Roscoe-like attributes

As I sit in the departure lounge waiting for my flight back to the U.S., I find myself reflecting on the amazing trip we had touring Australia.  I had the opportunity to behold real beauty; natural beauty in the form of Uluru (the Red Center), man made beauty in the form of the Sydney Opera House and numerous others.  And yet, as I reflect on the amazing multi-week adventure we’ve been on, I can’t help but think about how impressed I am by the Australian people.  For an entire continent populated with the equivalent of the population of Southern California, the county’s population is small but mighty.  The intrepid Aussie spirit I encountered in every corner of the county I visited reminded me of the valuable role people play in organizations.  And, I am also reminded of the important role human resource practitioners play in bringing that brilliant spirit to bear on the organizational challenges we all face.

Derek, our escort through the Hunter Valley on a day tour during a torrential downpour, demonstrated his strong interest in both our enjoyment and our safety.  He did so in such a way that we didn’t mind his relentless reminders to wear our seatbelts.  The memories I am left with are his descriptions of the food and wine we enjoyed throughout the day; the descriptions made all taste that much better.  Then, there was Ted, our driver from Kings Canyon to Alice Springs.  Through his listing of every possible sight to see, Ted made Alice Springs seem like the most amazing city despite the fact that it is small, nearly dead center in the middle of the continent, and surrounded by desert.  I felt so at home in Ted’s hometown that I didn’t miss any big city hustle/bustle.  And then there was Roscoe, our Cameleer.  His focus on our safety and comfort, while we rode camels through the desert which is home to 3 of the world’s top 5 poisonous snakes, was coupled with a sincere desire to help us have a great time.  His genuine interest in our safety and enjoyment will stick with me forever, as will his personal story of walking off his family’s farm after a 3 year drought.  In all, the Aussie people made the difference to me, the consumer, throughout this amazing journey.

And then, I encountered a surly flight attendant who arbitrarily invoked a rule that didn’t apply during multiple previous flights.  While complying with the direction, I politely asked a gate agent why the rule now applied when it hadn’t before.  The reply was “we are inconsistent but it is up to the flight attendant’s discretion; they apply the rules.”  This leaves me to reflect on what corporations do to people that create customer experiences that are far from what any successful enterprise woiuld design.  What did the country’s largest air carrier do to create a flight attendant who thought her job was to quote interpretations of rules rather than to, like Derek, Ted, and Roscoe did, demonstrate a sincere desire to deliver the best possible experience, inclusive of the safety, comfort, and enjoyment of all involved?  We see this type of behavior far too often in organizations large and small.    

Thinking through the recent customer experiences I’ve had, I can’t help but reflect on Colleen Barrett’s wisdom, which has served Southwest Airlines so well.  Hire people because of who they are and then let them be themselves, not some rule book.   The Aussie spirit I encountered from innumerable people that I met throughout the trip, would have generated solutions much like the Southwest employee in the story Colleen shared with us.  While I was more at risk riding a camel (something I have never done before) through a desert with 3 of the world’s 5 deadliest snakes than I was while flying a world airline from city to city for about the same amount of time, I heeded every bit of advice offered by Roscoe and had a blast.  Maybe some of the world’s largest airlines could learn a lesson or two from Roscoe since they haven’t quite seemed to learn from the 40+ years of Southwest’s success. 

As human resource practitioners, I look forward to learning more about how I can contribute to workplace excellence at the upcoming Root Learning workshops on March 27^th and 28^th.  Strategically engaging the workforce in the most important business priorities should foster and support more Roscoe-like behavior.

Excellence just keeps coming….

G’day from down under!

After participating in a memorable and fun SDSHRM LUVfest program on February 29^th, I hopped on a plane for a much needed holiday in Oz.  The flight and subsequent travel time within Australia have provided me with lots of time to reflect on Colleen Barrett’s wisdom.  Southwest’s focus on its culture, hiring folks with a warrior spirit, servant’s heart, and fun luving attitude coupled with its relentless pursuit of profitability have proven quite successful.  Southwest, over a 30 year period of time, has been the most successful publicly traded corporation, beating market returns by a factor of 63X and besting their industry average rate of return by a factor of 520X.  And yet, I can’t help but wonder why more organizations fail to focus on the fundamentals that Southwest gets right again and again in its 40 plus year history.

In the 90s, numerous CEOs tried to replicate what they thought was Jack Welch’s secret for success:  firing the bottom 10% of your organization’s performers.  This mis-application of the GE talent strategy was made more surprising by the fact that many of these same CEOs didn’t walk into their Chief Marketing Officer’s office and say “we need to replicate GE’s marketing strategy”, or into their Chief Operations Officer’s office and say “we need to implement GE’s manufacturing techniques.”  This week, GE announced a shift in its talent strategy.  After pursuing a strategy of generalists, and deciding its future differentiation will require a talent strategy shift to develop deep functional expertise.  All of this brings to mind the importance of the role of the human resources professional within organizations.

As a human resource practitioner, I love my job.  I get to do really interesting things each and every day.  I get to work with people I respect.  And, I am allowed to make a difference.  Each of these aspects are the result of my ability to engage with my organization’s business leaders and help them achieve business objectives through optimizing their talent; all in pursuit of workplace excellence.  All of this, of course, is in addition to making sure that the right talent is selected, deployed, and managed well, that healthcare premiums and claims are paid on time, that our recordkeeping is accurate and compliant, and that any investigations to address deviant workplace behavior happens timely and with the appropriate outcome for all.  You see, the fundamentals I learned as I was building my human resource competence (e.g., employee relations, administration, staffing, etc.), were my ticket for entry into leadership within an organization.  The invitation to remain in a role that enables me to contribute is due to a focus on optimizing organizational performance.   As we look to the future of our profession, we will need to focus on 21^st century HR practices, while maintaining the fundamentals honed throughout our profession’s 20^th century success. 

As President of the San Diego SHRM Board of Directors, it is a privilege to be able to bring programs, events, and experiences to our community that will enable our members to bring workplace excellence to their organization.  At the moment, I’m looking forward to wrapping up my holiday in Oz and returning to San Diego and participating in our March 27^th and 28^th workshops conducted by Root Learning.  The excellence just keeps on coming…

Cheers, mate!

Sharing the LUV

Over the past few weeks, I have not posted as many blog entries as I would have liked.  It seems that I do not quite yet have the right recipe down between doing and communicating.  Hopefully, you can bear with me as I perfect the recipe this year.  In the meantime, let me share with you what I have been up to with the extraordinary leaders I get to work with on the San Diego SHRM Board of Directors.

Over the past month, Board members and I have had dialog with various media outlets in the hopes that we can provide our value to a wider audience.  In addition, we are hoping to help you, the HR practitioner, with educating your organization’s leadership on the business value of human resources.  Stay tuned as we hope to be sharing some greater insights soon.  In addition, we have also been busy putting the finishing touches on our February 29^th LUVfest program.  This newly redesigned February program is intended to highlight the human resource excellence that exists in San Diego, as we annually do.  However, this year, we will be doing so by providing attendees with a DVD compilation of the 2011 Workplace Excellence Award winners’ stories.  In addition, we plan on acknowledging the winners’ excellence through bringing a storied keynote presenter.  Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus, Southwest Airlines, will be telling the story of the U.S. corporation with the best performing stock over a 30 year period of time and a firm identified by Jim Collins as Great by Choice in his book of the same name.

Of course, was this all that we are doing in 2012, I would have not been so time challenged as to have been unable to properly blog and communicate.  Needless to say, we are planning so much more.  LUVfest will unleash the knowledge of a successful U.S. corporation which will be the launching point for our subsequent programming.  In March, through both North County and Mission Valley locations, we will be introducing Root Learning to San Diego’s HR community.  Through these programs, our members will learn how to bridge the gap between people and possibilities.  The skills learned in the three hour workshops will enable attendees to return to their organizations and begin to unleash the power of their people to tackle the most important business priorities.  Then, in April, we have a thought leader program featuring Dr. Chris Collins, Director of Cornell’s Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies.  Chris will help attendees understand the strategic landscape and how human resource practitioners can maximize the value provided to their CEOs.  Then, in partnership with SHARP Health Plan, we will offer a program to teach members the skills necessary to intentionally design and deliver experiences.  This skill will serve members well as the next iteration of the U.S. economy may well be an experience based economy.  Authors Pine and Gilmore believe that we have moved from agricultural, to industrial, to service/knowledge, and next up is an experience economy.

I LUV human resources.  In my day job, I get to do interesting work, work alongside of people that I respect, and am allowed to make a difference.  How lucky am I that as a volunteer leader at San Diego SHRM, I can say the same.  I look forward to sharing the LUV with you throughout our 2012 programming.

Passionately Engaged…

On January 25^th, I had the privilege of participating in a Ken Blanchard Companies Leadership LIVEcast.  The topic:  Quit and Stayed.  The intention:  to help leaders from around the world (over 5,000 attendees watched the program live) deal with the phenomena of a physical workforce that are present but have already mentally “quit”.  The Blanchard organization reported that over 23 million U.S. workers have joined the ranks of the Quit and Stayed workforce, costing the U.S. economy over $300 million annually.  Fortunately, on two fronts, I am not currently facing this epidemic.

In my day job, I am lucky enough to work for an organization with about a 95% annual employee retention rate and an approximately 80% employee engagement level; both of which are ingredients of high performing organizations.  Our current workforce is primarily baby boomers (55%) who, over the next 10 years, may begin to retire leaving the organization “at risk” for the loss of institutional knowledge that could inhibit our ability to operate optimally.  We currently have several initiatives underway to address this looming organizational phenomena/challenge and I am confident that we will succeed in avoiding the epidemic of “quit and stay”.

In one of my other roles, as President of San Diego SHRM, I am pleased to report that we definitively do not have a “quit and stay” problem within the organization.  In fact, last night the 2012 Board of Directors met for the third time this year; and we are only 5 weeks into the year.  Knowing that over 1,000 members in San Diego are counting on us to provide content and resources to help them bring excellence to their respective organizations is meaningful and valuable work to do.  Last evening’s Board meeting was dynamic, robust, and resulted in great collaborative idea sharing along with a lengthy list of “to do” items for each Board member.   Most pressingly, we are putting the finishing touches on the experience design of our “LUVfest” program featuring Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus for Southwest Airlines.  Beyond Colleen’s presence at the program, we are busily working on delivering an attendee “experience” that will be both memorable and meaningful to all.

The work being done by San Diego SHRM is complemented by our affiliation with SHRM, a global organization with a reach spanning 260,000 members in over 140 countries.  We are honored to have with us, as attendees at our February 29^th LUVfest, two executives from SHRM:  Ms. Pam Green, V.P., U.S. Membership and Mr. Bob Carr, V.P., Marketing.  I sure hope that you will have the opportunity to say “hi” to them.  I also hope that will get to see you at this, and upcoming, San Diego SHRM events.  Be sure to say hello to your Board members when you see us milling about; we really do have a passion for our profession and are inspired by the work that you do each and every day.  It is what we all love about HR.  After all, getting to do interesting work, alongside of people that you respect and being allowed to make a difference (all ingredients within the San Diego SHRM Board) are terrific preventative measures to guard against the “Quit and Stayed” epidemic…

Excellent Participation in an Excellent Event…

On Wednesday, January 18th, over 240 human resources professionals gathered at the 2012 San Diego SHRM Law Day program.  This year, in keeping with San Diego SHRM’s commitment to providing our members with the skills necessary to bring excellence to their workplace, we updated our program content and format to focus on delivering legal excellence within the workplace.  And, what an extraordinary day it was.  Not only did participants receive high value and high quality programming presented by the Rock Stars of San Diego’s employment attorneys-whereby all of the content presented can immediately be applied in my organization-we also had the opportunity to network with so many high quality HR practitioners.  I really did feel that I was at the HR equivalent of a Lady Gaga concert.  I believe that I saw a few little monster’s paws clawing during some of the day’s biggest hits.

The morning began with an exciting program which was designed around “lie to me”, focusing on the behaviors to observe and manage through challenging HR investigations.  As a practitioner who has been involved in HR data farming, or fact finding, initiatives for over 20 years, I received some tips on how to design and stage the room where the interview would take place which can greatly increase the likelihood of achieving the desired outcome.  Focusing on HR operations, I gained some insights on how to design the format of the interview.  Remembering my early days back in the dark ages before the Internet, when I was beginning my HR career, I know that attendees who are just now beginning their HR career received invaluable insight on how to script the interview.  All in all, the content appealed to all stages of a human resource practitioner’s career.

Then, I attended an exciting session where Mike Aitken, SHRM Global’s VP of Government Affairs, led us through the legislative and governmental challenges to the workplace that we are facing.  How scary that, today for the first time, lobbyists has a higher approval rating than Congress.  From Mike’s program, Key Federal HR Issues were identified:  tax & benefits issues; labor-management/civil rights issues; immigration reform & employment verification; workplace flexibility; healthcare reform.  In addition to SHRM’s work, done on our behalf, to educate Congress, San Diego SHRM and the California State Council of SHRM each have coordinated plans to engage and educate our elected officials on HR related topics at the state, local, and federal levels.

Those were just the morning sessions.  I won’t go on and on about each program, although I could (just ask me), so let me summarize my experience.  Throughout the day, and the subsequent programming I participated in, I gained insight and knowledge that I can immediately apply in the design of organizational strategy, execution of HR operations, and day to day human resource activities.  The value of my 2012 SD SHRM membership has already begun to paid for itself; and the year has only just begun.  As a result of my attendance at today’s program, I have expanded my knowledge and gained valuable contacts within San Diego’s HR community.

I hope to see you at one of our future programs or events, and if I happened to have seen you today, I know I will see you at a future program as we know the value of the programming San Diego SHRM is offering.  And, after all, we are the Rock Stars of HR.  And, if you’d like to ROCK the HR profession with us, check out volunteer opportunities with San Diego SHRM.  I was thrilled to hear about interest in volunteering from several of you at the conference today and hope that I will get to work, and learn, alongside of many of you in the year ahead.  ROCK ON brothers and sisters!

Get Ready!

This week, the San Diego SHRM 2012 Board had its first meeting and we are off to a great start for the new year.  The Board is engaged, committed, curious, and eager to excel.  We promise to Rock the World of Work!

One of the great things about being a SD SHRM Board member is the ability to gain experience in, and exposure to, various organizational functions and skills.  Several years ago, when I applied to be on the Board (and was finally selected); I was offered a position what was not one of the ones I had applied for (VP, Treasurer).  I had received “A”s in Finance and Accounting courses in both undergraduate as well as in business school; I just didn’t want to train my mind to think differently.  After receiving the offer to serve, I asked for some time to think it through and spoke with the CFO at the Airport Authority about the opportunity being presented to me.  He told me that he oftentimes seeks out opportunities on volunteer Boards to stretch himself outside of his day to day proficiency so he seeks Board assignments such as personnel, governance, etc.  So, based on his sage advice, I decided to give it a try.

Now, years later, here I am participating in SD SHRM Finance Committee meetings, setting pricing strategy, developing financial models and linking these activities to the organization’s strategy.  What an incredible experience.  As I reflect upon the past Board meetings, and the one that is scheduled tomorrow where the Board will be developing our framework for achieving and maintaining high performance as a work group, I can’t help but be reminded of the incredible value that SHRM provides to me as a human resource professional.  Being a member of the largest human resource professional community in the world affords me opportunity.   I am privileged to be able to benefit from the wealth of information available on the SHRM website, but I also gain expertise and experience through my involvement at the local chapter level.

For 2012, the Board will ensure that we execute our strategy through delivering excellence to our members through consistent, relevant, value add programs and experiences.  We will have some hiccups as many of the activities we are planning are entirely new for 2012, so please bear with us as we learn and grow.  In the end we want to put a great big ding in San Diego’s HR community.  And, we can’t do it alone.  We will welcome your involvement and engagement as members of one of our various committees:  programs; education; communication; membership; workforce readiness; conference; or finance.  Send us an email at sdshrm@sdshrm.org to tell us of your interest. 

As we will learn from Colleen Barrett’s presentation on February 29^th, one of the foundational causes of Southwest Airline’s over 40 years of business success is their “warrior spirit”.  This is how Southwest describes their culture.   For 2012, SD SHRM’s culture will be Rocking the World of Work.  Get ready.  Your 2012 SD SHRM Board Rock Stars have already shown me that they’re ready….

Navigating today’s times for tomorrow’s success…

All of us can appreciate that uncertainty permeates today’s times; uncertainty in the global economy; uncertainty in the U.S. political cycle; and uncertainty in our professional lives.  In times like these, it is even more important that we focus on navigating the uncertainties in a way that helps us to achieve our desired outcomes.  Maybe for some of us the desired outcomes might be a new job or perhaps even a more rewarding career.  For others, it might be launching a successful business.  Or, it might be an enhanced personal relationship with another or with ourselves; maybe a personal goal such as improved health.  In all cases, we need clarity as to our “true North”; the way by which we measure our direction, actions, and arrival.  This enables us to navigate, regardless of the circumstances, toward success.

San Diego SHRM’s Board has been working on finding our “true North” for most of 2011.  We knew that we were not consistently and optimally supporting our members in achieving workplace excellence.  So, with the help of an expert guide, we set out on a journey to identify our “true North.” And, we have identified it in the form of a strategic statement that is all new for 2012.  Ready?  Here it is:

In pursuit of global workplace excellence, San Diego SHRM guides the advancement, and is the voice, of the human resource profession through consistently engaging our members in experiences which are relevant and valuable to successfully navigating their careers.

What is the big deal about a strategic statement as our “true North”?  This is the statement by which we determine our programs, events, and member offerings throughout 2012.  Once we identified our “true North”, we needed to be sure we have our rudder (mechanism for steering), which for us is in the form of values:  consistent, relevant, engaging, and excellence.  Anything we do in 2012 will exemplilfy these four values.  Finally, after month of work getting clarity about our “true North” and our values, all we need is a propeller to get us going.  For SD SHRM, our propeller is the programming and member experiences that we sponsor throughout each year.  To propel us to our “true North”, we have designed a year of workplace excellence just for you, our members.  It begins with:

• Legal Excellence in the Workplace on January 18^th; a tried and true program revamped to support our members in bringing workplace excellence to their organizations.
• LUVfest on February 29^th featuring keynote Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus for Southwest Airlines, the most successful U.S. airline in history.
• The Art of Engagement workshops on March 27^th (North Coast) and 28^th (Mission Valley) designed to provide human resources professionals with the skills needed to help organizations align their workforce with the most strategically important initiatives.
• Thought Leadership program on April 26^th, featuring Dr. Christopher Collins, Director for Cornell University’s Center for Advanced Human Resources.
• Many, many more to come…

As SD SHRM’s members pursue bringing workplace excellence to their respective organization, we are providing excellent programming and events that are consistent, relevant, and engaging.  In fact, from the above sneak peek into our 2012 events, you can already see that we’re not the same old SD SHRM you’ve become comfortable with.  This isn’t something to fret about.  In fact, we value the relationships we have with our over 1,000 members in San Diego and our service provider partners.  We value the relationships so much that we were willing to adapt our actions to our commitments.  So, unlike those New Year’s Resolutions of old (you know the one; “the I’m going to consistently diet and exercise to lose that pesky 10 pounds”), we will be delivering on our 2012 commitment to you, our members. The 2011 Board of Directors understood that this is hard work, which is why they committed to over 45 hours of face to face meetings, over and above San Diego SHRM Board meetings and monthly member meetings, plus additional research time.  And, rest assured, the 2012 Board is equally as focused and committed.  So, join us on our journey.  It promises to be a truly excellent year that I look forward to sharing alongside of each of you.

Thankful

I am thankful for San Diego SHRM; its talented and successful members; the passionate SD SHRM Board of Directors; and the tremendous community of HR professionals that I have the privilege of belonging to as well as learning from and alongside of.  To think that I am surrounded by over 1,000 professionals who are doing great things, each and every day.  As I love to learn, it is even better that I get to learn from, and with, them.  This is the incredible value of San Diego SHRM.  And, when you consider that we are San Diego’s only SHRM affiliated chapter, one of over 500 such chapters throughout the U.S., I get even more excited about the possibilities for learning and growth that exist for us throughout our professional careers.  As human resource professionals, we get to collaborate together so that we can bring excellence to our workplaces each and every day; leveraging the knowledge, skills, and experience of over 250,000 such professionals around the globe.

The Thanksgiving holiday is one that I most look forward to.  In today’s hustle and bustle world, this one holiday reminds me to reflect and give thanks for all that I am blessed to have in life.  Even when I was unemployed, I had my health and the potential of a bright future once I found finished the hardes work of all:  finding the “goldilocks” job.  You know the one that is “just right” for me.  And, with persistence and a whole lotta support, I found it.  Thanks, in large part, to the community of HR professionals who took the time to help me learn, grow, and bring forward my own personal brilliance.  In 2012, the San Diego SHRM Board and I look forward to providing every member with an opportunity to be engaged within this community of professionals, their individual and collective great work, and the impact they are having on their organizations and around the world.

For now, sit back, relax, and reflect on all that you have to be thankful for in life.  And, as you do, know that San Diego SHRM is thankful to be a part of your community.

Reflections. . .

 

While in the DC area for the SHRM Leadership conference, I had the opportunity to slip away for about 90 minutes to visit the Newseum, relocated to Pennsylvania Avenue after I moved to San Diego.  This was my first visit and I left impressed and committed to returning when I can spend more time and enjoy the rich content of the museum.  One of the items on exhibit is a picture of President Barack Obama, staring at himself in the mirror in the U.S. Capitol moments before he stepped outside to, in front of millions around the world, take the oath of office as President of the United States.

 While my 2012 role as President of San Diego SHRM is not nearly as significant as that of the elected leader of the free world, I can’t help but reflect upon this incredible honor I have been given by SD SHRM members to be your chapter President in 2012.  I am typing this as I am en route home to San Diego and I am reflecting on this significant opportunity you are giving me to contribute to your professional growth and development.  I have spent the past four days learning about leadership from amazing and inspirational people such as Barbara Glanz, a co-author of books with Ken Blanchard (one of my leadership idols); Ryan Estis, an inspirational 21st century thought leader who is rocking the world of work; and Scott Mulligan from the Disney Institute who gave all of us reason to look beyond today’s challenges and to learn from the lessons of wise leaders who have gone before us…  Life wasn’t always easy for Walt Disney but he never gave up!

 Through this conference, SHRM has given chapter leaders from throughout the U.S.the opportunity to share ideas, collaborate, and exchange best practices.  The learning also included content from SHRM’s perspective.  They have shared their priorities for 2012, which are complementary to those that your 2012 Board are already focusing on.  In addition, SHRM shared with us their financial performance, which while revenues were not meeting expectations (like many organizations in today’s economy), the organization is controlling expenses in such a way as to make SHRM an ongoing viable concern.  The HRCI update was inspiring as certification, and recertification are ways that individuals can demonstrate to employees, and prospective employers, our individual commitment to learning, growth, and development.  And, the SHRM Foundation continues to provide scholarships and to fund research that benefits everyone in, and associated with, the field of human resources.

 As I think about what is to come for SD SHRM, I realize there is much work to be done. And, none of it is going to be easy.  Your 2012 Board and I are preparing to deliver excellence in programming and experiences to you, our members.  We will do so with consistent, engaging, relevant, and valuable content.  For now, know that we will be spending the next few weeks getting ready to kick off 2012 with a flourish.  Our Law Day programming will be like nothing we have ever done before, and yet it promises to offer the same, or even greater, value to participants.  After that, on February 29th, we will be sharing the excellent workplace HR practices from our 10 Workplace Excellence award winners with attendees at a dinner that will include keynote speaker Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus, Southwest Airlines.  You should know that she has said that she wants to have a dialog with us and doesn’t want to speak to us in a talking head format…  So, be sure to start preparing your questions about what it is like to found and lead an organization that has significantly outperformed it’s industry, and even market-wide, performance.

 These are just a few of the things we have planned for you, our members.  If you have been taking a break from our programming recently, skipping over our ads like you skip over television commercials while watching the DVRed versions of your favorite TV programs, be forewarned….if you don’t pay careful attention, you might just miss something great in store just for you!  I hope to see you at one of our programs real soon.  And, be sure to say “hi”!

 

Rock Stars – changing the world of work. . .

The SHRM Leadership Conference was in full swing yesterday.  Sessions were offered to update us on SHRM’s strategies for 2012 (San Diego SHRM is very well aligned with SHRM’s strategies).  Both Pam Green and Mike Aiken got us off to a great start.  Pam even gave a shout out from the stage to San Diego SHRM based on some of the innovation that we are doing (you’ll be experiencing it in all its Technicolor glory throughout 2012) in the area of strategy.  Then, we went to break out sessions based on chapter size.  SD SHRM qualifies for Super Mega status (the largest) which are chapters with membership over 1000 members.  As an organization that is older than SHRM (in my personal life, I never admit older – just better), it is terrific that we are able to maintain our membership at over 1000 members.  This is a testament to the quality of the membership and your commitment to learning, growth, and staying connected.

Yesterday’s signature event is a tie, from my perspective, between the keynoter Ryan Estis and the 2011 SHRM Pinnacle Awards.  The awards recognize Chapters and State Councils that exhibit superior merit.  We won the Pinnacle Award several years ago for the creation and execution of our Workplace Excellence Awards program which just celebrated its 12^th year.  Awards were given for helping the homeless find work; assisting at-risk youth in acquiring the skills necessary to succeed in today’s workplace; assisting our veterans transitioning into the civilian workforce and for developing and offering an HR for Non-HR Managers of small businesses.  As you can tell, SHRM is adapting to the times and delivering value not only to our members, but to our communities throughout the U.S.  It makes me proud to be a SHRM member and inspired the San Diego SHRM team to think “bigger” in terms of what we can offer you as well as what we can ask you to help us with contributing to our community.

Finally, Ryan Estis’ session was really a Rock Concert.  I kept thinking to myself, as he moved about the stage with such presence, of that Maroon 5 song “moves like Jagger.”  If you haven’t heard of him, Ryan is a Rock Star of today’s economy and he is encouraging us, the human resources professionals, to become the Rock Stars of our workplaces.  He believes, and I concur, that we can change the world; or at a minimum, we can change the world of work.  I can’t wait to introduce him to San Diego; Nina Woodard (President Elect 2012) and I are already conspiring to discover the best way to showcase his passion as well as his unique skills that are so relevant to the 21st century environment.  I won’t spoil it by telling you much more, as you can check out his website (www.ryanestis.com) for details and I would not do him justice.  However, let me share with you some of the statistics that make our work so much more critical as our economic future unfolds.  Seventy percent of employees are currently under engaged in the workplace and only twenty percent of employees are well suited for their roles.  Eighty four percent of employees plan to find a new job and ninety percent of CEOs intend on making significant changes to HR practices in the next year.  

I have had the privilege of learning directly from legendary leadership stars such as Ken Blanchard and Marshall Goldsmith.  San Diego SHRM, let me tell you that I was super-impressed by Ryan.   His ability to engage and inspire an audience of human resource professionals in the midst of all of the workplace issues that we face today was breathtaking.  And, thanks to Ryan’s work, I know that the San Diego SHRM Board needs to bring the same energy to you.  As I shared with your Board members at our changeover meeting, I feel incredibly privileged.  As a San Diego SHRM Board member, I get to:  do really interesting work; work with, and learn from, extraordinary people; and I am allowed to make a difference.  I am passionate about what I get to do and, in 2012 and beyond, I look forward to passionately pursuing the delivery of programs and experiences that enables you to bring excellence to your workplaces.