The document discusses how HR can help "fire up the global brain" of an organization by leveraging technology to improve collaboration and performance. It argues that HR must understand the interface between people and technology in order to ensure technologies are used effectively. By mapping out digital interactions in the workplace and exploring how to optimize technology use, HR can help generate higher performance outcomes across the global organization.

1. Firing up the Global Brain
HR, People and Technology
TMA World Viewpoint

2. Firing up the Global Brain
HR, People and Technology
A global organization is like a giant
brain and like most brains typically
functions at a fraction of it potential
capacity.
It is HR’s primary responsibility to
How?
ensure that this brain, made up of
individuals and groups,
THINK
is always developing its capabilities, is
working in close alignment with the
organization’s overall strategic goals and
is producing outstanding results. ASK

3. Firing up the Global Brain
HR, People and Technology
In 1999, I wrote a chapter for a book published by the Institute for
Personnel Development (IPD) called:
The Global HR Manager: Creating the Seamless
Organisation
The chapter ‘The HR Manager as Global Business
Partner’ presented speculative arguments about the
future strategic role of HR in a company’s drive for
global competitiveness.

4. Firing up the Global Brain
HR, People and Technology
The main points of the chapter were:
Every business function today, including HR, must answer two questions:
1 “What value do you add?”
2 “How can you add more value?”

5. Firing up the Global Brain
HR, People, and Technology
There are two primary forces driving global competitiveness:
human talent and technology.
As in other performance revolutions throughout human history, the
people/technology interface will drive progress. Today, we can think of business
performance as being generated out of a complex system of interactions, many
of which are increasingly facilitated by technology:
INTERACTIONS

6. Firing up the Global Brain
HR People, and Technology
HR‟s primary goal must be to generate higher
performance outcomes through enabling and
mobilizing human intelligence using the
global power, reach and interactivity of
technology.

7. Firing up the Global Brain
HR, People and Technology
This will require HR to build strong, performance-focused
partnerships with senior executives, global business managers,
functional managers and technologists.
It will also require many HR practitioners to undergo a radical
shift in mindset and skills, towards multidisciplinary business
thinking and high-tech as well as high-touch expertise.

8. Firing up the global brain
HR, People and Technology
Technology is to globalization, to use another physical analogy, what the vocal
chords, the mouth and the tongue are to the voice.
It is the enabling infrastructure.
We can use this infrastructure well, or poorly, in trying to
achieve our personal objectives.
If we are voice professionals (actors, singers, newscasters)
we had better understand how to use our vocal infrastructure
for producing best results.

9. Firing up the global brain
HR, People and Technology
It is the same with new technologies in the workplace:
We must make sure they are used by our professionals in the
most effective ways possible in supporting the delivery of
performance outcomes in line with or better than those in
our global business plans.

10. Firing up the global brain
HR, People and Technology
Doug Menuez, photographer, has spent years
documenting what he calls digital moments.
In his photographs, he looks to explore the
interface between people and technology.
As talent effectiveness professionals, we need to
understand these digital moments in our
organizations.

11. Firing up the global brain
HR, People and Technology
It is tempting to leave such work to the
„techies‟, but that is a huge mistake.
Technicians tend to talk an obscure, technical
language, and often make huge assumptions
about what the rest of us know to get the
technologies truly working for us.
HR needs to be the force driving
towards human-centered technologies.

12. Firing up the global brain
HR, People and Technology
Since 1999, when I wrote the IPD chapter, the world has seen huge
upheavals.
Gone are the wildly optimistic and even naïve
days when the major global competitiveness
issue facing many companies
seemed to be
“How fast can we get over there?”

13. Firing up the global brain
HR, People and Technology
Terrorism, recession, geopolitical instability,
financial crises, the risks of moving people
around the globe, the outsourcing of
professional services to lower cost countries,
higher insurance and security costs,
uncertainty in global supply networks,
more competitive local players challenging
global brands, etc., have all added to the
complexity of the global business
environment.
Complexity has increased demand for greater
connectivity to enable more intensive virtual
collaboration across multiple borders.

14. Firing up the global brain
HR, People and Technology
Collaborative technologies are on the rise,
but a major challenge is to ensure their
successful use.
I’m old enough to remember when overhead
projectors were left gathering dust in training
department closets because no one really knew
how to use them.
We’ve come a long way in the use of workplace
technology, but it’s an evolving landscape.
To fulfill its own global strategic potential, and to be a
full business partner
HR must position itself in the People-Technology
interface.

15. Firing up the Global Brain
HR, People and Technology
Firing up the Global Brain:
Begin with an inventory of Digital Moments in your organization
What collaborative Who is using them How are the
technologies are and for technologies
being used? what purpose? being used?
What results Are there better What other
are ways for getting capabilities would
being the most users find most
achieved? out the technologies? beneficial?

16. To learn more about how TMA World can
help your organization, please contact us at
enquiries@tmaworld.com
or view:
www.tmaworld.com/training-solutions/