Sharing the LUV February 26, 2012

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… February 8, 2012

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…