Canadian HR Strategy

29 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 avail- able internally, with an understanding of the organizational culture, without a learning curve. In addition, part of employee engagement in a longer term organization is the potential for ongoing professional development and career growth, without having to leave the organization. at said, there are important lessons to be learned from the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games planning and strategy. Shi ing infrastructure: Some organizations that have many projects on an ongoing basis have begun to adopt more fl exible struc- tures and new types of roles, some of which are based on a matrix organization. e Pan Am Games' organizational structure and roles were de- signed to evolve and change over the lifespan of the operation. Using the same players in diff erent roles provides continuity, opportunities for professional growth and development, and the chance to work with diff erent people in diff erent ways. Tailored strategy: e Pan Am Games require the strong sup- port of the community at large, the sports community, government and corporate sponsors. ere are political, social and economic dimensions. e strategy could not rely only on basic operational delivery and fi scal 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. us, 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 fi xed and defi nite wind-down, the organization brings human re- sources best practices into use and adapts them to meet its unique challenges. Organizations or projects of a short and fi xed duration o en do not invest the time to put in place best practice approaches — and they rarely demonstrate the creativity to tailor their human resources strategy to meet anything other than operational and technical re- quirements. e Pan Am Games strategy has social elements that infl uence the human resources strategy and drive the tailoring of best practices to meet specifi c needs. As organizations evolve — perhaps becoming more virtual with larger contingent workforces — there are many lessons they can learn from the Pan Am Games approach. ey need to realistically assess their situation, including the social and political aspects in- volved, to determine what is required 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. corporations' next major project (leadership in action) By Morgan Smyth w hat 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 themselves that hold the les- sons (although the athletes are inspirational) — it's the fact that the organizing committee started from nothing in 2010 to now employing 431 full-time employees and soon employing about 20,000 volunteers. And the sole objective is to successfully host 10,000 athletes and 250,000 visitors for just over three weeks, with the eyes of the world watching to witness their fi nal "product." Oh yes, as a sidebar, Toronto 2015 will also boost the Canadian economy by an impressive $3.7 billion in the process. What other 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 company 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, fl uid environ- ment. is approach makes sense. So why don't other organizations func- tion this way? Why do they continue to cocoon themselves in the very rigid command-and-control hierarchical structure? Why do they per- mit silos and fi efdoms to develop? ese only encourage petty politics and turf wars among the various departments and divisions and, more importantly, they stifl e change. get rid of archaic 'shackles' around employee roles If we look closely at an organization, 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 Macken- zie from accounting to IT where she will be part of the new ERP (enterprise resource planning) design team. Move Michael from production to marketing where he can add insight and sober second thought to the new product launch. Move as many as possible. changing perspectives When these people are transferred in this way, possibly for up to two years, their perspectives change — they start to look at things more from the entire company's viewpoint as opposed to just their depart- ments'. ey also gain more experience than they might normally have thought possible and become more valuable employees. e days of the fossilized corporate structure are over. So too is the "We've always done it this way" mentality. Organizations must become much more fl exible and adapt- able in order just to survive, let alone fl ourish. e way to do this is to transform to a more project-oriented architecture.

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