Wednesday, February 26, 2014

OzHR #22 - HR vs The Office Dragon

Every single office has one. It's like when a definition of offices was created, it was written: "A space where administration work is done, usually including a desk, a chair, a computer, and an impossibly difficult person to interact with on a daily basis." The Office Dragon.

A recent article described the office dragon as someone who's known as 'breathing fire a little too often'. I see them as the person who has gained political standing, and then throws their weight around to the point that you dread having to work with them. One minute they're on your side, the next they're out to destroy you. And this could be the part-time administration clerk!

So if every single office has one, every single person has an experience with them. And I doubt it's been a good experience - so come and share some wisdom about this particular workplace challenge.

The chat will be Thursday 27 February starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Or join in from international waters at 4:00pm in Singapore, or 8:00am in London.

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions this week are:

1. How do you define an office dragon? Do they always bring negativity to the workplace, or do they have their part to play?

2. How can HR disrupt the tolerance of office dragons? Can HR influence the security of an office dragon's position?

3. Are office dragons the best or worst at office politics? Is there a way to politically insulate yourself from them?

4. What advice would you give to staff suffering from the office dragon's heat? When does it go from grumpy to inappropriate?

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

OzHR #21 - Thriving Despite Disruptions

Have we become less tolerant of disruptions? I would say yes, as technology speeds up our connection to eachother, we expect services to be delivered and problems to be fixed in an instant. From what might have been accepted as a part of normal life, a simple disruption is now highly damaging to reputations. And I can vouch for that, because last week I had a fail with #ozhr. Sick, exhausted and in survival mode to keep the rest of my life ticking over, #ozhr was just not delivered. And this is what comes to mind:
Disruptions can come in many forms:
-sickness
-extreme weather
-disrupted supplies
-geographic constraints
-time

There's no avoiding them, whether personally or professionally. So the question is, how do we thrive despite disruptions?

The chat will be Thursday 20 February starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Or join in from international waters at 4:00pm in Singapore, or 8:00am in London.

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions this week are:

1) What's the best way to ensure a disruption doesn't mean non-delivery? Does technology reduce, or heighten the pressure?

2) What can HR bring to the table in avoiding disruptions in organisations? How can HR help people to thrive during disruptions?

3) What are the key practices for organisations to avoid disruptions? How does one prepare for something they have never experienced?

4) What's the best way to recover a reputation after a disruption? What personal experience do you have with disrupted service providers?

Monday, February 10, 2014

The 3rd Half, the 5th Quarter, The Recap of OzHR #20 - Succeeding in Cross Cultural & Cross Geographic Projects

Like an absolute boss, @hrtechgirl Juhi took us to some really great insights on succeeding in cross cultural & cross geographic projects. You can find the whole chat here on storify.

But for a quick highlight, here's some of the pearlers of the night;





You guys are such smarty pants. Thank you Juhi for the fabulous chat!

And remember, if you've got something you'd like to hold an #ozhr chat on, just tweet/email/flagwave me and we'll make it happen,

Sunday, February 2, 2014

OzHR #20 - Succeeding in Cross Cultural & Cross Geographic Projects

I am so excited to introduce you to the topic and host for our 20th OzHR - what a fantastic topic for our region! Juhi Jhunjhunwala is such a smart cookie, and has been a regular OzHR chatter on her twitter account at @hrtechgirl. OzHR is open to anyone to set a topic and host a chat for getting ideas and feedback on current challenges they're facing. A few weeks ago, I hosted a topic on workshops, getting the wisdom and inspiration I needed to host my own workshop. This week, Juhi is bringing her own challenges, and asking for our community's wisdom on succeeding in cross cultural and cross geographic projects. What a killer topic! Take it away Juhi!

"Hi, I'm Juhi, and I lead the HR Systems and Process Improvement projects cross culture and cross geography at Oil Search Ltd. I'm also a SoMe enthusiast who is about to get married and wants to start my own Vegan foodosphere! It is extremely difficult, because of many many many reasons :). One of the key challenges related to my paid job is we have a very interesting operating model much like other Oil and Gas companies where Corporate in theory is the policy and standards maker and the oil producing assets are run as a separate unit but need to follow corp. policies and standards. In theory should be easy, one makes it and other uses it. Of course not! Add to that communication challenges and understanding of the model and multiply that problem by cultural and economic differences you have a complex recipe. Sounds like a dream challenge job doesn't it? I am keen to know if there are people out there who have implemented projects and change programmes in such countries or circumstances and learn what their experiences have taught them."

The chat will be Thursday 6 February starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Or join in from international waters at 4:00pm in Singapore, or 8:00am in London.

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions this week are:
  1. Do cross-cultural & cross-geo projects require special skills as opposed to normal project & change management practices?
  2. What are the signs of failure for cross-cultural and cross-geo projects?
  3. Is sponsorship the key ingredient of leading successful projects?
  4. What makes change stick in cross-cultural and cross-geo projects? Is there a magic formulae/ingredient?