Joe Gerstandt | keynote speaker, freedom fighter, freak-flag flier

Mary Schaefer and I found each other on…(wait for it)…Twitter. Where else do people find each other these days!!?? Mary and I orbit around some of the same ideas and hopes for the world of work. On her Twitter profile she describes herself as an “HR/OD Consultant, Fierce Idealist, Farmer’s Daughter,” who Tweets about “People at Work, Odd Bits on Pop Culture and Current Events” and Blogs about “Re-Imagining Work Relationships.” And that is like poetry to me. On her blog she talks about what “ReImagining Work Relationships” means and shares her manifesto on what she thinks OD, HR and leadership work could (and should) be about.

Since we talk the same language, we caught each other’s attention and I think that each of us hoped that the other was serious about this language. So we decided to talk on the phone and on our phone call we had no shortage of things to talk about. One of the things coming out of that phone call was the agreement that we should continue the interaction and we have decided to do that with some collaborative blog posts in a Q and A format.

She started by putting together some questions for me, and now I have some questions for her:

Joe: What experiences in your HR career led you to focus on a “different way of relating” at work?

Mary: What I want to say first is that there are a number of Human Resources professionals out there who are committed to carrying out their jobs in an expert, efficient, human and caring manner. These are people, who, when faced with a seeming conflict in what is right for the business and what is right for the employee, regularly find the intersect of those needs, or a creative alternative.

That said, I was an IT professional at a Fortune 100 company for 7 years when I decided to pursue a degree and a career in HR. I felt that HR could be done differently than what I was seeing and experiencing. There were many experiences, but here’s just one that could’ve happened to anyone several years ago, before HIPAA was in the forefront. Once, before I got into HR, I sent out an email at the request of an employee who was off work for a prolonged period of time, due to a tragic accident. She wanted me to give her colleagues an update on her condition. An HR generalist was on the list. He called me immediately and told me to never do that again, that I was not respecting the employee’s privacy. There are a myriad of reasons why I shouldn’t have done that, not the least of which is HIPAA. I get it. But what bothered me the most is that he was not sensitive in delivering that message to me. What he correct in his assessment of the situation? Yes. What this part of his job? Yes. Was he right to give me feedback? Yes. However, I won’t say he enjoyed embarrassing me, but he was indifferent to it, which is almost just as bad.

This is just one example of when I observed that people were not dealt with as individuals or Humans. In general, policies are quoted and rules applied without anticipating how the person might react. I’m not saying to not enforce policies and rules, but please relate to employees as Humans, at the same time.

I find that many times when employees don’t know where else to go, they go to HR. In HR, I saw my role as (caution: controversial language ahead) a witness with a sacred responsibility. HR is often in the position to help a person when they feel misunderstood, confused or embarrassed about an HR-related issue. As a representative of HR, I could either further that embarrassment or confusion, shame them for feeling vulnerable, and add to the pile of feeling misunderstood, or I could help them see a way through their situation to free them up so they can… productively do work.

Joe: What will HR professionals and organizational leaders need to do differently if we are going to adopt “different ways of relating” at work?

Mary: First, start with your relationship with yourself. It is easy for me to say, “Remember Human Resources are Human,” and then align all of your behaviors, attitudes and communications with that. But unfortunately it is not easy or natural for people to translate what that means into daily behaviors, let alone into a business strategy.

In my ideal world, I would want organization leaders and HR professionals to do what it takes to remember their own Human-ness. I find that when I raise issues of treating people Humanly at work, HR and managers sometimes say that they can’t even expect to be treated that well. Then maybe we need to start there. Acknowledge the ways you have a right to be treated Humanly, even if it is only to yourself. This will inform you as to how you can begin to relate to people differently, i.e. more Humanly, at work.

Now, let’s go to the other end of the spectrum, considering how you might impact thousands of employees you don’t even know. I spoke with a Director of Benefits once about a project she was working on to eliminate site benefits coordinators and replace them with an 800-number and menu-driven system, for employees to access and change their benefits. A typical justification for this kind of change is that it will save money and make things easier for employees. I remarked that there was a generation of employees who were not going to find this easier. Because of their level of literacy and their discomfort with technology, they would be too intimidated to use this. She said, quite scornfully, that if that is the case, then we have bigger problems than employees not using an 800-number.

This is where the conversation ended for me, because I’ve had it about a thousand times. I could go a lot of places with this particular scenario, but for now I will settle with this: If we had continued it would likely have come down to, “We can’t afford not to do this. It costs too much money to keep up the system we have now.” Then say that. But don’t play it like everyone should be grateful for the change. It is a given in business that you are going to make decisions that are not going to make everyone happy. Don’t spin the message. Own it. People can take a lot of bad news if you tell the truth, and with humility – another good place to start to relate to each other more humanly.

Joe: If you could create an HR function from scratch, what would it look like and what would it do?

Mary: My first thought would be to clarify what purpose the organization wants HR to serve. Fair or not, organization members have expectations that if HR is in your title, you are expected to do your work in a Human way. In too many organizations I see employees view HR as “Employee Compliance” and “Employee Data Administration.” If that is the case, then call it that. If I choose to call myself HR, then I might as well embrace the expectations that go with that, or accept the tension caused when expectations go unmet. If we stick with the label, “HR,” I would want to train anyone who works in HR to understand how to work with Human nature. I don’t know if that means educating them on sociology, systems thinking, brain science, etc., but I do know that it is imperative to understand Humans beings.

We would not think of denying a resource, like a machine, the oil it needs to perform at capacity or deliver quality results. But we take a lot for granted around enabling Human beings at work to perform their best. I think it is amazing that just because we are Human beings, it is assumed we know enough about how Humans work, at work. We expect people who are in charge of a race car engines to know how to make them run at peak performance. Why do we treat our Human resources any differently?

Joe: You have some wonderful book recommendations on your website. What one book is a must for the manager or HR professional wanting to better understand “Human” beings at work and why?

Mary: A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. I think it is a straightforward, easy-to-understand book describing the aptitudes that are needed in the knowledge worker age. Pink talks about 3 forces at work to explain where we (US Biz) are and why:

Abundance: An “over-satisfaction” of our material needs has ironically resulted in an increased need for meaning.

Asia: Routine, white-collar work is being outsourced, forcing knowledge workers to master new skills that can’t be shipped overseas.

Automation: Similar to the impact on last generation’s blue-collar workers, white-collar workers are now having to develop aptitude that can’t be replicated by machines.

Pink then goes on to talk about what it will take for people to survive at work, in this age. He’s not suggesting we throw out the baby with the bath water. He talks about how we must balance what made us successful up until Abundance, Asia and Automation came along, with what it will take to earn a living in this new age. According to Pink, it will take:

Not just function, but also Design

Not just argument, but also Story

Not just focus, but also Symphony

Not just logic, but also Empathy

Not just seriousness, but also Play

Not just accumulation, but also Meaning

Given my focus on Human beings at work, and the examples I used today, I’m not advocating to drop, for example, logic. So, DO deal with employee medical info according to policy and the law. DO implement that money-saving 800 number. But please work with Human nature and empathize with (and actively address) the needs of those Humans impacted.