM move more and more to embracing and addressing the impact and importance of social networking and social media in the HR and recruiting functions. Our topic, Social Recruiting, fits well with this emerging area of interest to SHRM and its members.  And finally, the ability to assemble such a solid panel of varied backgrounds and expertise all but ensures a diversity of thought, wide range of perspectives, and hopefully lots of insight and actionable advice for attendees next June.

So big thanks to SHRM, Glassdoor, and to my fellow session co-participants. I am looking forward to the event and to seeing lots of old friends and meeting many new ones. 

Senior HR Executive Conference - Social Technology and Innovation

This afternoon at the Conference Board's Senior HR Executive Conference Trish McFarlane and I presented a talk titled 'How Social Tools Can Empower a Global Organization'. The slides from the session are can be found here, and are also embedded below, (email and RSS subscribers may need to click through).

How Social Tools Can Empower a Global Organization

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Mainly, what Trish and I tried to share are some examples, both well-known and a few lesser-known, of how organizations have and can use social media, social networking, new tools for innovation and collaboration, and probably most importantly how looking at business challenges with an eye towards how social and collaboration can help meet these challenges.

These types of short presentations are really meant to be a kind of starting point to thinking about social in different organizational contexts, and for leaders and organizations that have already begun projects and programs, perhaps offering some awareness or insight to new opportunities they have yet to explore.

The feedback to the session was great, (thanks attendees for your time and attention), and many thanks to Trish and to the Conference Board for allowing us to present today.

I'd love your comments and feedback on the presentation as well!

Senior HR Executive Conference - How much failure can we really embrace?

Today and tomorrow I am attending the Conference Board Senior HR Executive Conference in New York City. I plan on sharing as many interesting ideas and concepts as I can from the sessions and conversations over the next few days.

One of the common themes that has emerged early on Day One is the pressing need for organizations to continue to innovate, often faster than ever before, more effectively than the competition, and in a manner than can be sustainable and repeatable. A tall order for sure, particularly when faced with flat or declining resources, an increasingly stressed and maxed-out workforce, and for large public companies, the need to be aware of and to meet extremely short-term financial objectives. In the opening keynote from Steve Fussel from Abbott as well as in a later panel discussion with HR executives from Nike, Cisco, and AMD the various leaders talked about the need to accept, embrace, and most importantly learn from failures as a key component of the innovation process or life cycle. It was generally stated that failure is and must be a part of game, a kind of table stakes for sitting down at the innovation table.

But what was not really discussed was just how much failure was acceptable and would actually be tolerated as a by-product of a commitment to an innovation program or culture. While 'failure' and learning from those failures as a concept sounds great, and is sort of easy to talk about as a core component of the company innovation approach, each failure eventually has to get ascribed to either an individual, team, region, something more discrete and tangible than the more amorphous 'culture'. When the discussion turned to just how much risk, and theoretically how much potential for failure should be tolerated, one comment was 'it's ok to risk your own job, just don't risk the entire company.'

Which gets us to the main challenge I think about risk, failure, opportunity, and innovation. We want, no check that, we need to get faster, more creative, more innovative, and frankly better than before. But at the same time, with margins razor-thin, an unforgiving economic climate, and many employees happy to avoid the kinds of risk that might jeopardize their jobs, balancing innovation, risk, and consequences of failure could be the greatest challenge for leaders tasked with finding the next billion dollar idea.

What do you think - is there a 'right' amount of failure? How much is too much?

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.

Thinking about the Future of Work

In a few weeks I'll be heading 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.

Sort of an ambitious set of topics to take on over two short days, but as always 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. 

So despite the challenge of taking on a subject as lofty and potentially theoretical as 'The Future of Work', the quality and diversity of the sessions and the expertise of the collection of senior Human Resources leaders in attendance all but ensures that the discussions and knowledge sharing will be equal parts insightful and practical. The Senior Human Resources Conference has a justified reputation for assembling a group of the profession's top leaders and presenting engaging and relevant content to the attendees. And this time, with all of the sessions designed to give attendees insights into how work is changing, and how leading companies are innovating, improving and developing their organizations to compete in the next decade; the conference is shaping up to be a can't miss event.

This reputation for excellence makes me feel honored that The Conference Board has invited Trish and I to present a conference session titled 'How Social Tools Can Empower a Global Organization'. Trish and I plan to talk about how social networks, social technologies, and changing attitudes towards engagement, interaction, and connection are impacting and transforming how organizations communicate and engage with employees, candidates, and customers. We hope to get past the surface layer, and dig a little deeper into what these senior HR leaders should be thinking about as they consider how social tools can and will change the way traditional HR gets done inside organizations.

It's a big topic and it's an important one too, and while Trish and I won't profess to have all the answers, I am pretty confident the discussions with the assembled leaders in attendance will help all of us learn a little bit more from each other.

Trish and I hope you’ll consder joining us in New York, NY on November 15- 16, 2011 for two full days of sessions.  There will be tracks on HR Strategies and Issues, HR Management and Process and one on Talent and Leadership.  You can join the Conference on LinkedIn, using the following link: Senior HR Executive Conference on LinkedIn or on Facebook, using the following link: Senior HR Executive Conference on facebook

We’ll also be tweeting from the event using hashtag #tcbsrhr.

Now the best part, if you do decide to register, you can use discount code SB1 for $500 off registration!

We hope to see some of you next month in New York!