HR and Time Travel

Here is a little exercise in creative thinking and an opportunity for you to perhaps redo something done in the past or to alter the future. The concept of time travel has been around for quite awhile. Big names in time travel include H. G. Wells and his book The Time Machine; Sir Issac Newton; and Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (Classic Reprint). For the science fiction writer it was the stuff of a good story (and the Rod Taylor movie had a significant effect on me. Morlocks scared the crap out of me at the drive in.) For the scientists it was the fodder for thought and calculations but a was not a real event. However, recent theory has postulated that the structure of time and space may make it real.

So given the premise that time travel could be real I want to ask you two questions. First, if given the opportunity to return to the past in your HR career what, if anything, would you change? What would you do differently given your knowledge of the present? What would you alter to make the present different? (And yes I know I asked three questions there, but they have the same theme.)

Second question is What do you expect your furture in HR to look like? What would be different from today? And how did you get there?

The first question gets you to look at how things have been done and to consider how you might alter those things for today. The second one gets you to be a bit of a futurist and anticipate how things might look and gets you to consider if that is really the future you want. Take a stab at it. You can find my answers below. But first watch this little science lesson on time travel presented by Michio Kaku, a theoretical scientist.




My answer to the first question would be that I would get an MBA with an emphasis in HR, rather than an MS in HR (actually industrial relations) and probably would pursue a Ph.D. in business. My view of the future if for my business to be a major contributor to revising the world view of HR and helping make it a respected and integral business partner well versed in metrics in EVERY organization.