HR manifesto - 1

Thanks very much for the response to my asking what you think should be included in the HR manifesto for 2009. Here is my take on what you have said so far.

• Clear understanding of the future of the employment contract (Jo)
• HR regarded as a hub for the success of the business (Jen)
• Focus on "values-based" recruitment (Kevin and New People Management)
• HR is employee focused (Anja)

What a great start folks, keep the ideas coming please. I'm personally at the point where I'm getting really annoyed with all the talk from the HR community. We need to get on with this and start to make a difference!

The science of presentations

In this slidecast Kevin Gee provides an excellent overview of how to best construct a presentation that people will remember by applying what he refers to as the cognitive theory of learning.

The Science Of Presentations

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: kevin mayer)

Kevin presents a compelling case which includes interesting notions including:

The coherence principle - adding material to a slide decreases what people learn (so get rid of those corporate logos folks)

The advance organiser - explain new ideas within a familiar existing framework (a car is therefore a horseless carriage)

Have a look at Kevins critque of "normal" presentations and change that slide deck!

HR manifesto - what should it say?

I've decided I'm going to write a manifesto for HR.

This is something I guess I have been trying to do for ages but have never committed my thinking to "paper" apart from a few of my thoughts on HR 2.0 (which I now realise is a pretty rubbish title).

So folks, if you were in the position to be able to help HR start over what would you suggest should be included?

Slide:ology - Presentation predictions

Nancy Duarte over at Slide:ology has come up with some predictions that she believes will happen in the Presentation world 2009:


1. The rise of new visual benchmarks for solving complex communication problems

Large photos and sparse text are quickly being adopted, which is great. But they only work for keynotes and marketing. So what about the physicians, scientists, and engineers? Best practices for these folks should arrive on the scene in 2009.

2. Presenters will feel the pressure: Status quo isn’t good anymore

Presenters will begin to feel audiences demand quality communication. There’ll be heckling and protesting from the audience when the presenter doesn’t design their visuals well or rehearse their material.

3. PowerPoint will become a rich multimedia environment

This one’s a bit of a crap shoot, but wouldn’t it be great if PowerPoint could provide a simple media-editing and management system that had nice playback and actually worked each time?

4. PowerPoint will be used by the President of the USA

Obama seems to embrace technology, so he just might embrace PowerPoint. If he does, he’s smart enough to do it right. Oh dread the day we take a big step backwards by having politicians confuse us even more by utilizing this medium.

5. Corporations that replace bad PowerPoint with designed stories will will see their stock price increase

This is the year where we’ll start to see some companies hit a tipping point. The ratio of good to bad PowerPoint will tip towards good and their company value will be clearly seen by customers, employees, and investors.

Based on my experience I think some of Nancy's predictions are pretty ambitious. In my own organisation, which is pretty progressive in some respects, getting our people to understand that they have to rehearse and that one size does not fit all is an everyday challenge faced by my team me. We shall see!

Is racism "build in"?

BPS reports on a study that asks "how would you respond if you heard someone being racist?" The majority of people openly condemn racism, and would probably think they'd be perturbed and would reject or reprimand the racist. However, this research by psychologists in Canada has found that students were largely unmoved when they heard a racist slur, and most of them failed to reject the perpetrator.

Dozens of multi-ethnic (but not black) students at York University in Canada were fooled into thinking that a white participant (actually an actor) in their group had responded in a racist way after a black participant (another actor) accidentally knocked his knee. Specifically, the white student participant was heard to say either: "Typical, I hate it when black people do that" or: "“clumsy *igger". In a control condition, no comment was made.

Afterwards, a brief mood questionnaire embedded among other irrelevant measures, showed that the students who heard one of the racist remarks were no more upset than the participants who heard no comment. Moreover, when asked to choose either the black or white participant to be their partner in a subsequent task, the majority of them chose the white participant, despite what he'd said.

By contrast, dozens of other students from the same University, who were randomly selected to imagine, but not participate in, these events, predicted that they would be distressed at hearing the racist comments and most said that they would subsequently choose the black participant to be their partner, rather than the racist white person.

A possible explanation for the mismatch could be that it is our non-conscious attitudes that influence our behaviour in a real situation - perhaps we harbour some latent racist beliefs - whereas we rely more on our more conscious and deliberate attitudes when it comes to predicting how we'll behave. The research concludes:

...despite current egalitarian cultural norms and apparent good intentions, one reason why racism and discrimination remain so prevalent in society may be that people do not respond to overt acts of racism in the way that they anticipate

These are interesting findings which support the notion that it is very difficult to change belief systems. I also wonder if it sheds light on other aspects of discrimination? For example, when considering gender, does this explain why so many women accept discrimination and why so many men are sexist - even if they say they are not!?

Dealing with the Downturn : Action needed to help the real economy

The Management Consultancies Associations’s report "Dealing with the Downturn" warns that changes in the economy and British business since the last recession mean that ‘business as usual’ is not an option in this downturn.

The Dealing with the Downturn report, compiled in consultation with some of the consulting industry’s leading economists and business experts, says that the response to tougher economic times must focus on clear leadership, improved planning and a re-think of strategy. It also goes on to identify ten critically important actions for organisations, and says that particular attention needs to be paid to customers, suppliers and employees if companies are to survive and emerge stronger to take advantage of recovery when it comes.

I was delighted to be asked to contribute to this report specifically giving consideration to the nature of recent and expected job losses. This part of the report outlines six ways in which organisations can ensure they do not throw the good people out with the bad.

Other resources:

CEO Online - managng in a downturn
Atos Consulting - manage successfully in uncertain times

Happy 2009 ranters!

A belated happy new year to all readers of the rant. 2008 has been and gone and it seems like only yesterday that we were welcoming it in with a festive top 10 for HR.

The business agenda has changed significantly and we are now in the grips of the largest downturn in our economy since the 1980's.

Fear not loyal bloggers as we all know (and the evidence supports us!) that it is in these times that innovation and creativity come to the fore. We have seen the growth in popularity of applied psychology and creativity with the the likes of Brain Rules (John Medina), Presentation Zen (Gar Reynolds), Guy Kawasaki, Slideology (Nancy Duarte), Meaning Inc. (Gurnek Bains) and Seth Godin leading the way. The HR agenda has not been quite so dynamic with many in the profession seemingly battening down the hatches and planning for the worst. Take the fact that the Web 2.0 masterclass was the poorest attended at this years UK HR professionals conference and you get the feeling that many in the profession still don't get it.

So what for 2009? As ever I am hopeful that the giant that is (or could be) HR will finally waken from its Ulrich slumber and assert itself as THE oil in the engine of our corporations and institutions. To do this HR needs to grasp the opportunity that is Web 2.0 and get its teeth into collaboration, social networking, engagement, creating meaning in the workplace, virtual business and new talent management.

Finally, thanks you to all of you who have visited the rant in 2008 without your enthusiasm and support life would not be quite so interesting.