Canadian HR Reporter

strategic caPability network's Panel of thought leaders brings decades of experience from the senior ranks of Canada's business community. eir commentary puts HR management issues into context and looks at the practical implications of proposals and policies. CanaDian hr reporTer July 14, 2014 ExECutIvE sERIEs 9 www.scnetwork.ca Join our professional community of Canadian HR & Organizational Leaders: • Connecting @ monthly events • Collaborating with peers • Challenging conventional thinking The Power of Human Capital CULTIVATING LEADERSHIP FOR 35 YEARS Great Leaders GROW www.scnetwork.ca For strategy, run your own race OrgANIzINg ANd operating the Toronto 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am games presents a unique challenge. The sheer scale, the variety of the sports events and the countries represented, the visibility and the fixed timelines are enough to impress any planner. But emulating the strategy — and applying it to your own organization — should be ap- proached with caution. As impressive as the effort around the Games is, it's important to consider that some things just don't transfer well. Sustainability: The Pan Am Games and Parapan Am Games operation has a limited timeframe — from start to finish, it's about three years. While the Games organiz- ing commitee is concerned with building capability in the local and sports community, they do not have to take into consider- ation longer lifespan issues such as ongoing employee engagement during day-to-day operations and ongoing financial well-being. In organizational terms, the Games are basically a project: ey have a beginning, a middle and an end. Contingent workforce: Most organizations today have some form of contingent workforce. e prediction is this will increase as organizations evolve into be- coming more virtual. However, no organization an- ticipates the contingent talent will work for free. The profile of the Pan Am Games and the culture of vol- unteerism in sport makes this possible. ere are a few organizations such as hospitals or charities that can and do tap into this type of ar- rangement but — as seen with re- cent developments and reactions with regard to unpaid interns — there is less tolerance these days for unpaid work. Talent and career: Organiza- tions can't and don't want to rely on a talent plan that looks only at outside resources. ey want to have at least some portion of the talent they will need to be readily available internally, with an understanding of the or- ganizational culture, without a learning curve. In addition, part of employee engagement in a longer term or- ganization is the potential for on- going professional development and career growth, without hav- ing to leave the organization. at said, there are important lessons to be learned from the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games planning and strategy. Shifting infrastructure: Some organizations that have many projects on an ongoing basis have begun to adopt more flexible structures and new types of roles, some of which are based on a ma- trix organization. e Pan Am Games' organiza- tional structure and roles were de- signed to evolve and change over the lifespan of the operation. Using the same players in dif- ferent roles provides continuity, opportunities for professional growth and development, and the chance to work with different people in different ways. Tailored strategy: e Pan Am Games require the strong support of the community at large, the sports community, government and corporate sponsors. There are political, social and economic dimensions. e strategy could not rely only on basic operational delivery and fiscal accountability — there also had to be an element of legacy, of social responsibility, and the Pan Am Games had to be more than just a sporting event. Thus, the strategy includes reaching out to the community to build capability and leadership. It highlights opportunities to be found in being a more inclusive, diverse organization. e strategy taps into the need for public support for resources (such as funding, volunteers and infrastructure improvements) by tapping into energy generated by the excitement of the Games and placing them in a broader social context. Using best practices: Although the Pan Am Games organization has a limited lifespan and must contend with a rapid ramp-up and a fixed and definite wind- down, the organization brings human resources best practices into use and adapts them to meet its unique challenges. Organizations or projects of a short and fixed duration often do not invest the time to put in place best practice approaches — and they rarely demonstrate the cre- ativity to tailor their human re- sources strategy to meet anything other than operational and tech- nical requirements. e Pan Am Games strategy has social elements that influence the human resources strategy and drive the tailoring of best practic- es to meet specific needs. As organizations evolve — per- haps becoming more virtual with larger contingent workforces — there are many lessons they can learn from the Pan Am Games approach. ey need to realisti- cally assess their situation, includ- ing the social and political aspects involved, to determine what is re- quired to be successful and embed these into their strategy. e strategy cannot be a cut and paste from one organization to another and it can't rigidly rely on a balanced scorecard or any other framework. Each organization must run its own race. Karen Gorsline is SCNetwork's lead commentator on strategic capability and leads HR Initiatives, a consulting practice focused on facilitation and tailored HR initiatives. Toronto-based, she has taught HR planning, held senior roles in strategy and policy, managed a large decentral- ized HR function and directed a small business. She can be reached at gorslin@ pathcom.com. Karen Gorsline Strategic Capability Corporations' next major project WHAT CAN organizations learn from the Pan Am/Parapan Am games being held in Toronto in July/August 2015? It's not so much the events them- selves that hold the lessons (al- though the athletes are inspira- tional) — it's the fact that the or- ganizing committee started from nothing in 2010 to now employing 431 full-time employees and will soon be employing about 20,000 volunteers. And the sole objective is to suc- cessfully host 10,000 athletes and 250,000 visitors for just over three weeks, with the eyes of the world watching to witness their final "product." Oh yes, as a sidebar, Toronto 2015 will also boost the Canadian economy by an impressive $3.7 billion in the process. What oth- er organization can boast those kinds of statistics? Project format evolves through various stages So how is Toronto 2015 going to accomplish this? Simple. Instead of organizing itself in the typical hierarchical, command-and-con- trol structure, it has set the com- pany up as one big project. Sure, there's a CEO, a CFO and a smattering of vice-presidents, but the bulk of the team is aligned in a project format. And as the project evolves through its various stages, these team members will be redeployed as needed — it's a very dynamic, fluid environment. This approach makes sense. So why don't other organizations function this way? Why do they continue to cocoon themselves in the very rigid command-and-con- trol hierarchical structure? Why do they permit silos and fiefdoms to develop? These only encourage petty politics and turf wars among the various departments and divi- sions and, more importantly, they stifle change. Get rid of archaic 'shackles' around employee roles If we look closely at an organiza- tion, it's really just a bunch of proj- ects anyway. e yearly objectives tell us this. What are we going to accomplish this year? Projects! So why not align the overall structure this way? Move Mack- enzie from accounting to IT where she will be part of the new ERP (enterprise resource plan- ning) design team. Move Michael from production to marketing where he can add insight and so- ber second thought to the new product launch. Move as many as possible. Changing perspectives When these people are trans- ferred in this way, possibly for up to two years, their perspectives change — they start to look at things more from the entire com- pany's viewpoint as opposed to just their departments'. ey also gain more experience than they might normally have thought possible and become more valuable employees. e days of the fossilized cor- porate structure are over. So too is the "We've always done it this way" mentality. Organizations must become much more flexible and adapt- able in order just to survive, let alone flourish. e way to do this is to transform to a more project- oriented architecture. Morgan Smyth is an SCNetwork thought leader and a change management con- sultant who launched his own IT services company which soared to Profit Maga- zine's 50 Fastest Growing Companies. He is based in Toronto and can be reached at msmyth@braegen.com. Morgan Smyth Leadership in action e bulk of the team is aligned in a project format. And as the project evolves, these team members will be redeployed as needed — it's a very fluid environment. e strategy could not rely only on basic operational delivery and fiscal accountability — there had to be an element of legacy and social responsibility.

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