Archive for December, 2009

Tonight, I had the distinct pleasure of attending The Cincinnati Women Bloggers holiday party.  Panchinko’s, a charming cafe in Northern Kentucky, was a buzz with the energy of bloggers talking about writing, and writers talking about blogging.  The written word is a powerful tool.  There are few things I love more than sharing ideas with like minded people.  I was delightfully surprised to see a few male bloggers when I first arrived, then as the evening got rolling, more and more men showed up.  Now keep in mind this was a “women’s” event.  At one point, I tweeted: **Guys crashed the gate @cincyblog & @joeywessels at the @cinwomenblogger event, come on-this isn’t a slumber party.

My passion, human resources, is shared with thousands of people around the country, and yet I am amazed at how few people in my industry are actually blogging, and capitalizing on social media’s power.

If you are reading this, you are are not one of those people.  If you follow me on twitter: you are not one of those people. If we are facebook friends: you are not one of those people.  The people I am talking about who don’t care.  And the people who don’t care, are perhaps the one’s who should care the most.

My biggest pet peeve is people who think they know a lot about that which what they know only a little. I know a lot of people who know a lot about HR.  I don’t pretend to know it all.  In fact, the older I get the more I realize that I too know only a little.  I am a new blogger.  I am learning to blog.  It is a humbling experience.  My mistakes are many, but as I make them, I grow.  Tonight, I was surrounded by bloggers who write about a myriad of topics.  What brought me the most joy was finally meeting local twitter pals in person.  I met a person who writes about being single in Cincinnati, a friend who writes about theater, and a couple who extol the virtues of beer.

I met a woman who writes about fashion. I met two people who write about local politics.  I met an engineer who blogs about engineering.  I met an IT expert who blogs about systems. I met a woman who developed a website to bring girlfriends together to help one another.  I met one of the women who started Cincinnati Women’s Bloggers, who brought us all together. 

What was most fun about this event was listening to the stories these bloggers tell.  After all, bloggers are story tellers.  One of my quests is to put the “Human” back in human resources.  One way I can do that is by reaching outside my industry and connect with other people, and the bloggers who write about them. 

What inspires me is the voice that blogs give us.  That is a voice that must be heard.  I’ve grown the most by listening to other blogger’s voices. The voice I hear as I read their posts, speak to me, and my heart.  This is the food that feeds my mind, and moves my fingers across the keys.  As much as I like to joke about about matters human, I do not joke around about this: if we are going to be successful in human resources and recruiting, we should reach out and talk to others, both in and out of our industry.

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When one commits to becoming a blogger, they must also be equally committed to writing.  Often, I write to understand what I am thinking.  As an extrovert, I process out loud, and writing feeds that need.  It’s a great outlet.  Blogging is a tool that meets so many purposes. Yet, it is a beast that must be fed, and fed regularly.  Otherwise, you lose your audience.

Today, I tweeted that I “composed a blog post that was 2,994 words. That’s not a blog post, that’s a research paper: back to the drawing board.”  There are two types of bloggers: those who can’t write, and those who can’t stop.  I’m in the “can’t stop,” camp.  That’s not to say I don’t suffer with writers block from time to time. Most certainly, I do. When it comes to free-form writing, without the pressure of deadlines or content, I can write endlessly.  BUT…I have to remember that my blog is not my journal, nor is it meant to be a white paper project. The challenge for me is to be concise.  Last night I composed the most amazing short story, but it wasn’t HR related, so I didn’t post it.  Earlier today, I wrote an extremely well researched post about the veracity of learning management systems.  It’s too exhaustive, and must be cut into 5 or 6 separate posts.  As I learn more about blogging, I will learn how to write for this venue.  What I now know is what to post to my blog, what to write in my journal, and what to publish in an industry periodical.  Lesson learned.  I’m not writing an employee handbook here.  I’m writing an HR blog. I’m HRMargo, yet sometimes, I just need the freedom to be simply Margo. I love the freedom of expression, but I also know that as writers, we must write for our audiences, not for ourselves.

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I hate to be the Friedrich Nietzsche of OD; however, the question begs to be asked, is learning and development dead? It is because the economy killed it.  The need for statistically valid organizational diagnostics did not go away, nor did the necessity for strong coaching and professional development programs.  The recession decimated OD and Learning and Development departments.  So, the next question that begs to be asked is what are companies going to do?  If they are smart, they will pay attention to the recent trends to reduce costs, retain talent, and maximize their return on their T&D investment.

I’ve been compiling market trends and here’s what I’ve found:

1. Cost saving OD Trends Companies are wising up and using learning management systems to populate their intranet, and to engage employees in just in time training. To ensure the transfer of learning, a pre-assessment must be in place, followed by post evaluation diagnostics. Sounding the horn of common sense, learning initiatives should be followed with coaching, evaluation, and more coaching.  How else can a company do an efficacious return on investment study.  If CEOs continue to whine about how their training dollars are being spent, they have to match their groan with the dollars to support an organizational solution that has teeth and takes hold.

Organization Development professionals are constantly being asked to justify their existence.  Is this a good thing? I think perhaps it is. On the other hand, not all outcomes can be measured by metrics alone.  Often, organization improvement outcomes are qualitative.  Customer service departments receive fewer complaint calls.  Janice, the pain in the tush manager, isn’t such a pain anymore, and people now like working for her.  Plant floor employees are generating stronger productivity, and product is arriving to stores on time.

Are outcomes like the above mentioned consistently tied to return on investment studies? Not always.

As I continued my research I came across two great articles that discuss trends that include the value of learning management systems and the road to economic recovery:

 

1. 5 Key Trends Learning Management Systems have been around for a long time. They have their place.  They reduce the cost of travel, content development and the cost of paying the price of live content delivery.  However, just in time desk top learning solutions lack the human touch. Therefore, I favor blended learning solutions.

 

1. Bob Nelson’s thoughts on the road to recovery  I love this article and added it to this post because it encapsulates hope for our future, and is packed with great ideas.  We have to lace our bad news exclamations with good news and solutions that are solid, and are  backed by research.  Ok, I’m a bit of a research dweeb, but it’s how I was trained.

I remember when I was in graduate school, one of the adjunct professors exclaimed, “training is dead.” The entire class was crest-fallen.  But then, we woke up, and realized that if OD dies it’s because we killed it by not justifying our value, and the worth we provide to the organization.  That’s the bottom line.  Even though OD departments have been decimated, and the roads are littered with unemployed OD and Learning and Development Professionals, we have to bear in mind that the need for the work we do has not gone away.  It will never go away.  The trends and research are starting to show that much of what OD practitioners do will be outsourced. This creates a new opportunity for the OD Profession.  And as Martha Stewart would say, “That’s a good thing.”

Technorati Tags: organization development

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Recently I obtained a new domain, leaving my http://margo.wordpress.com site in the blog-dust.  When I rolled my blog over to my new domain http://hrmargo.com I did not port the blogroll with it.  I wrestled with a certain amount of angst.  How do I include all the HR Bloggers I respect and admire.  The list is endless.  Like a hunger pang, my belly hurt with the thought of not including someone I really like.  In the “pro” side column blogrolls are a great way to reciprocate with your colleagues, and they can drive traffic to your site.  In the con side of the column, you can’t include everyone, and invariably someone’s feelings will be hurt. There’s only so much real estate space on a blog.  So, tweeps, what do you think? To blogroll or not to blogroll?  I anxiously await your comments.  Thank you.

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Ok, call me “snarky,” but I don’t believe in making predictions. Why? Because A) I’m not Kreskin B) I’m not an HR Wizard C) Most predictions don’t come true.  Before you call me the “bah hum bug” of HR, think again.  How many times have you read year-end predictions, or recaps and thought, “Yeah, so what?”

While I love reading year-end recaps, and predictions for the coming year, I rarely take stock in them.  With that said, a few of my colleagues have stepped up to the plate and offered some tasty tidbits.  There’s a great Outsourcing post by The Horses for Sources blog. The Inflexion Advisors Blog and Sharon Lauby also known as The HR Bartender beat me to the punch, and covered the bases I would have written; therefore, why should I try to top what’s already been written? I won’t.

Truthfully, I read blogs more than I read the New York Times.  Predictions and year-end recaps are amusing, sometimes enlightening and often educational.  However, I posit that perhaps we should set our own goals based on the work we do, and the organizations we represent. 

Yes, I’m also very “bah humbug” about new years resolutions.  Rather, it is better to strategically analyze our goals for the coming year.  Take your organization’s temperature, assess where you are.  Consider where you’d like your organization to be, and do the math.  Establish base-line metrics so you can evaluate your results and measure outcomes.  This is the 101 snap shot of “OD”organization assessments.  Isn’t better to establish goals and measure them, rather than spouting frothy predictions?  I assert that it is.

If you want to sink your teeth into something meaty, consider my suggestion.  Your organization might just learn something useful in the coming year.

Your twitterpal,

@HRMargo

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