Innovation in HR: Doing Something Old Better

Another good posting by Valeria Maltoni of Coversation Agent. Her blog title was "Sometimes Innovation is no More Than Doing Something Old ... Better". She gives several examples of what she means:

• Apple's new thin notebook computer, same computer, just thinner


• Google as the search engine of choice instead to the old powerhouse Altavista


• MS Word instead of Wordstar

In his book Human Resources Champions , Dave Ulrich talks about the skills that effective and progressive HR professionals need to have. But one of the key points he makes is that to be considered a "partner" you must do the basics of the job well. You must be an administrative expert. His steps for being an administrative expert include:

• Reengineer HR work through use fo technology, process engineering teams, and quality improvements.


• Define the HR role in creating value for the firm.


• Creat a shared services HR delivery mechanism.


• Measure HR results in terms of efficiency (cost) and effectiveness (quality).

Administration has been what HR/Personnel has been about from its inception. Many, many companies do it poorly. So how about being an "innovative" HR department by taking Ulrich's and Maltoni's advice and do something old ... better.

"Sheepwalking"

Seth Godin, marketing guru, has a very interesting blog entitled Sheepwalking. He says "I define "sheepwalking" as the outcome of hiring people who have been raised to be obedient and giving them a braindead job and enough fear to keep them in line." He indictes schools and companies for teaching and hiring compliant, mechanized people. "And many organizations go out of their way to hire people that color inside the lines, that demonstrate consistency and compliance. And then they give these people jobs where they are managed via fear. Which leads to sheepwalking. ("I might get fired!")" He says that two groups suffer as a result, the employee and the customer.

Often in HR we are guilty of perpetuating "sheepwalking." We reward people for obeying the rules instead of being innovative. Innovators are harder to manage.

Perhaps that is because many human resources people are the ultimate sheepwalkers. We are so stuck in the "rules and regulations" environment that we stop being creative. If that is the case we need to break out of it. Time to read a book like Mavericks at Work.

So if the next time you look in the mirror and you look a little sheepish and wooley... well you know what I mean.