HR Unleashed!!: Developing the Differences That Make a Difference

By Steve Browne

Packed with heartfelt personal and professional anecdotes about his own journey to HR excellence, the bestselling author of HR on Purpose!! and HR Rising!! inspires and challenges HR professionals to do their best work while transforming the lives of people, organizations, and the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: May 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9781586446338

Book preview

Foreword

When Steve ventured into the waters, yet again, to write his next book, he heard, Really? from some of his well-meaning friends. Okay, I said it. It wasn’t because I didn’t think he could, but rather it came from a wonder as to how there could be more to say. Was this next foray into the written word valuable or could this be Mistake Number 3 à la the iconic, fab ’80s band Culture Club? And then I read the manuscript. It had to be written.

You see, being effective requires constant practice. When I think about the dynamism necessary to make work great, it almost occurs at a pace where calories should be counted. The burn is real. However, the resulting organizational vitality is worth the effort. If we could take Before and After pictures, we would really see the difference. But organizational change is not an overnight fix, nor is it a one-and-done effort.

As with other change management strategies, the implementation takes time and requires consistency. Often, these two needs are short in supply and in patience. The road we travel to make things better is paved with potholes, sinkholes, and steeplechase hurdles. Thrilling, right? Walking the talk of organizational cultural impact is not for the faint of heart. It is a labor, quite literally, of testing hypotheses and course-correcting, often on the fly. Weariness can settle in quickly.

But the same road littered with obstacles is also lined with spectators. Those spectators represent our colleagues, our leadership, our subordinates, and our teammates. We have the entire company watching the work we do in human resources, and they want to see how we’re doing. They want to believe you can do it, even if they may taunt you on the journey. They balance high hopes with bitterness born out of experience. And you stand as the ambassador of impact at the threshold of, as Jim McKay would say during the Wide World of Sports, the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.

Yet, there is one narrower group of people involved here. They stand by those spectators in the bleachers. They are often right along the edge of the racetrack, straining their necks to get a great look of you coming up the road. They have posters with phrases of encouragement or huge cardboard cutouts of your head. They raise those banners high and yell loudly as you approach. They are loving you to win. These are your cheerleaders, your support group, your people. They are in your corner rooting you on.

Belief in yourself is key to success. That belief is encouraged, hopefully, by the group closest to you, but it also must be encouraged in you by you. You don’t get to sit back and hope the positive will of the people is enough to guide you to success. Oh no. That’s not how this works. You must get dirty. You must doubt plans. You must weigh pros and cons. You must adjust to leading, to managing, and to serving behind the scenes concurrently. You must show what the absolute best in a thriving organization looks like.

Flexibility at work is much more than the opportunity for a hybrid office requirement. The mobility necessarily needs to include things like focus group feedback to change a process, testing workplace theories for productivity and efficiency, and piloting an enhanced program for a department to work out the kinks so that other divisions have a smoother go of it. Learning is a trait of the nimble when it is done correctly. Merely gathering information and calling that a win is like watching a video of someone running and believing that’s enough for you to refer to yourself as a marathon champion. The proof is in the action, and the wisdom is in the evolving approaches.

When hearts and minds are affected, the company is changed. People drive work. They drive culture, performance, and branding, for better or for worse. The first time I read Good to Great by Jim Collins, I was sure that if I got everyone to read it, our company would be at the forefront of excellence. Reading that book was helpful to me, just as reading this one will be. What I forgot was that reading the book was not the goal. Learning from the book, applying its principles (at least a few of them), and consistently doing what needed to be done was what would change us for the better. Going to the gym one day a month won’t do much to change your body. Reading the latest and greatest advice once a year won’t fix work either. And knowing Steve as well as I do, he doesn’t want you to just read this book and pop it back on the shelf.

Relational impact is a key driver for the work we do. We push to earn the right to invest in people. We don’t need to have it all right; we need to start by letting people know they are alright. Sit with those around you and affirm their talents. Share stories of failure so they can know how to rise again when they mess up. Speak a future into the lives of those around you who may not be able to see the awesomeness in them that you do. Cast a vision, provide the tools, and travel the road with them. You are someone’s cheerleader as they race on a road that you may have traveled previously. Your encouragement means much more when you have gotten dirty too.

Enjoy this latest work by my friend Steve. As you read it, picture Steve holding up posters with encouragement just for you as he cheers for you from the sidelines of the raceway. He believes in you even if he doesn’t yet know you. And having support like that in your corner is empowering. It’s invigorating. It’s life changing. And that is the business we’re all in — changing lives.

—John Baldino

President of Humareso

(and a best friend)

Introduction

In my first real HR role, which was the second job in my career, I joined an entrepreneurial manufacturing company. Right after I started, I heard a story that gave me a sobering perspective of what not to do as a human resource professional. I was enjoying lunch with two of my peers and asked them what HR had been like before I joined the company. They both started laughing. It was a joke, the plant manager, Ron, said. The person before you had an office that sat in the middle of the entire floor. No matter how you walked through the corporate office you had to go past her desk. She never left it. Ever.

That’s right, chimed in Marvin. We never really knew what she did, but we were told we had to take people-related issues to her. When we did, we’d get the same answer. ‘You can’t do that. It’s illegal.’ That was her pat answer in every conversation.

Ron replied, Yeah. It kind of freaked us out. There wasn’t anything we brought up that wasn’t allegedly breaking some law or another.

Was that true? Were you breaking the law? I asked.

Marvin retorted, Hell, we didn’t know. It just freaked us out. After a while we just avoided her. We knew what she was going to say so we didn’t involve her at all.

I asked, Didn’t anyone address her? How could she do HR if she kept pushing everyone away?

That’s the best part of the story, Steve. Ron chuckled. One day, Dick, the CEO and owner of the company, was walking through the office. He had heard us complain that we never found it useful to work with her. We didn’t know what she did and why she kept being such an obstacle. He went up to her desk and said, ‘I heard we’re breaking a bunch of laws. Which ones?’ She was flabbergasted. Marvin and I could hear the confrontation, and we were floored that he was so straightforward. But you know that’s his style. He doesn’t pull punches.

What did she say? I wondered.

Nothing. Not a single word, Marvin declared. I could see how giddy he was in recanting this story. She was making it up. She didn’t know. She would just tell us we were breaking laws to keep us away from her. Dick let her go that day. He just told her to leave because she didn’t know her job and he didn’t need that from anyone in the company. I hope you know what you’re doing in HR, Steve. You don’t want to follow her antics.

I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. It was scary because I was so new in my role. More than that though was the confusion I had in why my predecessor felt that what she was doing was how to practice HR. I did everything I could from that moment on to never be the person behind the curtain.

It saddens me to see more than thirty-five years later that HR still predominantly lurks in the shadows and sidelines of organizations. The pandemic pulled back the veil to show executives that EVERY issue in the life of an organization is a people issue. Every. Single. One. It was like a grand awakening !! The challenge in front of the profession is that we’re still located on the sidelines. Much of what HR does remains a mystery to the majority of others working in the same organization. We continue to tolerate this reality instead of taking steps to burst forth and assume a leadership role.

Have you ever seen the movie The Wizard of Oz? It’s an all-time classic. As you follow the adventures of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion, you reach the climax of the movie when they encounter the Wizard. They enter the palace and the room where the Wizard is supposed to be and they see an enormous menacing green face accompanied by billowing smoke, loud organ music, and an amplified voice meant to provoke fear and awe. Of course, this is all a ruse. The actual Wizard is a regular-looking person who is found out once the characters look behind the curtain. There’s nothing about him that matches the audacious show he hid behind.

This is a lot like HR in most organizations. Many trappings, posturing, elusive maneuvers, and obtuse, industry-specific language are regularly used to keep others at arm’s distance. HR remains a mystery in most organizations even though it could be, and should be, leading the people strategy in a proactive, intentional manner.

It’s time to change the narrative of your role, our profession, and the global HR community as a whole. There’s no need to be relegated to a position where you’re only called upon in a time of concern or crisis. At the same time, we need to drop the shroud of how we practice HR. What we do should be transparent, approachable, and tangible and should drive the performance of everyone throughout the organization. This isn’t some lofty aspiration. It’s well within our grasp.

The decision that’s before you is whether you are willing to pick up the gauntlet to unleash HR yourself. Join me as we create, define, and take this journey together as HR peers. I’m geeked to see where it will go now and well into the future !!

Chapter 1.

So, THIS Is It ?!

The world has changed. This is not a new statement or some unknown revelation. The world is constantly in a state of flux. It moves and changes without us asking or knowing about it. What I’m referencing is the realization that we went through a global pandemic. A friend of mine, Lisa Horn, gave me a phrase I feel encapsulates a deep-seated awareness of the obvious. She told me one time, Should we talk about the dead moose on the table ??

That grabs your attention !! Most people ask about the elephant in the room, but I like the moose visual instead. It makes you pause and take note because no one would want that to be reality. However, we need to pause, reflect, and come to terms with the fact that work and the workplace will NEVER be the same after the pandemic. Ever. When the world came to a screeching halt in March of 2020, no one knew what to do or how to respond. This was the first global event for most of the current population where we all experienced something in common. The last one was most likely World War II. Think of that. Constant local, regional, and national events occur daily. If you’re in those areas when the disruptive events occur, then it is very real for you. However, if you aren’t personally affected or disrupted, you probably aren’t aware of anything outside of your sphere of focus. You may take in a snippet of news online or catch a newscast and think, Wow, that has to be rough. But, if you’re not immediately impacted, it’s just a story.

The pandemic wasn’t a story. It was an actual global occurrence. We’ve never seen our daily lives grind to a halt. We were uncertain about our future, and we don’t like uncertainty. Not at all. People were confined to their residences. Isolation was the norm on top of not knowing what was coming next. Add to all of this how the pandemic hit people personally. People became ill themselves and some unfortunately experienced the loss of loved ones. Remember, many of these people were also employees. If they weren’t, they may have been family members of those who worked for companies.

It’s tragic that it took a global crisis for senior leaders to realize they were facing a people issue. I mentioned this earlier: since it personally affected people, now it mattered. To react to all that was happening, workplaces took a giant step into the unknown as well. People have spoken and written about wanting employers and employees to grasp the fact that change occurs all the time. Change is usually incremental and subtle. Rarely is there a massive shift in one direction or another. The pandemic caused a seismic shift.

We immediately were forced to adopt remote work, which had been fought against for decades. Now there was no choice. This wasn’t true for everyone though. The essential worker term came to life because those workers occupied roles that had to be in person. World governments were put into a position of knee-jerk and rapid regulatory efforts. They issued blanket statements and restrictions because they were as in the dark about how to address what was happening as everyone else. You would have thought society would have pulled together during this crisis. There were pockets where that happened. At the same time, there were more pockets that felt like they were going to pull each other apart with their level of divisiveness. The word unprecedented became a daily, if not hourly, term in everyone’s vocabulary.

Executive leadership then did something that had not been consistently done until this period of time. They looked to human resources and said, What should we do? This is adversely affecting our people. We need you to step up. HR responded and did it magnificently. HR became the communication hub for organizations to establish the new ways of working with people being remote. The use of technology leapt light-years ahead to enable work to continue. HR pros also became the facilitators of regulatory interpretation and implementation while being the center point of care, empathy, and connection for all COVID-19 instances.

It was encouraging to see HR step into the gap once the door was opened. We are now heading into the third year since the global shift occurred. Things will never be how they were before the pandemic. This is the new normal people were longing for. It isn’t what any of us expected or wanted, but it is the norm now. We will continue to have a workforce that expects more flexibility in the schedule of when and how they work. Some form of COVID is going to be present in all of society moving forward. It seems to be less harmful, but it may never disappear completely. Employees have reevaluated life in general, and work may not be their first priority anymore. People are also taking control of their careers and being more intentional about whom they’ll work for.

People are not