Conner cites three critical characteristics of the nimble organization. These organizations:
- Hire only agile employees. Conner believes that who is on your team is more important than how the team is structured or its assignment. “When staffing your organization for nimbleness,” he says, “80 percent of your resources should be directed toward hiring people already prone towards the desired attributes, and then training and coaching them to expand their capabilities even more. No more than 20 percent of your resources should be allocated to assisting those who say they are willing to work against their own instincts and biases and try to develop completely new propensities…” to become nimble and resilient.
- Understand the interaction of control and resilience. When change is introduced, it is typically better handled by resilient people. It is better integrated by people who are used to constant change and who are not taken by surprise by the announcement or request.
- Build a core competency around handling ambiguity. People who handle change most effectively recognize that change can be scary, perhaps unpleasant, and that it always requires something different from them. Despite this, they continue to rise to the occasion and effectively perform their job responsibilities.
HR's Contribution to Agility
The contribution of the HR function to the hiring and development of agile, nimble, resilient people is critical. You design or administer most organizational systems that contribute to agility.
- Create selection, testing and hiring criteria that identify diverse, resilient, nimble people.
- Provide orientation that emphasizes the organization vision and expectations for agility.
- Assist and coach leaders to communicate the vision, and design a work environment that removes barriers, de-emphasizes hierarchical control, emphasizes empowerment, and puts people directly into contact with customers and suppliers.
- Create flexible job descriptions that change regularly to meet organization needs. Consider using a job plan approach so employees are in charge of monitoring their core job functions and goals.
- Provide opportunities for people to work on crossfunctional, even virtual, teams that solve a problem or approach a new opportunity.
- Create an environment in which diverse ideas, training and education that develop individual capacity, and reading are the norm.
- Hold people accountable for their results. There are consequences for met and unmet goals.
- Push decision making down, across, and throughout the organization so people are not waiting for decisions before taking action.
- Design a feedback system that provides ongoing, daily feedback so people always know how they are doing. Invest the time to create a competency-based, individually planned and negotiated, results-based performance feedback system. Eliminate the traditional performance review.
- Reward people who produce results that have wide-ranging impact in the organization. Reward results and impact, not longevity or seniority. Reward, at least, quarterly. Consider sharing profits.
- Base promotions on contribution and impact.
- Encourage intelligent risk taking and open discussion, and even some conflict over diverse ideas and viewpoints. Avoid “group think” to maintain relationships.
- Coach managers to handle their own “people” issues, instead of handling them for them. You build their capability and thus that of your organization as a whole.
The rewards for the HR manager who builds this workforce and work environment are immense. You directly impact the organization’s bottom line and can expect to influence the overall strategic vision. You are valued on a par with the people who manage line functions. The HR world is changing. Recently, I read a job description for an HR Director in a Detroit, Michigan paper. It basically stated that HR traditionalists who viewed their work as administration and policy making need not apply. The company wanted applications only from candidates willing and able to advise the corporation at the highest, most important strategic level. Are you ready to take your place at this table? The future is now for all those willing to apply.
Comments Welcome
What do you think? I’d love to hear what you think about this HR trend. Are you seeing or creating these ideas in your organization? Talk about your thoughts in the HR Community Connection Forum. What can you do as an HR professional to get your organization ready for the future?
