As many of you know, I went to Talent Camp last week and it was quite the experience. From getting to meet some of the great people to discussing some of the most important issues of the day to just spending some time out on the coast, it was a great experience to simply be a part of. I know people are dying to know some of the things we discussed and I wanted to share some of my key takeaways.

Did We Figure Out The Future of HR?

No. Figured I might as well get this shortcut out of the way. If that’s what you’re here looking for, you’re not going to be happy with the rest of this post. What we talked about are possibilities for the function.

The Idea of Freedom Versus Restriction

One of the things we talked about is the idea of freedom and tearing down barriers that make people work in less than ideal ways. Here’s the scenario:

You’ve got a workplace issue that you need to fix. Let’s say two departments aren’t speaking to each other as often as they should. What’s the first thought that goes through your head about how to fix it? You could create something that makes sure these departments get together on a weekly basis. That’s what I think initially.

What happens if you thought about the things that keep these people from naturally meeting and communicating? If, for example, the teams are in different buildings and they need to communicate more frequently, why not move them closer? Or if one team is being directly impacted by a business initiative that kills their available time, why not do more to reduce that responsibility or change expectations?

Freedom is a powerful mindset change and it is one that is often misunderstood as always being contrary to constraint. Sometimes constraint can be an extremely powerful tool of freedom. That’s a post in and of itself though.

The Talent Dynamic Shifting

For so long, that talent function in most organizations has assumed that being strategic meant making sure your plans fit with corporate needs. As an example, if the organization wanted to shift some functions to a different part of the country, the talent function is best served by a person who could tell you how to get it done right and efficiently.

The problem with that is that isn’t strategic at all. We’re coming into the conversation too late. If HR came into the conversation saying “We have key competencies elsewhere in our company that we can use to expand and one of our locations is close to a college that is one of the top ranked in this area as well.” that changes the dynamic completely. Speaking of which…

Building Your Business Around Talent

Let’s say you want to start a business. Where do you start it? How do you find the best people to run it?  I think that second question is going to start driving the first one. Rather than make the consideration solely based on where the entrepreneur is at or where the market is at, they are going to be building the business where their talent is at. With product delivery easier than ever, the major differentiation strategy will be pulling together those pieces from wherever they may be and making it happen.

As our economy and workforce continues to evolve, I think it will be more important than ever to think about this. Think about the business executives that will be retiring in five years. What happens if you could engage with them from their house in Florida on an ad hoc basis? It isn’t even a hypothetical anymore but it will become more of a business consideration as we work into the future.

Going Forward

These are just a couple of ideas that transpired through our conversations (I have pages and pages of notes and conversations in my head that I am still digesting). The cool thing of course is that these are only possibilities right now. There is a lot of work to be done to make these reality too.

As the conversation continues to evolve, I encourage people to get involved and opine on some of the ideas that get presented out.

A Golf Story

I love and hate playing the game of golf. There is something inherently peaceful about walking around a carefully landscaped course and there is something inherently vengeful and ridiculous about trying to get a small white ball into a cup 300 yards away. When I lived a bit closer to my dad, we’d play quite a bit in the season.

Now there is something in golf called a mulligan. After you take a terrible shot, you are told to take your mulligan and try again. With the pressure off and the mistake made, I’ve typically done considerably better after my mulligans. I remember one memorable shot as I was lined up to go over the water hazard and on to the green. I lined up, took my shot, topped the ball and it rolled into the pond. I went down to the pond, grabbed my ball, took it back to the spot and shot again, this time hitting the downhill side of the green several yards away from the hole.

A Work Story

I believe HR is in a tough place and in need of innovation and reinvention. I also know that change doesn’t come from people who talk about it but from people who execute and initiate. And when you have ingrained systems with a stake in keeping the status quo, execution is the most difficult thing in the world. Think I am joking? Just ask President Obama (or, if your politics prefer, President Reagan).

HR’s situation is the same. We’ve progressed down a path decreased relevance and stature in organizations. The people who worked the staffing functions in the olden days would be ashamed at some of the disconnects between HR and the organization. The need for change is bigger than ever but the ability to change is seen as less possible due to those ingrained systems driving organizations today.

What Does That Mean?

HR needs a mulligan. Or we need to at least explore the possibility of what we would do if we had a mulligan. That’s what Talent Camp (being organized by the great Susan Burns) is all about. A dozen or so diverse minds coming together to tackle that question. We’ve got practitioners, recruiters, consultants and technologists all thinking about these issues. For a couple of days, we are going to focus on thinking about it and brainstorming frameworks, solutions and answering bigger questions than we can do ourselves.

The Challenge For Me

I consider this a personal development exercise for myself and I’ve rarely done much personal development in the past five years. For me, doing this blog, talking to people about talent and technology and going to conferences? That’s the easy part. Being deeply introspective, strategic and thoughtful about future direction? That’s still something I am working on making a more natural part of my daily routine.

The Challenge For Us

I really envision this process to produce action. Whether that means a written manifesto, framework, specific action points or bringing other key influencers to the table, I am game. If we can be renewed and changed in our processes and our actions going forward, that would be a big step in the right direction too. Here are a couple great posts on the subject from attendees:

• Talent Camp and the BIG “What If?” by Susan Burns
• The Future of HR, Susan Burns and Talent Camp by Jeff Hunter
• #talentcamp by Steve Fogarty

Let me also just say that, very selfishly I might add, I really like that this is showcasing some of the great Northwest talent professionals. We so rarely get events out this direction (and a lack of Fortune 100 companies certainly doesn’t help) so this is a nice change of pace.

Looking forward to exploring this camp and the ideas that come out of it on this blog in the coming weeks!

There is some cool stuff going on in the HR world. Summer is over folks and our social media savvy HR people are getting geared up for some great things going on this fall:

HR Carnival Shoutout - One of the best HR carnivals in a while happened over at HR Maven this week. Look, there is a sure fire way to get people to submit stuff to you for a solid carnival: bribery, threats or begging. I don’t know which one ranks higher so I am not going to tell you how she got my submission.

What is HRevolution? – The first HR blogger conference ever (that I know of) is going on in early November in Louisville, KY and is being put on by Trish, Ben, Steve and Crystal. Trying to see if I can align the stars to go but I am certain it is going to be a blast. HR bloggers are really the redheaded step-children of HR.  I almost think that was a compliment.

Talent Camp on the Coast – I am excited to be a part of Talent Camp that is just one of these groups that I am going to walk into feeling like the dumbest person in the room. Getting a bunch of forward thinking talent professionals brainstorming the future of HR as we know it is tough but Susan has pulled it off! The best part? The beach house is a 90 minute drive from home.

Happy Hour for the HR Folks - The HR Happy Hour is something that blogging friends Steve Boese and Shauna Moerke have put together and it has really taken off. Good topics, pertinent information and this week is going to be a job seeker show. See! Some people in HR care!

Last item – Fail Spectacularly? Sure, why not. Laurie Ruettimann and Jason Seiden have put together the ultimate party for talent professionals attending the Kennedy OnRec conference or just in the greater Chicagoland area. We’ll get to talk about the various ways people and businesses have failed spectacularly. It ought to be a good time and if I can get a beatbox, I might see if I can drop a little rhyme.

What else are you seeing out there? Any thoughts about these upcoming events? Drop a line in the comments!