Ideas on Management

Today we were told by the Assistant Director of Human Resources that we will prepare a business plan.  We are one department of a large city.  Our new director will begin the first of June and he has been active in telling senior management what he expects to achieve.  This prompted me to reflect upon what we have been doing and what I believe we should be doing.

It seems to me that we are not measuring the right thing. The current business plan for HR is narrowly defined as counting bodies in seats for required training.

This begs the questions: What is required training? Why is it required? Does it make a difference? I would argue the answer to the last question is "NO!".

I believe the mission of HR should include proactive recruiting, just-in-time training, engaging work, imaginative supervision, and satisfying balance in life.  It should be the responsibility of each section within HR to determine the best way they can contribute to and measure the success of their role in accomplishing the mission of HR.

Our department will embrace the Who method of hiring that is pioneered by the ghSMART organization. The stated goal is to hire only A players. We define an A Player this way: a candidate who has at least a 90 percent chance of achieving a set of outcomes that only the top 10 percent of possible candidates could achieve.

OK. What about the 1533 non A players that are on the payroll now? Are we prepared to coach/mentor them to the A player standard or are we going to simply replace them asap?

This organization has lacked focused leadership for several years. How will we convince front line managers that this isn't just another flavor-of-the-month management fad?

This is the City.  Are we prepared to PAY for A players?

Are we prepared to pay for and utilize sophisticated measuring tools to verify that our efforts are achieving the desired results?

Most importantly, is our department prepared to change from a culture of blame to a culture of accountability? Will we stop looking for scapegoats and start seaching for root causes?

Who: The A Method for Hiring by ghSmart sets forth the following four step plan.

❖ Scorecard. The scorecard is a document that describes exactly what you want a person to accomplish in a role. It is not a job description, but rather a set of outcomes and competencies that define a job done well. By defining A performance for a role, the scorecard gives you a clear picture of what the person you seek needs to be able to accomplish.

❖ Source. Finding great people is getting harder, but it is not impossible. Systematic sourcing before you have slots to fill ensures you have high-quality candidates waiting when you need them.

❖ Select. Selecting talent in the A Method involves a series of structured interviews that allow you to gather the relevant facts about a person so you can rate your scorecard and make an informed hiring decision. These structured interviews break the voodoo hiring spell.

❖ Sell. Once you identify people you want on your team through selection, you need to persuade them to join. Selling the right way ensures you avoid the biggest pitfalls that cause the very people you want the most to take their talents elsewhere. It also protects you from the biggest heartbreak of all—losing the perfect candidate at the eleventh hour.

We are going through an exciting period of change where I work.  It is my thesis that the most important thing we can do to take our department to the next level of performance is to stop looking for scapegoats and search out root causes.

This is good advice for any organization.  It is one reason Google is so successful.  It is the primary reason the Obama administration will be a total failure. 

Oil is still flooding into the Gulf of Mexico as the government keeps their boot on the neck of BP, encourages people to sue, blames the Bush administration, suspends all offshore drilling in US water, holds hearings looking for someone to blame, and then holds a press conference expressing disgust with the blame game and promising not to rest until the spill is stopped.  After all this productive activity, the President goes out to shoot a few hoops.

To my knowledge, nobody is looking for the root cause.  Everyone is trying to minimize liability.

A pox on all their houses.