Revolution vs Reformation HR

So I am new to the world of blogging but hey, I thought why not, we all have a voice. I will get into why I started this blog in another post. For now, I want to explore reformation in HR and the power of ‘one’ to create transformational and lasting change in our organisations.


Last week I attended a conference hosted by the One Group which was very informative and insightful. One of the speakers spoke about changing employee communication from cascade to conversation. She started by describing the chronicle of communication within the workplace. The CEO writes a message, then it is sanitised by the communications department to ensure that the message is generic to all the employees and there is no room for misunderstanding the message. However, this loses the meaningful exchange that should happen, as it is a one way channel (this is me paraphrasing, she said it cleverly).


The age of social media has meant that communication is no longer a one-way street; it is a continuum and people are no longer listening exclusively to the CEO’s message, but are listening to what other employees say about working for the company. Social media has also demonstrated the significance of the voice of one person in influencing movements or raising people’s awareness on big issues. A PEW study in 2018 found that 14% of people have changed their mind over big issues because of what they see online and there are about 2.3 billion worldwide active social media users, all using their voice, what I am referring to as the ‘one’.


We had a short break after the session and I had the opportunity to speak to a couple of delegates about what we had heard. We all agreed that what she said was insightful and thought about how we can take this back to our organisations. There was also the apparent frustration of being the only voice in the desert that is calling for change, especially if you work for a large company that has always done work in a certain way. Or you work in a company that is so fast paced that there is often no time for dialogue, except achieving whatever the next goal may be.


So then I started reflecting how could we be an agent of change in our workplaces. We have often seen scenarios where a big consultancy comes in to design a strategy that doesn’t work as soon as they leave or work for a while and then doesn’t work. Probably because the human factors that were in place before they entered are still there.


How can we get our organisation or business to have an honest dialogue with our people? I say by being reformation agents and utilising our critical mass to effect change. By this I mean, utilising our collective voice of the ‘one’. HR influencing middle managers to effect change of dialogue and not accepting that it cannot be done.


We often go for the revolution approach (bring in big external firms to help) probably because we think we lack the know how to make the change that we want to make. There is a place for external firms with the know-how within their DNA, but there is bigger value in drawing upon the internal critical mass we already have as employees. 


The next question that pops into my head is how can I make this happen as a middle manager?
Social media today has shown that we all have a voice; one person is capable of making their views known to a huge audience. We can use our voices and expertise to influence individuals in our organisations and enhance their leadership and management. By improving the leadership of one manager, we enhance the experience of numerous employees managed by them. This is the power of the one. One person, one change, has the potential to reform and consequently transform an organisation. A piece of American research in 2015 showed that the average worker has 12-15 jobs in their lifetime, while a Telegraph article suggested that the average worker would be employed by 6 companies in their lifetime. Job changes are increasingly common; as a result, one manager is responsible for far more employees over the course of their career. Starting with the one therefore has the potential to create transformational change internally without the need to resort to external agencies. My key message is this: Start with the one and trust the power of the one to create incremental, reforming change in your organisation.


My next post will be discuss how we have meaningful conversations within the organisation.


Thank you for taking the time to read my 1st musings (out loud) about HR.

Please share on social media.

---