Books can help HR practitioners understand organizational and HR strategy
By Brian Kreissl
We all know about the drive to make the HR function “more strategic.” The goal is to align the people strategy with the overall organizational strategy and have meaningful input into that overall strategy.
This has been an ongoing theme in the HR profession for the last 40 years. Aligned with this theme is the goal of reinventing the HR function by becoming a strategic business partner that provides added value by focusing on tasks and priorities that improve business results.
During that time, we have engaged in a great deal of hand-wringing about how to find HR a “seat at the table” alongside an organization’s most senior leaders. While some CHROs are now operating at that level and the CEOs in those organizations truly get the importance of people issues to the bottom line, many aren’t quite there yet. There is also the new challenge of determining what to do with that seat at the table now that we actually have it.
Much of this is based on clichés and tired platitudes that no doubt make some HR practitioners roll their eyes. I also think there is a real danger of jettisoning or downplaying transactional personnel tasks that add value just because they aren’t strategic in nature. I have discussed this phenomenon in the past, and have argued about the importance of getting the basics down pat and “keeping the lights on” before focusing on taking the HR function to the next level.
But there is no question HR does still need to become more strategic in many organizations if it is to survive and thrive. Part of the problem may be that many HR professionals don’t really understand business strategy or what “being strategic” actually means.
Avoiding confusion relating to strategic concepts
An interesting new book I am currently reading sheds light on this problem not only for the HR profession, but also for many other business functions and organizations in general. It seems there is widespread confusion around concepts relating to business strategy and exactly what those concepts mean. There is also the problem of too much jargon and gobbledygook around strategy causing confusion in organizations.
Believe it or not, the book is actually a comic book or graphic novel titled StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan, by Rich Horwath. While it is a quick, light and enjoyable read, I would recommend the book to anyone interested in learning more about business strategy.
This isn’t a book specifically about HR strategy, but there are important lessons for senior business leaders in any discipline or function. I found some of the problems discussed in the book to be very interesting from an organizational development perspective (I also had to chuckle at the way it discusses organizations adding the word “strategic” to something in hope of making it so).
I don’t want to give away too much information from the book, but I really like the way Horwath treats goals, objectives, strategies and tactics as a continuum, with goals and objectives focused on the “what” and strategies and tactics focused on the “how.” He also makes a distinction between goals and strategies being general versus objectives and tactics being specific.
Strategy, Horwath argues, is about how we are going to achieve our goals and objectives generally, while tactics focus on specifics about accomplishing those goals and objectives. He discusses the difference between mission (current purpose) and vision (future purpose or aspiration) and the importance of having a set of truly unique core values.
The book also deals with several other topics including the importance of innovation, avoiding “fire drills,” differentiation from the competition, avoiding silos, improving meetings and conducting effective SWOT analyses (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).
Special offer for readers
StrategyMan vs. The Anti-Strategy Squad is a great resource to help HR practitioners learn more about overall business strategy, but isn’t a book specifically about making the HR function more strategic.
A useful publication in that regard is our own HR Manager’s Guide to Applied HR Strategy, 2nd Edition, by Susan Singh and Carol Smith. Readers who are interested in purchasing the Applied HR Strategy book can order it online or via phone. Simply quote promo code 61465 in order to receive a 30 per cent discount if ordering by Dec. 31, 2018.
