Wednesday 22 April 2015

Mr Ambassador

Last week I became an Ambassador for the CIPD, via their Manchester branch. This is a swanky sounding title and I've been reflecting on what it means for me in the future, along with my involvement with the CIPD and such things in years gone by.

To become an Ambassador I went to an evening networking event in Manchester city centre run by the CIPD Manchester branch.

I hate networking events. But I'm going to have to learn to love them.

I don't like networking events because sometimes they feel forced. I'm a high introvert, meaning things like this don't come easily to me. The thought of talking to a lot of people, particularly people I don't know, often fills me with dread.

I just can't think in a crowded room. I get all angsty and edgy.

Does this happen to anyone else, or is it just me? I've long suspected I'm antisocial and maybe I am.

I'm not good at small talk with strangers. I can manage it with people I know well, but even at parties you'll find me in the kitchen (at the food usually) or at the edge of a room where I can see what's going on and where I'm not having to be in the middle of a crowd, even if it's people I have known for ages.

So a business networking event, with only a couple of people I have even nodded to before let alone spoken to plus loads of strangers, was a big step for me.

So why did I go?

Partly it was to force myself out of my comfort zone. I recognise I can retreat too often into my little introverted bubble, and whilst I may do all my best thinking when it's quiet and I'm alone, that doesn't necessarily mean I ought to adopt that approach all the time. I needed to grasp the nettle and get out there.

Still, though, for a high introvert like me that's a big ask.

So there I was at the Ambassadors event. It was good and I'm glad I went. I got involved in some discussions about what it is to be an Ambassador, what I could offer and what I could benefit from, and I met some lovely people like @community_mike @olivestrachan @damiana_hr @sammylubby and others.

I thought I'd find it hard, being a high introvert (have I mentioned that?) and that everyone would already know each other and I'd retreat into a corner and get my phone out, but I needn't have worried as the event was set up to encourage interaction and everyone was friendly.

Still though, any tips on networking and small talk for introverts???

So I'm a CIPD Ambassador, mainly for the Manchester branch but by extension for the entire brand.

What does this involve? Well, I get the chance to work on a voluntary basis with the Manchester branch and get involved in what they are doing, whether that be helping at events or working alongside the committee. Ambassadors are seen as future committee members so there's a chance of progressing to some more involvement in the future. I get to promote the work of the CIPD via my own networks, and develop my skills at the same time. I get to promote the benefits of CIPD membership (and upgrading) and the local branch, and can help others to engage more with the CIPD as they progress their professional journeys.

It's a great new opportunity for me and one I am hoping to make work. I can also bring sectoral knowledge to the Manchester branch and expose the branch to what's going on in the housing sector specifically. Around half of the people I met last week were involved in delivering CIPD qualifications or were in the legal profession. I found one person who had previously worked in housing but the rest had very little awareness of how housing works as a sector and some of the HR and OD issues that are present in the sector.

I can maybe use this blog, and my Ambassador activities, to widen the CIPD's understanding of what is happening for HR professionals in housing, and maybe help HR professionals in housing develop themselves by getting involved in wider CIPD activities and exposure to other sectors.

And at the same time I get to build my own networks.

My involvement with CIPD goes back to 1998 when I first started studying the Certificate in Personnel Practice. I'd been encouraged to do the qualification by someone I worked with at ICI in Runcorn who was at that time heavily involved with Manchester branch, and I went with him to a few committee meetings and events. At one point I was lined up to take on a committee role myself but it went wrong somehow.

Someone, either at CIPD HQ in Wimbledon or within Manchester branch, pointed out that I wasn't a full CIPD member at that point and was still studying, and barred me from joining the committee. At the time I felt this was unjust and more than a bit elitist, and took my ball home for several years after that. I wouldn't have anything to do with Manchester branch or the CIPD outside the necessary interactions on my studies.

Then I qualified. And became a full member. And then I started delivering CIPD qualifications myself part time, and got a job in Manchester city centre all of which brought me into regular contact with the CIPD and Manchester branch again.

By then I'd calmed down, but by then the chance to get involved in the committee had gone.

In my various roles delivering CIPD qualifications I've promoted the benefits of membership and upgrading to students. The CIPD has been good to me over the years, and though I do moan about the higher membership fee for Fellows now and again I do feel I get value from it. It's helped my career and I hope it continues to do so. I hope also I can help a few others along the way as an Ambassador.

Till next time...

Gary

Sunday 12 April 2015

Shedding my skin

Having started this Blog has made me reflect on my social media journey and experiences over the last 7 years or so and my usage, both previously and in the future, of social media and networking sites. 

This blog is partly to share my ideas, partly to raise my profile and partly to, well, I honestly don't know but perhaps I will find out. As mentioned in another post, its the second blog I've had but the first I've put my name to. I had an anonymous blog for a couple of years. That blog highlighted my experiences as a single man, dating and in and out of relationships over a period of a few years.

And I use the word highlighted quite wrongly. There were far more disasters than successes and the majority of posts were about the spectacular and bizarre world of online dating, and the truly incredible and downright unusual experiences I had. At its height it was followed by over 4000 people and it was very popular. I remained anonymous throughout because I was scared of the professional repercussions if anyone knew it was me.

Why? Well, in my head, I was the most senior HR professional in my company, and needed to keep up appearances. I was petrified of what people might think of me if they discovered I had a life outside of work and that it was so...well, unlike my work persona

To understand that I should explain my social media journey. I started using Facebook in early 2008 but didn't really understand it and went Facebook mad over the next year or so. I added hundreds of people and put loads of stuff on without filtering it or any care about what I shared. Then I found out someone had been twisting things I'd posted in order to get me in trouble at work. 

My response was to delete all work contacts immediately, including people who were good friends, and to go ultra cautious and ultra professional in work That meant that when I set up Twitter and LinkedIn I was very careful what I did on them, analysing every word for potential twisting. That also meant I became very distant at work to colleagues, unnecessarily so, and strove to build a reputation as a bit of a robot. With no personality whatsoever.

And some may say I don't have much personality anyway. 

Well, it worked. Too well. I was able to protect my professional reputation but at the expense of personal relationships, which I regret now. I was different outside work and people who knew me only in one sphere wouldn't recognise me in the other. When I represented GGHT in the Strictly St.Rocco's competition, many at work were astonished that I'd do something like that. Outside of work, people just shrugged and said "again?".


By the way I came 3rd in that competition, dancing the Argentine Tango, I still think my dance partner and I were robbed by the judges. See here. So my anonymous blog remained so because of my fear of social media harming my work reputation. I was scared of the power of social media and took it too far.

What's changed? Well the world has moved on. I'm in a different role and although I've still got a professional reputation to nurture, I recognise I've got a personal one to rebuild.

And I ought to see them as one. Online I've found there are few secrets. Companies research potential applicants online and everything is shared. So I figure what's the value in trying to keep separate professional and personal presences online any more? As long as one is careful and work on the basis that everyone COULD see everything, there's no issue.

I also recognised that social media is something to be embraced as a part of life and work, that organisations and individuals who connect more with their colleagues, clients and customers have a more holistic approach. From an HR perspective I've been able to share job vacancies, important updates and my own ideas. I've been able to access the same. But in the same breath I've been able to share important personal events like the birth of my third child and my getting engaged.

In the next 10 years, the majority of employees will be from Generations Y and Z, who have grown up with technology and for the most part with social media. I was 32 before I started using social media and it's taken me 7 years to understand it, and I'm far from mastering it. I'll be working with people who started using social media as children and who mastered it years ago. Organisations and their leaders need to embrace the opportunities created by social media in terms of communication, collaboration, engagement and management. The new workforce will be motivated to join and perform for employers who offer a sense of purpose, empowerment, social responsibility, use of new tech, on.ine collaboration and more. Social media gives us the chance to harness the talents of new generations. 

I'm late to the party perhaps and not telling you anything that you don't already know, but the change is accelerating and if ten years ago we couldn't conceive Facebook, Twitter and the like, we ought to be prepared for even greater changes in the next ten.

Torus already has well established social media channels and lots of staff actively using Twitter, LinkedIn and (internally) Yammer. I've had my eyes opened to the possibilities, and I recognise I can build better relationships by sharing more and taking more of an interest. I'm not about to republish my old dating blog, but I'm keen to use networks like Yammer internally and Twitter both internally and externally to add an extra dimension to my Torus communications, and to actively collaborate with colleagues and peers to develop my ideas and projects. 

From an HR/OD perspective I'll be keen to get instant feedback from people on what I'm doing in my integration role, and get their input into ideas and projects. Social media gives that opportunity, as well as letting me have access to the more informal social networks in my organisation and in the online communities to spread ideas virally.

I want to be at the forefront of social media usage to deliver my services and to engage with others. I want to research new technologies and developments in social media and networking to make the most of new opportunities and to ensure I work effectively with the generations who are creating and innovating with the new tech.

Torus is going to achieve great things, and I can play a part in that as well as sharing and promoting Torus' work to the online communities I'm part of. And yes, I may share a few posts about what I'm having for tea, or what my kids are up to. Its part of who I am. Its my brand. And I may still look up job applicants online, and I'd expect others to do the same to me.

I'm not hard to find.

Till next time.

Gary.

Thursday 2 April 2015

KISS

Keep It Simple, Stupid.  Good advice often given to me throughout my career and which I try wherever possible to follow.

Early on in my career, in that interregnum period between me leaving secondary school teaching and deciding that HR was the profession for me (basically, the time between when I lost my hair and when I lost my mind) I worked for a multinational chemical company in their group finance section and spent a lot of time trying to make things simpler.

At the time that particular company was contracting fast, and divesting businesses left right and centre.  As a result the group finance section needed to go from having around 250 employees to around 50 as the "group" it serviced became proportionately much smaller.  And processes that worked for the organisation that was five times larger, suddenly became unwieldy and expensive to operate.  In short, KISS became the order of the day, and my role was to help manage that transition to slicker and more efficient processes, aswell as training staff and shaping new structures.

This was actually Business Process Re-engineering, but I wouldn't have recognised the term at the time.  The whole business was undergoing it and I was in one small but important part.  Some much bigger and far reaching changes were going on, but in my little cocoon I only knew about what I was doing and that I needed to make things simpler for the group finance section however I could.

My involvement in the project lasted two years and I used a BPR method called PRISM to help people to learn about process management and improvement.  I'm sure there are other methodologies out there, but I liked this one.  It was visual and really easy to understand.  It kept it simple (, stupid), and focused on identifying and quantifying the voices of the customer, the process and the user in relation to the chosen process, visually mapping it and using data analysis techniques including variation and statistical process control to really get on top of process performance.

The methodology stuck with me after I left that company and I've applied its principles in every company I've worked for since, keeping to the mantra of "Keep it simple, stupid".  I believe that organisations grow and are effective when they are as simple as they possibly can be.

The same is true of people, and I know a few simple folk believe me.  But people perform when they fully understand themselves and their organisation or personal lives, and when arrangements in both are simple and straightforward.

In my new role at Torus, which I took up this week, I am leading on the integration of two companies from an HR/OD perspective.  It strikes me that if KISS was relevant when that multinational company was contracting and divesting subsidiaries, then it will be even more applicable to Torus, which has ambitious plans for growth and is currently bringing together two already-complex organisations and fusing some elements together into one larger parent organisation.

So I consider it one of my responsibilities to KISS as much as possible.

Without breaching the Staff Code of Conduct obviously.

Torus needs to think fast, be fast.  Torus will grow when it is as simple as it can be and when its staff understand the process flow around the group.

In my first year in my new role, I want to assess the process flow myself from an OD perspective, and would be interested to hear from others who have done similar work, and to discuss my own ideas with anyone who has an interest in learning about what I'm doing.

In particular I am wanting to visually map out and get to grips with:
  • The flow of people - understanding what happens to people as they move into, through, up and (eventually) out of the group and its subsidiaries - this is core OD work and an important piece of work to complete as we integrate two distinct OD teams and establish one way of working
  • The flow of performance - understanding how we define performance, how we know when it is happening, how we reward it, support it and if or how we penalise its absence - from a people perspective this is important as both organisations will have slightly different ways of doing things, and I need to ensure these are aligned from an OD perspective
  • The flow of information - understanding what information people need, how they get it and what they do with it - too often I find people give or receive information without a good understanding of why, and sometimes do nothing with it.  I remember producing a complex report each year on staffing data for another manager and then one year asking what they did with it, only to find the answer was "nothing".  From an OD perspective I need to ensure that the information we are producing and receiving is worthwhile, and for a time there's likely to be some duplication.
  • The flow of work - who does what, where, when and how.  This is likely quite visual in nature, but I need to understand how work gets done from an OD perspective across the two teams to minimise duplication and ensure that, as Torus grows, we're not introducing or maintaining too many steps in any process and that OD is as fast and as simple as it can be.
It will be an interesting time doing these things.

And that's just for starters.

So my aim in integrating the two OD sections, and in providing OD input on other transformational activities, is to KISS as much as possible.

The two organisations are complex enough, so Torus needs to be simple and straightforward in order to grow.

From an OD perspective, too often I've seen things become too complicated and convoluted, so by applying KISS and some of the PRISM methodology I think I can make a big difference.

Would be very interested to hear from others who have embarked on similar projects, or discussing my ideas with anyone who is interested - contact me offline if you want to chat about these things.

Till next time...

Gary

PS In other news, I got engaged this week to my partner Katie.  Took her, on her birthday, to her favourite place Ironbridge and proposed on the Ironbridge itself, to her great surprise.  Thankfully she said yes - so we're now into full planning mode for an August 2016 wedding.  Exciting times!