Are You Ready for The Future of HR?

"I feel like I have been brought out of the dark ages." That's the phrase that continually ran through my mind during my experience at the #IBMInsight conference. It was absolutely amazing! From learning about 3D printer cars that are made of a plastic that could save lives - Local Motors (whose CMO is a women) Elle Shelley +Elle Shelley to listening to an IBM Executive converse with Pepper the Robot built with Watson intelligence, to learning how analytics helped a cyclist win the Great American Road Race, to hearing entertaining back stories about several films made by Ron Howard & Brian Grazer, it was truly unforgettable!

It was also an honor attending as a representative of my corner of the world -- Human Resource/Talent Management as a member of the IBM Futurist-Influencer Program. Many from the program were there for the specific purpose of considering a #Newwaytowork. Pondering the question, "How can we have a #smarterworkforce?" (I use these hash tags so you can continue to follow the conversation on twitter) while also contemplating, "What's the meaningful intersections between this, mobile, social and commerce?"

We spent a full afternoon engaged in "masterminding". It truly felt like a "think-a-thon"! And what was produced reflected reimagining our future from the impact of wearable tech in human resources to new roles such as HR Analytics, which we dubbed the HR "data whisperer".

I learned new terms like "cognitive computing" while being reminded of terms that have been in the marketplace for a while yet not widely used such as predictive analytics. I saw how Watson Analytics  can enable talent management, recruiting and other human capital management functions to be easier, quicker, more efficient and effective. The future is bright!

Need a simple def. of 'cognitive computing" (I know I did) @EasyAnalytics1 #IBMinsight #NewWaytoWork #IBMAnalytics : pic.twitter.com/GMxiT1EIiU

— joanncorley (@joanncorley) October 29, 2015

But the point of this post is not only to share a few brief highlights (...there is sooooo much more!) but to also share some concluding thoughts for my fellow HR colleagues.  If you've heard me deliver my talk The Ripple Effect - The Power of Your Personal Brand in HR -- the following will nicely compliment it.

1.  Accept the fact technology is here to stay. I know "technology" is a broad term, but I'm intending its use as such because it's scope of impact in our industry is broad --consider: smart phones, email, apps, texting, mobile learning, software (for just about anything), the cloud, byod (bring your own device), tablets, data, video conferencing, video calling, webinars, e-learning, mobile learning, virtual collaboration, virtual classroom, tele-commuting, social connecting...and I'm sure you could add more.

Its now embedded in just about every aspect of our work -- how we interact, how we communicate and how we deliver work. Though many in our field have not been early adopters, if you've yet to be "an adopter",  I'm imploring you -- resistance is futile. Adopt or become irrelevant and inept as an HR professional. And, by the way, the longer you resist the more you impede the growth and profits of your company!

Please know, "Let's get the the tech person," will no longer fly -- you are the tech person, whether you choose to believe it and own it or not! Acceptance, adoption, and integration of technology into your role and responsibilities are now a human resource competency.

2.  Numbers and Measuring Matter - data will become the darling of effective talent management.  If you've never heard of "The Hawthorne Effect" that's a great place to start. Measuring is absolutely necessary to any business success. You cannot change what you do not see. You cannot manage what you do not know. Measuring changes things.

Everyone is familiar with the use of numbers in accounting to assess a business, how about numbers related to the people of the business. Those carry equal if not greater weight in that the people drive and influence the ultimate numbers of the business. People numbers can be anything from performance management to analytics for the best resource to recruit the most successful employees. (Watson can tell you that!)

Get comfortable with using numbers, learn how to collect and analyze them, make your knowledge and use of them a professional competency.  There's a section in my book 15 Shifts -The Essential Guide to Transform Your Talent Management, that shares 4 different and common examples of how to use numbers to determine roi. This and many other activities can help you become acclimated to the role numbers can play as a meaningful talent mangement companion.

The first 2 bring me to number #3.

3. Please don't be the kind of professional that has to be dragged into the future kicking and screaming, begrudging change. I invite you to be the kind of professional that leads the way, risks the blunders, embraces the potential benefits, saying, "see what happens when we do this!" ... all in service to those you manage, the success of the business that employees you and to your own career.

Tweet: Please don't be the kind of professional that has to be dragged into the future kicking and screaming, begrudging change.

Why? The reality is the future of work is now! What you perceive to be in your future is already in someone's present and for some their past.  I have the opportunity to travel all over the country getting a realist view of the state of our profession and it is amazing the breath of differences in human resource knowledge as well as personal and professional technology adoption. In some cases, honestly, it's down right shocking!

So I say, "Rally the troops! Encourage the resisters, proudly display the banner - Let's Create the Future Now!" We have so much to gain and what we have to loose is what probably needs to be lost! Arm and arm HR brothers and sisters everywhere, with diligence, commitment and inspiration, let's march onward and future-ward!

If you're feeling as if you need some help accelerating your professional competencies, impact and value as a meaningful strategic business partner, you'll want to learn more about my Talent Management Practitioner Mentor Program to be launched in early 2016. Though in early stages of development, here's a link to let me know you're interested in learning more as the program unfolds - click here  By the way, this is not you're typical certification program. This is hands on realtime mentor/coaching experience where you and the powers that be will see tangible results.

Are You a Techno Dinosaur and Don't Even Know It?

Source credit

...stuck in a technology gap?

I think we can all agree that technology is a fast moving target. Just when you think you know a lot, you find out how little you know.  At least that's how I've felt over the past couple of years.

I've always considered myself a pretty techno-savvy professional (actually a "non-tech" geek and proud of it!)  And it wasn't until I attempted to develop my own app (The 1% Edge Portable Coach) and promote mobile and social learning that I began to learn how little about technology I really knew; like, for example, there are lots of different Android platforms. It's not just Google vs. Apple.

The effort to create learning resources for clients in the employee learning and development space helped me realize that I was plopped squarely in my own technology gap.  This was frightening to me as I am a firm believer that functional knowledge of technology is a general professional competency, let alone a competency for L&D professionals. 

Not only is it a competency, but an imperative for personal/life success. Consider the description and commentary by Tim Mazur of Santa Clara University regarding information and the technology gap between rich and poor.

"Information access requires four conditions:

> knowing that the information or information service is available,

> owning or having access to the equipment necessary to connect to the information source (e.g., computer, television, telephone, software, modem),

> gaining access to the information service (e.g., afford cable or online charges), and

> knowing how to operate the necessary hardware and software (e.g., be "computer literate").

A deficiency in any one of these areas inhibits access. In other words, someone who cannot afford the right television or who never learned how to operate a computer may want, or need, information but cannot gain access to it. Persons without access represent one end of a social imbalance that increasingly is aggravated by technology: the gap between the information poor and the information rich. The growing size of this gap provokes the question: As information technologies become the primary, sometimes exclusive, means of communication in our society, what moral rights must be considered regarding access?"

[ I encourage you to read the complete article http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v6n1/homepage.html ]

We can conclude that now and moving into the future, information is king and the ability to access, manage and leverage it is essential to the results companies seek and for individual professional success. 

The specific purpose of this post is to address the need for competency in working with information and technology among all education professionals, whether in a traditional school setting or corporation. In fact, any of us who lead professionally should assess our technological skill set, e.i. how we use information and technology. These skills can impact time management, coaching, employee engagement and more.

So, I went on a journey to power up my knowledge. One of the key insights I gained is that many have learned just enough technology for what was needed at the time. For example, when I teach managing emails, many who use Outlook are not familiar with it's full capabilities. Another example is something as simple as using web browsers (something we all use) -- many don't know browsers have apps and extensions which makes them a sophisticated information management tool in and of themselves, well beyond search and bookmarking. 

As I continued my learning and research, I became starkly aware of the growing gap in the integration of technology into everyday life between young (digital natives) and old. This is particularly disturbing if learning professionals are included in this gap.

(This visual was captured and created with Jing)

If this is new information to you, please don't feel embarrassed, I was really feeling "techno-dynasourish" myself when I learned that YouTube is one of the largest search engines on the web and is one big "how-to" video encyclopedia.

While on this journey, I had the great opportunity last July to share a lot of my new found knowledge with IALL - Iowa Association of Lifelong Learning. The material presented created a spark of interest in gaining knowledge and capability in how to use technology in the teaching and learning space. That interest has resulted in the creation of an online lunch & learn series entitled Virtual & Social Classroom - Web 2.0 with quite a breath of information that will be presented in a way for real-time experience and practice. The great news is it's open to those outside of IAll.  

So to all my colleagues, I invite you to assess your technology knowledge against the list of classes in the series and join us over the course of the next month and a half. Please note this is designed to feel like a Level 1 experience. I want people to feel that learning technology is approachable, so don't worry about feeling embarrassed or not knowing even the simplest thing. We're all in this together!

Here is a link to a general overview of information  | Here is the link to the website for registration -- see you online!

If you have any questions - don't hesitate to contact me: joann@thehumansphere.com  | If you need help with registration contact Eric Neitzke - NeitzEri@niacc.edu

One final note, you'll notice going forward I'll be integrating many of the items we'll be working with in my posts and other social media activities - keep an eye out!

Want to learn more about the technology gap between kids (digital natives) and adults? Check out this link!   | Also another great article on generation gap in technology with 2 wonderful cartoons