The Hub Breakfast Meeting November 2007

While the chill of winter greeted many workers across the UK, the rich smell of coffee and homely aroma of croissants and muffins welcomed a small group of the regions most senior HR managers and directors to the Birmingham Institute of Directors to take a glimpse into future of HR and in particular  ‘Innovation and creativity in HR’. 

With an audience poised for discovery and discussion, our speaker Doug Miller opened the floor to what was to be a challenging and stimulating snap shot of how the HR role within businesses will need to adapt and change in tomorrow’s business world.

I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who attended and to those unable to attend this time round I look forward to welcoming you all to our future Hub meetings.

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We are delighted to announce the launch of our new look website. Take a look by visiting www.wrightsolutionsltd.com

To celebrate the start of the festive season we have a number of great offers including a fantastic opportunity to save up to £300 on one of our Open Courses just click here to find out more.

I hope our new website proves useful, informative and keeps you abreast of all the exciting new developments as WS.

I look forward to seeing you at the next Hub meeting which will be in February 2008, we will send out details nearrer the date.

Best regards

Paul Wright

Doug Miller
Doug is a leading author and trainer in the field of innovation, creativity and positive attitude.   His latest book (his fifth) 'Brilliant Idea' has just been published by Pearson/Prentice Hall.

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Innovation & Creativity in HR

A forum dedicated to views and opinions on how it affects you and your people.

So let us enjoy a quick overview on the various subjects discussed and what challenges we may face

What is the future for HR?

With many of the traditional process elements of the HR role now being ‘shipped out’ by new business models HR professionals need to consider how HR will need to change to support and influence the successful business in the future.

Doug shared his vision of what he felt were the key assets that the organisations of the future in the UK will have

1. Knowledge
2. Cleverness
3. Passion
4. Creativity and Innovation

Briefly discussing each of these skills we then concentrated on the last one - Innovation & Creativity. It was recognised that creativity had not really been a part of the HR mix 15 years ago, but that HR now has a crucial part to play in the generation of a more creative/innovative workplace.

Doug took us through some typical characteristics of kinds of organsiations we might be operating in..

From the new start up company, with their fresh ideas, masses of energy and endless possibilities through to the current, modern, well established business enjoying the success of a stable yet still energetic trading environment. Right the way up to the leviathons of commerce, well established, but like the oil tanker, sometimes slow to take the new and innovative pathways available to them.

To summarise there are three potential states for organisations:

Young Dolphins
Young, full of energy, an open creative attitude, risk taking.

The Happy Dinosaur
Possibly old, possibly traditional but surviving in the modern world

The Unhappy Dinosaur
Dying on its feet through lack of creativity, innovation and ideas.

Doug emphasised that it is perfectly possible to be an older business but to adapt to the needs of the future if they inject dolphin like thinking and change their culture to encourage a climate of innovation and creativity.

Doug believes that HR has a central role to play here.  HR’s role will become more of a consulting one within organisations with a need to apply more creative practices and business models to give their business the competitive edge.

And to do this the HR role needs to develop innovative and creative methods to help the business survive and prosper.

Introducing ‘TIM’ (Total Innovation Management) to the audience Doug explained how the 4 factors of Knowledge, Cleverness, Passion and Creativity & Innovation will keep tomorrow’s business moving forward.

Using a ‘life cycle theory of organisations’ to demonstrate how a business can grow, get older but to sustain it at its ‘prime’ for longer or even forever! 

We then set about to decide what was most important within a business for success. The results were:

1. Cost
2. Service/Quality
3. Newness/creativity/innovation

It was felt that all were important and that for a truly successful business environment a mix of all three is required.

Closing the gaps on the 13 Dimensions

Before the Hub meeting the attendees had been given the opportunity to complete an Innovation Climate Questionnaire  which asked questions about the individual’s organisation. This has been developed through 25 years of research by Innovation Centre Europe and organisational psychologist Goran Ekvall.  This questionnaire is based around identifying how individuals feel about their organisation and measures this across 13 dimensions. These dimensions include: Commitment, Stress and Risk Taking, which together with the other 10 dimensions give a very good indication of the suitability of your organisation’s climate for innovation and creativity.

The attendees were presented with the results of their completed questionnaires and we were able to discuss the results – with some interesting outcomes!

Breaking into smaller discussion groups allowed the attendees to focus how all of this could or would impact on their business and to identify certain areas where their business needed to address how a positive and creative company culture could benefit the business.  In particular we focussed on which of the 13 dimensions HR could get the ‘quick wins’.  In other words, where HR could make the most impact and quickest.  The dimensions highlighted were ‘Shared View’, Pay and Work recognition (2) and risk taking.

From our very brief look into the future of HR I believe it is possible to see how HR professionals and the HR role within the business has to change to enable growth and success for that business as we move further into the new century. A paradigm shift is occurring within the commercial environment as global businesses remodel themselves and expect their staff to adapt to these new environments and challenges.

HR has to be there to support not only the business but the individual, to allow both to design how the business operates, innovates and incentivises. The working environment is changing as new technology and business practices change the landscape on an almost daily basis. Gone are the days when a business could find commercial success and simply ride the same wave for years. That same success has to be rediscovered almost continually to compete within an increasingly competitive stage.

To achieve this new business environment the company or organisation will have to nurture the individual’s creativity within all areas of the business and recognise that today’s employee expects a more inclusive work environment; an environment within which they can make their own mark on the success and personality of the company.

To do this there has to be a culture where new ideas can be discussed in a sensible, supportive and positive way. This environment must allow for ‘sensible mistakes’ to be made and important lessons to be learnt, giving an environment where innovation will push tomorrow’s successful businesses forward.

It can be an exciting, energetic environment full of discovery and reward.