The Future of HR - Is Your Boutique Hotel Ready?

1. First, you should know that not everyone or every business can handle the future of HR. Those who prefer to stick to the status quo, and follow only once most of the competition have jumped on board, are not set up to experience the extraordinary benefits.

2. Second, working with a visionary HR pro means being ready for different, which can be fun yet sometimes uncomfortable.

3. Third, if you’re up for the challenge, the results are going to blow your competition out of the water!

Advocates of this style of HR harbour bold and counter-conventional thinking about the mindsets and skills people need to succeed in the modern world of business. Additionally, they give short shift to organisations and their leaders who pay lip service to putting their people at the centre of the business; fail to connect action to inspirational sound bite.

The malaise of sameness and the stagnation facing the HR discipline are a source of dismay for some. Complacency and complaining is not for the Creative HR Pro. Instead, a mission beckons. New opportunities to do different and create meaningful value summons us.

Will you heed the call?

Extinction Prevention. You cannot be ignored or become irrelevant if you are creating value.

The mission is to re-imagine traditional HR. Question commonly held wisdom, break a few rules and blend uncommon ideas with the best of established HR. Apply creativity and design thinking about user experience to infuse meaning, create value and make difference.

Turn the conventional HR approach on its head to create magic and connectivity at every human touch point.

Blind compliance and iterations of sanctioned ‘best practise’ are barriers to innovation.

Let us pause for a moment. Do you want to learn what Creative HR can do for you and your business? 12 Ways Creative HR Can Make a Difference to Your Business (you might not like it) If the description Creative HR in action so far does not gladden your heart, then read no further. And I bid you adieu at this stage of the journey. On the hand, if your curiosity is piqued, read on.

You might like what comes next…

The Creative HR Pros’ Declaration

1. We are the deliberate disturbers of the status quo, challengers of the ‘conventional’ and questioners of ‘accepted’ HR wisdom. We reject standardised HR rules – beloved of the Corporate Cubicle Culture – in favour of Creative HR.

“Rules should be questioned, tested, reviewed over time and broken if they are not law or commandment.” Jeffrey Hayzlett, Think Big, Act Bigger.

2. We are dedicated to finding solutions that tweak tradition, uplift and transform people and organisations.

3. The trinity of continuous Unlearning, Learning and Relearning is critical to prevent stagnation and closed minds. We are not ‘experts’ nor do we aspire to be.

– “an expert is a man [or woman] who has stopped thinking…” Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect, Interior Designer, Writer, and Educator

4. We see HR as community of difference makers that creatively crafts meaningful success through human value and impact.

5. Humour and humility keep us grounded. We don’t take ourselves seriously; but we are serious about the business of human value creation and unique individual contribution.

6. Following our fascinations down rabbit holes is a favourite pastime. This feeds our “devotion to Inquisitiveness… Curiosity is the truth and the way of creative living. Curiosity is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.” Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic.

7. Creative HR is not for everyone. That’s OK! We endorse and stand by The Marmite Principle. A condiment born of an accidental invention, Marmite spread is simultaneously distinctive and divisive.

“Marmite has a very distinctive flavor. The taste is so unique as to defy description, but think of a yeasty, salty, soy sauce-esque flavor with the consistency of old engine oil. Some people really like eating it, and some people don’t like eating it at all.”

What’s the fuss? Like Marmite, Creative HR might not be your cup of tea; but once tasted you will never forget it.

8. We are cross-discipline adventurers, foraging in various subject areas and exploring other business disciplines in search of truffles of inspiration and interesting talented people with whom to collaborate. Creative HR in thought and practise can be seen as a particular species of the Neo-Generalist genus.

“Frequency hopping, the perfect metaphor for the neo-generalist; wandering, accumulating, sampling, mixing, putting into practise what they learn.” Kenneth Mikkelson and Richard Martin ‘The Neo-Generalist: where You Go is Who You Are’

No boundaries are respected as we journey further. Like HR Bohemians traveling through the worlds of art, design, marketing, philosophy, psychology we gather ideas to inspire and create better ways of delivering HR service and experience.

9. We are connectors of the uncommon, knowledge-sharers, adaptive shape-shifters. Oh yes, shape-shifting is practically a mandatory requirement – occasionally T-shaped and sometimes Comb-shaped.

10. We follow the path of the storytellers, connecting deeper than the traditional transactional level job titles and boxes on the organisation chart. Fueled by our curiosity, we go out of our way to understand individuals, culture and brand personalities on an emotional level to make our work matter.

Corporate ivory towers and departmental fiefdoms hold no appeal. Instead we look for ways to break through silos and collaborate with our friends in Marketing, PR, Tech, Finance et al so we can better serve our employee community and grow the business.

11. We take an artisan approach to our work. Inspired by the skilled crafts people, we reject the cookie cutter in favour of a bespoke style – customised to suit needs and help fulfill aspirations.

12. You can find us in doing work in the gig-economy and in unexpected niches – corporate, social entrepreneurship, start up, government and not-for-profits. You only need to look a little closer to find us weaving uncommon connections between disciplines and people, making things happen others thought unlikely – even impossible.

If you’ve made it this far, then I imagine you are interested in what the future of HR can do for your business.

Get in touch. Book your call.