The Power of the Assist: How Do We Help When No One is Looking?

Not being much of a basketball fan, I admit I have not watched any of the current NBA Finals between Dallas and Miami.

The recap on ESPN during my workout is about it. When I grew up in the south it was always about football, never about basketball.

However, one of the things that has always caught my eye about sports was the amount of metrics that teams compile. While having team leaders with high metrics in each category never assures a winning team, I find it interesting how everything is tracked.

 

2011- The Year that Human Capital Management Resets

During my morning workout over the holidays, my iPod did not come on.  As usual with IPods, when this happens you must reset. This is done by holding down 2 buttons simultaneously. Then you wait 8 seconds and bravo you are ready to get it on.

During the 8 second wait, I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if life and or business for that matter were like that.  Get in a jam, hit reset.  Strategy does not work, hit reset.  Want to start over, hit reset.

Major change ahead for the organization.

And the Winner is .............

My uncle had a love for the “ponies.” During the summer break from college, he would take me and all my brothers and we would head to the race track. It was always a fun family event on Saturdays. We would all sit in the clubhouse, which was a lot more elegant than the grandstand, and there we would begin the process of choosing winners for each race.

If you have never been to a race track, the list of characters who frequent them would give a screenwriter a treasure trove of material.

All the real fans would do their “workout,” which appeared to consist of looking at the horses’ past record and the times that they finished. I assumed they would extrapolate from this information for a fool-proof method of winning. Overall, it seemed to me about as successful as throwing a dart to choose the winner. My method was just to guess the top three winners of the race. My metric for a good day was to leave with more money than I came in with.
I thought of all of this the other day, when I saw the ad for the new movie Secretariat; the horse race, the expected and unexpected outcome, the drama as to who was going to finish in the money.

From Human Resources to Human Capital

I was recently named to the Expert Advisory Panel at the Human Capital Institute located in Washington, DC.  This is my first post on that site.


Human Resources is a relative modern term coined from all indication in the 60’s. It was previously known, possibly since its inception, as “Personnel.” During this transformation, HR was basically an administrative function charged with a range of worker-related processes. This same model is still in existence in some companies today if you can believe it. They have plodded along feeling very comfortable in that space and some would stay there if circumstances had not changed. Because of the economic turmoil, the ground has shifted.

With the economic fallout there is a distinct need for a more strategic approach. Meanwhile we have all heard and read about our profession wanting that seat at the table. We wanted a brand as strong as marketing and finance. Because of this “perfect storm,” for all that wanted that new place on the corporate totem pole, your wishes have been answered.

Human Capital Institute Announcement

I was recently named to the prestigious Expert Advisory Panel on Talent Management Strategy at the Human Capital Institute.  My recent post: "From Human Resources to Human Capital" discusses the transformation from Human Resources to a strategic focus of Human Capital Management.