Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER December 11, 2017 10 EXECUTIVE SERIES/NEWS to bring teams together in the same room on a regular basis, said Grenny. "It pays an important dividend if you invest in bringing everybody together in a region on occasion." e role of HR HR can also play a role in creating monthly activities to keep people engaged, said Panetta. "I've seen remote offi ces doing speed-date, random hangouts with employees at HQ," he said, which was "very eff ective in keep- ing people involved." HR's role is to make sure that communication is regular, consis- tent and people are not checking up on people, but checking in on people, said Hamade. "Sometimes, you have to make the investment and put people in the same room: Put them on a train, meet halfway, do a team meeting off -site where everybody gets to come." It's the responsibility of an HR professional to help managers with those tools and give them the coaching and guidance they need, said LaMere. "If you've got a person who is a brand new manager and they've got a team that has a lot of re- mote workers to it, there's some training to put them through so they know how to work with the remote workforce and be able to engage them in other ways." Establishing the culture of con- nection must begin early when setting up remote workers. "If you let it go within the fi rst few months — without making it a priority — it makes it much more diffi cult to those two diff erent cul- tures," said Panetta, but it's about "just being as inclusive as possible from a cultural perspective, and it doesn't have to be anything over the top, but really involving them in a lot of decisions you make on a day-to-day (basis)." And corporate values can be nurtured despite the physical distances. "When you think of culture, it's not just what's happening in the workplace itself — workplace ex- perience is so much beyond that. It's 'What is your value set? What do you believe in as an organiza- tion? What is your corporate so- cial responsibility?'" said LaMere. "It's not just what's happening in the workplace, because work- place culture can be at your own desk, in your own home, that you are feeling connected to the or- ganization; it's a mission that you want to feel passion for, that you believe in, and you want to strive to make it the best company ever." "From a culture perspective, if you've got that consistent culture, it shouldn't matter where you are at; you should feel part of it and passionate for it." Meet regularly REMOTE WORK < pg. 3 Disruptive talent: An innovation stopgap? Disruptive talent — individuals brought on specifi cally to identify and develop radi- cally diff erent ways of doing things — fi nd themselves facing insurmountable barriers to success. e cultural or operational anti- bodies reject the new role, so either the dis- ruptor quits or is sent to the innovation lab, a safe remove from the organizational core. LHH Knightsbridge's Michelle Moore believes, though, that there is hope for disruptive talent. Her presentation to the SCNetwork made the case for the successful care and feeding of a disruptor. But let's take a step back. I am sure Moore would agree the more eff ective option is for innovation to be gene-spliced into the DNA of a willing organization, rather than plunged into the heart of a skeptical one. In eff ect, disruptive talent is a stopgap along the road to the singularity. It is our best eff ort to solve the systemic issue of organizational homeostasis — the resistance to change — that is becoming an increasingly catastrophic trait in these VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) times. We can foresee a time when value-creation organizations will be very diff erent from what we currently know. ey will be clus- ters of small and fl at (by today's standards), customer-centric in- novation teams associated with particular values, but only loosely associated with a particular prod- uct, service or platform. Their sole purpose will be to identify opportunity wherever it can be found, then outsource, off shore or throughput execution before moving on to the next innovative value-creation idea. Renown for these entities will come from their ability to ideate and sell. Too radical? Perhaps. But, if or- ganizations do still look like what we know, it is inevitable innova- tion will be a strategic imperative. Meanwhile, back here at the front end of the singularity, we have our talent work cut out for us. How on earth are we to fi nd talent that ticks all the boxes of Moore's disruptive talent competencies (ideation, execution and personal leadership) while avoiding the de- railers (hubris, mercurialness and dominance)? Traditionally, we have had a hard enough time re- cruiting "execution" and "leader- ship." Adding "ideation" to the mix drastically reduces the talent pool. Regarding the derailers, Moore acknowledged we need to fi nd the Goldilocks setting: Disruptive tal- ent needs not too much, yet not too little. At fi rst glance, it appears we are going to have to search very, very hard; recruit very, very carefully; and pay very, very much. Ah, but Moore says these com- petencies can be taught, and the derailers coached. at is true, but considering the eff ort involved, does this not smack, again, of a stopgap? If we are all struggling so hard to inject and maintain a cultural alien into our midst, are we not highlighting that what we really need is disruptive organiza- tional value leading to disruptive organizational process — more than we need disruptive talent? Michael Clark is director of business development at Forrest & Company Limited, an organizational transfor- mation fi rm with 30 years' experience in developing organizational and leadership capability. Disruptive talent — individuals brought on specifi cally to identify and develop radi- cally diff erent ways of doing things — fi nd themselves facing insurmountable barriers to success. e cultural or operational anti- bodies reject the new role, so either the dis- ruptor quits or is sent to the innovation lab, a safe remove from the organizational core. Michael Clark ORgaNiZaTiONal EFFeCTiVeNeSS Order # 987329-69557 $81 $68.85 Softcover November 2016 978-0-7798-7329-6 Shipping and handling are extra. Price(s) subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. * Offer valid until March 20, 2017. Discount cannot be combined with any other offer from Thomson Reuters. Offer not available to academic or trade bookstores. © 2017 Thomson Reuters Canada Limited 00242WN-A86270-CM Reduce risk and comply with the law when terminating employees New Edition The Law of Dismissal for Human Resources Professionals, Second Edition A Canadian HR Reporter Special Report Howard A. Levitt, B.A., LL.B. Get the clear-cut, easy-to-follow guidance you need to meet the demands and challenges of employee terminations and avoid liability. The Law of Dismissal for Human Resources Professionals, Second Edition tells you what you need to know about dismissing a non-unionized employee legally and fairly. All the information that's relevant is laid out clearly and comprehensively in one concise and portable book. 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