Archive for January 28th, 2010

Tonight, on #hrhappyhour @SteveBose and @HR_Minion hosted, and Grant McCracken appeared.  This post is not about him, nor is it about his book Chief Culture Officer.  He was an intelligent, and engaging guest, and after perusing his book on Amazon.com I’m convinced he has his thumb on the pulse of how to shape, mold, and transform the internal and external organization culture.  Cold cultures, and toxic cultures will kill the life blood of the company, its employees, and bury its bodies in the Chapter 11 graveyard.

Oh @HRMargo you are so harsh, right?  Or am I?  As an organization development professional, the study and practice of analyzing corporate cultures has been my playground for the better part of 15 years.  As such, I’ve transitioned into the social media HR , Recruiting and Marketing communities.

I tweeted during #hrhappyhour that I want to write a book Where CQ meets EQ.  Your Corporate Quotient interfaces intimately with your employees collective Emotional Quotient.  I wonder if a statistically valid multi-rater instrument exists to measure your company’s C.Q.? Oh sure, there’s organizational effectiveness instruments, there’s corporate culture evaluation instruments, there’s software that will cuisinart your numbers, and spit them out into a fine Julianne numbers salad.  There are so many wealthy consultancies doing just that.  Some are very good.  Some are very bad.  There’s nothing that smells fishier than spurious data.  On the other hand, I question how many organizations  take the time to do the math?  I question how many companies have a chief culture officer? Mr.. Grant McCracken, I think you could fill a thimble with the numbers of companies who would even think to have such a position, let alone support one.  How many cultures have taken their temperature, realized they had a fever, and did an about face? Not enough, I contend.

I might buy Mr.. McCracken’s book out of curiosity to see if he says anything I don’t already know about organizational culture and change.  I enjoyed hearing what he said tonight on Steve and Shauna’s show.  What I find even more compelling is that he has a background in anthropology (admittedly my favorite undergraduate course).  What I did not understand, jokingly, is why a Chief Culture Officer would call into one of America’s most powerful and popular blogtalkradio shows using a cell phone with whistling wind whizzing in the background.  He said, “I’m behind the Empire State Building.”  I laughed so hard, I almost swallowed my chewing gum.  Background noise is a blogtalkradio no-no, but who am I to talk?  A few months past, area code 513 was almost banned from the show, hrhappyhour, because I had my cordless phone, and computer playing the show simultaneously.  When Steve Boese took my call, he couldn’t hear me.  Dead Air: the worst blogtalkradio show no-no ever.  So I laugh when people make similar errors.  Area code 513 made a comeback with the help of Jennifer McClure, Eric Winegardner, Benjamin McCall and Steve Browne, and we won the coveted #hrhappyhour Best HR City in The US award (only because we are positively relentless tweeters and callers) and the fact that #513Rocks (which was our hashtag to win influence others to support us.) 

Thursdays are my favorite night of the week because of that show.  But now Monday’s are my favorite blogtalkradio show evening because @Shenee_Rutt and I started our own show: Compassionate HR.  Our bi-weekly show will reveal  the volunteer journeys our fellow HR, and Social Media professionals have executed.  The passionate tales of steward leadership are sure to warm your heart.  Our next show will feature what HR and Social Media are doing to help the plight of Haiti. Are my days in O.D. over? Yes, in a way, but the lessons and the spirit of organizational effectiveness, and improvement will live on in my soul forever.  Now about that book:

You have to admit the title is catchy: Where CQ Meets EQ.  I do have a book in me that’s begging for ink and paper. I’m a recovering OD professional who dreams about metrics, charts and graphs.  I wake up early sometimes wondering where I left my flip chart only to realize I don’t have a seminar to lead.  I do not miss those days.  I do not miss sweating to find the perfect pumps, the tailored suit and the stellar pearls to top off the look.  I’m so NOT corporate.  I don’t think I ever was. I’m too entrepreneurial. If I ever do accept a corporate job it will be under the condition that I have the authority and responsibility to develop plans, make decisions, and execute tactical efforts.  I want to run a department as if it were my own profit center.  I like taking full responsibility for the financial and organizational outcome of the projects I plan.  That must be why I love my current gig as a social media consultant.  I have the ability to take a firm where there’s no social media visibility in place, and create a presence that will drive clients through the door.  I get to develop and create the brand with my client at the helm.  I get to be the wind beneath their wings.  What could possibly be better than that?

My career trajectory is the reverse of most people.  I’m still a research geek.  I always will be, I’m also obsessed with analytics and organizational intelligence, which is why I’ve signed up to take the AIRS course to become a Certified Internet Researcher.  Mostly recruiters, and sourcers take this course. Whether I use my new social media, and internet research Intel to recruit or develop social media blueprints remains to be seen.  I’m fascinated about doing corporate competitive intelligence, which is the second motivation for investing in the AIRS C.I.R. course. There might even be an opportunity to do niche recruiting with my current client.  I’m intensely interested in recruiting, sourcing and social media. I have been since October 2009.  Recruiters and Social Media rock stars rock my world. I follow them around on twitter like a baby duckling.  I read their blogs, I listen to their blogradio shows.  Many of them are now both my advisors and my friends.   I’m sure of one thing: I absolutely insist on loving my work.  Khalil Gibran once said, “work is love made manifest,” and it is in that spirit I bid you good day.

Your Twitter Pal,

@HRMargo

Upon awakening I check my twitter feed for interesting blogposts. This is how I love to start my day.  Punk Rock HR, also known as Laurie Ruettimann wrote a compelling post. Social Recruiting Metrics & Measurements http://goo.gl/fb/032B.   I have a love-hate relationship with this topic and here’s why.  There are many consulting firms that do an excellent job providing back end analysis. There are metrics tools that include impressive pie charts, bar graphs, standard deviation analytics. But really, the question boils down to this: what and how are you going to use this information? Will you make a serious change in your recruiting strategies with the information you glean? Are you willing to invest in statistically valid instruments that measure real action, not conjecture? Or are you going to spend thousands of dollars on a data study, show it to the CEO and simply say, “Here’s the metrics report your requested.” My pet-peeves include organizations who make major investments in studies, and then decide it’s either too expensive to act on the recommendations the data makes, or worse, thank you for the colorful charts and graphs, pat you on the butt and say, back to your cubicle. Smart HR Pros convince their CEOs of the efficacy and veracity of the studies and partner the reports with a compelling report that justifies why the take action on the findings. Of course your post answers the question why should we do a metrics study and what questions should we ask? Laurie addresses cogent questions as to how the organization defines itself, and what goals and information the company should attempt to measure.  Please read Laurie’s post to see the list of her carefully crafted questions.  I’m taking the case a step further and asking the age-old question: So what? So what do we want to learn? So what do we want to find? So what will we do once we uncover what we find, and so what will we do once we find it. HR Metrics studies are expensive, depending on what outside consulting firm you choose to use. If you are doing an in house study, it still requires hours and hours of time and internal resources to complete. So before you enter into the playing field of HR Metrics, arm your budget to answer the question, So what? If all your HR and Recruiting Departments are studying are “head counts” and superficial return on investment quotes, you’re not only missing the boat, you might just miss the journey that will set your organization sailing into success.

Your Twitter Pal,

@HRMargo  Margo Rose