CRFCast - HR Insights from the Corporate Research Forum

In conversation with Professor Chris Worley, expert in organisation design and development, we discuss CRF’s Organisation Development Manifesto. Our conversation covers why OD is an essential capability for organisations to develop, the current state of the OD field, how OD practitioners can up their game in helping improving the effectiveness of their organisations, and how we can build greater agility into organisation design.

In conversation with Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an expert in talent and gender issues, we discuss her latest book, The Sponsor Effect: How to Be a Better Leader by Investing in Others. We discuss how sponsorship can enhance the careers of sponsors themselves as well as their protégés, why it’s sponsorship, and not mentorship, that really counts in progressing the leadership careers of women and minorities, and how we can design impactful sponsorship programmes in our organisations.

One of the toughest transitions for leaders is progressing from a role where your value is largely driven by expertise, into a broader spanning role, which demands a different set of skills, relationships and a change in mindset about the value you add as a leader. In conversation with Wanda Wallace, author of You Can’t Know It All: Leading in the Age of Deep Expertise, we discuss how leaders can anticipate and prepare for the transitions required, and practical advice on what this means for leadership models and strategies for leadership development in our organisations.

In conversation with David Grayson, expert in corporate responsibility and sustainability, we discuss CRF’s research Responsible Business: How Can HR Drive the Agenda? We explore the latest trends, how corporate responsibility interacts with employee experience, the critical role of leaders in promoting sustainability, and how HR should attend to organisation culture in order to successfully embed responsible business strategies.

We live in a world where everything can be copied, and competitive advantage can be short-lived. What do organisations that sustain high performance over decades do differently? And how can HR create the conditions for long-term success? We discuss with IMD Professor Howard Yu, author of Leap: How to Thrive in A World Where Everything Can be Copied.

Technology is fundamentally changing how we connect with each other, leading to new behaviours, belief systems and social norms. However, the ethical and moral standards that determine how to behave are not keeping pace. In conversation with Digital Anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush, we discuss what the evolving digital culture means for relationships at work and beyond, how organisations need to adapt to an age of information overload, and the implications for HR.

Discussing Kyle’s book, Leading Transformation: How to Take Charge of Your Company’s Future, we discuss why so so few organisation transformation efforts are successful, and how we can increase the odds of achieving desired results. We explore some novel methods for stimulating and sustaining behaviour change, for example using brain scanners to measure customer reactions, or telling the story of the anticipated future state through science fiction.

Tracey Waters, Head of People Engagement and Development at Sky UK, discusses how her team have deployed agile development techniques to transform their working methods and increase the business impact of learning and development. Tracey describes four behaviours that underpin Sky’s approach: being collaborative, iterative, data-driven and person-centric. We discuss some practical lessons learned from implementing agile.

Natal Dank, who leads the global Agile HR Community, discusses how HR is going agile. Many HR teams are adopting agile development methods to increase effectiveness, improve collaboration, and become more business and customer-focused. We explore the skills and mindsets needed to implement agile in HR, and the pitfalls to avoid.

Face-to-face communication is becoming rarer in the modern workplace, with ever more interactions taking place virtually. However, research shows that virtual communication is much less effective, and it’s hard to build trust that’s essential to effective relationships at work. In conversation with Nick Morgan, author of Can You Hear Me? How to Connect with People in a Virtual World, we discuss the pitfalls, how to improve virtual communication, and the role HR policies can play.

Julia Howes discusses Mercer’s Workforce Monitor research, which shows that in all major markets, organisations face an impending workforce crisis driven by an ageing workforce, significant reductions in the working population, and high demand for new skills. We explore five lines of defence organisations can adopt to deal with the challenge.

Finding and hiring talent is a key business priority, but competition for top talent is fiercer than ever. To succeed, organisations have to develop robust resourcing strategies, using reliable assessment tools and sourcing methods to attract, select and retain the best candidates. In conversation with Professor Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, we discuss the latest technology and trends in resourcing and explore how organisations can make better hiring decisions.

Discussing Ravin’s book, Reinventing Jobs: A 4-step approach for applying automation at work, we explore the potential impact of automation and the steps organisations and individuals can take to prepare for a future where more and more work historically done by humans is replaced by machines.

How is the practice of leadership changing in the face of digital disruption? How do we develop leaders prepared for the challenges of the digital age? In this CRFCast we describe a new research-based CRF leadership model and discuss the implications for leadership and leadership development with Professor Jay Conger.