Claiming your seat at the organisational table of excellence

Claiming your Seat
at the Table of
Organisational
Greatness
Presented by Caryn Walsh
Pure Magic International Business Solutions Pty Ltd
www.puremagicbusiness.com.au
info@puremagicbusiness.com.au
Copyright Pure Magic Int Business Solutions
1

People before Strategy – a new role for the CHRO
I base this presentation on the work of Ram
Charan, whom I admire as a business leader and
specialist practitioner.
I also include many of my own experiences and
insights into Organisational Development, Growth
and Long Term Sustainability
2

My Bu Lesson
 Health is all. Without health, all is
nothing
 People are all. Without people an
Organisation has nothing
Copyright Pure Magic Int Business Solutions 3

Research abounds
Happy people = enhanced productivity =
increased profits
4

Key Definitions
Definition of Great – the quality of being great; eminence or having
distinction.
Definition of HR –
HR is a critical component of employee wellbeing in any organisation, no
matter the size. HR responsibilities include payroll, hiring, firing and
keeping up to date with Tax laws.
(HR Resources – Small Business Encyclopaedia)
5

HR Short-Changed
 We recruit and induct
people
 We are visionaries
 Accidental Counsellors
 Advisors to the CEO
 Confidantes
 Allies/Guides
 Have to grow rising stars
 Need to be stars
ourselves
 Organisational
Development Advocates
 We are the Safety Police
 Links between
departments
 Disciplinarians
 Custodians of employee
morale
 Change agents
 Party/fun organisers
 Have to weave magic
 … and spread magic.
Should I continue……………?
6

If we are all of these things, why are we
often under-valued?
Why are we invited to sit at the Table of
Greatness only when others feel like it?
7

Ongoing debate about HR
 Is it necessary?
 It’s a high administrative expense!
 Perhaps we could manage without HR?
 Why do we need HR? They don’t do much around here anyway!
 They are the biggest cost centre in our Company!
 What return on investment do they yield? Little, at best!
They have missed the point ….. but perhaps, as HR practitioners, so
have we!
8

You have got to be kidding!
Consistently CEO’s world-wide see
human capital as a top challenge and
they rank HR as only the 8th or 9th
most important function in the
Company.
Research by McKinsey and the Conference Board
9

It’s time!
 For HR practitioners to truly stand up and be counted
 For CEO’s and HR to work strategically together – HR to
grow out of the administrative ‘bog’
…. and allow HR to propel the Organisation’s energy
 For HR to be aligned with the CEO by building and
assigning talent at all levels
 For HR to get serious about understanding where and how
they need to add value to the business
 Do it with conviction and discipline!
10

HR – Given the same level of seriousness
 Managing humans is as important as managing money
 Charan advocates that CEO’s in the 1980’s boosted the financial
function beyond merely accounting
 It is the CEO’s in 2015 and in the future who need to position HR
as a key strategic partner in the success of the business
 These same CEO’s need to boost HR beyond merely
administration, recruitment and retention……
 HR needs to position HR as strategic
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HR must….
Stay focussed
Stay strategic
Most importantly, stay relevant!

Claiming your Seat at
the Table

How do HR Practitioners change the
Organisational belief that HR adds little
strategic value to the Company?
How can they be seen as critical
participants at the table where key
Organisational strategies are
developed, decided and ultimately
implemented?

How HR is perceived
 58% of CFO’s believe HR is not on same level as other
Executives (Global Intelligence Survey)
 67% CEO’s state CHRO’s don’t know business well
enough
 27% of Executives question the necessity for HR

The G3 Partnership – A Leadership Triangle
 CEO, CHRO and CFO.
 CHRO is not a ‘supporting’ act to carry out decisions
made by others
 CHRO is a key host at the table creating impact and is
a major contributor to critical outcomes and
strategies discussed at the table
 HR must be seen as a vital force with which to be
reckoned

What should a
Greatness orientated
HR Practitioner do?


Think Lobster, not Leftovers!
18

Five strategies to stay at the table
1. Get deadly serious about your role and impact in
helping the Organisation meet key business outcomes
2. Develop a new collaborative contract with the CEO
3. Help design Strategy. Predict Outcomes
4. Anticipate and Diagnose Problems
5. Prescribe value-adding actions by propelling human
capital to achieve key business outcomes
19

Whatever it takes, get to
the table and firmly
implant yourself on a
seat
CCopyright Pure Magic Int Business Solutions
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Strategy 1) Get deadly serious
Be deadly serious and relentlessly determined to
understand everything about the business and the
value HR plays in successfully running it
Get a firm grip on ways in which HR can add value
to the bottom line – happy people = profit!
21

David Owens, MD of HR Partners, says
There is an enormous need for HR leaders to speak the
language that is understood by the business.
HR leaders can, and do, innovate and they (can) play a
significant role in shaping new ventures and providing
input on critical business issues
22

Strategy 2 - Develop a new contract with
the CEO
 Reflective Practise – what value, impact do we bring? How?
 Renewed discussion about what you bring to the table with
others at the table
 Clear outcomes in your role and innovative contributions
you make
 Focus on key people and development strategies - constantly
link them to key business outcomes
 Act and talk with conviction all the time
23

Strategy 3 – Design Strategy and Predict
Outcomes
 Research – ‘2% of the people drive 98% of the business impact’
 CHRO needs to identify skills and gaps in 2% specifically
 High leverage positions need special attention. Nothing overcomes a poor
fit!
 Watch! Look! Observe! What human potential will assist in driving the
Organisation forward?
 Who needs to be developed to fill which role to achieve what business
outcomes?
 Be constantly curious
 Always look for opportunities to move and grow people to meet strategic
outcomes
 Anticipate problems before they arise
24

The Golden Three (G3)
 G3 sit around a table, deciding what is needed to
achieve significant business value, using qualitative
and quantitative factors
 They work collaboratively to assess what a team or
store or strategy needs to outmanoeuvre the
opposition in the heat of the battle
25

They go from this…
26

To this …..
27

Strategy 4 – Anticipate and diagnose problems
 CHRO’s often know why an Organisation is struggling
before others do
 Most problems are people problems
 Relationship, skills or misfit issues
 CHRO’s are in a prime position to anticipate problems,
diagnose potential blocks and remedy them before they
arise
 Do this …. and well!
28

Strategy 5 – Add value - unleash human capital to
achieve key business outcomes
 CHRO assesses workings of the social systems
 Where are bottle-necks? Frictions?
 What communication issues are there?
 Where are the silo’s and why?
 Who is playing politics and withholding vital information?
 Address the ‘Pink Elephant’ in the room by not allowing issues to be swept
under the carpet
 Design actions to overcome problems and add value
 Be flexible with human capital - unleash it, move it around, grow it to meet
key business outcomes
29

The re-assignment of
people, along with capital
re-allocation is what
boosts companiesCharan, R 2015
30

Add to the Profit Cycle
Grow, empower and support your people
To do so, you will retain them
They will focus on customers and efficiencies
You can buy their heads, but truly gifted HR
practitioners engage their hearts
Help your people become, and remain, market
leaders
31

Organisations are only
successful because ….
People are!

Claiming your Seat – In summary!
 Get serious about your role and the value HR adds
 Get ‘whole’ business smart – financial viability, sales
capability, operations, business growth, sustainability
 Work out how and where HR adds significance and
ongoing value – Value add in everything you do!
 The G3 must focus on shaping and driving the
organisation
 HR is a critical player in driving the business forward –
Don’t undervalue your role!
33

Having the business expertise is critical. You
have to earn your seat at the leadership
table.
You have to prove yourself.
Only by listening and collaborating with the
business leaders do you claim your seat at
the organisational table of greatness!
Pat Langer, winner of Cable and Telecommunications 2013 HR Leadership
Excellence Award
34

Another Strategy!
 Instead of being invited to the table, invite the other two to your table
 Choose the Organisational meal
 Work out which ingredients to use (including many talented and competent
people)
 Design how, when and where you will add the ingredients together
(strategy, people, growth and impact)
 Cook them in one strategic melting pot (key people, robust processes and
systems, policies and procedures, strategic plan)
 Serve up the best strategic meal the Table of Organisational Greatness has
ever seen – time and time and time again!
35

One last thought!
HR leaders need to act like, and be, a force with which
to be reckoned.
HR does not make a difference.
HR is THE difference!
36

It has been wonderful working with
you today!
I have loved every minute of it and I hope you
learned something to take away with you.
Vinaka vakalevu!
37

Claiming your seat at the organisational table of excellence

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