Hacking HR to Build an Adaptability Advantage

Our hackathon team developed an unprecedented 138 mini hacks during Sprint 2.1. In this post, we’ll share a few of the contributions the hackathon guide team feels have great potential to be developed further into fully-formed hacks during Phase 3.

We hope that as you read this post, many of you will sign up to join those who created these mini hacks in building them out over the next few months. Each hacking team is limited to 5 people, so be sure to sign up quickly to get your choice of hacks.
 

Learning and Development

In The Prize for Learning From Failure, Leonardo Zangrando Leonardo Zangrando builds on the need for organizations to develop an ability to learn from failure, suggesting they “offer a prize to those who were able to articulate a corporate learning after a failure.” Join this hacking team.

In Doomsday Challenges, Alberto Blanco Alberto Blanco calls for us to purposefully envision what he calls “Corporate Earthquakes” (which we also love as a name for this hack): crisis scenarios that could imperil the organization’s future. According to Alberto, “HR could have an interesting role as provocateur, guide and conspirator of corporate-wide hackathons focused on extreme, unusual, apocalyptical, and why-not, funny challenges or situations.” Join this hacking team.

Other mini hacks in the learning development category we feel have especially good potential to be developed into powerful hacks:

• In Yes, You Can, Simon Gosney Simon Gosney suggests implementing simple organization-wide strategies for telling people what they can do, not what they can’t do. Join this hacking team.
• In Bring Back Play Time, Sean Schofield Sean Schofield recommends bringing creative play into the workplace to spur exploration and innovation. Join this hacking team.
• In Onboarding a Culture of Adaptability, Amanda Drescher Amanda Drescher explores the idea of integrating experimentation and learning into the onboarding process. Join this hacking team.
• In Freed Up Learning, Julie Steel Julie Steel wonders what would happen if learning opportunities were freed from their current access constraints and opened up to everyone in the organization. Join this hacking team.

See all mini hacks in this category.
 

Performance Management

In Purpose Led Organization, Julien Pascual Julien Pascual suggests a radical change to the operational organization of a company so that it is made up of temporary teams each created to answer a unique challenge. Each team is described by a purpose statement, which is connected to a larger organizational purpose statement. Join this hacking team.

In Invite Everyone to Evaluate the Strategy, Eerik Lundmark Eerik Lundmark would like to see if organizations could become more adaptable if they invited all employees to weigh in on the strategy process. Join this hacking team.

Additionally:

• In Role, Not Position, Monique Jordan Monique Jordan recommends redefining the way we define ourselves in organizations as a way to change behavior. Join this hacking team.
• There were several hacks about problems with performance reviews and suggestions for what could replace them. We’d love to see Andy Lippok Andy Lippok (Abolish Performance Appraisals), Jan Hills Jan Hills (Employee Led Performance Management), Heidi De Wolf Heidi De Wolf (Replace Appraisals with Career Coaching), and Mukesh Gupta Mukesh Gupta (No More Annual Appraisals) team up for one or two great performance review replacement hacks. Join this hacking team.

See all mini hacks in this category.
 

Organizational Development

Patrick Malcor Patrick Malcor’s contribution Eliminate HR had the most likes of any mini hack, along with plenty of interesting comments. In this mini hack, Patrick suggests that there is no need for a formal HR department, but in its place organizations seeking to improve adaptability can put more development tools in the hands of managers. Join this hacking team.

Additionally:

• In Creating Space for Innovation, Sandy Wilkie Sandy Wilkie recommends creating a physical space, open to anyone in the organization, where people can come together to collaborate and sketch out their thoughts—no permission needed. Join this hacking team.
• In Use a Change Index to Measure Saturation and Guide Objectives, Karen Felix Karen Felix uses the metaphor of a heat index as a way of measuring available employee energy to focus and prioritize business objectives. Join this hacking team.
• In Community Building, Malcolm O'Neal Malcolm O'Neal wonders what great things might happen if community building became a core practice within organizations. Join this hacking team.

See all mini hacks in this category.
 

Talent Acquisition

In Talent Spotting Alliances, Keith Gulliver Keith Gulliver makes an interesting observation that organizations wanting to increase adaptability could consider collaborating and partnering with each other to jointly develop recruitment programs that attract adaptable people. Join this hacking team.

In Experimentation Up Front, Edna Pasher Edna Pasher suggests replacing long and expensive recruiting processes with a lower risk way of trying out new employees through a graduate student training program. Join this hacking team.

Also:

• In We’re Not Scared Selection (But We’re Not Stupid Either) Douglas Board Douglas Board recommends changing the paradigm for how to choose people, especially in senior roles, to embrace science, politics, and intuition. Join this hacking team.
• Debbie Stivala Debbie Stivala suggests in Attracting Adaptable People that recruiting should be less focused on candidate criteria and tasks but instead have more emphasis on organizational culture and innovating competency assignments. Join this hacking team.
• In Wildcat Hiring, Alan Gard Alan Gard suggests increasing our organizations’ diversity by systematically hiring people that could bring new perspectives from different industries with related challenges. Join this hacking team.
• In De-Appliancize Your Employees, Leonardo Zangrando Leonardo Zangrando wonders whether adaptable people will be more attracted to companies that reject what he calls “appliancized” job descriptions and replaces them with criteria that are more attractive to generative people. Join this hacking team.
• In Forced Migration of Recruiting Herd, Indy Neogy Indy Neogy thinks we need to break the “herd hiring” mode (where people are hired who held similar positions at another company) to encourage diversity and bring in new perspectives. Join this hacking team.

See all mini hacks in this category.
 

Talent Deployment

In Self-Build Job Roles, Keith Gulliver Keith Gulliver recommends organizations take an adaptive approach to work, giving people regular opportunities to choose a portion of what they do rather than having it determined for them. Join this hacking team.

In Mix It Up, Deb Seidman Deb Seidman suggests a programmatic approach to cross-pollinating ideas and perspectives within an organization by building “rotations” (both inside and outside the company) into each employee’s responsibilities. These “annual visits" not only could help people bring their perspectives to the problems faced elsewhere but also gain knowledge, perspective, and interpersonal connections to help them make shifts in their regular jobs. Join this hacking team.

Additionally:

• In Moonshot Market, Sean Schofield Sean Schofield envisions “a sort of MIX meets Kickstarter meets TedX-event type mash-up” where employees could collaborate on solving problems while leveraging their strengths, engaging in meaningful work, and expressing their creativity. Join this hacking team.
• In What Problem Are We Trying To Solve? Let’s Talk About Purpose, Sam Knuth (Folk-Williams) Sam Knuth (Folk-Williams) suggests a way to help managers connect the dots between projects that individual team members are working on and the core organizational purpose. Join this hacking team.
• In Talent Management for Talent—Not For Management, Eerik Lundmark Eerik Lundmark recommends reinventing our talent management programs so they are focused on rewarding all talent, not just people with management potential. Join this hacking team.

See all mini hacks in this category.
 

Compensation

In Less “Is”, More “Could Be” Compensation, Sean Schofield Sean Schofield imagines turning the traditional compensation model on its head. He recommends replacing it with a regular conversation between the employee and the organization where “employees are compensated in the way most personally meaningful to them” while “companies are still controlling their compensation costs.” Join this hacking team.

In Rewarding Adaptability and Crowdfunding, Ian Davidson Ian Davidson suggests creating an internal market for adaptability activities where employees can bid on resources and employees to bet on the most promising ideas. Join this hacking team.

See all mini hacks in this category.
 

HR Metrics and Information Systems

In What’s Your Gottman Score, Stephen Remedios Stephen Remedios recommends keeping a metric around the ratio of positive to negative feedback in an organization, while attempting to reach 5x more positive than negative feedback. Join this hacking team.

Also:

• In Not Linking HR Metrics to Financial Outcomes, Jon Ingham Jon Ingham points out that the most important things produced in HR are not easily measurable and recommends focusing instead on driving hard-to-measure things like passion, pride, creativity, and love. Join this hacking team.
• In Adapting to Business Metrics to Build Trust, Harrison Withers Harrison Withers suggests that to provide value to the business and build credibility, “HR needs to understand what success looks like on the P&L and be able to speak to line of business leaders in terms that are expressed and measured on a P&L statement.” Join this hacking team.

See all mini hacks in this category.
 

Other Hacks

In Chuck Out Your Chintz, Gemma Reucroft Gemma Reucroft recommends we “radically review all of those processes that we slavishly follow in HR, or think of as 'best practice'.” Then, if we can’t articulate the value of something in the length of a tweet, consider just not doing it anymore. Join this hacking team.

In Non-Compliance: Problem or Gift?, Heidi De Wolf Heidi De Wolf suggests that non-compliance is not a problem, but instead an opportunity that should be taken advantage of to get additional feedback. Join this hacking team.

See all mini hacks in this category.

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Whew! There were so many great mini hacks that the only thing we are sure about in the list above is that we missed a lot of wonderful ones. If there are any mini hacks you see missing from the list above that you think should definitely be developed into full hacks during Phase 3, please share them in the comments section below (and sign up to work on them!).

There are almost 100 additional mini hacks not mentioned specifically in this post, and we’d love to see as many of them as possible turned into full hacks. So if you authored a mini hack that you’d like to continue to develop during the next phase, please send me an email and let me know before the end of this sprint.

Or, if you’d like to help out on a hack, even if it is not mentioned in this post, by all means go to the mini hack page and sign up for the team. Many of you submitted hacks that, while distinct from those in the list above, had many things in common. You might consider teaming up with someone who expressed a similar idea to your own and continuing the hacking process together.

Once this sprint ends on July 14 and teams are finalized, it’ll be time to move to Phase 3 and begin hacking!