The What Goes Around Blog

Community : Centre

I received an uplifting and moving email from Robert Ordever last Friday in the immediate aftermath of the 2013 CIPD Annual Conference. Robert wrote to Perry Timms and me with a wonderful reflection about what being at the conference meant for him, and for others too as it turned out. Perry sent the note on to Peter Cheese and we all thought it should be more widely read. Robert has kindly agreed so the good news is today, I get to shut up and hand over to Robert for a most lovely guest blog post.

Community Centre

I have dabbled in HR for around 15 years. I qualified after a couple of years of practicing because it was the right thing to do and for some years I have been a Chartered Fellow of the Institute.

If I am honest, I was a Fellow of an Institute I felt absolutely no connection with, in a profession I had very little time for. I was at times reluctant to say I was an HR professional and would caveat it with ‘but I’m not a stereotypical HR guy’. I had, perhaps unfairly, judged the Institute and profession on the ‘safe’ rhetoric, obsession with process and the ever patronizing ‘seat at the top table’ debate.

Then along came Twitter and I started to discover other ‘non stereotypical HR folk’ aplenty. I found the social HR community and in doing so found a group who shared my passion for pushing the boundaries, for making work better, for prioritizing culture over process, for having conversations rather than networking and for being confident enough to challenge our own. I found people who were not ‘HR’ at all. Great people who just happened to earn a living in the people business.

The more I got to know them, the more I understood their sense of community. They are welcoming, unselfish, non-judgmental and have infectious energy. They are not in any way soft, unchallenging or safe. Discovering unconferencing with these folk was a breath of fresh air. It was in many ways maverick but felt remarkably natural. It was not the normal bullshit, canvas bags or sales pitches I was used to at traditional conferences.

Imagine my surprise as I learned that the Institute had started to engage with some of these guys. Working with them, learning from them and involving them in shaping the direction of the Institute and the profession. I have no idea if this is a new direction or something I simply hadn’t realised.

This discovery was the only reason I attended my first CIPD conference.

There has been plenty written about the content, but for me this conference was about community. I felt welcome and at home in every sense. Peter Cheese’s accessibility was remarkable and his attendance at HR Unscrambled was great to see. Engaging the bloggers and tweeters with the event was a stroke of genius.

This week I finally felt proud to be a member of my Institute and profession. That is down to a community I am privileged to feel a part of.

Thanks Robert, have a great week folks.

Love Song

I could have titled this post – What’s Love got to Do with It? A better title maybe, but let’s face it – what a lame tune.

Earlier this week at the CIPD annual conference I heard Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, two world renowned academics tell me and many others how to make work better. I found the talk high on sound bite and light on substance, but among other things that at least have the potential to create purpose and meaning, they talked about:

Involvement
Fairness
Motivation
Trust

Involve, involve, involve. Then act – decisively.

Later the same day I was out for dinner with friends. Good friends, who laughed, joked and disagreed too. I got back to my hotel room in a good mood, and having maybe consumed a wee bit too much red wine. Unusually for me, I checked my emails before going to bed and among them was one asking me this question:

‘Why do so many workers feel they have no power to think differently about their workplace?’

Even more unusually I responded there and then – with this:

Most work is coercive, it is done to you. The best work is coactive, it is done with you. It is totally human to want, need and expect that our views be taken into consideration, and yet we defy these wants, needs and expectations at almost every step in out working lives. Never do anything about me, without me. Put simply, as Stephen Covey wrote, ‘We need to listen with the intent to understand, not the intent to reply’. I think that means we need to bring love and our artistry into work.

I went to bed. The following day Microsoft were kind enough to feature my brief outpouring as a part of their ‘get it done day’. Thanks folks.

So I’d like to add love and artistry to the list of ingredients for purpose and meaning. Some of my work involves helping people unlock the artist in themselves as a pathway to better collaboration and problem solving, and I will look to expand on this thinking further in the coming weeks and months. Should you be in London on Tuesday November 12th and free around 07.45am for a couple of hours – I’m facilitating a workshop called Art for Work’s Sake. Let me know if you’d like to come – there are a few places left.

For now though, I’ll finish where I started. Just for you, here’s a Love Song.

A Review of the 2013 CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition

I’m just back from a busy, fun few days in Manchester at the CIPD conference, and a little more besides.

Northern OD Network

On Tuesday morning I took the train from London to Manchester with Meg Peppin to take part in a Northern OD Network meeting. The session was held at the BBC HQ in Media City and we got a tour of the building including a visit to the set of BBC Breakfast. Here’s a picture of me in the studio grinning like a kid in a sweetshop.

After the tour we settled down to listen to David D’Souza talk about his forays into the world of social media, and his compilation, editing and publishing of the HR book of blogs, Humane, Resourced. Here’s the essence of what I heard David say:

Six months ago he began tweeting, meeting and exploring – David met people who challenge and push boundaries, are open to new things and care about their profession. He met a lot of bloggers.

He noticed that a lot of these people are intent rich – time poor, and settled on the idea of curating a book of blogs. The pace of the project ebbed and flowed and people were very generous in supporting David and sharing experiences to help him along his journey.

David wanted the project to be crowdsourced, low on control – high on opportunity.

The book got published, fame and fortune now ensues (David didn’t say that I hasten to add).

The conversation developed into how HR professionals can make use of social communication to drive ownership action and even, *shudder*, engagement. I enjoyed the dialogue very much – it was a good mix of enthusiasm, challenge and open minded exploration.

The day was capped off with a dim sum dinner in Chinatown with two lovely friends.

CIPD Conference – Day One

It felt like the whole of Manchester had turned up to hear the opening address to conference. Peter Cheese took a few minutes to update everyone on current and emerging thinking on how the CIPD is and will deliver on its purpose of Championing better work and working lives, and then introduced Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones who talked about Creating the best workplace on earth. I found the talk light on insight and heavy on cliche and rhetoric. It was also riddled with plugs for their various books. Guys – we know you’re authors, you don’t need to ram it down our throats. The talk was reviewed by a few bloggers here, and I encourage you to take a look.

This year the CIPD asked me to curate conference content on their tumblr site. In previous years I’ve focussed on covering conference sessions on my blog, which I find enjoyable and hard work. I thought the curation gig might be a bit easier, and I was wrong. I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to keep on top of everything and I was keen to photograph elements of the conference to add a visual twist in among the many blog posts.

Talking of visual twists…

The folks at People Management came up with an excellent idea for this year’s conference – offering to put anyone, even me, on the front cover of their magazine. Inspired.

The evening of Day One included a Hacker’s Hangout which Perry Timms hosted. Peter Cheese and a number of hackers gathered for conversation and a couple of drinks. After that it was off to the Personnel Today party hosted by the genuinely charming Rob Moss, and then dinner with a few friends. Unusually for me I checked my emails when I got back to the hotel just after midnight and in my inbox I found this question. ‘Why do so many workers feel they have no power to think differently about their workplace? How can this be addressed?’ I responded, then I went to bed. More on this another day.

CIPD Conference – Day Two

I slept poorly on Wednesday night, and awoke around 4.15 am, thanks to a combination of things that go bump in the night, and nerves. The CIPD conference team had earlier agreed that Meg Peppin and I could facilitate a short unconference session this morning, called HR Unscrambled, and I was my usual mix of excitement and nerves.

We had an enthusiastic turnout for HR Unscrambled, which was a chance to meet new people, and discuss the future for HR. A few of the people who came along we knew, and many we didn’t. Peter Cheese was there too – this guy gets everywhere! I think it’s commendable how available Peter makes himself, and in this case, people who registered and turned up for a chance to talk about the future for HR, got to do so with their professional body’s CEO. I think that’s cool. Meg and I will be sharing some reflection from HR Unscrambled in a few days, for now though, I thought you might be interested to see a word cloud built from the notes that people made at their tables as they talked.

I had to head off after our HR Unscrambled session, so I missed Dan Pink and plenty more besides. I tried to keep on top of things over at the CIPD tumblr where I hope I’ve managed to feature most, if not all, of the conference session blogs and reviews. Please let me know about any glaring omissions so I can include any good stuff I’ve missed. Just a brief mention for Ian Pettigrew who must have aching fingers today after somehow managing to write up over ten posts on various aspects of the conference.

In Summary

This year’s conference was a great mix of useful fun, connections and learning. Maybe it was the centenary year celebrations that helped add to the excitement, but more importantly, more sustainably, I feel like the CIPD is making real efforts and steps to deliver on that purpose I mentioned earlier. Championing better work and working lives. I’m sure there’ll be mistakes along the way, and disappointment too, such is the nature of exploring, experimenting and changing. It should be fun.