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IT and HR – Change or Die – A series?

by Rob Paterson

January 29, 2010 at 6:46 am · Filed under Adoption, Culture

Are the IT and HR practices in your organization making it impossible to break out of the silos, the firewall, the bureaucracy?

Are you being held hostage by the “Experts”?

Is the Chasm between the connected reality outside your organization and the prison inside becoming a strategic problem.

Does the idea of a static “department” make a lot of sense when all you do is project work?

What does “manager” mean when what is needed are project managers or coaches?

What does “Job” mean when what people need to know is whether you are any good at the work that is on the table?

What do skills mean when your character and your network are key values to what you bring?

What does “employee” mean when half of the workforce are contractors?

What is a contractor?

What is performance? A contractor knows – she is hired to do a job – not told how to do it. If she completes it well she has done well and gets more reputation. Her best rating is to be rehired – why is this so simple for them and yet so tortuous for an employee?

Why can’t you connect to the outside using social media tools? What are the real risks and solutions?

Are you really “working” on a task 8 hours a ay and so cannot look Outside?

What about when you are at home or on the road?

Why when millions of people look after their own tech are you so helpless at the office?

Why when you have all the latest gear at home do you use semaphore at work?

Why when you go to the CEO and complain about all of these things and she agrees with you that HR and IT still get their way.

It takes a poacher to become a good game keeper.

Jon Husband, ex HR Consultant with the Hay Group and I ex SVP HR OD at CIBC will be tackling these issues over the next week or so.

But first – what about your stories? Please fire away in the comments about the strange world of HR and IT – what do you see and what do you think can be done?

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Phil SimonJanuary 29th, 2010 at 1:45 pm

This would be a great post. I work very closely with both departments and firmly believe that each has some major changes to make if it is to remain relevant. Both need to get out of their traditional roles.

I look forward to seeing what you have to write.

Howard BlumenthalJanuary 31st, 2010 at 6:21 pm

I think (or perhaps, I hope) you’re describing issues associated an old-style, large-ish company. Many small companies–particularly those in the creative, media, and technology spaces–long ago shed their office phone systems, org chart hierarchy, perhaps even regular working hours (at least, the 9-to-5 setup). Some have abolished offices, and replaced them with workspaces.

Of course, this whole conception demands (a) a high level of autonomy, (b) a boss who doesn’t derive authority from enforced structure, (c) employees who are willing to play in a new way, and (d) a relatively high level of competence and focus.

You know what we’ve done at MiND to develop a new way of working, but I suspect it’s not so different from other small organizations. Now, my challenge is to do the same with 150 people, many of whom work for a state government. We don’t have technology autonomy, we don’t have a work-anywhere culture, we don’t have much of a future focus (but we will, soon, if I have my way), so the most forward-thinking employees routinely express concern because they sense the difference between this organization and others.

To make the necessary change, we need buy-in from the State (for autonomous technology policy and procurement), and, perhaps even more challenging, buy-in from employees to move to a model where significant everyday decisions are made throughout the organization. All of these ideas are closely tied to one another.

Rob PatersonFebruary 1st, 2010 at 6:04 am

Howard I think that you are correct. Many smaller companies have made the shift.
Here we will also see the power of Dunbar numbers.

8 = Family
12 – 25 passing through 15 is a very tricky phase where some rules apply and not all can have the same say

34 – 80 and 80 to 150 – still all doable along a network

But over 150, only a rule based system can work

The other point you make is that the culture is as much about the people as the management.

I am reminded of the Exodus story. Not only are the Children taken out of bondage by a Prince but need to spend generations in the desert until all those that thought they were slaves were dead. Even Moses could not enter the promised land. I have always found that sad.

So the challenge is often for Moses and is not lead by the people, who want to go back to the more child like life of a slave.

This is not going to be easy