Recently, at the 2^nd World Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Conference in Istanbul, I was asked to present on ‘Talent 4.0’ in response to the developing business environment.

For someone who doesn’t feel comfortable with the word ‘talent,’ I was nonetheless super excited to speak on the subject.

For the purposes of this blog, we will define talent as “a person or group of people with a special ability to do something well.”

It is without a doubt that the HR profession has been evolving more rapidly now, and has done a remarkable job focusing on the ‘war for talent’ for many years.

The organizations I have led, as well as the organizations I now consult with, have done a superior job in building a value proposition for potential hires, in diversifying their sourcing channels, in hiring, moving people into jobs, etc.

Hiring the right profile for a company is still the most strategic decision an organization will ever make; however, it is simply not enough to hire talented workers anymore. Nor is having a capable and sustainable system to manage the employee life cycle – given the pace and ever-shifting business environment.

For 21^st century businesses to drive impact long term, the whole of the organization needs to be greater than its separate parts, with flexibility to adopt, agility to adjust, and capability to rejuvenate.

In the current marketplace, the kind of talented people we want and need are in the driver’s seat. They are knowledge information workers with differentiated and meaningful expectations about what the company will deliver. In a 2014 Oxford Economics study on the 2020 workforce, SAP found “people are happier and more productive if they have meaningful work or work that ‘makes a difference,’” and this is true for every generation…

Workers of all generations want more from their work experience.

They want to come to work knowing that what they do helps provide a meaning for others (a world bigger than themselves) and that what they do drives fulfillment beyond the traditional job description.

During the discussion following my keynote with senior professionals, we talked at length about the relationship between self-team-organization and how culture plays a role in keeping talent in place. I wish there was a formula to this, but there is not. What you should know is that culture is NOT a deterministic thing. It is rather created by everyday relationships, and what workers experience day in and day out with their leaders, co-workers, and the work itself, not with extrinsic values presented by the company, the policy, or law. For it to take the shape you want it to, the core virtues supporting the corporate values (listed on a piece of paper) needs to be lived and role-modeled top down. Further, mutual trust is the foundation of productivity, as is pride in the work product, ability to deepen technical skills, opportunity to learn (together), and the colleagues to support and be supported by.

If you want to truly win talent in 21^st century, start by paying attention to individual ‘health’ (not physical health – referring to a holistic thing here), to your team dynamics, and then culture. That’s where you’ll likely have the most opportunity to differentiate yourself.

We have been talking a lot about how HR is now at a crossroads. Despite some criticism and suspicious looks, we believe all functions involving people operations – whether they call themselves the ‘human resources’ function or similar – can and will rise to the occasion in time.

The challenges we have in business are never one-way streets. If we have a sales challenge, for example, it would be wrong to assume there is an issue with only the sales department. If we have a quality issue, it would be wrong to assume there is an issue with only the quality department. If we have a manufacturing issue…you get the point. In fact, when looking across our consulting engagements, it is never one area that needs attention to solve a predicament. This is exactly why we often talk about organizations being living organisms; that parts of an organization are intertwined, and when one part gets ‘sick,’ the others suffer, too.

So, if we accept the fact that the role and function of HR need to continue evolving, then we need the business world’s perspectives on the field to evolve with it. In other words, for HR to respond to new opportunities and to assume new responsibilities and to claim a new identity, we need our business leaders’ legacy perspectives to evolve to modern realities. What are those legacy perspectives? Here are a few:

1. Historical View: HR functions are overly focused on people.

Modern Reality: There is an old saying that HR professionals go into HR because they like people. Not only is HR not simply about liking people, it is unfair to assume all HR professionals equally enjoy the people aspect of the job.

Whether you are in HR or another function, if you are in business, you are in the business of PEOPLE. People management (and HR) is just as much about understanding the business value chain as any other department, and requires a fine balance of focus between people (individuals), business, and organization (teams).

2. Historical View: HR functions don’t work well with numbers.

Modern Reality: Now, it is true traditional HR had to NOT rely on data for effective management historically, but neither did the business! The metrics management, the data management systems, the trends observation, data analytics, and technologies to support  business are also relatively new.

People functions have been working with data inside organizations for years and, yes, sometimes not with adequate measurement; but now, it can truly provide a ton more with predictive analytics to guide stronger decision making. It is a joint responsibility to enable this skill for the organization and hold colleagues accountable to deliver.

3. Historical View: HR function’s number one customer is our employees.

Modern Reality: Yes and no. The business’ and HR’s number one customer has always been and will continue to be an organization’s employees, AND is followed by the organization’s end users, stakeholders, shareholders and, now, broader network collaborators.

4. Historical View: HR function’s primary role is to keep the organization compliant with laws and regulations.

Modern Reality: No. HR function’s primary role is to help build an environment where people can flourish – feel excited about the work they do, feel inspired about the purpose of what they do, feel engaged to do what’s expected and beyond, and to feel grateful, wholesome, and content.

It is the entire organization’s job to keep the environment compliant, inclusive, and safe for everyone working under that roof.

5. Historical View: HR function works to deliver on people processes.

Modern Reality: Many of the business functions – from finance to marketing to HR – have suffered from a positioning issue over the years. This is where HR is struggling most today. The business, as well as its core functions (including HR) need to be clear around the Why of what they do and how they do it. Again, for all business functions, the Why is to support business outcomes. If the business has a strategy to go from A to C, the Finance department, the Marketing department, the HR department, the Legal department, the Sales department…everyone needs to find their strategic place to support the business to reach C.

To that end, HR will likely work and respond to certain people processes, but it is not HR’s core purpose to focus on process. HR is there (as with any of your functions) to help you achieve your business outcomes.

The broader question now is: Who is willing to take up the challenge of freeing HR from its historical branding?

May was the mother of all busy months for me. I hopped continents, meeting potential clients, providing status on current work, and presenting at major conferences. Now that I’ve had a little time to reflect, I realize there were so many key learnings from my spring business trips. The biggest of all? Learning how to speak up, clearly and concisely as a woman in business.

See… Just a few years ago, in a corporate job, I belonged to a reading club with a group of female colleagues I adored. We got together once a month in one of our flats, enjoyed some wine and food, and talked about anything and everything in life. All of us were senior professionals with teams and multiple stakeholders to manage, so those tables tended to be a great source of energy and joy. I cherished every moment, until…

A year into our club, a newcomer (a newly-appointed leader) joined our gatherings. For some reason, which I never had a chance to corroborate, she seemed to suffer a superiority complex. Too often, when someone tried to voice a thought, I found she’d crack a joke and brush it aside rather than provide a thoughtful answer. We would all laugh in the moment, but I tended to feel sad afterwards.

I wondered whether her “acting out” was because she was uncomfortable with individuals in the club (perhaps me?) or the new environment, or what we were saying or how we were saying it. No one else seemed to mind her behavior. Perhaps they didn’t see what I saw, or simply didn’t want to say anything… Unfortunately, I left the group shortly after (because of a house move) and never learned how things developed.

One evening, I was telling the club about how I observe female flight attendants often treat us – women in business – differently than our travel companions, who are often older male colleagues. I had occasions where, sitting next to my male VPs in business class, the attendant would come and try to take away my tray without asking, and other times, when I inquired about a meal or drink, she would roll her eyes. Once, a VP even offered to trade his seat with me because, he said, “The ladies are a bit meaner with the carts if a girl is sitting on the aisle side.” After sharing these stories, our new colleague turned to me and said, “Have you thought about what you do to trigger such behavior?”

I didn’t know what to say. But as a result, I tried to search my conscience to be even more self-aware of my behavior in hopes of catching a clue… Looking back, I see that by the virtue of her simple question, I convinced myself I was doing something wrong to lead these flight attendants to treat me (and others) unequally to my male peers. I hope this goes without saying for those who know me, but kindness is one of my core values – it literally gives me a stomachache to think I may do something unwelcome to trigger unkind behavior in another person.

Long story short, it took me some time and several conversations with trusted friends and colleagues to figure out: a) I didn’t do anything wrong to be treated unequally, and b) I was most likely being judged by our new colleague that evening. Once acknowledged, I could actually feel my impending ulcer recede, I swear… ☺

Being a business person is difficult. Being a senior business person is difficult. Being a business person and a parent is difficult. Being a female business person is also very difficult.

There are only a handful of female leaders in the global workplace. We all know there are several reasons for that; one of the key factors holding females back in business is an inability to communicate clear choices.

I have been working for years to train my inner voice to further develop my self-esteem, confidence, and presence; nevertheless, in a panel presentation recently, I found myself standing behind a lectern (which I really prefer not to do because I am too short – visually, it diminishes my body power) simply because I was told to do so.

After my presentation, a male colleague got up and said, “I am actually not going to present behind the stand, even if we were told to. A little body language would do us all good.” Good for him!

He took an initiative that didn’t occur to me to take. Even though I didn’t like what was being asked of me, I didn’t assert myself. I did not make a choice and communicate what I needed.

My presentation turned out to be very successful (despite my “visual impairment!”), with the audience surrounding me for an hour afterwards. However, the learning was clear.

It saddens me to say that this is a very typical behavior pattern for women. Did you know a Hewlett-Packard report shows women only apply for jobs if they think they are a 100% fit vs. a 60% fit being ‘good’ for men?

Since writing her book, Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg has become the global thought leader on the topic of inequality. She once said, “It is stereotypes and cultures. What is so striking having now been all over the world talking to women is that our cultures are so different – China, Korea, France, the United States – except for one thing. Our stereotypes of men and women are actually exactly the same everywhere. We believe men should be assertive, aggressive, leaders. Everywhere in the world we believe women should speak when spoken to, raise their hand, give to others.”

Yup. Even though I have read and continue to read the books; even though I continue to take ownership of my professional and personal development; even though I try to stay aware of my personal biases and hold a mirror to those I work closely with, I fell into the expected trap.

What a good lesson to learn…

My female colleagues in business: Please try to remember that our long-term success at work depends NOT on trying to meet every demand on us – on the contrary, it relies on us making choices, setting limits, communicating, and sticking to our commitments.

My male colleagues: You have such a critical role in closing the gender bias, the gender pay discrepancies, and gender-based behaviourism.

Please step up to play a more active role in building more inclusive, equality-based and innovation-driven workplaces. Engage in activities that bring out the best in everyone in the workplace. Inclusion is only inclusive when we indulge in each person, one by one. True innovation is driven by that engagement.

It is my sincere desire to continue giving more voice to younger females I am mentoring. It is also my sincere desire to see more women overcome these perceived and taught challenges.

The more we challenge ourselves and each other on the topic, the further we can go. Let’s!

In April, our Founder, Sesil Pir, was invited to speak at a highly-regarded HR event, HR Tomorrow Conference. You may recall we published her notes from the event, found here.

Many of our readers asked about the presentation. We are overwhelmed by the interest – thank you! For a copy of slides presented at the conference, click here.

For those interested in speaking notes, we put together two short videos (one above) on Shift in Business Context and A New Motto for HR  to give you a sense of dialogue that took place.

For interest in speaking engagement requests, we encourage you to download our press kit  and/or contact us at whirlingchief.com.

Thank you!

Following up on our earlier post summarizing ILO’s Global Future of Work Dialogue on ‘Future Focus Areas on Work‘, in which we shared trends in a pdf format, we received feedback from our readers that they really appreciate the ‘take-away’ material.

Therefore, as a second set of notes to  our  “What Does the Future Hold in Store for Us?” blog – sharing our notes from World Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Conference, we have build a page on key trends to watch for.

For HR leaders of the 21^st century, one big question remains looming for us:

How do we create the right environment for people to explore their true potential and show every leadership in these trends?

For those of us, not interested in clicking any more buttons, below are the trends we heard! 🙂

• Build a meaningful, secure and sustainable digital life.
• Reinvent business through design.
• Shape the future of the sharing economy revolution.
• Drive new disruptions in commerce.
• Create modern and clean energy frontiers.
• Draw inspiration from nature to engineer health innovations.
• Grow and innovate the industrial Internet.
• Humanize the workplace.

We welcome your thoughts, as well!

I recently attended the 2^nd World Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Conference, hosted by Istanbul University. I had the immense pleasure of representing my home country, Turkey, and my discipline of studies: people management and organizational effectiveness.

As we stress time and time again through our articles and v-blogs here on Whirling Chief, the world is at interesting crossroads. From psychology to spirituality, all that we hold close to our hearts is evolving. Even the way we think about humanity and our world is evolving. The world of business is no different…

You name it, the way we’re doing, well, virtually everything is evolving: manufacturing our goods, servicing our customers, funding our visionary ideas, transporting our goods, consuming our products and services…ad infinitum. And our preferences and tendencies as human beings are evolving in parallel.

As we peer into the crystal ball – one technology that thankfully remains the same! – we see ahead to the year 2030 and find such possible technological advancements as:

Full-Automation

Parts of our manufacturing and construction lines are automated. A recent study suggests 47% of all manufacturing jobs globally can be fully automated, should we manage the balance between feasibility and cost. Though we’re unsure of the final impact, it seems relatively safe to assume certain jobs will be effected (read: eliminated).

Self-Driving Trucks

Self-driving cars are already a reality. Coming soon: tractor-trailers without a human at the wheel. Knowing there are over 1.7 million trucks transporting goods across the US alone, what does this mean for the future employment opportunities of our drivers?

Paying with Your Face

China is working on face-detection systems to be leveraged for payment authorizations, to access facilities, and to identify criminals. As our mobility increases, what will this mean for making purchases in one part of the world vs. another where technology may be lacking?

It is without a doubt that business procedures, tools, organization, and governing processes will continue to evolve with the impact of technologies, globalization, digitalization, and democratization.

When I reflect on conversations with academic and business leaders from around the world at the afore-mentioned conference, some key considerations and trends stand out for me. I’d like to share some thoughts:

1- We need to be thoughtful about the definition of technology – there are, broadly speaking, two different ways of thinking about it. The first is strictly functional: You look at what a tool does, how it interacts with other tools, and helps users achieve their goals. A hammer driving in a nail would be good example of this.

In the second, broader perspective, technology is seen as regulating relations between people. A hammer doesn’t just hit a nail, but builds a wooden house in which the distinct family unit can wall themselves off from the world, as an example.

In business and at the place of work (which, for me, is highly complementary), we need to consider having both definitions to the degree it helps ease productivity, removes obstacles, and fuels innovation and inclusion.

2- Innovation and entrepreneurship are fueled by the same values. Many times, mistakenly, we think of innovation as something happening inside a corporate organization and entrepreneurship as something happening outside a corporate organization. In reality, within and outside the corporate world, innovation is fueled by individuals whom, independent of their employment arrangement, have a focus on enhancing a particular experience. We differentiate entrepreneurs in the way that they take financial risks in search of a potential profit.

That desire to enhance a given experience for a customer, colleague, or oneself is fueled by the same values of independent thinking, risk taking, continuous learning, value search, and service-orientation.

3- Innovation is not just about technology. In business and in our personal lives, we tend to think of innovation as a brand new technology. It is very true that many innovations often have a technology component; however, not all technologies have an innovative edge.

Innovation is about doing something in a way that’s different than before, often more efficient with a better quality output at the end.

4- The factor of an ecosystem in getting the best out of any organism is more powerful than we think. In our bodies, how a virus acts depends heavily on the condition of our overall health. In society, how people behave has a lot to do with prevalent norms. Likewise, for a business, the impact is highly driven by the overall culture of the organization.

The ecosystem of 21^st century business has an immense potential to feed itself by leveraging technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. To achieve a recyclable, healthy, and a sustainable ecosystem, it is imperative for the business (small to large scale) to form close relationships with academic institutions and government sectors in deciding how to best utilize resources currently available to them, and how to drive advancements ethically and equally.

5- People are truly at the heart of everything we do. Rethinking the concept of work, the evolving work experience, new groups of workers, and also how we think about jobs is important.

What’s becoming more and more evident for me (as I speak to more and more business leaders around the world) is the human-focus we need to embed in everything we do in business.

The revolution of robotics, automation, and AI will likely have an impact on how we work; it will not, however, replace our humanly need to connect, to contribute, and to be recognized. We have to be extra careful in not creating what we call “information ignorance:” pretending we understand the ‘why’ behind the way we do certain things vs. internalizing the ‘why’ to draw momentum from it to engage its benefactors.

A few of us argue we are slowly moving into the ‘Wisdom Age.’ For others, we are in the ‘Knowledge Age,’ and for others still, we are still lingering in the ‘Information Age.’ Though I don’t think one is any more correct than the other, I do believe it is important we distinguish the three: There is a difference between information and knowledge, as there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Information is about availability of data; knowledge is about application; wisdom is about marrying the two to first evolve oneself (through intellectualization) and then act as a role model for others.

As we forge ahead in the 21^st century, our shared challenge as today’s business and academic leaders revolves around this very question: How are we going to bridge information with practice to fully enter the ‘Knowledge Age’ and, from there, collaborate to build the base for the common wisdom we are looking to surround and nourish ourselves with?

Hello Everyone!

We have some wonderful news to share today!

As Whirling Chief matures into its first year, we are not only growing in followership and community, we are extending our services.

One of the key services we will provide starting Fall of 2017 is a set of paid workshops. There has been amazing encouragement and support for our online free webinars, we wanted to take the opportunity to go deeper into certain topics with our colleagues interested.

Below you will find a list of workshops we are planning. Please stay tuned for registration information and fees. If there are other topics you are keenly interested in, please feel free to connect with us.

Thanks for your continued interest!

A few weeks ago, at the HR Tomorrow Conference, I presented about the gap between science and work practices.

During one of our discussions, we talked about Rewards Management. For centuries now, our approach to rewards management has been linear, meaning ‘if you do this, you will get this.’

Dan Ariely, a renowned behavioral economist, has long studied motivation. In 2015, he published a study concerning what motivates us to work. Not only did he drop a bombshell on the conventional wisdom of people working for money – he discovered that for 21^st century jobs, if you keep throwing money at people, you create something called supra-optimal motivation. In other words, people effectively stop working for the organization. He has a fascinating TED Talk on the topic, which you can watch here.

There are so many ways to motivate without money that are more meaningful, and far more effective. We really want to encourage our business and HR leaders to start thinking outside the box about offering rewards to our employees. Here are a few quick, actionable alternatives from our experts, all at low cost. If there are others, please feel free to add them in the comments section.

1. Offer Praise: Be generous with praise. No monetary reward can take the place of a heartfelt ‘thank you,’ and this one…You. Cannot. Overdo. Trust me!
2. Demonstrate Flexibility: Results-based organizations is a great example of this. These are organizations where people can work from anywhere, any time as long as they achieve their objectives. For these organizations, across the board, the satisfaction numbers are higher, productivity is higher, and turnover is lower.  Demonstrating flexibility in terms of how the work can get done removes a lot of the stress. It also makes us as employees feel respected, and that management trusts us.
3. Invest in Team-Building Activities: Team-building activities are a great way to increase employee engagement, and boost morale.
4. Role Model ‘Balance’: You’d be surprised how much of an effect this one has on employee motivation. To have an employer show that they care about their individual well-being, and to have an understanding that an employee has personal needs, is invaluable.
5. Trust, Trust, Trust: This one goes back to employee autonomy, but it’s also a nice idea to let the team work as a team, and not take orders from one person with authority at the top. One of the easiest things you can do to improve employee motivation is to do nothing at all.
6. Stay Curious: Instead of saying, “You should do it like this!” you can ask, “Do you think this way makes sense?” or, “Have you considered this?” Approaching a topic from a conversational perspective enables the employee to feel like they are part of the decision-making process, which builds trust and strengthens your relationship.

There is so much reference to employee engagement lately – especially in certain geographies. I personally am not in favor of the term ‘engagement’ as it is unquantifiable – scientifically speaking. We can monitor and measure many factors such as motivation, satisfaction, agreeableness, etc., ‘engagement’ is not a valid construct. That said, if we assume for a second we understand and agree to what ‘engagement’ is, then, you may want to know the brains of ‘engaged’ employees in the workplace functions differently than those others. Here is a wonderful video from Melisa Hughes on what happens in an engaged brain, enjoy!

With the shift in business context, many organizations are either being bought out or merging with compatible organizations to strengthen capabilities and/or expand market reach/value.

When we consider the geographic spread of global M&A events, most flurries of activity take place in the developed worlds:

The largest deals by dollar amount in 2016 are listed below:

According to the Thomson Reuters Mergers & Acquisitions Review, published earlier this year, “worldwide M&A activity totaled US$777.7 billion during the first quarter of 2017, a 12% increase compared to the first quarter of 2016. During the quarter, 138 deals with a value greater than US$1 billion were announced, totaling US$501.1 billion, an increase of 19% compared to last year’s first quarter.” And the Financial Times reports that M&A boom will continue into 2017.

That means if your HR team has not been involved in any mergers or acquisitions (M&A) yet, it may just be on the way.

But not all is wine and roses in the world of M&As. An astonishing 70 to 90 percent of all M&As fail to achieve their anticipated strategic and financial objectives. This rate of failure is often attributed to various HR-related factors, such as incompatible cultures and management styles, poor motivation, loss of key talent, lack of communication, diminished trust, and uncertainty of long-term goals. So, how can HR Leaders prepare for a potential M&A activity?

Here are a few tips:

• Understand the role of HR in M&A due diligence
• Skill training around the anatomy of an M&A transaction
• Skill training or locating roles to show leadership around business case development, influence, and project management
• Skill training around organizational development (design, governance, and operations)
• Clarity on key areas needing attention after the transaction
• A good understanding of how to lead cultural evolution
• Prepare to play the role of counsellor around technology, outsourcing, and global issues

Next: We share more on the anatomy of a M&A from an HR perspective. Stay tuned!