Firstly, I love my work.
Most of the time, I get to work with extraordinary individuals, those rare few who dare to lead and embody the work of modern leadership pioneers, like Brene Brown. However, I am still surprised by how rare this mindset is amongst our leaders, and more importantly, our Human Resources and learning and development communities.
Recently, I gave a talk on the future of Organisational Development and Organisational Design to a group of Human Resources professionals. The session focused on progressive approaches to the two organisational domains mentioned above. About mid-way through, I presented eight questions that were essentially a form of litmus test, so the participants could self-measure their progressions toward modern and contemporary approaches that are being modelled in some of the most progressive organisations.
Here are the eight questions:
I then gave them a broad measuring stick to assess their progress:
Out of the forty or so professionals present, only a single person put their hand up for one thing. So, out of a total of a possible 320 points between everyone in the room, the total was just one.
This got me thinking: why, as Human Equity professionals (I hate the term Human Resources and I like to think that employees own some part of the relationship), are we not further ahead in this game, considering the tools and talents at our disposal?
I am really interested in hearing from others about why we have such a lack of interest in becoming Fit for the Future, or if there is, why are we not manifesting that in our organisations? I’d love to hear your thoughts.