OHUG Research Links

Many thanks to the OHUG team for another great conference. I had a few questions after the keynote about the research we cited - here are a few links.

Center for Creative Leadership: The Changing Nature of Leadership

Gallup: The Next Generation of Leadership (subscription required)

Harvard Business Review: Mentoring Millenials (May, 2010)

Harvard Business Review: How to Keep Your Top Talent (May, 2010)

Harvard Business Review: Are You a High Potential? (June, 2010)

Groundswell

So what are YOU thinking about Leadership and Retaining Key Talent? Any other good research to share?

Virtual Trade Show - the Recap

Last month I participated in Oracle’s Virtual Trade Show. This was a first for me. Although I’ve done plenty of trade shows in person, I haven’t done one on-line, and wasn’t sure how it would work. We had very positive feedback on the event, which was great. I’d like to add a few additional thoughts.

The pluses:
Immediacy. Since I had a scheduled chat, there were several people in the session firing questions. I enjoyed the focus on our topic, and the chance to interact real-time with these people.
No travel! There is value in meeting people face to face, but not having to go to Orlando or Las Vegas for what was essentially a one-day event was a nice change.
Access to experts. Since this was done online, I was able to keep my instant messaging open. That way if a question came up that I wasn’t able to answer, I had the whole team available to ask.
Sharing. With an online discussion, everyone participating could see everyone else’s questions. That way I could answer once and everyone could benefit. Similarly, participants could see other content that maybe they weren’t going to ask and may have sparked some other ideas.

The minuses:
No feedback loop. I couldn’t see if my responses were meeting people’s needs unless they asked follow up questions. It was hard to gauge if I was giving good answers to questions.
System issues. We had a system outage midway through my chat session. Fortunately Danielle from our team was in the same room and online so she was able to relay the rest of my answer for me.
I can’t spell! I wanted to respond quickly in the chat, but that meant that my thoughts went faster than my fingers, and resulted in atrocious spelling errors.

On balance, I think the virtual trade shows was a creative idea, and something we should continue to explore. Although there were system issues, the opportunity to reach customers without requiring travel either for our staff or for our customers was a great experience. Big thanks to the Oracle marketing team for trying out this new approach and letting me participate.

Softball and Talent

My 9 year old just started softball. She’s playing in an age-divided league, which means some girls have been playing since Kindergarten, and others are trying the sport for the first time. According to the rules, each player has to have equal time in the infield and outfield, but the coach can determine which positions they play. My daughter’s coach has decided each player gets to try each position at least once. The team they played yesterday has already specialized: the more experienced players are catching, and playing first or shortstop. All the new players are “helping pitch” or standing on second or third and counting on the experienced players to make the play.

I’ve been reading Outliers recently, and my daughter’s situation lines up quite well with the examples Gladwell gives about age-rated systems, and how they impact the development of competitive hockey players. If the more experienced or better skilled players are given the better playing positions, they are going to further differentiate their abilities. When they are ready to move to a competitive league, guess who will be more likely to move forward?

Thinking about this from a Talent Management perspective, how do you provide room for people to develop new skills? It’s easy to give the project to the person you know will get it done. They’ve done similar projects in the past, and you are confident in their abilities. But is that really the best thing for the team? Is there someone else – waiting in the outfield – who would really like to try something new? Now is a good time to see who on your team is up for a stretch assignment. Let them try a new position or project, and back them up with an experienced team member who can help them develop. You can use resource constraints imposed by the economy to help team members learn new skills and position them for future success. You may find you’ve had a star hidden on your team, just waiting for the opportunity.

Are you trying new things with Talent Management in this new economy? I’d love to hear about it! Join me at the Oracle Virtual Trade Show March 11th.

[No that's not my daughter, although I wish she would pitch. Image from Teeny!, used under CC.]

OpenWorld: the Chaos Begins

Kudos to Jake and the Mix team - I loved seeing the Mix on the front page on Friday. Yes, this is shameless promotion. OpenWorld is insane, and incredibly energizing. I love public speaking. I especially love it when I haven't prepared... So if you want to see me doing my best job of "winging it", join me Tuesday afternoon at Moscone West. We'll have fun. And you can make fun of me. I promise.

Meanwhile, I'm more focused on the main reason I enjoy OpenWorld: the customers. While there are other opportunities to meet with customers during the year, the meetings at OpenWorld have their own flavor. These aren't customers who've sat through a full day at the CVC and are sick of Powerpoint. These are customers who are here to learn, and want to spend 1/2 hour to an hour to address very specific questions, and get a sense of what they need to do next. It's a time to really engage 1:1, and talk not in generalities, but specifically about what they are trying to achieve, and how they are going to do it. I always leave OpenWorld exhausted, but full of stories about the people I met and the challenges they're facing, and I hope this year will be more of the same.

Can't make OpenWorld? Got a good story to tell? Sound off below.

Second Life for HR

At every conference, there should be 1 session that blows your mind. Most conference sessions are geared toward providing new information on something you already know. You already know that there's a shortage of nurses, but you didn't know that the constraint is in college classes. Interesting, you've just added to your body of knowledge. But the session that blows your mind, that introduces new technology, or shows you a completely new way to work, is the session you'll be talking about in 6 months. It's the session that justifies your attendance at the conference.

The mind-blowing session at HRPS was the plenary session: Second Life: The Business Case for HR in the Virtual World. The abstract included a well-constucted audience tease.

You will be transported into the virtual world of Second Life, where the future is now. Explore the impact of the new economy, the emerging virtual workforce and the workplace of the not so distant future. Your Avatar moderator and tour guide will show you what millions of people and dozens of leading companies are doing NOW in a virtual world and economy.

Hmm.... there's an Avatar moderator? How's that going to work? Will there be someone live as well? Are they actually going to present in Second Life? I was intrigued.

The presenter (in person, standing behind the podium, bummer!) started by asking how many in the audience had an avatar, in any application. (maybe 5-10% of the audience.) He then offered a definition of Second Life as "the unholy offspring of The Matrix, MySpace and eBay". That was followed by some suprising demographic stats. 43% of Second Life users are female. Average age: 32. 55% of users are outside North America. He was also very careful to distinguish Second Life from World of Warcraft. (WoW: it's a game, and you live within its rules and narrative. Second Life: focus on commerce and creativity.)

And then the fun started. The moderator brought up his Second Life instance, and in the guise of his Avatar ("Ace Carson") proceeded to give a guided tour, including interacting with 2 other avatars who co-presented. The demo paid particular attention to how IBM has invested in Second Life as a way to better interact with their workforce. Chuck Hamilton, from IBM @ Play walked through their Onboarding Island, complete with detailed documentation for IBM's processes and services. They also are using Second Life for virtual conference participation, saying that the Avatars give more of a presence indicator than just participating in web conferences. The IBM team has built out spaces to support this stronger presences as well. For example, when Sam Palmisano was speaking in China earlier this year, he was also speaking in "China" in Second Life. Another area when they have found Second Life useful is in mentoring. The use of Avatars helps employees feel more comfortable asking questions, or interacting than they might in real life, and they don't have to rely purely on text, or audio communication. After moving their onboarding and mentoring to Second Life, they have found that employees are building more connections, faster. One reason given is that the Avatar-based relationships feel more "real" than pure instant messaging or email-mediated communication. The results, according to Chuck are better relationships, less travel, and a very active virtual world. There are currently 15,000 IBM Avatars.

The audience reaction was just what you would hope. Lots of questions, lots of interest, lots of people thinking about how to apply the technology. There was a fair amount of skepticism as well. ("It's all well and good for IBM with the resources they have. How would this work in a company of less than 5,000 employees? Who has the time or money to invest in this?") But most importantly, this was a topic that reached out well beyond the time allocated for the session. At lunch on Day 3, people were still talking about Second Life, drawing connections between other tools, and thinking about how this might change the game. Will it happen overnight? No. But this is exactly what you hope to take away from a conference: new ideas, new conversations, and new solutions that you want to go explore.

HRPS: Marcus Buckingham on Strengths

Marcus Buckingham rallied the Day One HRPS crowd by talking about Strengths and how to leverage them. He’s a great speaker – engaging, humorous, lots of examples based on his data over the past 3 years. Most of his focus for this presentation was on how to invest time in your Strengths. First, to clarify his definition, Strengths are not just what you do best. A Strength is something you do well which you look forward to doing, enjoy while doing, and are energized after doing. It’s an interesting definition, that helps focus on a small number of items, rather than a long list of competencies.

According to Buckingham, using this definition of Strengths helps people identify how to shape their jobs. For example, if you ask people how much time they spend at work doing what they are most good at, the numbers are decreasing (17% in 2005 to 12% in 2007). But if you ask if they are engaged in their work once a week, or hit that state of flow where you lose track of time once a week, 80% of respondents say yes. So the question is, how do you increase that engagement to more than once a week.

Buckingham’s argument is that over time, you can shape your job to better fit your strengths. He's careful to note that this is a gradual process, not something that can happen overnight. But it's worth the investment: as the correlation between your job and your strengths increases, your engagement level goes up, and your job satisfaction will increase as well.

So, here’s the challenge: What are your strengths, and how can you leverage them in your current role? What is one change you can make today to increase the fit?

To learn more: visit his site, or buy his book.

Photo credit: Mrs. Maze

Initial Thoughts from the HR Planning Society Conference

I wanted to look into some new conferences this year. Nothing against HR Technology or IHRIM, but I’ve been attending those for a while, and wanted to see what another group might offer. I’ve been to some of the HRPS affiliate meetings in San Francisco, and had heard good things about their annual conference. I was quite interested in the focus themes for this year: global work, talent management and sustainability – all issues I hear about from our customers. The audience for HRPS is not the typical audience I speak with at OpenWorld, or meet at HR Technology. They are primarily HR Leaders in Organizational Design, Executive Development or Talent Management. So the conference was an opportunity for me to see how the key themes we are hearing from customers are being presented to people who might be end users of our technology.

There were several surprises along the way. First, was the response of attendees when I told them I was from Oracle. Actual quotes from people at the cocktail hour:
“Doesn’t your CEO have a big boat?”
“I know the name, but I don’t know what you do.”
“You’re the guys who took over my PeopleSoft”
Key messages: Oracle is not a known vendor for these people. If they do know what we do, there’s a negative connotation tied to PeopleSoft. Announcing that I was a PeopleSoft employee during the acquisition garnered instant support from those who knew of or use PeopleSoft or Oracle applications, and empathy from other people who have been through acquisitions.

Another surprise: the level of interaction in breakout sessions. My usual conference experience is that the speaker presents for 45 of their allotted 50 minutes, takes 1-2 questions at the end, and then gets bombarded by people after the talk. The breakouts at this conference were interactive from the first slides. In almost every case, it was more like the presenter was facilitating a conversation, with some slides to point the way. Even in a “full session” – about 100 people in the room – people were still asking questions, clarifying, re-clarifying and commenting as much on others’ questions as on the presentation. A new experience for me in a conference, and I think I got more out of the sessions by hearing other people question and comment on the content.

This interactive approach continued throughout the conference, and addressed one of the potential risks of the conference: most of the 400 attendees were there on their own. Even companies that sent multiple attendees hadn’t sent more than 2-3. As a result, the conference could have been very isolating; it can be hard for people to show up alone at dinner or drinks. So the organizers drafted “facilitators” to start conversations, engage with people over breaks, and otherwise help attendees feel part of the conference community. They also reminded us at the end of each session that the dialog could continue at break, or lunch, or cocktails. After one keynote, the leader mentioned that you should be getting as much out of the breaks as you are from the sessions. This is often true at conferences, but I don’t remember attending another conference where they so deliberately addressed this need to connect and engage with other attendees. I walked away having had good conversations with quite a few people, and am looking forward to continuing the dialog online.

One more great idea from the conference, and this was from a vendor. Most of the vendors on sight were talent management consulting. The exception was Borders Books of Costa Mesa. They were on site with copies of every book ever written by the speakers at the conference, and they were encouraging all speakers to autograph books. Then, they offered my favorite service of the week – shipping books anywhere in the US for $5.00. “Oh, so I don’t have to lug books home in my overcrowded suitcase? In that case, I’d like to have 4-5 books instead of 1-2.” Great sales strategy Borders! I bet they doubled their on-site sales with this idea. Timely action too – the books arrived this afternoon!

A good conference, and great interactions. Oh, you want to hear about content? Next post please…

Notes on a Conference

I’m at the HR Planning Society annual conference this week. My original intention was to live-blog at least some of the sessions, so that I wouldn’t have to rely on my poor handwriting. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen – no wireless in the conference room, and the keynote area is set up in table rounds with people so close together that you can’t fit a computer on the table. So over the next few days, I’ll be transcribing my notes and publishing them. I’m still working on the mantra that authentic and timely trump polished, but given the need to transfer from small notebook to the page, and the associated rethinking of content that will happen, there will likely be a time delay. [Insert appropriate sarcastic comments from my team.]

In the meantime, a few thoughts to people who plan conference centers (specifically the Huntington Beach Hyatt Regency) on ways to improve the conference experience.

1. Phone access. In 2008, it is unacceptable to have inconsistent or completely lacking cell phone access. Forcing people to run back to their room to get a land line results in less conference session attendance. Those who were lucky enough to have access were still moving all over the building to find the best reception. I can’t believe that this issue is primarily due to mobile coverage issues. If you are building a new conference facility, work with the mobile providers to identify the best way to support access – even if the problem is the cell providers’ it still reflects badly on the hotel.


2. Wireless access. I don’t understand why hotels still feel the need to charge for wireless access. $9.95 for 24 hours isn’t significant when you are already paying $200+ for the room. Surely the hotel could find a way to factor this into their room fees, and make wireless “free”. Is this really a money maker for the hotel? Similarly, within the conference center area….Make the Wireless Work!! If I’ve already paid for my 24 hours, I want the ability to actually use them during the 8 hours I’m spending in the conference area.


3. Restrooms. Meg already covered this last year. This Hyatt was built in the last 5 years and to their credit, they clearly tried to address the women’s restroom challenge. And they got close. However, adding stalls but only providing 3 sinks just moves the constraint. As a result the line was within the restroom instead of outside it. (I guess it’s a good sign that people were willing to form a line for sinks…?)


4. Chairs. Someday, some smart product developer is going to figure out how to create a lightweight, stackable chair that can be produced in mass quantities and is Comfortable. When that chair is created, I will spend all my influence to have conferences only in hotels that use those chairs. Even though the conference had frequent breaks, by the end of Day 1 my back was stiff, and several other people had moved to standing up, or sitting on the floor. In the absence of comfy chairs, maybe hotels could start ordering additional pillows and making them available in conference rooms?

Complaints aside, the Hyatt got several things right – the food was excellent, the hotel layout was conducive to group meetings and interactions, and the staff was quite responsive. And you can’t argue with the location:

[photo credit: quarrier]

Ok, enough with the logistics, on to the conference write-up!