thought leadership
Can you really have a plan if you
can’t predict the future? That is
one of the central questions John
Boudreau asks in his comprehensive
research on talent and human
resources management.
“The standard approach to human
resources planning was to connect it to strategy
– that’s a good thing,” said Boudreau in
a Harvard Business Review interview. “But
very often it involved finding out what the
strategists are doing, and then fitting the
workforce to it. So, in a way, predicting the
future, and then adapting the workforce and
the human resources practices to create a
workforce ready for that future.
“Increasingly, what we saw was that
companies would say, ‘Our predictions
went out the window. Everything changed
and we had to do something different.’”
Companies began to realize that you
can’t really have a “set” people strategy
that can last 15 to 20 years – so how can
you set a strategy in a changing, uncertain
environment?
Businesses have been using the term “a
VUCA environment” – volatile, uncertain,
complex and ambiguous – for some time
to describe the elements that make the future
difficult to predict. There is going to
be a certain level of inability to predict, and
in different organizations that has led to a
number of different approaches to planning
and strategizing, says Boudreau.
“In the world of software, for example,
you see a real evolution toward something
that says, ‘Let’s put imperfect things out
there, admit that they’re imperfect, let
people use them, and be very, very good
at revising them as we learn,’ rather than,
‘Let’s figure out what the right solution is,
take months or years to create it and then
release it into the world in a fully finished
form.’”
Leaders of organizations, and specifically
HR leaders, are beginning to embrace
some of the emerging ways of planning in
an uncertain world.
CHANGING WORKFORCE,
CHANGING RULES
People who are not employed by the
organization they work for will soon accomplish
an estimated 40 per cent of the
work; however, virtually all present laws,
organizational systems and HR processes
are designed around managing full-time
employees. Future leaders will focus on
how to get the work done rather than how
to manage staff. Learn how to successfully
navigate and lead the world beyond
“employment.”
With the concept of adapting strategy to
a VUCA environment in mind, Boudreau
has developed a keynote presentation, titled,
“Lead the Work: Organizing New
Organizational Forms, Intermediaries &
Alternate Work.” He will present February
1 at HRPA’s Annual Conference and
Trade Show.
Boudreau, who is a professor and research
director at the University of
Southern California’s Marshall School
of Business and Center for Effective
Organizations, is recognized worldwide
for breakthrough research on the bridge
between superior human capital, talent
and sustainable competitive advantage. He
consults and conducts executive development
with companies worldwide that seek
to maximize their employees’ effectiveness
by discovering the specific strategic
bottom-line impact of superior people and
human capital strategies.
His February 1 conference keynote will
offer insights into alternative work arrangements,
including alliances, talent-trading,
tours of duty and freelancers, along with
more familiar options, such as outsourcing,
temporary employment and contractors. It
will also discuss how to help leaders make
better decisions about work and talent in
this shifting work environment.
Attend John Boudreau’s keynote address
at HRPA’s Annual Conference and Trade
Show, February 1 at 8:15 a.m.
“INCREASINGLY, WHAT WE SAW WAS THAT
COMPANIES WOULD SAY, ‘OUR PREDICTIONS
WENT OUT THE WINDOW. EVERYTHING CHANGED
AND WE HAD TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT.’”
26 ❚ SPECIAL CONFERENCE EDITION 2017 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL