Connecting HR: the London HR tweet-up

The first* UK HR** Tweet-up (meet-up for people using or interested in using Twitter and other forms of social media) is happening on Monday in The Square Pig just North of Holborn Station.

The event will be free to attend, including drinks, sponsored by Courtenay HR.

The event is open to all practitioners and suppliers working in HR, Recruitment, L&D, OD, Internal Communication etc.

I sure this will be a really great networking event and I look forward to seeing you there! You can register for the event HERE

Backchannel, Steve Cram and crashing buses - a conference with a difference

I facilitated a large Sales and Marketing event in London last week. Whilst this is the sort of thing I do regularly, this one was just a little different.

For a start the event took place in a fish factory. Not just any old fish factory though, rather a working fish factory with conference facilities looking onto the emerging 2012 Olympic park and athletics stadium.

The whole event had an Olympic theme. Fittingly we were joined on the day by British Olympian and former mile and 1500 meter record holder Steve Cram. Steve will be acting as an Olympic Ambassador for Atos Origin (the official Olympic IT partner) in the run up to the games. His speech was short, sharp, humerus and to the point and it was great to see how his very presence impacted positively upon the delegates. We heard about how London will host up to 40 world class test events in the next 18 months designed to test the facilities and the city to the full. Steve was also a nice chap and it was a pleasure to share a stage with him.

Our experience on the day supported the need for these Olympic test events in the run up to the games. The red London buses specially chartered to bring the 200 delegates to the event both got lost and one of them had an unfortunate accident involving a low bridge and a bus depot!

The event was a bit different for another reason, as it was the first time that I had experienced using the backchannel as a pivotal part of the day. We had hand held voting machines which we used "Who wants to be a millionaire" style at various points. The hand sets could also be used like mobile phones to send messages about how the event was going and to provide immediate feedback. I have experienced live blogging, twittering etc at events and had a mixed opinion of their value. I like the live feedback but worry about distracting the audience from event messaging. In this case, however, I was very impressed. What we did was control when the backchannel was available. Accordingly, we could focus delegates on conference messaging by switching the handsets off and then at the appropriate point let them know when the channel was open for them to use.

The result - feedback fell into 2 categories; humour and serious comment. OK, so I am an expensive, mad Scotsman who should have worn a tie. More seriously, we learnt that some people were poorly informed about the products available, some were excited about how they could use the Olympics to build client intimacy. Other feedback concentrated on messaging, event look and feel, ideas for future events and speaker performance.

So a great event and I'm now convinced that the backchannel can work, but only if you avoid low bridges and wear a tie!

Homecoming - trip to Edinburgh for MBA talk

I travelled "home" recently to speak at a session for the Edinburgh University MBA. It was great to meet so many students with a clear passion for their studies and to share a stage with some facinating business leaders (Jeremy Webster, Alex MacPhie and Ian Burgess). As I have blogged before I am very proud to be a Scot and consequently I especially like approach taken by the University:

The Edinburgh MBA is grounded in a philosophy which finds its origins in the Scottish Enlightenment. Focused on developing an individual’s true potential the MBA offers a values-led curriculum focused on leadership, innovation and best practice.

I like this philosophy as it provides a different angle from the usual bland corporate statements by linking modernity and history. We should be proud of our roots but we should never give in to the "good old days" nonsence; just visit the Royal Mile in Edinburgh to experience how horrid living in the past can be. My old stomping ground, I am proud to say, does it perfectly.

The problem with Twitter.....

24 Reasons why Twitter sucks!

After 2 years on Twitter I tend to agree.....sorry tech types

Does not need CSI to uncover the evidence for engagement

What would your CEO think if you could promise her the following:

16% growth in profits
87% reduction in staff turnover
20% improvement in performance

These are just some of the metrics that support the case for employee engagement being at the top of the HR agenda.

I spent a good bit of last week pulling together a pitch which attempts to push home the importance of engagement for HR. Coincidentally, I discovered that Julian at Delta 7 happened to be thinking about the same thing. We got our heads together and he produced this great visual metaphor:

We tried to demonstrate how ridiculous it is that the tools that build engagement levels are not being deployed by organisations. The consequence? - poor performance, pressure on the business to work harder and ultimately the wheels coming off the business strategy.

If you are interested in more on this topic I have posted my pitch on Slideshare.

How to find a job in the current climate

In the current economic climate, job seekers need to know how to stand out from the pack in order to land a decent job. Although it is clear that the economy is improving and slowly emerging from the recent recession, the competition is still quite tough for the handful of positions that are posted in a particular field every day. By making some common sense adjustments to the way that you go about finding a job to leverage your experience and social skills so that you can get your foot in the door and nail your next interview.

It's All About Who You Know

No matter what your line of work might be, the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of great positions that become available are not advertised for on traditional job listings. Instead, the best jobs are filled by people who already have contacts within the professional community. If you have yet to make a name for yourself in your particular profession, you can begin building your social network of professional contacts by getting involved with local community organisations and engaging your fellow professionals through social media services online. It's no longer a matter of registering with a recruitment company or the local job centre and hoping for the best.

Building Your Personal Brand

In the modern job market, it is important to understand that a simple CV is only part of getting the attention of potential employers. The industry leaders of tomorrow are spending time today on building up their personal brand online. This can be as simple as maintaining a blog with regular articles pertaining to your line of work and creating a meaningful presence on the most important social media services.

Preparing for Your Interview

These days, there is simply no excuse for going into a job interview without being properly prepared. With all of the information that is available on major businesses and corporations on the Internet, employers new expect job seekers to know a good deal about the company that they are interviewing for, so you better do your research if you expect to be taken seriously. Having a few insightful questions about the company itself can really help get create a positive impression near the end of an interview, and you can often find some great material by seeing where the company has shown up in the newspaper headlines recently.

Tips for the Modern Interview

One of the best things that you can do to perform well is to get to know the general workplace demeanor of the company that you are interviewing for. Some businesses prefer a fairly formal work atmosphere and will be watching you to see how professionally you carry yourself during your interview. Other companies foster a more casual and spontaneous workplace and will be observing how good your basic social skills are. Either way, knowing how to behave before you walk in the door can really help ease your nerves. Be aware that many employers like to throw job seekers an unusual question or two just to see how they handle themselves under pressure. If someone asks you a particularly strange question during an interview, just keep your composure and go with the first response that comes to your mind. The employer is more interested in seeing whether or not you are easily rattled than your actual answer to the question.

This article was provided by rant sponsor Search.co.uk Ltd

Monday morning blues? Think engagement

Sometimes Monday can be a REALLY tough day.

I am especially prone to Monday morning blues after a very busy and successful previous week. How do I get myself motivated after that?

Well one way is to think differently about how you motivate yourself and your team. Putting some effort into staff engagement can have incredible results and as a contributor to the recent MacLeod report suggested

Employee engagement is when the business values the employee and the employee values the business

Alan Jones, of Toyota UK summed it up brilliantly in the same report:

Wherever you work, your job as a manager is to make your people be the best they can be – and usually they don’t know just how good they could be. It’s individuals that make the difference

Forget destiny - force fate

This brilliant Nike advert which was used in Canada just before the Winter Olympics. Force Fate just says it all

DayDreaming - it takes effort but it's worth it

As I mention previously an important life event for me was when I met the team from Advance Performance. Simon Clarkson of Advance has recently published a book which contains a number of gems from his extensive experience as a performance coach.

We caught up the other day and I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about the book;

What inspired you to write the book?

I had always wanted to write a book but had never even considered it an option as I didn’t believe I had anything to write about. My wife and I went travelling for a year and I kept a diary, which I started to type up when I returned home. It was going to be a Bill Bryson-esque travel book – but for backpacking. The problems was, as I was writing it started to become a fairly ‘cynical’ view of people, life and society – I didn’t like that. When I got involved with Advance I decided to write a book about people we had worked with that had done inspirational things. I ran a load of interviews and the book would simply be made up of those conversations – ordinary people explaining that there is no magic to doing extraordinary things. I realised that over half of those interviews focused on people having a goal and creating a vision for that goal, something we teach people how to do in order to stimulate the right pathways and chemicals in the brain. It was at that point I knew what the book should focus on. Those stories, along with the learning as to how visualising a goal works and how to do it.

Showing that it isn’t some sort of mystical thing - where you picture a million pounds and it drops through your letter box! Most people agree that is just not practical. I wanted to focus on the practicality of how seeing something inspires you to behave towards it.

How do you suggest your readers use it?

Lots of people who have read it have read straight through once and then gone back in to use it to help them actually form their own goals and pictures of those goals. Firstly enjoy it and be inspired but then take the tool, understand you already use it anyway and so just apply it to yourself in bigger, better ways and for more things. Consider it an extension to what you already do.

What makes this book different from other "self help" books?

This isn’t about how Branson made his first million, or how Hamilton won his first championship (actually it is but at first sight it isn’t). The stories that intertwine the learning are very inspirational as they are ordinary people achieving ordinary things. This is about how the same processes that no doubt helped Branson and Hamilton do those things are used in everyday life, to overcome a fear, to lose weight, to change career path etc. I have taken what we usually associate with the extraordinary and hopefully explained that it is no different in your situation.

Do you live the principles in the book yourself?

You will only live it if you believe in it. I am a practical person. No matter how many times I ‘visualise it’ I do not believe that I will suddenly ‘fall into ‘ a formula one car and put it on pole in a grand prix – that is just fantasy. However, if we can tread the line carefully, and understand what happens physically in your brain when picturing something and how that drives you to behave towards it then I am much more comfortable with having that evidence. It’s important to understand that just because I have written about it and learnt about it, doesn’t make me perfect at it. I need it more than anyone.

People achieve goals all the time, everyday. I am no different. We don’t often think of them as goals because we consider them ordinary. As soon as I began to understand this process of seeing something properly, I knew immediately that this would help me do things that I have previously procrastinated on, or decided I couldn’t do.

It takes effort, and I can’t say I have achieved everything I want, far from it, but I am trying and the help this gives me works. I have seen it work for me and others.

You can buy Simon's book HERE at Amazon

Justin Timberlake - the presenter

I am in the process of helping a team of senior executives present at their annual conference next week. All is going pretty well but, as usual, I'm on the lookout for ways that will really engage them in the process. And then I made one of my regular visits to the brilliant Duarte Blog and there is was. Sex and drugs and rock and roll.....this fantastic analysis of one of Justin Timberlake's songs provides a great framework for any presentation.

Heads up or heads down?

I had a really interesting meeting with the Board of a major business in the finance sector yesterday. I was pitching to do some work with them around their strategy and how we could help them embed this in the thinking of their people and encourage much needed behavioural change. It was a really good session, apart from one thing which I will mention in a future post, because, unlike other Boards I have worked with, they seemed seriously interested in what their people thought about the strategy and how they could help them feel good about the significant changes they are proposing.

This reminded me of the above conversation starter picture from Delta 7. How often in your organisation have you heard people say things like "not worth it - they wont listen anyway" or worse "not worth it. If my idea works they will take the credit and if it doesn't I will get fired"? Jesh.......

For me sucessful organisations are those who realise that their people have all the answers and that they must therefore encourage them to raise their heads, have a go and EVEN to fail.