Hacking HR to Build an Adaptability Advantage

During the orientation phase of the hackathon, we asked you to weigh in with your thoughts about the role that HR could play in spurring adaptability within our organizations. Over 50 contributors shared their ideas in a wide-ranging introductory discussion.

If you are joining the hackathon late and found the number of comments (almost 200!) intimidating reading, the blog post below should be a good way to see some of the highlights of the discussion (and we’ll do additional synthesis of the QuickMIX results and the definitions of adaptability, so stay tuned for those).

If you were a contributor to the conversation and would like to point out any key themes or ideas that we’ve missed in this synthesis, please feel free to add them in the comments section below.

Changing the perception of change

One theme that stretched throughout the discussion was the opportunity for HR to play a defining role in creating a positive perception of change within the organization.

Debbie Stivala Debbie Stivala put it this way: “HR needs to change employees’ perspectives of change from fear to excitement…”

Guido Rubio Amestoy Guido Rubio Amestoy asked a very simple question: are we enjoying change? This led to a discussion of whether or not most people inherently like change.

For example, Tojo Eapen Tojo Eapen wondered whether a positive reaction to change might be counter to human nature. He said, “In my experience, most changes (not incremental ones) result in active discomfort (at least in the initial stages). I think recent neuroscience-related findings are very useful [and] indicate that the normal human brain picks up the ‘threat’ state when a change comes on.”

But my fellow hackathon guide John McGurk John McGurk, while acknowledging that some people are afraid of change, thought that we shouldn’t let this hold us back from changing the way change is perceived. “If we look at the idea of people being afraid of change as a given we can’t position change as an often positive and dynamic force.”

Edna Pasher Edna Pasher agreed with John, and she liked the idea of moving from thinking of change as trauma to “looking at it as an adventure.”

Monique Jordan Monique Jordan suggested a way to manage the emotional aspects of change in two parts. “First is to enroll people in the change i.e. help them link the success of the change to a personal goal and second is to set and manage expectations.” Her reasoning? “When someone knows what to expect—even if it is not what they want—they can ready themselves. Dealing with the unexpected creates many more emotions.”

Enabling experimentation and learning

Many of our contributors focused on the opportunity for HR to help increase organizational adaptability by becoming an enabler of experimentation and learning.

Kirstie Quinnin Kirstie Quinnin put this in terms of thinking of the organization as creating “a great collective lab which has access to resources and can offer some protection and guidance to the experimentor.”

Edna Pasher Edna Pasher believed the focus of HR “should be on enabling experimentation and on making sure that experiments are exploited not only for immediate renewal but for learning as well.” She refered to this as “learning through doing.”

Leonardo Zangrando Leonardo Zangrando built on Edna’s idea by sharing his experiences working with innovators and entrepreneurs to instill a “learning attitude” where people are “learning from the market by continuously validating assumptions.”

Role of HR as a catalyst

Sean Schofield Sean Schofield suggested a role that seemed to resonate with many other contributors: HR as a connector, integrator, and enabler. Here’s what he said:

“HR individuals should be equipped with the skills to deepen thinking, draw alignment, and facilitate business vision and execution in a participative conversational approach. This means connecting people and ideas; integrating processes, systems, and silos; tending to the ecosystem of values, vision, and execution enabling delivery against business strategy.”

Kirstie Quinnin Kirstie Quinnin built on Sean’s idea of tending to the ecosystem. She wondered whether this sort of role might require a whole new set of skills and qualities for HR professionals.

Huw Morris Huw Morris wondered whether as a catalyst, HR should take on the key role of safeguarding and evolving the core values of the organization. Keith Gulliver Keith Gulliver agreed, suggesting that when there was a disconnect between the espoused values of the organization and the actual behaviors demonstrated by leadership, “HR must call out such disconnects and ensure they are addressed.”

Increasing the “range for change”?

John McGurk John McGurk brought up the idea of “range anxiety,” a concept originally coined in the context of car shopper’s concerns about how far an electric car can go without a charge. His connection:

“You can see the parallels with organisational change and innovation. When change is envisaged and implemented, we all wonder if our programme has the legs or could it run out of puff? The key thing in electric cars is having the infrastructure to support it but there are big upfront investments to lay out. So how do we make sure we have the investments in order to have the range for change?”

Keith Gulliver Keith Gulliver liked the “range for change” analogy, and suggested two ways of looking at how to increase the range. First, he suggested that the organization could have a network of ‘change agents’ operating as the organization’s batteries; they would be “key people who regularly reinforce the change and all that it means.” Second, he suggested that the organization could “implement the notion of being change ready” where everyone in the organization is trained and prepared to adapt.

A few other interesting conversation points

There were so many great ideas generated during this orientation conversation that it is hard to capture them all here, but here are a few last nuggets that stood out for us.

Stephen De Kalb Stephen De Kalb pointed out that many organizations attempt to outsource change, which can cause change efforts to fail once the change agents are gone. “The part for me that’s missing in most organizational change is that change is led by people who aren’t there when the change is supposedly finished—the experts and the contractors leave, the management focus fades, HR goes back to putting out fires and any legacy of change evaporates sometimes overnight.”

Olivier Lambel Olivier Lambel told us about his organization that has managed to continue to adapt in part because it has eliminated the traditional command and control structures and replaced them with an “inverted pyramid where our only boss is our clients.”

Richard James Barnes Richard James Barnes pointed that Oliver was the first person to mention the word “customer” during the discussion. Richard believes that customer focus and empathy are critical drivers of change. “HR doesn’t drive change,” he said, “customers do and that is where we need to be focusing our attention. If we can’t empathise with our customers we can’t anticipate them and we can’t design services and products which address their desires.”

Kim Spinder Kim Spinder, a former MIX M-Prize winner, took the provocative stance that HR itself needs to be reinvented because “in it’s current role, HR doesn’t add value.” According to Kim, “HR should create a culture where employees work together both online and offline, exchange information, and encourage exploration in new ways of working. It’s all about creating a new mindset and making innovation part of an organization’s DNA.”

Another former MIX M-Prize winner, Luc Galoppin Luc Galoppin, took a similarly provocative position, suggesting that HR is less often an “agent of change or a stimulator of adaptability” and more often an “agent of stability and a very good one.” His thought was that this might imply some additional qualities that we could associate with HR beyond those that Gary provided in his introduction.”

So what else stood out for you? Are there key takeaways you had from the orientation discussion that we’ve missed here? Please share them in the comments section below.