NHRD April 2013.pdf - National HRD Network

ISSN - 0974 - 1739
NHRD Network Journal
April 2013 Volume 6 Issue 2
Estelle Metayer
Dr. annie Mckee and
abhijit Bhaduri
dr. Venkatesh Pamu
santosh desai
Technology
and HR
harish Bijoor
anita Bhogle and
harsha Bhogle
s V nathan
dr. Vishal shah
gautam ghosh
dave gray
Bill fischer
A Quarterly Publication by The National HRD Network
www.nationalhrd.org

NHRD Network Journal
Technology and HR
Volume 6 Issue 2 April 2013
NHRD Network Board Members
National President:
Some of the
Past National Presidents :
Regional Presidents:
East:
South:
West:
North:
National Secretary:
National Treasurer:
Director General:
Editorial Team
Publisher, Printer, Owner
and Place of Publication
Printed at
Sy. Siddiqui, MEO (Admn - HR, Fin & IT), Maruti Suzuki India
NS Rajan, Partner, Human Capital and Global Leader – HR Advisory,
Ernst & Young
Aquil Busrai, Chief Executive Officer - Aquil Busrai Consulting
Dwarakanath P, Director-Group Human Capital - Max India
Dr. Santrupt Misra, Director - Aditya Birla Group
Dr. T V Rao, Chairman - T V Rao Learning Systems
Sourav Daspatnaik
S V Nathan, Director U.S. India Talent, Deloitte
Rajeev Dubey, President (Group HR & After-Market) & Member of the
Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra
S Varadarajan, Executive President - HR, Tata Teleservices
Prince Augustin, EVP – Group Human Capital & Leadership
Development, Mahindra Group
L. Prabhakar, Head-Human Resources (Agri-Business Division), ITC Ltd.
Kamal Singh
Pratik Kumar and Abhijit Bhaduri, WIPRO Ltd.
(Guest Editors for this issue)
Dr. PVR Murthy, Managing Editor,
CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants,
pvrmurthy@exclusivesearch.com
Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Director - Human Resources,
Citrix R&D India Pvt. Ltd., bandyopadhyaypallab@yahoo.co.in
Dr. Arvind N Agrawal, President - Corporate Development &
Group HR, RPG Group
Kamal Singh, Director General, NHRDN
on behalf of National HRD Network,
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profe sion.
Donn Doongaji
Anil Sachdev K &
A N Bhattacharya
Ramesh Ranjan
Yuvika Gulati
Dr. Richa Pande
P Munshi
Dr. Usha Devi N
J Krishnan
V C Gopalratnam
Harish Devarajan
Sue Dewhurst
S Srinivasan
Shruthi Bopaiah,
Divya Bajaj &
Ruchi Prasad
profe sion.
S Ramadorai
M V Subbiah
Arun Maira
S Mahalingam
Dr. K C Reddy
R C M Reddy
Dr. Mukti Mishra
Dr. Santanu Paul
T Muralidharan
Dear Readers,
The National HRD Network has been bringing out a semi-academic, theme based, quarterly journal
for the last few years. It aims at compiling and publishing the professional views and experiences of
reputed HR professionals, line professionals, CEOs, researchers, academicians in each theme area. We
carry out extensive research, identify and invite persons who have eminent publications or have rich
experience in the theme area to contribute articles for each issue. Through the journal, we aim to build a
body of knowledge in all facets of HR which is not otherwise easily available for the current and future
HR Professionals. So far, close to 350 eminent authors have contributed articles. Each issue is guest
edited by a person of eminence in the concerned theme area.
This journal is circulated free to the members of NHRD Network to stimulate their thinking and towards
their professional development.
Publications so far have been based on themes such as :
• “IT in HR”
• “Performance Management”
• “Attracting and Retaining Talent”
• “Career Management”
• “Organizational Change”
• “Global HRM”
• “Women in Corporate Leadership Roles”
• “Organization Development”
• “Learning and Development”
• “Leadership”
• “Work-Life Balance”
• “Institution Building”
• “Coaching For Performance and Development”
• “Human Resources Management in Rapid Growth Organizations”
• “HR Competence”
• “HR and Employee Relations”
• “CEO and HR”
• “People Power – Draw, Drive and Deliver”
• “Getting HR Ready for Gen Y”
• “CSR & HR”
• “Shapes and Structures of Organizations - Today and Tomorrow”
• “Managing Change, Transformation and Enhancing Competitiveness : The HR Role”
• “Dots and connections: winning hearts and minds through internal communication”
• “Skill Building and HR”
The copies of these issues of the journal can be accessed from www.nationalhrd.org.
The current issue is on the theme of “Technology and HR”.
Some of the guest editors for future issues include R.Elango, Emerging Geography SBU and Global
CHRO at MphasiS, An HP Company, Srikantan Moorthy, Senior VP, Group Head of HR and Member,
Executive Council, Infosys and Dr. A.K. Balyan, MD and CEO of Petronet LNG.
This is your journal and will be as rich as you want it to be.
In order to further enrich it, we would like to receive your
1. qualitative feedback on issues brought out so far, and
2. suggestions for themes to be covered in our future issues;
3. Any other suggestions.
Kindly send in your thoughts to drpvrmurthyresearch@gmail.com
Dr. PVR Murthy
Managing Editor
(On behalf of the Editorial Team)
www.nationalhrd.org
National HRD Network
The National HRD Network, established in 1985, is an
a sociation of profe sionals committed to promoting
the HRD movement in Indi and enhancing the
capability of human resource profe sionals, enabling
them to make an impactful contribution in enhancing
competitivene s and creating value for society. Towards
this end, the National HRD Network is committed to the
development of human resources through education,
training, research and experience sharing. The network
is managed by HR profe sionals in an honorary capacity,
stemming from their interest in contributing to the HR
The underlying philosophy of the NHRDN is that
every human being has the potential fo remarkable
achievement. HRD is a proce s by which employees in
organizations are enabled to:
• acquire capabilities to perform various tasks
associated with their present and future roles;
• develop their inner potential for self and
organisational growth;
• develop an organisational culture where networking
relationships, teamwork and co laboration
among different units i strong, contributing to
organisational growth and individual we l-being.
NHRD Network Journal Dots and co nections: wi ning hearts and minds through internal communication October 2012
ISSN - 0974 - 1739
NHRD Network Journal
October 2012 Volume 5 I sue 4
Dots and
connections:
winning
hearts and
minds through
internal
communication
www.nationalhrd.org
Prasenjit Bha tacharya &
Dr. Mathuku ty Monippally
Dr. Sandeep K Krishnan,
A Quarterly Publication by The National HRD Network
www.nationalhrd.org
National HRD Network
The National HRD Network, established in 1985, is an
a sociation of profe sionals committed to promoting
the HRD movement in Indi and enhancing the
capability of human resource profe sionals, enabling
them to make an impactful contribution in enhancing
competitivene s and creating value for society. Towards
this end, the National HRD Network is committed to the
development of human resources through education,
training, research and experience sharing. The network
is managed by HR profe sionals in an honorary capacity,
stemming from their interest in contributing to the HR
The underlying philosophy of the NHRDN is that
every human being has the potential fo remarkable
achievement. HRD is a proce s by which employees in
organizations are enabled to:
• acquire capabilities to perform various tasks
a sociated with their present and future roles;
• develop their inner potential for self and
organisational growth;
• develop an organisational culture where networking
relationships, teamwork and co laboration
among different units i strong, contributing to
organisational growth and individual we l-being.
NHRD Network Journal Ski l Building and HR January 2013
ISSN - 0974 - 1739
NHRD Network Journal
January 2013 Volume 6 I sue 1
Skill Building
and HR
www.nationalhrd.org
Dr. Sharda Prasad
Lakshmi Narayanan
Manish Sabharwal
Ramya Venkataraman
Megha Aggarwal and
Dr. Devesh Kapur
A Quarterly Publication by The National HRD Network

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our profound thanks to all the contributors of articles, who have taken time off from their
busy schedules out of their passionate interest in the field of Technology and HR.
We acknowledge the excellent contribution of the Guest Editors - Pratik Kumar and Abhijit
Bhaduri for conceptualising the entire issue and inspiring all busy experts in the field to
share their thoughts.
We acknowledge the support from Sunathy of Exclusive Search for passionately working
with me.
– Dr. PVR Murthy, Managing Editor
(On behalf of the Editorial Team)

CONTENTS
S.No. Title of Article Author Page No.
1 Picking up weak signals in the new digital estelle Metayer 1
Age: challenges for the hr Professional
2 resonant leadership for results dr. annie Mckee and 7
abhijit Bhaduri
3 enabling learning through technology dr. Venkatesh Pamu 13
in the Corporate World?
4 the employer Brand: A truth lived santosh desai 19
everyday
5 stale Beer and the new workplace harish Bijoor 24
6 Mentors and coaches anita Bhogle and 28
harsha Bhogle
7 gemification possibilities in hr s V nathan 32
8 learning and development- Providing the dr. Vishal shah 40
strategic edge
9 hr, Social Media and creating the gautam ghosh 46
organization of tomorrow

S.No. Title of Article Author Page No.
10 a Business within the Business dave gray 51
11 what if ideas Mattered? Bill fischer 58

Editorial Comments
Dear Reader,
What is the role of HR in a world that is disrupted by technology?
That is what we asked our writers to think about.
Pratik Kumar,
EVP HR, WiPRO
Ltd. & President
Wipro Infrastructure
Engineering
Abhijit
Bhaduri,
Chief Learning
Officer,
Wipro Ltd.
(Guest Editors
for this Issue)
Facebook, Inc. held an initial public offering on May 17, 2012,
negotiating a share price of $38 apiece, valuing the company at
$104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly listed public
company. It is run by a 29 year old college dropout whose net
worth is more than $13 billion. The company has a user base of
more than a billion users. Technology has disrupted many aspects
of our life. Our lives in organizations are changing and with it the
world view of the Human Resources professionals has to evolve.
Then again who is responsible for making sure that these shifts
are managed well – the HR function? Should it be driven by the
employee? Maybe even the society?
We thought that this special issue of NHRDN magazine should
actually be written by people who may go beyond the traditional
boundaries of the human resources discipline. We invited some well
known thought leaders and practitioners to see how each aspect of
HR has an opportunity to be reinvented in view of these changes.
All around us the world of work is getting challenged with ideas.
Innovation guru Bill Fischer opens the conversation by asking
how leaders ought to behave in a world where ideas need to be
nurtured and developed. His view, “It is not surprising to find
that every aspect of an organization’s culture needs to be changed,
and simultaneously, if such daring visions are to be realized in a
coherent and effective manner, only leaders can do this in an effort
to unleash all of an organization’s talent.”
With information being available on demand, it is hard to filter
out the noise from the emerging trend. Our expert advisor, pilot
and culture junkie, Estelle Metayer wants the HR professionals
to build two capabilities: “first, to be able to spot and hire those

professionals who will have a keen eye for those weak signals, and
second, to train the organization and ensure processes exist to
interpret those weak signals.”
Dave Gray, author of The Connected Company says that “To
succeed in uncertain times companies must organize differently.
They must reorganize from hierarchies into holarchies, where every
part can function as a whole unto itself. A connected company
is flexible and resilient, able to adapt quickly to change. The path
from divided to connected company is not simple or easy. But in
an increasingly volatile world, it is also not optional.”
According to an analysis of 4,200 companies by McKinsey, social
technologies stand to unlock from $900 billion to $1.3 trillion in
value. Two-thirds of the value unlocked by social media rests in
“improved communications and collaboration within and across
enterprises,” It is no longer a toy that teenagers use to post their
pictures. It is a serious business tool. To participate in this process,
HR people need to acquire new skills says social media evangelist
early adopter Gautam Ghosh. To manage online communities –
HR people would need to become community managers. That may
need a different mindset.
Dr Annie McKee has been well known for her seminal work in
the area of Emotional Intelligence. In this article she teams up
with Abhijit Bhaduri, Chief Learning Officer of Wipro to suggest
that when the business environment gets tough, “it is Emotional
Intelligence, not IQ, which differentiates great leaders from their
average, run-of-the-mill colleagues. And EI goes beyond individual
effectiveness. Emotionally intelligent leaders create resonance–a
powerful, positive emotional reality in teams and organization
that is marked by hope, enthusiasm and the collective will to win.”
How do we change the way people learn in organizations?
Dr Venkatesh Pamu’s argument is that the evolution of self-service
technologies and emergence of tech-savvy generation of employees
will have a long-lasting impact on the way organizations
think about learning. Technology enabled learning offers an

opportunity for organizations to go beyond traditional training
and development to making it easy for every employee to learn
wherever, whenever and (from) whomever. That is the new www
of learning.
Dr Vishal Shah examines how the role of the L&D function can
become strategic based on how its agenda is crafted. The L&D
specialist’s role today needs to be multi-dimensional. It requires
the learning professional to train, facilitate, coach, provide justin-time
knowledge, align a group, provide perspectives, develop
competencies as well as leadership … the list goes on. Traditional
learning expertise is becoming less and less important. How should
L&D practitioners see their role in the organization?
Gamification is not a new concept in India. The Mahabharata’s
plotline makes a game of dice overturn a kingdom! Gamification
concepts are now being leveraged in every aspect of the
organization. SV Nathan’s article outlines ideas on how this
can be used to redesign every process from hiring to employee
engagement. This has several ideas that you can try out in your
organization.
Brands and branding have been associated with the marketing
function. We asked two marketing gurus Santosh Desai and
Harish Bijoor on what this could mean for HR professionals.
Harish says, “Internal branding that is all about creating that
distinct identity that will set apart one work environment from
the other.” Santosh suggests, “Branding needs to deeply internal
for it to be even mildly successful externally. Increasingly, the
traditional marketing definition of the brand as a promise is
becoming outdated. The brand is no longer a noun, safe in its lofty
perch, issuing statements but a verb, in the trenches, performing
all the time. A brand is what a brand does, quite simply. And what
is does is increasingly visible to all - there is nowhere to hide.”
Anita Bhogle and Harsha Bhogle draw on their bestselling book
“The Winning Way” to tell us about why even a star player like
Sachin Tendulkar needs a coach. What does Sachin expect from

a coach? That can be a great insight for the HR professional who
has to be a coach to the top performers in the organization. The
Bhogle duo says, “In a world of quarterly results, of margins, of
political unrest, maybe our brightest managers need a friend who
has no agenda.”
These thought leaders challenge us and raise interesting
possibilities. We do hope that this issue of the journal will long
be remembered as a collector’s item for Idea Hunters. We loved
bringing it to you.
Pratik Kumar & Abhijit Bhaduri
Dr. PVR Murthy
Honorary Managing
Editor on behalf of
the Editorial Team
Dr. Pallab
Bandyopadhyay
Dr. Arvind N
Agrawal

Picking up weak signals in the new digital
age: challenges for the HR professional
Estelle Metayer
About the Author
Estelle focuses on how managers, CEOs and board directors
can build their strategic process and competitive intelligence
functions to avoid strategic blindspots. She is a reputed public
speaker in international conferences (on “Sensing weak signals”
in Davos in 2012) and facilitates strategic workshops on future
trends and industry disruption. She is the founder and president of
Competia.
In 1996, Ralph Stacey said “At least 90% of
the textbooks on strategic management
are devoted to that part of the management
task which is relatively easy: the runnings
of the organizational machine in as a
surprise-free a way as possible. On the
contrary, the real management task is that
of handling the exceptions, coping with
and even using unpredictable, clashing
countercultures. The task has to do with
instability, irregularity, difference and
disorder.” (Strategic Management &
Organizational Dynamics).
I have taught now for over 15 years to
managers and senior executives, and have
found little evidence in the business school
of training that focuses on that skill. How
can one help and train corporate executives
to cope with unpredictability?
One of the crucial stepping stone into
making sense of the world’s unpredictability
is the ability of managers and executives
to be able to pick weak signals early and
to know how to act.
Weak signals are particularly tough to
deal with. It is crucial for the credibility
of a weak signal that it comes from
acknowledged experts – yet most will
be spotted first by those on the fringe.
Hence the challenge for Human Resource
professionals and in particular for those
involved in talent management and
acquisition is twofold: first, to be able to
spot and hire those professionals who will
have a keen eye for those weak signals,
and second, to train the organization and
ensure processes exist to interpret those
weak signals.
Four sources of information to pick-up
weak signals
My definition of weak signals is quite
simple: “Weak Signals are events or
issues with ambiguous, possible multiple
interpretations of their origin, meaning
and/or implications that can have a major
impact on the future”.
The key to weak signals spotting is the
ability to find the outsiders who can look
at your industry, company, or sociodemographic
trends with a different eye.
I am hopeful that with the explosion of
social media, it has never been easier to
tap into new pools of expertise, be part of
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 1

new communities, or attend conferences
without being there physically.
You will find below my pick of the
four reliable sources of information &
inspirations to spot weak signals:
1. Listen to the fringe by attending
unusual and eclectic events
One of my favourite examples is the
Burning Man festival. Situated at the heart
of the Black Rock desert, this festival does
not have any program, speaker or official
sponsor. Yet each year, about 100,000
people gather for a week, creating a
gigantic melting pot where imagination
and creativity blossom and where future
trends emerge ( see a video here https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1USEj8XV0
Lc&list=PL45314DC680515E45 ).
Few can afford to take a week and spend
it in the American desert. Thanks to the
ability to mine social media for insight, I
have used a simple cloud builder (www.
wordle.net ) to summarize the keywords
generally attached to the Burning man
conversation: weak signals can be found
in the “fine prints”
This analysis highlights some interesting
signals: for example the words Northern,
precursor of the current issues developing
with the opening of the northern sea
routes, or with the inclusion of aboriginal
communities. This might be irrelevant
for many companies. Yet, this will have a
lasting impact on global trade (the opening
of new sea routes), shift of political power
(to Russia, Canada or Finland), prices of
commodities (oil...), etc. Another keyword
of “free”, in relation to new business
models (so called “freemium”) which are
emerging where products might be “free”
but components or services are paid for
(think about the car sharing schemes in
major cities).
2. Take part of these four vibrant,
innovative communities
Communities are blossoming on social
media allowing fringe experts and
listeners. They offer a unique opportunity
to linkup with people you may not meet
naturally. Here are a few I recommend:
l On Twitter, a list of futurists: https://
twitter.com/Competia/trend-spotting
2
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

or https://twitter.com/rossdawson/
futurists or https://twitter.com/
justindlong/futurists or https://
twitter.com/LSchlehuber/futurists.
l On Google+ a series of communities:
Futurism, Alternative Futures , Science
Fiction Prototyping & Creative Foresight
.
l On LinkedIn, discussion groups>
SESTI - Weak Signal Scanning, The
Futurist Group, HorizonWatching
h t t p : / / w w w . l i n k e d i n . c o m /
groups?gid=1817327&trk=group-name .
l On the web, a glossary of Science Fiction
Ideas, Technology and Inventions
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/
ctnlistalpha.asp , or Explore the
inventions, technology and ideas of
science fiction writers at Technovelgy
http://www.technovelgy.com/
3. Visualize by leveraging new social
technologies such as interest
Pinterest (www.pinterest.com) started
as a digital scrapbooking tool. Members
could “pin” images that touch them on
a personal level and share them with a
larger community. Lately, it has been used
by professionals to also share insights
about trends in a wide range of industries.
Because the ideas are shared globally, and
take the form of images, this is the ideal
tool to take the pulse of what is touching
the heart and imagination of the population
worldwide.
I like to use interest as a way to spot weak
signals. As an example, the following
images have been shared in the “education”
category as I write this article. I can see
many weak signals emerging from this
one page only. The people who pinned
those images are typically not HR experts
or professionals, and therefore tend to
offer a new vision of what education is- or
might become.
4. Get out of your zone of comfort by
reading differently
To help you to get out of your zone of
comfort, I suggest that you buy a magazine
you have never read before every time
you are passing by the newspaper and
magazine stand in a train station or
an airport. By picking up an antique,
a teenager, a kit-surfing magazine and
reading it cover to cover, new ideas
will without doubt emerge. I have done
this exercise countless times with the
participants in my leadership programs
around the globe, and have witnessed
many “aha” moments, such as:
– An operations manager in a garbage
removal company who realized how
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 3

dashboards can help him get closer
to his clients (he was reading a pilot
magazine)
– A chief financial officer understood
why shipping wedding dresses on time
and building “personal social capital”
can help his B2B department as well
(he was reading a women’s fashion
magazine)
Two challenges to overcome to be able
to spot weak signals
First challenge: swim upstream
Most companies I know rely on secondary
(published) data to understand their
market and the future trends. They scan the
media and clip relevant press releases and
newspaper articles, subscribe to expensive
databases to get a collection of data,
buy market research reports, and listen
to experts in international conferences.
Those sources are typically the last ones
I’d recommend to identify weak signals,
as the graph below shows.
As an example, these are some of the
subjects currently discussed in the media
today: 3D printing, Cyborgs, Genetic
engineering, Embryonic stem cell research,
Robotics, mobile. These subjects are all
already well documented emerging trends.
On the other hand, science-fiction authors
are discussing today Artificial General
Intelligence (greater-than-human), Neuro/
Brain simulation and enhancement,
post scarcity society, DIY science,
existential technology risks, radical lifeextension/”immortality”
and technology
singularity.
The implications for the HR professional:
When you recruit a new strategy analyst,
do you ask if they have an MBA or the
type of books they are reading? When
you analyze and map their LinkedIn
network, do you find mostly school friends,
colleagues, or do they also connect with
people outside of their sphere of interest?
Do you try to attract those reading sciencefiction?
Second challenge: interpret the data
The key of the process lies in the
interpretation of the signal.
– What does it mean for my company?
– What is the likely impact?
– How strong a signal does it have to
become to start acting on it?
4
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

In a company, this “making sense” phase
can take many shapes. Some use a full
fledge scenario planning exercise; others
play “red teams” an exercise used during
the war by the British army to review
strategic plans and ensure no blind spot
has developed.
When internal resources are not available,
one can always rely on external consultants
and their work. For example, the following
WI-WE database has taken the first step
into spotting potential weak signals, but
also in interpreting what they mean:
Six practical tips on how to build the
ability to spot weak signals in your
organization
Tip1: Create a ”Crow’s Nest”: this term
was developed by IBM as a reference to the
crow’s nest situated on top of sailing ships.
It is designed to be able to spot upcoming
danger or weather changes. This is a good
image of the process companies need to
implement to scan the horizon beyond the
next quarter, and have a team who will
have credibility within the organization to
challenge common wisdom. This “crow’s
nest” concept has given birth in the social
media age to “command centers” such as
the acceleration Team at Nestle: a room
dedicated to spotting signals on social
media.
Tip2: Hire those with imagination
The 9/11 commission findings were quite
direct:
The 9/11 Commission Report
“We believe the 9/11 attacks revealed four
kind of failures in:
l Imagination
l policy
l capabilities
l and Management.”(p. 339)
Talent development and acquisition
professionals should therefore aim to
identify who in the young talent they are
hiring have imagination. Maybe a piece
of creative writing should be part of
the interview? Some companies provide
candidates with a few random concepts
(bionic man: apple: teacher), and ask
them to write a short story, or create an
impromptu improvised theatre piece.
Tip3: Open social networks to let ideas
flow, and allow your employees to
develop networks outside of their sphere
of comfort: if your company is still today
restricting access to social networks
during work hours, change this policy.
Those tools are as essential to the personal
development of your employees as using
a computer or a phone is.
Tip4: Train to develop networks: very
few executives have been trained in the
art – and sometimes science- of developing
a network. Training should be planned,
but companies could also incorporate the
notion of the network into the performance
evaluation (with a focus on internal as well
as external networks).
Tip5: Create time to be creative: we
all have heard of Google employees
dedicating 20% of their work time to work
on “pet” projects. You need as a talent
management professional to ensure there
is time and space for employees to flex
their creativity. This can take the form
of meetings without PowerPoint slides
(triggering discussions rather than passive
listening), or applying reverse meeting
techniques (like in an MBA class, reading
the documents and the case in advance,
and using meeting time for questions and
discussions).
Tip6: Recruit from outside: companies need
to include in their workforce employees
who can bring new fresh perspectives to
the business. While industry knowledge
is important, candidates from adjacent or
even drastically different industries can
bring a wealth of new ideas to a business.
One of my clients in the transportation
industry is hiring professionals from the
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 5

customer goods or the banking industry.
They bring a new view on how customer
relationships could be developed and how
to use data analytics.
Conclusion
Spotting weak signals requires companies
to set-up the processes to spot the signals,
and invest time to interpret them. The new
social media tools and technologies offer
an essential and an unparalleled window
to spot those weak signals. But above all,
success depends on the ability of those
companies the ability to recruit and retain
those managers and senior executives
who have an inquisitive mind, a wild
imagination and an insatiable curiosity.
6
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

Resonant Leadership for Results
Dr. Annie McKee and Abhijit Bhaduri
About the Author
Annie McKee, Senior Fellow and Director, Penn CLO Executive
Doctoral Program.
She is a bestselling business book author and advisor to top leaders.
We recommend her book “Resonant Leadership: Renewing
Yourself and Connecting with Others through Mindfulness, Hope,
and Compassion.”
Abhijit Bhaduri is the Chief Learning Officer for Wipro. Prior to
this he led HR teams at Microsoft, PepsiCo, Colgate and Tata Steel.
He has written three books that have all been bestsellers. He writes
regularly for The Conference Board, Economic Times & blogs for
Times of India.
S” oft skills are the differentiator.” In recent years we have learned from
This simple yet powerful mantra is neuroscientists that emotions impact our
what drives learning and leadership
development at top companies like Wipro,
one of India’s most successful businesses.
What are soft skills and why are they so
capacity for creativity, adaptability, and
quick decision making. How we feel is
linked to what—and how well—we think,
as well as to our actions. It is EI, not IQ,
important? The term “soft skills” is a that differentiates great leaders from their
holdover from the Tayloristic approach average, run-of-the-mill colleagues.
to management that has permeated
And EI goes beyond individual
organizations for close to one hundred effectiveness. Emotionally intelligent
years. In this model, only technical, easily leaders create resonance—a powerful,
measurable skills and IQ are valued (e.g. positive emotional reality in teams and
How much coal a man can lift on a welldesigned
organizations that is marked by hope,
shovel, or intellect, as measured
by things like grades in school). And,
while technical skills and intellect are
important, the research is conclusive:
emotional intelligence competencies such
as self-awareness, self-management, social
awareness and relationship management
are at the heart of leadership effectiveness—
and business success.
enthusiasm and the collective will to win.
A resonant climate makes people feel
good: committed, willing to work hard,
and passionate about results. In the end,
there is nothing “soft” about skills that
enable us to understand, motivate, and
inspire people. This is why wise business
leaders, Chief Learning Officers, human
resource professionals and learning leaders
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 7

help their people to focus deliberately and
unabashedly on developing EI.
But can people learn to lead with emotional
intelligence? The answer is a resounding
“Yes!” Despite the fact that folklore would
have us believe that leaders are born, not
made, it is in fact possible to develop EI.
It’s not necessarily easy, however, and most
conventional learning and performance
management programs do not help people
to develop these competencies. There
are many reasons for this, including the
following:
l Many leadership development programs
simply don’t focus on the right skills.
There has been a proliferation of
organizational competency models
over the past two decades. The socalled
“competencies” in many models
are often an amalgamation of skills,
values and vague language around
organizational objectives and/or
trendy jargon. When, as is often the
case, these complex models are used
as the basis for training, people leave
programs confused and unable to
translate the learning experience into
changes in behavior. In addition, many
of these models do not include the very
competencies that really do make a
difference—notably those linked to EI.
l Leadership development programs are
often designed around organizational
objectives. There is nothing inherently
wrong with this, of course. But,
organizational outcomes are rarely
compelling enough for people to
engage in the hard work of changing
themselves.
l programs are often designed with
an assumption that people will learn
and change if career advancement is
held out as a carrot. It seems logical
that learning can and should be tied
to promotions, developing as our boss
thinks we should and the like. It is also
true that many achievements-oriented
people want to advance their careers
and will work hard to do so. However
we have found that getting the next
job or pleasing the boss are, for most
people, not powerful motivators over
time.
l Learning methodologies (whether
online, face to face, or blended) are
often archaic. We’ve known for decades
that adults learn best when the learning
experiences include theory and models,
reflection, dialogue, experimentation
and application. This means that
the learning experiences have to be
just that—experiences. Far too many
leadership development program
designers force people to sit in chairs
listening to lectures and/or watching
endless PowerPoint presentations. The
outcome: Billions wasted on leadership
development programs that don’t
foster learning for individuals or their
companies.
So, how do we solve these problems?
How do we provide meaningful learning
experiences that result in real change for
people and organizations? How can we
help people to develop the competencies
that matter—like emotional intelligence?
In this article, we have teamed up to
share a summary of Resonant Leadership
for Results, a learning program used to
develop EI and achieve organizational
objectives in stellar companies and
institutions such as an international bank,
a well-known government, pharmaceutical
companies and many more. This program
was developed by Annie McKee and her
team at the Teleos Leadership Institute
and has been conducted all over the
world with thousands of people. Resonant
8
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

Leadership for Results has touched people
from South Africa to Italy, Cambodia to
the United States and many countries
in between. In fact, key aspects of the
program were developed as part of a
complex project in India with a large fast
moving consumer goods company. Some
key outcomes of the program: 1) people
developed EI, as measured by pre-and
post-tests; 2) organizations improved on
key performance outcomes such as top-line
revenue, customer service and employee
engagement; and 3) communities have
more successfully tackled extremely
difficult social issues such as HIV and
AIDS.
Resonant Leadership for Results and the
innovative programs at Wipro make a
difference. Why? Because they focus on the
right things (EI and resonant leadership),
in the right ways (learning designs that tap
into people’s desire to grow and change).
As you read, consider your own personal
journey to better leadership as well as the
successor opportunities for change—in
the learning programs provided by your
organization.
Resonant Leadership for Results
Resonant Leadership for Results enables
people to develop their emotional
intelligence competencies, create resonance
in teams and organizations, and build a
compassionate, results-oriented culture.
It is designed in such a way that it can
be conducted in as little as three days, or
for as long as three weeks, over one year.
For the purposes of this article, we will
review the three-day program, as it is most
appropriate for middle managers in busy
organizations.
Day One–Discovering My Motivation
to Learn: Adults learn best when they
are fully engaged and committed to
personal and professional development.
Said another way, we cannot force our
employees to learn–especially when that
learning involves complex competencies
like emotional self-awareness, selfmanagement,
empathy and organizational
awareness. We put this maxim front and
center on day one of Resonant Leadership
for Results. We start with somewhat
typical activities and move toward deeper
reflection and dialogues as the day moves
on. For example, facilitators engage
participants in kick-off exercises that help
them to see their strengths as leaders.
One such exercise, called “Me at My
Best” 1 calls on people to tell a story about
a time when they were truly successful
as a leader (at work or in personal life).
When these stories are “analyzed” in small
groups, it becomes completely obvious that
emotional intelligence competencies, such
as those in Figure 1, are essential for great
leadership. This, then, is how the business
case is made for developing soft skills–part
one of motivating people to learn.
We have found, however, that a business
reason to engage in the hard work of
learning EI is never enough. If you doubt
this, quickly list twenty eight things you
would like to do or experience before you
die–and then count how many of these
are directly related to your current job!
So, with this in mind, the rest of Day One
of the program is dedicated to engaging
people’s hearts–helping them to get clear
about values, personal and professional
history and where they want to go in life
and at work. Facilitators adeptly guide the
group in a series of activities that help them
to explore themselves and get comfortable
talking with other people about what is
most important to them in life. Slowly,
people build a picture of an “Ideal Self”–
who I am when at my best, the values I will
take forward in my life, and the kind of
leader I want to be. The theory behind this
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 9

approach–called Intentional Change–has
been developed by our colleague Richard
Boyatzis. It’s been used as the basis for
dozens of development programs, helping
tens of thousands of people to learn, grow
and change.
Day Two—Understanding Myself as A
Leader: By the end of the first day of the
program, people have built surprisingly
strong and trusting relationships. Once
this environment is set, people feel safe and
can begin to look at the “Real Self”: who I
am as a leader and a person now. It’s not
always easy to look at oneself honestly. For
this reason, we help people to see that there
are often factors in the environment that
interfere with their personal effectiveness.
Sometimes, these outside forces seem to
be beyond people’s control but in fact are
within their power to change.
For example, organizations can be intense
and sometimes brutal places. As smart,
adaptable human beings, we often learn
how to deal with things like power, politics
and dysfunctional leadership practices by
behaving in ways that make us less than
proud. To help people explore these kinds
of “hot” topic, we create activities and
simulations that unleash real behavior and
reactions to scenarios. People can then see
themselves in action, and they also see
what drives them to behave as they do.
Debriefs of activities and simulations tend
to be intense and personal. Conversations
further learning about how each individual
deals with hot topics like power (his or her
own and others’), bad bosses, ambition,
competition, success and failure. As people
become aware of these dynamics, they are
in a better place to make good choices
about their own behavior.
10
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

Day Two, then, is highly customized
to the nature of the external forces that
interfere with good leadership and the
creation of a resonant environment. The
activities help people to understand who
they are now and how they can impact
their environments so that there is a better
chance they can live their values and
become better leaders.
Day Three–Creating Bold Learning Goals:
The last day of the three-day Resonant
Leadership for Results program helps
people to identify EI competency gaps–
who I am now vs. who I want to be in
the future–and then plan to change. The
key to success of this set of activities is
somewhat counter-intuitive: to develop
most competencies, you can’t start with
the competency itself. It is far more useful,
and successful in the long term, to identify
how you want to use a competency, and build
a bold learning goal around this outcome.
For example, one manager we know was
having difficulty with peers and direct
reports. He’d been told numerous times
that he needed to be more empathic. He
tried to learn to listen better, to be more
understanding, etc., but nothing was
working. It wasn’t until he set a more
comprehensive learning goal that he began
to truly change. His goal, interestingly
enough, touched on both personal and
professional life: “I want to be a more
understanding father and manager”.
Clearly, empathy was one competency
he would need to focus on, as well as a
few others such as self-awareness and
emotional self-management.
Day Three of the Resonant Leadership for
Results program is also focused on ensuring
that people will accomplish their goals. This
means looking at obstacles. For example,
it is often the case that an organization’s
culture drives the wrong behaviours.
Many managers and leaders can see
that the culture is counterproductive,
but they throw their hands up in defeat
partly because they don’t know how
to “diagnose” cultural values, norms,
myths, or taboos. So, we often lead people
through a simple process of examining
how their own behaviour is impacted by
the culture, and then in turn which aspects
of the culture are helping, or hindering,
all sorts of leadership development and
organizational effectiveness. Simply
understanding the organization’s culture
a bit better gives people hope–and tools to
begin to change it, and themselves.
By the last day of the Resonant Leadership
for Results program, the learning
community is strong and people have
authentic, personal relationships that can
be maintained long after the program
is over. These relationships can help
tremendously in the long learning process
that starts once the program ends.
Programs like Resonant Leadership for
Results and many of those at Wipro
are designed for 21st century learners.
Learning programs at Wipro have the
same aims and outcomes as the Resonant
Leadership for Results: they are engaging,
experiential, and focused on organizational
strategy and demands. They also support
meaningful and sustainable learning. Let’s
look at how this works.
First, programs cause leaders to refrain
what a learning experience actually is,
and where it can happen. For example,
executives expect learning to happen in a
classroom. So, as is the case in one very
successful program at Wipro, when leaders
are asked to create a play, they are pushed
far out of the safe and predictable world
of traditional learning environments. They
are asked to write a script, stage it, design
props and stage lighting. As they do this
project, they understand that they can
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 11

go out of their comfort zones and learn
from the liberal arts. They learn about
how to present themselves and others,
how to make people feel valued, and how
to structure a story (another important
leadership skill). After this program, the
head of one SBU said, “By adding small
flourishes to a character that had an
extremely brief appearance on stage, I was
able to make the person feel engaged and
valued. That’s just what I need to do for
many of the junior members of my team.”
She has since then become one of the active
mentors to young women leaders.
We also run several workshops on
storytelling for our business leaders. Last
year we decided to hold it in Jaipur to
coincide with the Jaipur Literature Festival.
The leaders heard and interacted with
authors and editors and attended talks
by their favorite speakers. One of the
participants describes his experience of
using “The story behind the storytelling
workshop” to share the impact of the
program in the words of the leader of the
business unit.
He goes on to say, “It was a 30 minute
opening session where I had to share
credentials, gives the client a reason to buy
from us. I told my team that I would like
three slides with just the three themes on
them. This in itself was a departure from
the way my team made slides for client
meetings. But they put the three themes
I gave on three slides and in the body
added all the supporting facts! In my
review I told the team that I would make
life even simpler. I asked them to put the
three themes now in one slide in a line
each. They were quite shocked that it was
all I would take for the 30 minute session.”
This learning may seem obvious–create
simple messages and communicate them
clearly. However, in a world where
information is in abundance, this can be
difficult. It is the leader’s role to make
meaning and convey it in a way that
makes it memorable. Leaders who are
able to connect with the stakeholders at a
meaningful level are the ones who will be
able to lead the organization tomorrow.
The research is clear: emotional intelligence
makes a huge difference in individual and
collective success. And EI can be learned.
But for this to happen, we need to move
beyond outdated learning methods and
training programs. We must help people
to learn the right skills–particularly EI–by
engaging in experiences that are both
personally and professionally compelling.
When we do this well, people change.
They become much more adept at creating
the kinds of cultures in their teams and
organizations where everyone can be at
their best. And when everyone’s on their
best, an organization can soar.
1 “Me at My Best” and many other self-directed exercises can be found in Becoming a Resonant Leader (Annie
McKee, Richard Boyatzis, and Frances Johnston, 2008: Harvard Business Press)
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

Enabling Learning through Technology in
the Corporate World?
Dr. Venkatesh Pamu
About the Author
Venkatesh Pamu has design, development, delivery and
facilitation interest in self-awareness, leadership development,
team dynamics, and performance feed-forward.
In his role with Corporate HRD at Wipro Ltd, Pamu is responsible
for Wipro’s Flagship Leadership Programs, Leadership &
Behavioral Research, and Learning Technologies.
Prior to joining Wipro, he was associated with Cognizant
Technology Solutions, UBS, and The Arvind Mills Ltd. Pamu has qualifications in
biomedical engineering and is an alumnus of IIM-Bangalore, India (postgraduate
program) and IIM-Ahmedabad, India (Fellow program)
Organizational leaders, HR, and
L&D professionals grapple with a
dichotomy - while learning tends to happen
most on the path of maximum resistance,
an average learner is more than enticed
to take the path of least resistance. As
more organizations look up to technologyenabled
learning (TEL) for addressing their
emergent and dynamic learning needs
de-mystifying this dichotomy becomes
more relevant than it ever was. Thus, the
question of “why do certain individuals
(and therefore organizations) adopt
technology-enabled learning, whereas
others don’t?” assumes importance for
leaders and organizations attempting to
offer technology-enabled learning.
The Corporate Learning Factbook (2013)
indicates that most organizations are
providing nearly 2/3 rd of their learning
through digital content, mobile devices,
video, and other technology based
offerings. A quick review of the L&D
space indicates that many organizations
that have traversed the TEL journey from
awareness-acceptance-action have made
some fundamental directional changes
including,
1) Making learning a declared and
reviewed dashboard priority
2) Ensuring organization and individual
level self-governance around learning
are in place
3) Making all learning needs to emanate
from and link back to work context.
4) Measuring top management for doing/
not doing their mandatory learning
5) Tasking L&D to be agile and respond
effectively at short notice
6) Ejecting technology based learning
roles from the regular structure of the
learning function and wiring these roles
into the business units while tasking it
with milestones.
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 13

However, the proof of TEL is in delivering
on the ground and technology has played a
balancing role between the content, learner,
facilitator, and reach by responding to
1) Online on-demand learning at the
fingertips
2) Personalized learning for dynamic
individual development needs
3) Distributed co-learning requirements
4) Contextualized learning
Embarking on the TEL journey: Initial
Steps
As more organizations experience and
understand the potential of mobile learning
eventually we will see a gold rush when
the tipping point is reached. This only
indicates what the future of learning is
likely to be - move away 70-20-10 and make
way for 10-90 learning. The new thinking
is 10% formal learning and 90% informal
learning with the support of technology.
This requires organizations to consciously
work on a) rethinking how the learning
domain is evolving, and b) shifting mindset
to informal learning.
a) Rethinking Learning
As the learning & development space
evolves and tightly aligns lockstep with
business efforts to remain competitive
and react with agility to external economic
pressures, sustaining workforce capacitycapability
to be equally as agile and resilient
to ‘change’ will require a rethinking of how
learning is happening. Some of the trends
that are likely to have a long-lasting impact
on the way organizations think about
learning capacity and capability are –
a) business-readiness, b) evolution of selfservice
technologies, and c) empowered
tech-savvy generation.
Often, we come across L&D professionals
commenting that the learning attitude is
missing in the participant groups. While
this may be true, the larger question then is
– if this is a given and a constant, is the L&D
professional learning to change / adapt in
the context of the new givens and/or the
existing constraints. L&D professionals
will also be required to have a more
hands-on approach to use analytics to drive
L&D offerings from the current ‘learning
outside of work’ to one where learning is
“embedded into work”. This requires a
mindset change from ‘analytics- wary’ to
‘analytics-savvy’. Yet another aspect of
looking at this challenge is how the two
key stakeholders – the learner and the L&D
professional view their respective roles. It
is common knowledge that humans tend
to evaluate self with respect to the effort
expended and returns on effort. While
the mindset of the L&D professional is
an overt focus on self-effort), the learner
is looking for something which matches
his/her imagination (returns on effort to
learn). Therefore, the mindset to look at
L&D effort will always fall short of the
expectations of the learner who is looking
for his/her idiosyncratic value.
In the context of evolving trends, what
limits the march of L&D into the technology
led era? Several complex factors have
a contributory effect, but a few things
stand out – a) overemphasis on facilitator
led L&D approaches, b) Internal IT
dependency architecture, c) Excessivefocus
on technology as a magic-wand for
L&D, and d) Organizational onus to make
individuals learn. These factors have to be
flipped around from the above two – a) social
learning, b) WhereverWheneverWhoever
learning, c) shifting from technology to
applications, and d) onus on the individual
to keep updated. This will require the
organizations to move the model from
one which emphasizes on push versus
one which emphasizes on the pull. The
L&D professional needs to sync up by
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

letting go the control mindset and move
to a curator cum facilitator role, to operate
in a pull world.
b) Shifting the mindset
Organizational leaders, HR and L&D
need to be first adopters of technology in
order to transform the organization and
reap the positive impact of technology on
the human factor Selling learning (more
so TEL) to employees with the hope that
they are in the ‘learning mood’ is far likely
to be a win-win than otherwise. For TEL
and informal learning to take deep roots
cultural changes that create a favorable
platform and environment are required.
E m p l o y e e s a l r e a d y s p e n d a
disproportionately large portion of
their wakeful life at work. With a 24X7
environment, where the overlap between
work, home, and socializing is increasingly
blurred, organizations which have a strict
differentiation between work and play will
need to revisit this mindset. Therefore,
a large part of the learning needs of the
individual are better met while on the
job in a spontaneous manner largely
emanating from a serendipitous discovery
of an emergent learning need. In the age of
information overload – L&D professionals
need to figure out the optimal ‘byte’ size,
large enough to ‘bait’ the attention of the
audience at the right time. This requires
pressing the right levers for bringing in a
shift of mindset.
A combination of internet, mobile devices
such as smart phones and tablets will hover
at what we may label as ‘just-in-time’
training. Rather than sit in a classroom
and learn, people would like to learn in
real-time. Learning is best done when the
recipient is hungry for it. The first lever
for a shift in mindset is the need to realign
L&D to JIT based training.
The second lever for a shift in mindset
is accepting that gamification with its
aspects of a) learning self-diagnostic
(for skill level and progress), b) interacts
(where people are actively engaged),
c) immersiveness (using scenarios versus),
d) competitiveness, and e) focus will
change the way people will like to learn.
The third and last lever for a shift in
mindset is the adoption of YouTube like
platforms. Social learning enables sharing
and allows the learner to shift between the
expert and learner roles.
Creating an internal competition for
adoption of TEL in learning will create
the need for utilization of these levers
and if reported on the appropriate forums
will get traction for action. The impetus
to action will come from the way the
L&D professional (and cascading to the
organization) looks at his /her role. Most
organizations review the L&D function in
terms of the number of days of training /
no of people covered. These metrics are
self-destructive for the L&D professional
as they focus on resource /asset utilization.
Such a metric will spiral into a selffulfilling
trap for the average L&D person.
TEL adoption can be hastened successfully
with a regular self-check for technology
readiness.
Embarking on the TEL journey:
Assessing Technology Readiness
Level 1
Leveraging technology to help people learn
is essentially about adopting technology.
The adoption journey for most TEL
innovations can be categorized into four
overlapping stages – comprehension,
a d o p t i o n , i m p l e m e n t a t i o n , a n d
assimilation. Organizational readiness
for leveraging technology to help people
learn can be categorized into any of the
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 15

above four stages and an additional fifth
stage – ‘yet to start’. Most organizations
are likely to fall into the fifth categorization
for the reason Jim Collins mentions in his
book Good to Great - organizations find it
difficult making the initial decisions and
taking the first steps as the internal cry
for demonstrating actual benefit echoes
around from myriad quarters.
Assessment of readiness for leveraging
technology for learning can be directed
around the organization’s ability or the
lack of it to manage any complex individual
(behavioral) and/or organizational
variables. Borrowing from Lippitt et al
(1958), who articulated five key indicators
in the form of a dashboard – readiness
can be assessed with respect to – TEL
vision, Learner and Facilitator skills,
TEL Adoption incentives, Access to TEL
resources, and TEL Action plan to reach
in the context of the larger ‘organizational
learning plan’.
Level 2
Assessing the readiness or feasibility
of adopting TEL has to begin with an
understanding of how the TEL works
and its scope at the operational level. The
question often asked is – what have been
the experiences with TEL. What may work
TEL adoption readiness - Based on Lippitt et al (1958) Model
effectively in one setting may not work
as well in another, so it is important to
consider factors such as context, setting,
and circumstances, along with evidence
of success/failure.
Issues that are likely to indicate the
organizational readiness for leveraging
TEL through self-reflection are -
l Does TEL fit into the organizational
culture with respect to Congruence and
Compatibility?
l Can the L&D function articulate the
business case through a potential costbenefit
and risk analysis?
l Has momentum been built for change
readiness to embrace TEL?
l Have the structure-process-workforce
changes aligned to changing readiness
for TEL?
l I s t h e b l u e - p r i n t f o r p i l o t -
implementation-evaluation journey of
the TEL environment communicated
organization wide?
Readiness for leveraging technology to
help people learn at an organizational level
can also be understood from the strength
of ‘enablers’ and ‘inhibitors’. Organizations
that end up scoring high on enablers and
low on inhibitors are more likely to be
16
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

exhibit a positive view of the technology
based learning on offer. They will be the
chief-advocates of TEL. Organizations
that end up scoring high on inhibitors
and low on enablers are more likely to
exhibit a negative view of the technology
based learning on offer. Most organizations
will fall somewhere in between these
two extremes of the enabler-inhibitor
distribution with respect to readiness for
leveraging technology to help people learn.
At a broader level, readiness can be
assessed based on organizational and
individual feelings of ‘self-efficacy’ or
the lack of it. This is linked to a ‘sense
of adequacy’ as experienced within the
organization and often indicated by % of
key people using
l
l
l
l
Technology based tools to engage and
interact (physical meetings vs virtual)
Social learning platforms etc,.
Technology applications available on
Smartphones
TEL
Varying levels of organizational readiness
will require a reconsideration of learning
as it exists today in the minds of the
organization’s stakeholders.
Embarking on the TEL journey:
Experiences
As learning moves towards online and
blended approaches, organizations cannot
remain insulated by the external trends and
changes. With pressure on organizations
to improve productivity, the route to
higher productivity is continuous learning
more so through TEL. The mobile phone
adoption trend will only catalyze TEL. The
good news is that TEL can offer a generous
portion of the benefits that places like
Crotonville at GE or Clay Street at P&G
help in tapping organizational potential.
Positive experiences of organizations
that have experimented with TEL offers
hope if you are aiming to make space for
your organization in the list of the best
organizations for leadership and TEL
learning. Starting from AT&T, which
adopted E-learning as early as 1997 to
the present, we have several companies
that have experimented successfully
with technology enabled learning. There
Application Organizations Focus
Online performance support
and job-aids
US Geological Survey, Tyco
International, Inc etc
Job-Aids for enhancing
performance
Learning on the go Microsoft, etc. Cloud based Mobile learning
– podcasts and Videocasts
Connect through social /
expert networks
Learning & Collaboration in a
3-D virtual world
Create, Publish and share
knowledge
High Impact Virtual Classrooms
& Webinars / Webbased
training
Gaming and Learning Simulations
Deloitte LLP, Deloitte TTL,
UN, Intel Corporation etc.
BP etc.
Motorola
CSC, Mittel Networks Corporation,
etc / FedEx, ING, F
Hoffman-La Roche
Sun Microsystems, DAU, etc.
Reach-out between learner
and the expert
Immersive learning and
collaboration environment
Knowledge access at
fingertips
Interactive Virtual Classes /
Workshops / Training
Experiencing real life
scenarios
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 17

are a number of organizations that are
highly successful at using a spectrum of
technologies to deliver effective learning
solutions that have a positive impact on
both their businesses and the people. Nick
van Dam in Next Learning, Unwrapped,
has documented how technology has been
successfully used.*
Closer to home as BYOD and BYOA are
gaining strength companies like Airtel,
Essar Oil & Energy, HUL, Mphasis, Philips
India, RPG Group, Saint-Gobain, SBI,
Wipro, Wockhardt , etc. are exploring
the power of TEL and the challenges of
managing the expectations around TEL.
Conclusion
Learning in general and TEL in particular
is in safe-hands if owned by the larger
organization and not by HR or L&D
alone. In addition to the L&D efforts,
TEL needs championing by ‘experts’ from
the business to create ‘Smartphone’ based
video learning content which gets shared
on a YouTube like portal. TEL will gain
further momentum, if the viral aspects can
be built into the campaign for TEL.
Organizational leaders, HR, and L&D
professionals can have a quick check for
TEL readiness and rethink individual and
organizational focus from shaping the
‘perfect water drop’ while also keeping
an eye on the ‘ripples’ the water drop is
likely to create.
Embark on the TEL journey by taking the
first steps
1) ‘Give’ time for employees to experience
TEL through free MOOCs (or the likes)
2) Allow employees to experiment by
flipping the classroom
3) Check for TEL readiness
4) Start with yourself – Enroll and Embark
on the TEL journey
*There are several other organizations that use TEL.
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

The Employer Brand: A Truth Lived Everyday
Santosh Desai
About the Author
Santosh Desai is MD & CEO of Future Brands, a brand services
and consulting company. He was previously President, McCann
Erickson India, Having spent over two decades in advertising.
He writes a weekly column “City City Bang Bang” for the Times
of India and is the author of Mother Pious Lady- Making Sense
of Everyday India.
There seems something about the idea
of branding that seems to resonate
with the times. We seem to be surrounded
by brands of all descriptions. Today,
everything is a brand- apart from product
and service brands we now have cities,
state, countries, political parties, celebrities,
TV programs, sport tournaments, events,
ideas and even individuals, all of which
aspire to brandedness. It is hardly
surprising, that in this context, the idea
of employer branding should come into
greater focus. The paradox, however is
that, the more we speak of branding, the
less branded we seem to be becoming. For
what is commonly understood by branding
something is to make it more visible, to
promote it more actively by tomtoming
its strengths and generating hype (only
in the context of marketing does the word
hip carry positive connotations).
Which is why very often, the notion
of employer branding seems to come
to the forefront most when recruiting,
particularly when an organization has
to attract fresh graduates from leading
institutes in the face of competition. Faced
with a need to articulate the employee
proposition delivered by organizations
in a consumable and desirable form, the
employer brand here can end up becoming
little more than a communication
contrivance, a selling aid. Believing that
by exaggerating the ‘strong points’ of
the organization in a creative way, one is
branding the organization as an employer,
is a reduction of the idea of branding into
puffery. It also underlines the fundamental
misconception about branding- that it is an
external device, used by slick marketers to
seduce customers.
As a concept in its purest form, branding
has very little to do with marketing or
business, indeed; that is simply the arena
where the idea gets applied most often.
A brand is a distinctive pattern in the
mind, organized around a central idea
that delivers meaning that is valuable
to the receiver. Which is why we can
describe so many things in the world as
brands. When an idea leaves a consistent,
discernible imprint in our minds that we
come to recognize and value in some
form, a brand can be said to have formed.
A brand is an outward grasp of an inner
reality, presented in a way that it becomes
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 19

traceable to its source of origin. Brands
need to be visible, identifiable, relatable;
but these are attributes it must possess,
they do not describe what the brand
fundamentally is. The value that branding
creates is an providing an additional
layer of meaning to things that makes it
distinctive,; it is the difference between
flavored carbonated water and Coca-Cola
and between Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
The common understanding of branding
as self-conscious promotion obscures this
vital aspect of branding. Which is why
so many so-called brands look, feel and
sound the same. The problem is much more
acutely felt in the case of the organization
brands. Examine the alleged driver of these
companies, their vision statement and you
will find that most of them are versions
of a desire ‘to be and to be recognized as
the best provider of the best products and
services providing the best environment
for the employees to be at their best.’ In
many ways, the mindless adoption of best
practice is the opposite of branding; for
every organization must find its own best
practice rather than case the best practice,
which by definition cannot be branded as
your own. The idea that there is a mythical
ideal way of dealing with employees that
everyone must strive to emulate makes a
mockery of the idea of branding.
In that sense, the brand is the essential
nature of a product, service or idea; the
reason for the Coke-ness of Coke or the
Infosys-ness of Infosys. When we talk of
a company brand for instance, there is a
common set of images and associations
that come to our mind. If we were to dig a
little deeper, we could, particularly in the
case of strong brands, be able to identify
a strong driving idea that produces these
associations and images. Apple might
be seen as an innovative company with
a deep understanding of the power of
design, but its core idea has to do with
its radically new imagination of what a
machine is. The idea that machines do
not merely produce work and reduce
human labour but instead actively spark
the human imagination and enable us to
experience life in a new way, is what drives
everything that Apple does. All its actions
including the configuration of its product
offerings, the lucid beauty of its designs,
its desire to create closed ecosystems
that respect individual brilliance, its
advertising and promotional programmes,
the work culture that combines creativity
with driving pressure- all of these can be
traced to the idea that drives the brand.
The strongest brands in the world are
based on powerful ideas that connect
with some fundamental human truth.
And communicated as powerful mythical
stories that we want to hear.
A brand derives its meaning from many
sources, but all of them need to act in
ecological unison to produce the final
effect. Nothing lies outside the brand,
nothing can be excluded from its ambit. It
is by harnessing all the elements in the mix
that a brand truly comes alive. The idea
that the brand is ‘owned’ by the marketing
function, is thus patently absurd. Since the
brand is much more an articulation of an
internal truth, its ownership lies with all
stakeholders of the business. Marketing
leads its interaction with consumers, just
as finance would manage the organization
brand for its constituency. It is only when
we detach branding from marketing that
its full power can be unleashed. That is
not to say that Marketing is not critical
in managing the brand only that the
presumed synonymity that the two enjoy
needs to be challenged.
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

In an ideal sense, every element in the
brand mix is both a part and the whole.
The brand is a system of meaning, but a
system that is open, and fluid. Powerful
brands stay current by deriving meaning
from the changing context rather than by
being submerged under their force. The
traditional mental model of the brand
was closer to that of a pond; something
with fixed boundaries that needed to
be protected. Today, the brand is better
imagined as a river- free flowing, drawing
from many tributaries, interacting with
everything it touches, ever evolving, but
never losing its essential nature. You
never step into the same river twice, said
Heraclitus, but after all these centuries all
the changes it has witnessed], the Ganga
is still the Ganga.
In today’s world, the ability to stay
true to one’s core idea in a highly fluid
environment is becoming that much more
important. In the digital world, everyone
has a microphone and a camera, and
the earlier ability of businesses to enact
perfectly rehearsed postures in public has
been effectively dismantled. Unless the
brand idea infects the organization and
everyone and everything representing
it, the brand will be found out. Branding
needs to deploy internal for it be even
mildly successful externally. Increasingly,
the traditional marketing definition of the
brand as a promise is becoming outdated.
The brand is no longer a noun, safe in its
lofty perch, issuing statements but a verb,
in the trenches, performing all the time. A
brand is what a brand does, quite simply.
And what is does is increasingly visible to
all- there is nowhere to hide.
If there is one constituency that the brand
cannot hide from it is that of employees.
Which makes the building of an employer
brand that much more challenging. The
company as employer reveals itself every
moment in a variety of big and small waysin
the way it treats routine administrative
issues, in the way it addresses employees,
on how it deals with people in good times
and bad and how much interest in takes in
their careers and growth. Strong employer
brands need to have a clear belief about the
role of employees in the business and must
act in consonance with that belief. Implicit
in the formulation of a notion called the
Employer Brand is a potential danger; that
of treating it as a separate component that
can be managed independently using some
marketing techniques.
The truth about the Employer Brand is
that it is a direct outcome of the reality
about the organization. Strong brands are
more likely to be strong employer brands
simply because they have a clear idea of
who they are and what they stand for.
This makes it easier to identify who they
should employ and how they should work
with them. Virgin as a brand is clear in its
belief that it sees business as a way to have
fun- it delivers to consumers products and
services they can afford and enjoy, it marks
its service with a distinctive ‘Virgin’ touch
(Massages on flights, Harley as airport limo
pick-up), finds employees that share this
worldview and run its internal processes
with the same sense of fun (its internal
briefing document is called Viagra). It does
not need to refer to the generic ideas of
best practice in order to be seen as a good
employer brand.
What is needed is a clear understanding
and in the case of a large organization, an
articulation of the core idea that drives
the brand. This is not a generic Vision
statement, but a realistic sense of what
makes the brand what it is. It is arrived
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 21

at after rigorous self-examination, and
by placing oneself in the larger contexts
of the category, market, society and the
world. The implications of this are then
translated for each part of the organization,
and some principles are evolved that look
at the role of each stakeholder. For the
HR function, which does not own the
employer brand, but is its lead guardian,
a clear articulation of employer brand idea
guides all its actions.
Human beings grasp the intangible through
the tangible and the subtle through the
grass; it is thus important to convert the
essential idea into a set of graspable actions.
Rituals and customs are key to create sense
of brandedness. Branded rituals are those
carry a compressed and coded form of the
larger, more complex brand idea. In Big
Bazaar, store managers are called ‘Kartas’
of their stores and actually go through a
ceremony by which they are thus anointed.
The ritual act of undergoing this symbolic
transformation converts an abstract idea
into a powerful experienced emotion and
allows what could have been a somewhat
esoteric idea to become a living reality.
It works because it draws power from
the larger ideology in which the brand is
located, in that it accords respect to all its
consumers and creates a sense of cultural
accessibility to a new world in a completely
non-judgmental way.
The world is changing much faster and in
a much more fundamental way than what
is comprehended by most businesses. The
big fault line of the times is the tension
between centralizing power structures
trying to retain their dominance even
as democratizing impulses try to pull
away. The employee is today one that is
constantly judged, evaluated, regulated,
monitored, trained and self-consciously
motivated. This will have to change and
HR needs to lead this way. Without a
conceptual push from within which seeks
an active redefinition of some of the
founding assumptions of business, the
employer brand might well come under
much greater pressure than any other
facet of the organization. So far we think
of the brand as a mask but there are two
ways to imagine even a mask. Playwright
Girish Karnad argues that while the
Western notion of the mask is that of a
disguise, where one hide one’s real self, the
Indian idea sees the mask as the ‘face writ
large’- an amplification of the true nature
of the self. The employer brand needs to
embrace this idea of branding- of finding
the true nature of the organization’s brand
and amplifying it with sensitivity and
vividness.
1. Articulate the core brand idea in clear
terms using not business jargon, but
the full range of language. Arrive at
this after a rigorous process of selfexamination
from several different
vantage points. A useful way of doing
this exercise is to ask how uniquely does
your organization view the category
you operate in. Every strong brand
has a distinctive take on the category
it operates in. If the current brand idea
is fuzzy, then sharpen it, but be careful
to express it in realistic terms.
2. Do a similar exercise for the Employer
brand. Read off all small and big signs
that emit a signal about the brand.
Build a genuine understanding of what
makes your employer brand what it
is. Articulate a realistic goal for the
employer brand in case it is not fully
developed. Balance the need for change
with an understanding of ground
realities. Overreaching produces
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

cynicism, under-ambition sloth. Make
sure that the product/company brand
is the source that the employer brand.
3. Covert intent into action. Audit existing
actions and create ownable rituals
that bring alive the core employer
brand idea. This needs imagination
and creativity as well as an instinctive
understanding of what works for your
organization. Rituals are not only about
having fun; they transmit your core
belief in a dramatic way.
4. Handle the ‘big moments’ honestly.
The real test of any belief is when the
going gets tough. Employer brands
in particular are cemented in bad
times, for that is what human beings
would remember and value most. If
at this time, all lofty pronouncements
come to nought, as is often the case,
building trust and belief becomes
difficult. Employees might continue
to say the right things and salute the
flag, but real belief comes from acting
with honesty in difficult times. What is
most important here is alignment with
the stated core belief.
5. Lead the thinking within the organization
on its belief with respect to talent and
people. Synthesise understanding of
larger macro-trends and push for a
strategic dialogue on the subject. It is
vital to the discussion on the employer
brand not becoming too transactional;
the true value of HR and its ability
to move up the value chain lies in its
ability to lead fundamental business
thinking. The question of talent is going
to be a defining one in the days to come
and HR must show the way.
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 23

Stale Beer and the New Workplace
Harish Bijoor
About the Author
Harish Bijoor is a brand-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor
Consults Inc.
Earlier he was with Zip Telecom Ltd., Hindustan Lever
Limited, Tata Coffee Limited in Sales and Marketing and Brand
Management.
Life in the old days was simple and
pure.
I started work as a Group Management
Trainee with what is today Hindustan
Unilever Limited. This meant starting work
with a big name in the FMCG category not
only in India, but worldwide as well. It
meant working for a multi-national. When
that terminology became a bad word,
one started taking pride in working for a
“trans-national corporation”. It meant the
same thing, but sounded more politically
correct. So be it.
Life was really simple those days. You
had a boss. The boss had a boss and the
chain went on, right to the top. The boss
was a human being. He had his follies, but
nevertheless, the boss was normally right
and correct. Right on many an issue in
which he was learned and experienced.
And correct on issues that came to ethics,
way to behave and the softer side of being
a manager at large. One therefore learnt
the simple things first. The boss was a
great teacher.
Life in the new workplace, in contrast, is
a different ballgame altogether. Life today
is all about a different workable approach
and a different work ethos altogether. Life
is really about change. Change in processes
and approaches. And guess what, in most
of our cases, the boss is not even a human
being. The boss is today a technology, a
process, an approach and in some cases
even “a way of doing things”. The boss is
therefore not one anymore.
In some organizations we work with, the
boss is not one as well. The guy sitting in
the corner cubicle where he gets his tea
delivered at the table (as opposed to the
other cubicle-Wallahs who have to go to
the corner vending machine to top up their
mugs) may be called your immediate boss,
but then, is he your real boss? Think.
Your boss at times is the client you are
working for. And he sits some 8000
kilometers away, and comes alive normally
on video-screens, Skype chats and long
and laborious telecoms. He is the guy you
rarely see as well, but hear all the time.
And then, your real boss might as well be
the guy who is really at your own level in
terms of work-profile, but the one who has
been designated the virtual peer project
lead. And then your boss may as well be
the piece of technology you work for.
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

In short, life in the workplace today is
different. Different, diffused, amorphous
and fluid. Change in many ways is your
real boss. Remember, your boss in real
terms is the position you report to, the
remote client you work with, and at times
it is also the end-product your software
finds itself an integral part of. In many
ways, from softer world of FMCG, it is like
saying that your real boss is not the man
you report to or the company you work
for, but the consumer who actually bathes
with the cake of soap you peddle. In any
case, the boss you report to is a position,
and with attrition being what it is, this
position has a new face every year. Right?
If change and the technology you work
on are your real bosses, how do you
survive and how do you thrive in the
New Workplace? How do you build your
personal brand as well? Or for that matter
must you at all? Must you as an employer
encourage personal branding as well?
What are the key principles here at play?
What must you focus upon, and what must
you gloss over? Are there also marketing
concepts you as an HR practitioner can
use to advantage?
Let’s go. Let me lay out two points I do
believe an HR practitioner needs to follow.
POINT 1: HR is just too important to be
left to the HR guys. Ouch! That pains.
I do believe HR is an all-embracing domain.
HR is not only about the humans you deal
with, it is also about all the Resources
that make your Human Resource what
they are. To that extent, your human
resource is a function of who she is,
what her educational background is
like, what her experience profile looks
like, what technology governs her work,
what processes systematize her, what
approaches guide her at the workplace
and most certainly how comfortable her
personal life is and looks to be.
HR therefore is just too broad a domain to
be managed by the HR function at large.
The best HR practice is possibly the one that
offers the HR function as a generalization
and possibly not a specialization. The HR
department that is manned by a cross
functional team of the core HR specialist,
the recruiter, the marketer, the technology
specialist, the process control specialist
and the communications specialist is
possibly that much more broad-spectrum
a department than the narrow-spectrum
specialists’ orientation in what I call
OLD HR.
Let me not belabor this point though.
The point is made, and let me move on
and delineate a set of thoughts that I do
believe are critical to manage the future
of the future.
POINT 2: Internal Branding is a must for
everyone!
Most certainly it is. I promote internal
branding in an end-to-end services
company and a BPO enterprise, as I do in
a consumer durables marketing company.
Internal branding that is different from
the overtly external branding one is
normally exposed to in our contemporary
commercial lives.
Internal branding that is all about creating
that distinct identity that will set apart one
work environment from the other. And
guess what, the distinction points that
create for this difference can be many. In a
recent project, we have identified as many
as 347 different points that add up to the
big picture of a wholly different end-to-end
services entity that will stand out like an
exclamation mark. God is in the details of
Internal branding.
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 25

Internal branding is a cusp process one can
create. A cusp process that involves equally
the marketing discipline as it does the HR
department. The two marry seamlessly to
provide this seamless brand experience
that will be seen, heard and impacted upon
the employee at large.
Do you want your employee to think thrice
before she quit your BPO outfit to join your
cousin’s outfit across the road?
Internal Branding within the organization
will involve the services of a whole
different evangelist for the brand. While
the brand manager is capable of managing
the external environment for the brand,
the internal hierarchy-based structures
as we see today in organizations are best
catered to by the CEO of organization
as a brand evangelist. The CEO is best
positioned to contribute in this domain,
provided he himself is sold on the idea of
the brand at hand. And I am sure there are
many unwilling CEOs who have brands
thrust down their throats by predecessors
who have been hasty in launching brand
programs that are half-baked and quartergrilled!
CEO-passion for the brands of the
company is something that needs to
be encapsulated not only for external
communication purposes, but for internal
as well. It should indeed start with the
internal objectives being met fully first.
Communication is therefore a powerful
tool to use. Communication that will take
the proposition of the brand into the heart,
soul and gall bladder of every internal
employee.
The CEO as an internal brand evangelist
must communicate much more frequently
with his internal customers. Yes, it is snazzy
to be talking to the external customer. It is
easy as well to dominate the mind of the
external customer. Selling a proposition to
the internal customer who knows quite a
whole tad more, is that bit more difficult
than telling the external customer that you
have a better mousetrap or a toilet - seat or
whatever. The guy within the marketing
organization is that much more cynical,
that much more wary than the girl next
door who is your potential customer.
The CEO must communicate cogently and
with coherence within the organization.
More frequently than he does now. Involve
the entire set of internal employees from
day one. Does not matter whether the
employee is a driver or a draughtsman.
Time to talk to him about your all-new
intelligent toilet seat. The objective: build
passion! Build passion internally in every
employee, irrespective of rank, to avoid
rancor of any kind. Every employee must
believe in the brand the market is going
to receive tomorrow.
This communication needs to be multidimensional.
The CEO needs to cascade
down a communication through her
ranks. Every employee in turn needs to
get interactive. Debates must happen.
Issues must be sorted. Ideas must be
acknowledged and picked. A positive
dynamism in the process needs to be
established. The communication must
get lateral as well. Employee-to-employee
communication on the new-improved
mousetrap must be encouraged. Dissent
must be open. In short, communication
must be real and multi-dimensional. As
real and multi-dimensional as the people
within organization.
Internal Branding can build passion
and value as well. A well-informed and
satiated internal customer is going to be a
valuable asset for the organization. Every
external customer interface on the brand is
going to be packed with a greater degree
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

of knowledge, passion and ownership.
What’s more, customer delight is going
to be a norm to practice. To the frowning
Finance guy sitting in Ivory Tower II, let
me assure that customer delight means
positive equity of the brand at hand. And
positive equity means an endless flow of
revenue and profits. Internal Branding is
therefore as important as external.
Do you have an internal branding budget
then? Do you have internal branding
evangelists? Does your internal audience
even know the basics of your brand
proposition? If not, time to get going and
set right the wrongs. Internal Branding
pays. Try it for size.
In Conclusion:
Someone once asked me to illustrate my
Management style and mantra by using an
analogy. I was staying at the Taj Bengal in
Kolkata on that occasion. I looked around
my room and picked up the soda-water
bottle opener from the top of the minibar
and brandished it around. I represent that. I
am the soda-water bottle opener. In many
ways you and I are just that.
The fizz belongs to my team. The soda is
my team. I am just the catalyst who allows
the soda to bubble up and flourish. And
I shake the bottle quite a bit. And quite
often. That’s my role. Good organizations
and homes alike that boast of team spirit
are units that are like a bottle of soda that
is forever being shaken up to create fizz
and bubble. On the contrary, organizations
and homes that do not foster team spirit
are like a bottle of old and stale beer that
has been kept open for days. No bubble.
No fizz. No nothing!
The HR man, woman and child, by my
simple definition, are just that. A very
important catalyst. Let’s play that role with
finesse and care as the future of the future
unfolds ahead of us.
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 27

MENTORS AND COACHES
Anita Bhogle and Harsha Bhogle
About the Authors
Anita Bhogle and Harsha Bhogle run Prosearch
Consultants and have done upwards of 350
corporate speaking programs to India’s leading
companies on learnings from support for
managers. Their book “The Winning Way” has
been a big national best-seller.
Increasingly, when we do our corporate
speaking events these days, we are
asked about mentors and managers, about
coaches and captains and sport presents
a wonderful laboratory to study how the
two roles work. Often they do, but when
they don’t, the results can be painful. And
we have found that while there might be
the odd difference, the parallels in the
corporate world are many. And often
relevant.
Cricket is an unusual sport in these matters
in that it is the only one in which the
captain is actually on the field. In almost
all sport leaders demand performance,
indeed they must, but it is in cricket alone
that they have to perform and deliver
in conditions that are similar to those
that players under them experience. The
manager of a football team has the power to
demand, to substitute, to drop, to penalize
but he doesn’t himself have to take on the
opposition center back who is six inches
taller than him. By contrast the captain
in cricket must demand that his batsmen
stand up to the opposition fast bowler on
a fiery pitch but then when it is his turn
to bat, he has to do the same.
And that is why in cricket, it is understood
that the captain runs the ship and the coach
acts as the support staff; valued, even
reasonably powerful, but eventually he is
the support staff. It works better like that
though it can lead to gnash teeth and long
evenings in the bar. And so the job of the
coach is to show the way, suggest a path
where a player might see a wall. His role
is important because the captain may have
his own battles to fight and it is difficult to
be a performer and an adviser, especially
when the kid being advised might one day
become better than the captain on the field!
And so it is said that the coach must take
players to places they haven’t been to
before. It is a lovely line because a coach
has the perspective that comes with age
and experience but he is also watching
the game from a hundred yards away and
so sees it differently. Critically, the coach
doesn’t compete with his players and that
can allow him to be benevolent. That is
where the coach most mirrors corporate
mentors. And you can see why the mentor
in corporate life must necessarily be older,
have a more relaxed perspective than say,
a line manager, and must have enough
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

time to offer to an executive riding an
uncertain wave. I guess it must help also
if the mentor doesn’t sit in judgement over
his mentee. One of the contentious issues
in sport, and you can already see this is
an HR issue, is that the player goes to the
coach with a problem, whether technical,
mental or simply personal, and the coach
uses that knowledge to make a judgement
on a player and declare him not right in
the side. If a corporate mentor has to win
the respect, and confidence, of a mentee,
he cannot sit in judgement over him.
Essentially, the coach must bring to a
side something it doesn’t already possess.
India was a vastly talented but, let’s put it
respectfully, mildly chaotic side. The new
coach, John Wright, came from a culture
where you had to distill the maximum out
of yourself to make a mark and so, training
and work ethic were crucial to their
success. By contrast, India worshipped
talent, whether on the sports field or in
corporate life, and to a large extent still
does. But talent is only the starting point
of success and no more, if not married to
work ethic it can actually be destructive.
Wright cajoled them into accepting that
discipline and a rigorous work ethic could
take their talent to another level.
So how did Wright gain respect in a new
culture. Senior HR professionals will
probably have experienced this but he just
worked harder than his words. If practice
was at 10, he was on the ground at 9 to see
that the pitch was ready, that the gear was
in place and that once the players came to
train, nothing would come in the way. By
giving so much of himself to the team, he
earned their respect and won them over.
Some years later, India had a coach who
came from another country but had a
similarly admirable work culture. Gary
Kirsten said that when he asked himself
what he could do with a team that had so
many stars in it, he came to the conclusion
that he could do no more than offer all of
himself. And like Wright, he often worked
harder than the players themselves to
create an environment they could flower
in. Can a mentor do that in corporate life?
It was important too, for both Wright
and Kirsten, to understand the culture
of the team, and therefore of the land,
they were working in. Paddy Upton, the
mental conditioning coach who worked
with Kirsten, once said that he based
some of his work on the knowledge that
India, as a nation, had never in its history
invaded another. It had been attacked but
had never initiated an attack. He said it
helped him understand the culture of the
people he would work it. Neither Wright
not Kirsten was intimidating, neither was
in your face. They were more consultative
and Kirsten said he believed that rather
than forcing people to work on their
shortcomings, and in doing so focussing on
what they were not good at, he preferred
to talk about their strengths and how to
ensure that they could be channelled into
delivering superior performance. It is
an interesting parallel for HR leaders to
study. In mentoring do we merely ask for
weaknesses and work on them or do we
play with strengths and the confidence to
deliver them for it is out of strength that
victory emerges. It should make for an
interesting debate.
Between Wright and Kirsten, India had, as
coach, the straight talking Greg Chappell.
He was a legend, one of the greatest players
in the game and a man with deep insights
into cricket. He was a gifted cricketer but
with an almost scary work ethic that came
out of deep thought. In his personal life
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 29

he had challenged himself hard. It had
worked wonderfully for him and he now
put that knowledge into practice. And so
he challenged his players to go to another
level, urged them to be fitter and advocated
picking younger, fitter players into the
team. It led to two things. It produced two
centers of power and rather than driving
the players into finding a new peak, it made
them insecure. The challenge presented
was: here is a new crop of players, if you
don’t shape up, it will be time to ship out.
On the face of it, there seems little wrong
with that. It happens every day in corporate
life but it delivered an important lesson for
those dealing with highly gifted players.
Often, the uniquely gifted players have not
only a deep understanding of their own
game but also crave the freedom to do
things their way. It has worked for them
and they are happy with it. Such players,
who are often matchwinners, need a little
more space, a little more freedom. Often,
they are highly strung because they are so
competitive and their vision is different
from anyone else’s. They can do audacious
things because they define risk differently.
It was said of Sachin Tendulkar that he
played shots others couldn’t, or didn’t
think were safe, simply because he didn’t
see them as risky at all. He saw gaps in
the field where others saw fielders. He
could not be coached the same way as
anyone else and maybe it is important for
organizations that define fast track career
paths to understand the kind of people they
are dealing with and tailor programmes
that challenge them rather than constrict
their flair.
Chappell’s message wasn’t wrong. In
the context of the culture he was in, the
delivery was. And that can often happen,
that we dislike the messenger but, as a
result, we lose out on the message he/
she is trying to deliver. Chappell tried
to lead the change his way, maybe even
force it down people’s throats because
that is what worked for him. More lately,
England had a problem with a maverick,
the temperamental genius in Kevin
Pietersen. England’s coach, Andy Flower,
was a no-nonsense man, he spoke little and
demanded much which was exactly what
England didn’t have. He formed a very
good partnership with the captain Andrew
Strauss who was cut from the same cloth.
England demanded discipline of their
players and everyone had to fall in line.
But Pietersen was different. He came from
a background of rejection, had migrated
to another country to fulfil his cricketing
ambition, was maybe a touch insecure and
was extraordinarily driven to perform. He
was different from the others but he won
matches like few others could. When he
didn’t fall in line (and it is too long a story
to narrate here!), he was disciplined and
left out. When we spoke to him and asked
how he would like to be treated, he said
very simply, “Trust me”. He promised
to work very hard, train hard and be
completely match ready but couldn’t stand
the constant discipline. You see the likes
of Pietersen in every organization and it
raises an interesting issue on how to handle
them. There is obviously no one-size-fitsall
solution but often reaching out to such
people, making an effort to understand
them and giving them a bit of space works.
Interestingly, when a new captain came
along, his first action was to open a line
of communication with Pietersen. It was
no longer: discipline first, player second.
It was: I need him to win a test series now
how do I go about doing that.
There is also a very interesting case study
from Australia with their coach John
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

Buchanan. With a team of uniquely gifted
players, many legends of the game, he
stood apart in that he was an average firstclass
cricketer and possessed nowhere near
the kind of skills that those he was coaching
did. He said his job was to make cricketers
grow as people, nudge them along, set
challenging goals for them and take
them along the path of excellence. Many
Australian cricketers enjoyed working with
him, some others couldn’t stand him. It is
interesting to see this polarization given
that in corporate life you could have a
mentor who may not possess the domain
skills of those he is mentoring.
The players that were a bit insecure, who
sometimes couldn’t see the peaks they
were capable of ascending to, found him
excellent to work with. Others like Shane
Warne, possessed of extraordinary skill
but also of huge self-confidence looked
down on him with intensity. They thought
he merely talked a good game while they
actually played it! Maybe Warne, and
those like him in corporations, do not need
mentoring at all but once again it is critical
to understand that different people think
differently and that you need each of them
to deliver for you.
The key then is understanding people and
in an era where popular culture is changing
very fast, where attitudes towards spending
are different, it is important that the mentor
is in tune with those he is assigned to
mentor. It is very possible that there could
be a generation gap, or many generations
actually, between the two and the mentor
could end up being irrelevant. As we have
seen the presentation of the challenge is
almost as important as the challenge itself
and mentors must see that. In doing so
they might be able to give “all of them”
as Kirsten did.
An interesting insight to end. When
Kirsten first met Sachin Tendulkar, and
remember Kirsten had made his debut
after Tendulkar had, he asked him what
he expected from a coach at this stage in
life. Tendulkar said he wanted a “friend”.
I wonder how often we realize that very
high performing but fairly highly stressed
stars, even in the corporate world, really
only need a friend and whether that is an
under-appreciated value. In a world of
quarterly results, of margins, of political
unrest, maybe our brightest managers need
a friend who has no agenda.
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 31

GEMIFICATION POSSIBILITIES IN HR
S V Nathan
About the Author
S. V. Nathan is the Talent Director for Deloitte U.S. Firms in
India, with over 27 years of professional experience in Human
Resource management, and working across businesses such as
Manufacturing, Services, Telecom and Information Technology.
Nathan led the team that helped in building of the India US Region
in his career of over 8 years with Deloitte.
He graduated in Mathematics and did his post graduation from
XLRI, Jamshedpur.
Gamification appears to be one of the
hottest emerging trends in business
and technology today. It is a topic of global
interest with a rapidly expanding scope
that is making HR leaders and managers
sit up and take notice.
Gamification concepts such as simulation,
challenges, scoreboards, and rewards
have been used for centuries. Games are
as old as the Mahabharata! The outcome
of a game of dice overturned the destiny
of an entire subcontinent. Why was the
game so pivotal in this story? One reason
could be that the game represented the
unforeseen challenges that every ruler
has to navigate during his reign. In my
childhood, I remember my grandmother
playing the game of ‘Pallanguzhi’ with me
while teaching me how to master numbers.
I had to count seeds, distribute them evenly
across cups on a wooden board, and add
and subtract during this process. The
old lady was teaching me strategy and
counting at the same time !! Bless her.
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

This paper seeks to demystify gamification
and provides examples where it can be
used in the HR space to good effect.
Gamification concepts such as simulation,
challenges, scoreboards, and rewards
have been used for centuries. Games are
Where it can be used in the HR space to
good effect.
What is gamification?
Gamification is the use of game design and
game mechanics in Nongame contexts to
increase user engagement and behavior
adoption. A system, process, or application
is said to be “gamified” when it includes
one or more feature commonly found in
games. It can instill challenge, the payoff,
and perspective into routine tasks, tapping
into the same human instincts that have led
to passionate competition and engagement
over centuries — our innate desire to
learn, to improve ourselves, to overcome
obstacles, and to win.
There is nothing new in gamification from
an instructional design standpoint. It is
a new and fancy name that has rapidly
captivated the industry as a marketing
term to push new products and services.
Gamification is NOT turning everything
into a game. And it needs a cultural
infrastructure.
Let us understand gamification better
through an example.
Great beginnings can pave the way to
long-lasting success. That’s the philosophy
behind Deloitte’s signature on-boarding
program Welcome to Deloitte, which
underwent a full refresh for professionals
across the organization. But what prompted
this change? The early induction model had
two full days of back-to-back death by PPT
sessions, overloading and overwhelming
the new hires. The feedback from the
new hires was not at all encouraging.
When this issue came up for discussion
at a leadership meeting, a leader asked
a few basic questions, “Who is our
audience? What is their background ?
What would appeal to them? Why do
they think our induction is boring? This
started the search for a new approach
which culminated in the current worldclass
Welcome to Deloitte on-boarding
program. New employees are made to
play various games, act in roleplays, and
work in small groups in simulation. The
interactive pedagogy of the new method
appeals to the audience without diluting
the objective of the induction — learning
about the company, its core beliefs, and
familiarizing employees to different tools
and technologies. The enhanced new hire
center website provides a customized
dashboard that details required tasks for
their first 365 days with Deloitte. The
success of this program can now be seen
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 33

through the high level of engagement and
learning the professional experience.
This is an excellent example of a
larger emerging trend — the use of
game techniques and design to induct
professionals into the organization in an
interactive manner while the organization
meets its business objective of preparing
professionals to excel in their roles. This
new trend is called gamification.
Why is gamification important in
today’s world?
The emergence of Generation —Yers and
Millennials as significant elements of the
Indian workforce is driving dramatic
change in education, technology, and
work. These two groups that total up to
65% of the overall workforce are digital
natives who live and breathe online. They
are accustomed to technology at home
and expect similar levels of technology
interactions in the workplace. Games
are integral elements of their lifestyle
since childhood, thus they can relate
effectively to the language and metaphors
of gamification.
Additionally, in our ‘always connected’
world, the dichotomy between personal
and professional personae has shrunk over
time. It is no secret that most professionals
start and end their day by checking emails
on their smart phones. Professionals are
spending close to 16 hours a day at work
or at least thinking about work.
As the workforce becomes younger and
increasingly mobile and working days get
longer, it is imperative for organizations
to actively engage with young and
technology-savvy employees during their
tenure in order to maximize productivity.
Why gamification works
Game mechanics and game dynamics
are able to positively influence human
behavior because they are designed to
drive players to take specific action.
Successful gamification converges the
following factors:
l
Joy of self-expression: Self-expression
converts passive recipients to active
participants. In a passive approach,
people are ‘pushed’ to take action
thereby causing resistance and
disengagement. Games use a ‘pull’
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

l
l
approach to create opportunities for
learning through experimentation and
practice.
The thrill of competition and
accomplishment: Whether we’re
competing for a championship title or
just tossing a ball around for fun, games
create excitement. The adrenaline rush
that spurs at the starting block, the sense
of achievement felt upon crossing the
finish line or scoring the winning point
— these are the experiences that make
games so vital for us.
Real-time assessment and feedback:
A move in a game provides real-time
feedback. You find your king in check.
You rescue the princess. You collect the
last gold coin and complete the level.
Individuals get short- and long-term
feedback that is vital for reinforcing
behavior. Without real-time feedback,
knowing does not translate into doing.
Constructive feedback reinforces good
behavior and enables players to learn
quickly and adjust.
Developing insights through behavioral
business intelligence: Although traditional
business intelligence provides powerful
information, it provides little insight
into the fundamental component behind
business success: people. Understanding
people and their complex behaviors
provide great business benefits when
making strategic business decisions. Datadriven
decisions help organizations make
informed choices which in turn increase the
transparency of organizational processes.
A few examples where
companies have used
gamification
Organizations worldwide has made
tremendous progress in gamifying their
HR processes. Here are some examples:
l Microsoft built an Office application —
Ribbon Hero 2 — that uses gamification
to motivate users to learn MS Office
without the routine and boredom
associated with training. It is a winwin
situation for users as they are
playing a “game” and doing something
productive at the same time. The
application provides instantaneous
feedback on various learning missions
and marks completed areas with an
overall score on the main page of the
application. Such an application puts
users out of their normal “work mode”
and into an “explorer mode,” where it is
fun to discover new things, safe to fail,
and where users feel accomplished for
having completed something difficult.
l Another example of where Microsoft
has successfully used gamification
is in their Windows 7 language
quality game. Rather than assign
language testers, Microsoft invited
their employees to test the application
for their respective national languages.
By positioning this as an international
testing ‘competition,’ volunteer testers
of multiple nationalities began a
friendly game of finding the largest
numbers of application errors. Within
weeks, over 4,000 employees identified
more than 7,000 errors — all in their
free time.
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 35

idea is commercialized, employees
are awarded sole ownership of the
intellectual property and receive
a royalty. Some of Google’s most
successful products such as Gmail and
Adsense are the results of such personal
projects.
l Gamification is cleverly used at Google
and 3M. Employees are encouraged
to use 20% of their time to ‘play’
with ideas of personal interest. If an
Deloitte launched
‘The Maverick’ challenge at campuses as
a branding initiative. Over 2,000 students
across India’s top business schools
participated in a contest that was comprised
of business cases and simulations of real
work scenarios. This gave students an
opportunity to connect with eminent
business leaders, experience the role of a
business advisor, and the chance to win a
grand prize. It also gave the organization
a chance to identify potential hires.
Tapping innovatively into gamification
Recruitment
l
l
l
l
Create a complex challenge and divide it into smaller puzzles.
Each business school can get one piece of the puzzle. The business
school that is able to crack the challenge first by collaborating
with other campuses can be recognized as the winner. This
helps not only in creating a buzz across campuses but also helps
students understand the importance of collaboration.
Develop an online portal that can be linked to social sites such
as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Provide gamification
features such as a progress bar and ‘like’ buttons to encourage
candidates to submit complete profiles for further review.
Launch an online case study contest that replicates your
organizations’ work scenarios. Potential candidates can enter
this contest and key in their responses. If their responses match
with your expectations of future employees, you can shortlist
candidates for the next round of your recruitment process.
Make employee referral programs efficacious. Create an
employee portal containing all open job positions. Segment each
job description into key attributes, technical and professional
competencies required, in order of priority. Employees play a
game where they match their referral CV against these ideal
attributes. If a match is identified, the portal allows for CV upload.
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

Learning
Employee
engagement
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
Send a mystery box to new hires prior to their joining date. The
mystery box would have a set of questions and cue cards that
familiarize new hires with information about the company. The
curiosity and wonder provided by this treasure hunt integrates
the new hires into the organization even before they join.
Create a portal that allows employees to customize their
learning needs. Have a real-time Leaderboard that reflects each
user’s 10 closest competitors. Provide rewards like badges,
certificates, or ‘achievements,’ to be posted on social media sites
or on company intranets.
Introduce role plays and scenarios within e-learning modules
and design it such that learners have to find a solution to
proceed to the next level.
Use unconventional techniques like music to teach business
concepts like teamwork. Bring large diverse groups to a room
and take them through a systematic process of playing musical
instruments in synchrony. As participants transition from noise
to music, they experience the power of teamwork.
Encourage employees to register in groups and contribute
towards a company-wide fitness goal. Teams can support one
another by posting progress about their overall weight loss,
exchange ideas around healthy snacks and in the process, create
friendly competition. This helps employees to focus on their
health in a fun manner.
Introduce ideation contests focusing on themes where an
organization needs process improvement. The contest can have
multiple elimination levels and top ideas can be implemented
across the organization. Winners get a chance to take on
leadership roles.
Organize rapid fire quizzes on topics such as policies, company
values, leadership changes, etc. to engage and inform large
groups of employees.
Design a game where employees are introduced to multiple
career ‘pathways.’ Each pathway could contain a list of
milestones, job responsibilities, and possible challenges.
Employees get the opportunity to visualize future career
scenarios and make informed choices of where they want to
go. It also streamlines the succession planning process in the
organization.
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 37

So how do you start “play?”
Work becomes play when the task is so
satisfying and rewarding that its mundane
nature is of secondary importance. Here is
a quick checklist that you need to address
before you GAMIFY processes at your
workplace.
1. Goals: A common mistake is to get
so preoccupied with “techniques”
that you don’t think sufficiently about
the problem you’re trying to address
through the gaming solution. Which
core processes or strategies are the
ones that gamification is expected to
streamline? Are there comparative
examples from other progressive
organizations?
2. Audience: Who is your audience? What
motivates them? What aspects are likely
to appeal to them? Why would they like
or dislike a certain type of game?
Modify: Users may get tired of the system.
Organizations needs to learn to adapt as
data is continuously gathered. This means
that you should have a plan to modify/
update new content. How can you use
gamification to create greater engagement
and foster the right kinds of change? How
can you move to new business areas and
enlarge the scope of the initiatives?
3. Infrastructure: For designing the
right solution, you need clarity
of organizational goal, inputs on
m e a s u r e m e n t a n d a n a l y t i c s ,
considerations of incentives, and
possibly technology expertise. Not
only should you touch base with your
business-line strategists and managers,
you also need to develop networks of
support from game designers, experts
in data analytics, marketers, and even
social scientists.
4. Form: How do we form/design a
lifelike game? How do we engage our
audience through elegant design and
fun? People will lose interest if they feel
stuck perpetually at the bottom of the
scoreboard. Similarly, people will get
bored and switch off if there is little or
no challenge. The game design should
be such that the audience is able to see
progress toward mastery.
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

5. Yardstick: An HR professional
cannot quickly declare victory after
successfully launching a game. Your
efforts will continue as you measure
results and improve processes. This
requires capturing the right data and
coming up with meaningful analysis.
Does the game design provide return
on investment? Have you considered
all the costs and benefits?
So, playing games can actually be very
serious work.
So, as they say at the start of the Olympics
- “Let the games begin!”
It’s time to play!
Experiences are stepping stones to
cognition. Real world errors come at the
price – professional, financial or emotional.
Gamification on the other hand creates a
fail-safe environment. Players can afford
to fail in the process of solving simulated
real time business scenarios. Make-believe
has been an important way to prepare
ourselves for the real thing since childhood.
References
1. Gamification community resources at Deloitte
2. http://www.deloitte.la/welcome/
3. http://www.bunchball.com/
4. http://www.reveal-thegame.com/
5. http://www.gamification.co/
6. http://www.emee.co.in/
7. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2251015
8. http://www.forbes.com/sites/
9. http://www.mindtickle.com/
10. http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Ten-years-in-how-Google-raced-ahead
11. http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00078?gko=121c3
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 39

Learning and Development – Providing the
Strategic Edge
Dr. Vishal Shah
About the Author
Dr Vishal Shah is currently General Manager, corporate HRD
at Wipro. His work experience spans roles in Sales, HR and
Leadership Development. He has worked in multiple industries
like Consulting, IT, BPO and Retail. He has published papers in
international journals and presented in international conferences.
He is an alumnus of IIMB’s PGDM and FPM programs
The Context
The business environment today is
characterized by what the US army calls
VUCA conditions – Volatile, Uncertain,
Complex and Ambiguous. Change is the
only constant and the speed with which
old business models are failing and new
ones arising, has increased substantially.
Internally too, organizations are having to
balance the challenges of downsizing with
the challenges of delivering to demanding
customers, all the while facing the pressure
to build new knowledge and stay ahead.
In such a scenario, the ability of the L&D
function to rise to a strategic level provides
an organization a valuable resource for
navigating the rapids.
The Changing Expectations from L&D
To play a strategic role, the L&D function in
organizations needs to actively contribute
to business results. It needs to support the
organizational mission and prioritize its
contribution to the organizational strategy.
Some of the fundamental principles that
characterize this shift in the function’s
priorities are -
l Partnership with Business – HR has
had a history of partnering with the
business functions. L&D needs to take
on this role actively too. If learning
is recognized as a key organizational
capability then the L&D function
can at best ‘’facilitate” this process of
capability building. Line and Business
functions thus have an important role
in partnering with the L&D function
for maximizing learning effectiveness.
l Eliciting Real Needs - L&D interventions
need to be based on assessed needs.
Needs analysis is a non-trivial process
and requires skillful diagnosis and
elicitation from internal clients and
stakeholders. The “team– building”
problem is a well-known malaise in this
field. Even senior business leaders are
known to struggle while articulating
the nuanced and layered development
needs of the business and the team.
Most end up asking for some kind of
‘team- building’ activity and it then falls
on the L&D person to act as a consultant
and help the stakeholder arrive at the
right need and the problem.
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

l Move beyond formal learning processes
- The ‘what’ or the formal training
content may be easy to build and acquire,
it’s the “how-to” or the structured and
unstructured learning processes that
determine the effectiveness and impact
of the learning. To leverage the power
of organizational learning the L&D
function needs to focus on the learning
content, the learning processes as well
as the informal learning that happens
in an organization.
l Focus on performance improvement
- The days of training for the sake
of training and covering as many
participants as possible are long over.
No longer are “happy sheet” ratings
sufficient to demonstrate effectiveness.
L&D needs to tie into hard business
metrics like growth, profitability and
customer satisfaction.
The Role and the Positioning of L&D
The L&D specialist’s role today needs to be
multi-dimensional. It requires the Learning
professional to train, facilitate, coach,
provide just-in-time knowledge, align
a group, provide perspectives, develop
competencies as well as leadership … the
list goes on. Traditional learning expertise
is becoming less and less important.
Which brings us to the crucial question
of how L&D practitioners see their role in
organizations. Do they consider themselves
to be passive providers of L&D solutions
or as proactive seekers of problems and
facilitators of change? To play a strategic
role, L&D specialists today need to develop
competencies related to Business Acumen
and even Consulting Skills. Training and
Learning solutions have their limitations
when complex business problems need
to be solved. To earn a seat at the “table”,
L&D needs to win credibility and the
respect of business functions through a
deep understanding of business as well as
problems solving skills. In fact, just as the
expert consulting professional was advised
to become a ‘T-shaped’ professional a
decade ago, today’s learning professionals
need to demonstrate a grasp of breadth as
well as depth related expertise.
The positioning of the L&D function within
the structure of the organization is a crucial
element that determines, influences how
strategic a role it is able to play. In most
organizations the function is linked to
the HR function, though the degree of
the coupling varies from organization
to organization. Whether it is tightly or
loosely coupled to HR, a matrix structure
will best serve the purpose, especially in
a large organization. A matrix structure
would imply direct and indirect reporting
not only to HR but also in the business.
This proximity to business then places an
additional imperative on the L&D expert
and shapes the function’s world-view. On
the one hand the specialists begin to see the
larger picture and the difference they can
make in the overall scheme of things. On
the other hand they start appreciating the
need for a greater degree of flexibility and
multi–Skilling. In Wipro for instance, while
the L&D team is loosely coupled with HR,
each of the business functions has a single
point of contact within the L&D team. This
matrix structure ensures that the different
business units get the required attention.
It also requires the L&D team to make a
demonstrable impact on business metrics.
Another structural element that impacts the
functioning of the L&D function is whether
it is treated as a cost center or an internal
profit center that needs to sell its services to
internal and external clients. In the case of
a cost center model, depending on whether
it is a centralized or decentralized entity,
in tough economic times the function may
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 41

either enjoy relatively greater immunity
or may be more vulnerable depending on
how strategic a position it has been able
to carve out. However in both the cases
typically it would enjoy exclusivity and
would not have to compete with external
service providers. Hence this tends to
keep the function in an operational and a
training program orientation.
As an internal profit center the function
would have to compete with external
providers and hence would have a
compulsion to prioritize internal brand
building as well as quantify value
delivered. The function would make
delivering ‘value’ its key priority, since
it would be a matter of survival. As an
internal team, it would have the advantage
of understanding the ‘context’ much better
than external providers, which would be
the source of its competitive advantage.
Hence this model tends to enable an
outcome related world-view rather than
a process related one.
The importance of multiple lenses
A key strategic area where the function
makes a difference is related to the decision
of “building” vs “buying” human capital.
The complex development needs of a large
employee population necessitate that the
function applies multiple frameworks to
address this issue. A few such frameworks
are discussed below. Using multiple such
lenses would help the L&D function
address the organizational needs in a
VUCA world.
One such framework is to look at three
distinct categories of employee capabilities
needed in the organization–
l
Strategies – aimed at supporting the
organization strategy as well as the top
l
l
leaders of the organization who need
to carry out the strategy. This would
include L&D efforts that build future
skill sets and capabilities as well as
leadership development initiatives.
Implementation – these initiatives
need to aid the implementation of the
organizational strategy. Hence it would
require developing managers who
use resources to deliver results, in the
process coordinating and mobilizing
teams, units and departments.
Tactical – Frontline and beginning of
the chain level, these interventions
would support employees to grow as
individual performers and learn the
ropes of business internalizing the
need for quality delivery and result
orientation.
Another lens that can be applied to the
L&D work is the following
1) Skill Building –This is the classic
function of L&D and especially useful
at the beginning and intermediate
employee levels. Efforts are aimed at
building specific skills in the participant,
say related to communication and
personal productivity.
2) Problem Solving – This kind of work
is done at the individual and at a
team level. Focuses on increasing
their resourcefulness, increase their
confidence in their ability to tackle
business challenges and move towards
acquiring expertise in running a
business.
3) Perspective building – A third level of
development involves building leaders
that take a systemic view, understand
nuances of business in-depth and are
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

having the ability to hold the tension
inherent in dichotomous, conflicting
situations.
And a third approach to categorizing L&D
outputs could be to look at the following
levels -
a) Individual – for e.g. an employee
may build negotiation skills over a
curriculum of modules focusing on a
skill
b) Teams or groups – Groups would also
need to develop specific skills or they
may develop a specific perspective or
process for e.g. an impactful customer
satisfaction process
c) Organizational – At an organizational
level entire group of employees may
need to imbibe certain values or
competencies in times of change. For
e.g. a large section of workforce which
was internally focused may need to
become externally focused and acquire
the capabilities of getting new business.
In a large organization the L& D function
uses these multiple lenses to ensure that
varied stakeholder needs get addressed
and no gaps remain. As the function
takes on a more central role, one should
find a percentage shift in emphasis from
the Tactical to the Strategic, from Skill
building to Perspective Building and from
Individual to Organization level initiatives.
The Building Blocks
As L&D functions evolve in their quest
for a more strategic role, some elements
are emerging as enablers in this journey.
While there is a long way to go and lots
of room for progress, these elements
discussed below could form the initial set
of differentiators.
A) Competency based Development
Competency based leadership
development provides a systematic
and real world based approach to
development. Competency frameworks
also connect employee development
efforts to organizational strategy. A
competency framework forms the
vital foundation upon which the
entire leadership pipeline building
takes place. Most organizations use
rigorous methods for building such
frameworks and make them sustainable
by including current as well as future
relevant competencies.
A study on corporate governance for
instance, identified five competencies
that are essential in today’s business
environment. These consist of -
systemic thinking, embracing diversity,
managing risk, balancing global and
local perspectives and emotional
awareness. At Wipro we base our
entire development work on a strong
competency foundation. Four leadership
competencies are regarded as essential
- strategic leadership, customer focus,
collaboration and building talent. These
help Wipro in developing leaders
required for a multi-business, multigeo
and multi-function business.
B) Strengthening the Performance
Management Processes
In many organizations, performance
management processes generate
cynicism and are regarded as biased and
politicized processes, by employees.
However the emergence of tools like
360 feedback and assessment and
development centers has restored
the credibility of these processes to
some extent. The use of such tools
significantly increases the quality
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 43

of talent development efforts. 360
feedback systems give an all-round
perspective for managers to see
themselves as they are. The use of 360
feedback, implemented as a structured
process is likely to result in a culture
where accountability is prized and
continuous and constructive feedback
is given. Assessment and development
centers use a systematic approach
for identifying success profiles and
competencies and then assessing
against these in a reliable format. In
general, they have a high acceptance
by the targeted audience.
C) Lifecycle Based Development programs
Across different levels, employees
need a mix of operational and strategic
competencies that vary according to
the requirements of a role. Lifecycle
based leadership programs help leaders
navigate through critical transition
stages. Typically these are divided
into – first time leader, leader of a
large group, leader managing P&L
responsibility. Organizations that
adopt this approach deploy a series of
programs that address the needs and
gaps at each critical transition stage.
Such programs combine multiple
methodologies like active learning,
formal skill building modules, coaching
sessions and IDP based development
in order to ensure that development
is transferable to the workplace and
sustainable.
D) Team leadership and Team building
The development of teams and team
working is regarded more and more
critical to organizational success.
Cross functional teams, self-directed
teams and virtual teams have become
integral to achieving organizational
goals. Teams function well if the leaderfollower
relations are healthy, if the team
members relate to each other and the
team learns collectively. In a strategic
role, this requires the L&D function
to go much beyond the traditional
‘team building’ activities. It involves
helping teams to form a collective
vision, align strongly and seamlessly
and learning to solve business problems
collectively. L&D specialists need to
take a team performance view rather
than a teambuilding view, similar to
sports coaches.
Conclusion
There is plenty of room for progress in
the L&D function’s journey to becoming
a voice that is taken seriously by business.
Fortunately, the current environment
presents huge opportunities that we can
capitalize upon. Never has the importance
of people and talent development in
business success been more strongly
recognized. It is up to us as L&D
professionals to rise to the challenge
and reshape our functions to deliver real
business value.
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

HR, Social Media and creating the
organization of tomorrow
Gautam Ghosh
About the Author
Gautam Ghosh is GM- HR strategy and Projects at Philips India.
In this role he owns and drives the key strategic objective of
making Philips India a strong Employer Brand by leveraging new
emerging media & technology. Gautam is one of India’s earliest
HR Bloggers and an avid Twitter user.
According to an analysis of 4,200
companies by McKinsey, social
technologies stand to unlock from $900
billion to $1.3 trillion in value. Two-thirds
of the value unlocked by social media
rests in “improved communications
and collaboration within and across
enterprises”.
Over the last few years the external facing
groups of companies have embraced
(enthusiastically or in some cases- gingerly)
social networks and online communities
to connect with external stakeholders.
Marketing, Customer Service and PR
groups in organizations have leveraged
it to build an army of fans and advocates.
However, many feel that getting an
organization ready internally should be the
first step to being a true “social business”.
Social can scale only if employees are
engaged and connected to each other and
external stakeholders.
However, the reality in most organizations
is that the budget of the external facing
groups is much higher. Social there also
shows more immediate benefits and
benchmarking is easy (however can get
misleading).
So if there is budget available and
executive sponsorship then an organization
should focus on getting internally ready
and externally focused at the same
time. However for the vast majority of
organizations the “social competencies”
would be learned by folks in marketing,
sales, PR, customer support and then travel
to the other parts of the organization.
This is not to advise HR and other people
in organizations not to focus on social -
far from it. But to recognize that once top
management understands the value of
social media they would expect that other
groups then leverage the tools for their
business ends.
However there are differences. Externally
social media campaigns can be done again
and again to get across to more and more
customers/fans. However when launching
a social initiative internally, it would need
to be successful in a far smaller group and
would need to be designed to succeed.
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 45

Often you’ll hear Social Business (or
Enterprise 2.0) enthusiasts say - like we
said in the days of KM - “The key to success
is people, process and technology”.
And then followed by the statement -
“Success is dependent 80/90 percent on
people”.
I believe that “people” issues have a whole
lot of other issues that get hidden behind
that word that companies might miss. I
have mentioned “culture” in the title of
the post which is itself like “people” a
composite of many other things.
Using social technologies (like internal
blogs, wikis, micro-blogging, social
networking etc.) will not help you to
increase the employee engagement scores
of your organizations.
Employee engagement is impacted by
three factors:
l The engagement between the person’s
skills, passion and purpose with the
role he/she is working in. If you have
a person in the wrong job, no matter
what you do, the person’s engagement
level is unlikely to go up.
l The relationship between the manager
and the person - and the team the
person works with.
l Organizational culture.
Social tools can help a person do his/
her work faster by making a discovery of
information and expertise faster. However
if any of the above three factors cause
disengagement, it’s unlikely that the
employee would be using social tools -
unless the tool is embedded in the way
of work. As in, it auto updates details
and updates when the employee updates
a business record. These kind of “social
glue” technologies is still early stage.
Factors that can help drive adoption of
social technologies by employees.
l
l
l
l
l
l
Vision : Leaders and employees need
to know why social technologies are
being deployed and how do they link
to the existing vision of the company.
Role Modeling: Leaders need to
exemplify the sharing and collaboration
behavior on social tools that they expect
employees to display.
Rewards and Recognition: Social tools
have to be in the “flow of work” - but
traditional reward systems that do not
recognize and reward new behaviors
would be a hindrance to widespread
adoption.
Linkage with goals: The team focusing
on implementation needs to learn with
each and every group in the organization
to map how social technologies can help
them achieve their goals - in a faster and
better way. Without articulating that,
the support of crucial group leaders
and middle managers would be a pipe
dream.
Finding and empowering employee
advocates: Data shows that according
to various studies that most
large workplaces the majority of
the employees are not engaged or
disengaged. Expecting them to adopt
new tools without being clear of future
value is going to be difficult at best.
Organizations must map the actively
engaged employees who are active
creators and sharers of content and
showcase how the platforms have
helped them achieve their goals.
Organizational values: These are the
big ways in which shape the behavior
of employees. Is dissent encouraged?
What happens when people make
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

l
mistakes? Can leaders be questioned
and criticized openly? How do they
respond to such questions? These
are the “norms of behavior” which
operate on the ground. Answers to such
questions determine whether social,
openness and transparency would
thrive in the organization.
Education and Training: Even though
social tools seem to be intuitive to use
– but the purpose and how of using
would need to be communicated.
Companies who expect such employees
will get engaged and involved in sharing
and participation need to address the
root causes of disengagement and then
expecting the tools to increase engagement.
While companies come to terms with the
employee usage of social media and HR
departments start working on “regulating”
social media usage and come up with
“policies” – I think they are missing one
key point – leveraging social tools to make
HR itself a social activity.
In a certain way, HR is ripe for social
disruption. It impacts external perception
(employer branding) and internal employee
engagement unlike any other part of the
organization save the CEO.
Let’s start with the policies themselves.
Using a social tool which leverages
crowdsourcing ideas from employees
can help HR in co-creating processes
and policies – and raising acceptability
when they are finally rolling out. Dell’s
EmployeeStorm is a great example by which
employees give ideas on everything in the
company.
l
Recruitment – Since it’s an external
facing part of HR the Recruiting teams
have been quick to leverage social
l
l
l
media to “Broadcast” vacancies and
several applications. However the
next level would be actively creating
and nurturing communities of practice
shaped around skills where hiring
managers can gauge the level of skills
of people and also develop them.
Learning: Social technology can make
learning more of a continuous process
than the 2-3 day event it currently is.
These tools can also be used by trainers
to add more in the classroom and
create a community of learners who
can continue to share experiences and
be a support group as they implement
learnings in their workplace. Marcia
Conner’s book “The New Social
Learning” shows how various firms
are using tools to augment employee
training.
Employee communication is often the
most ignored aspects of HR initiatives
without too much thought or resources
being dedicated to it. HR people often
forget that communication is a two
way process. In my view it is critically
important to listen to what employees
are saying, and that is an aspect that is
usually not done in organizations on
a regular basis, apart from an annual
or semi annual satisfaction survey.
Communication is the bedrock on
which the success of change initiatives
depends.
More and more listening to employees.
I foresee large organizations will
soon start analyzing data on which
employees are thought leaders, experts
and influential amongst the workforce
(like marketing does for external
customers) and try and build them as
employee advocates.
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 47

l
l
Recognition : Companies like Rypple,
Globoforce have started the concept of
social peer recognition and it can be a
powerful factor to excite employees
than traditional reward and recognition.
Knowledge Sharing: Forget the idea of
databases acting as “repositories” of
knowledge, internal social networks
can capture employees’ work activity
as social intranets connect deeper
into business applications – and team
members can follow what others are
doing on their activity streams. Newer
tools like Opzi and MindQuilt can also
emerge as an enterprise version of
Korea, the popular Q&A site.
As more and more younger workforce
enter organizations, their expectations
shaped by consumer social applications
like Facebook, twitter and blogging, they
would want access to similar tools within
the workforce.
The next step would be mobile. For
example many internal networks are
already available as a mobile app. This
would be a key aspect for organizations
with a large sales force who are distributed
and need constant communication.
Communication would lead to collaboration
– as more and more employees connect and
communicate with each other, they would
change work processes itself, making
things work faster better and changing
processes. Organizations have to continue
being open and continue the trusting
processes earlier.
Can employees and HR professionals and
management folks together work together
using social media - to do work that was
only done by HR people?
Let’s think about the aspects of HR work
and what can be done “social”.
The skills needed for HR people to
become savvy socially
To manage online communities – HR
people would need to become community
managers. Community managers are
online facilitators who understand how
people connect and share online and
understand what kind of discussions and
content gets people to open up and share.
Community management is a subset of
roles incorporate various disciplines - and
can best be described as Technopologists - a
combination of marketing (or recruiting/
HR), technologist and social anthropologist.
The focus of the online Community
Managers would be to bring in members
leveraging the weak ties between people
- and providing content around the social
object of the community - so that they help
members develop strong ties.
Communities and Learning
Talent communities are where people go
to connect with fellow professionals and
learn. Hence they are more “communities
of practice” than anything else.
Talent communities are places one goes to
find experts and also to build their own
personal career brand.
Companies must engage in talent
communities by letting their internal
experts connect with and build their own
networks.
The best Talent Community Facilitator
would be an expert in the roles – not
necessarily a recruiter.
The Talent community is a place to discuss,
solve other’s problems, share war stories
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

and visions of the future, to look at where
the field is headed and what are the skills
needed tomorrow.
The focus on jobs/recruiting has to be
secondary to the above.
The skills a Talent Community Facilitator
would be a combination of facilitation,
teaching, guiding, triggering conversations,
mapping the skills of community members
and of course skills in the domain of the
community.
How to Implementation an Internal
Social Network
Create a Social Media Policy – This is
a comprehensive document that spells
out in detail the behavior expected from
the people with access to the enterprise
collaboration network. This would include
the ways they can use access to the software
and what kind of information they should
share and also the kind of confidential
information they should not share. It
would also clarify that they have to be
civil in their online discussions.
Social Network Needs Survey – Conduct
a survey of the employees who to find the
following:
l
l
l
l
l
l
The challenges they face in information
sharing and accessing expertise
The level of openness in the organization
Their comfort with using social tools
to share information and engage with
others
The challenges in keeping track of
changes to information and version
control
The challenges of managing email
overload
The familiarity of colleagues who are
not in their immediate team
Leadership Readiness Survey – Identify
areas in which the leadership can support
the internal network. This survey would
be administered to the department heads
and other leaders identified. The survey
would identify the following:
1. The goal what they want from this
implementation.
2. The challenges they have in
communicating with the employees.
3. Their own readiness to be role models
in implementation and usage of the
tool.
Survey Finding
The focus would be on the following:
1. The culture and processes that support
the enterprise collaboration software
2. The needs of the organization where
information sharing will have the
immediate and most impact.
3. The strategy and planning for the
implementation of the tool.
Implementation and Set-Up
Decide on:
l
l
l
l
l
Content to be profiled on the software
Access Controls
Department Creation
Project Creation
People who would have administrative
controls
The modules in the tools that need to be
activated and which ones do not need to
be. Who will have access to which content
and module would also need to be decided.
Other processes which need to be moved
to the tool would also need to be decided
and users trained on how to use the social
technology to do that process. .
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 49

2. Ongoing Community cum
Engagement Management
Choosing Community Managers and
training them on community management
is critical to adoption of the internal
network. Designing a communication plan
(like a contest, internal campaign) before
launch so that people are excited when it
is launched and signed up.
Launch internal social network
by implementation of the designed
Communication plan.
Use social recognition to incentivize
desired sharing behaviors
Design a content plan for senior executives
to share content like blogs, photos, updates
on the enterprise network.
The focus and objectives of these would
be: Share company updates.
Suggested Content Plan.
1. Company Updates
2. Client wins
3. Rewards & Recognition.
4. Ideas/Suggestion
5. Press Coverage of leadership/
Company.
Assess: Ongoing assessment of employee
engagement – and driving engagement by
triggering conversations on a regular basis.
Outcomes: Survey of users after 6 months
to find out if the network is helping them
do their work better and faster. Do they:
l
l
l
Know more about colleagues
Know more about their company
Join and engage in internal communities.
Other outcomes could be:
1. Metrics like how much time has come
down to turn around a document.
2. Tracking projects and assigning tasks are
doing on the network and not on emails
3. People create interest based communities
on their own and share interesting
content on them.
4. Employees give each other recognition
and therefore raise motivation and
engagement.
Implementing external online
communities
Before implementing external community
organizations should conduct a “listening
exercise” using third party tools (simple
to complicated, free to paid all available)
and find out if there are any conversations
about it and if there are, what is the tonality
of that conversation.
Once a listening exercise has been conducted
a purpose of external communities has to
be articulated, why, which target group,
and which channel. After that what content
and conversations need to be created and
therefore the roles assigned to people either
internally or to an outsourced partner. An
escalation and response plan also needs
to be in place, if questions and doubts are
articulated.
In conclusion
In conclusion, social media can be used in
a variety of ways, and it is not a question
of if but when, all companies would need
to respond and react to it. The ones that
make the initial moves will be the winners
over the laggards. HR has a critical role to
play and also one of the critical functions
that would be impacted by business
being social. To be relevant HR needs to
build its own capability in social as well
as facilitate the change that organizations
will go through.
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

A business within the business
Dave gray
About the Author
Dave Gray is the founder and CEO of liminl, a design consultancy
focused on change and innovation.
Dave has authored two books on designing change and innovation.
Dave is the founder of XPLANE, the visual thinking company,
Dave is also a founding member of VizThink, an international
community of Visual Thinkers, and serves on several advisory
boards.
lot of problems in business could be
A solved if we could align the interests
of employees and managers with owners.
The idea of aligned incentives is kind of a
holy grail: to align the interests of managers
and employees with the owners of the
business.
Why do so many incentive plans fail?
We pay commissions to salespeople
because we want them to get energized
about selling things. We use profit-sharing
and stock options to get people excited
about increasing the value of the business.
We try to align executive pay with
incentives like earnings growth, revenue
growth or stock prices.
But too often these attempts fail to get
people to think and act like owners. Why?
Short-term thinking. Since we have to
reward people within a reasonable time
frame, many incentives tend to focus on
short-term measures. Optimizing incentives
for short-term results discourages longterm
thinking that may be necessary to
ensure the survival of the company in
the long run. For example, in the rush
to earn commissions, salespeople make
deals that the company can’t make a profit
on, or push customers to buy more than
they need, or offer too much because they
want to squeeze in a deal at the end of
the quarter.
Too vague. Stock-option and profitsharing
plans reward employees when
the company does well, but the larger the
company, the more difficult it becomes
for people to feel that their efforts have
an impact on the stock price. Frontline
workers often have a hard time believing
that anything they do can affect stock prices
or profits one way or another. Their impact
is just too small relative to the actions of
the company as a whole.
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 51

The industrial era was built on the kind of
carrot-and-stick management that rewards
some behaviors and punishes others.
This has been successful in a world of
predictability, where work can be broken
down into routine tasks that can be done
according to a prescribed formula. But in
the coming years, we will need their heads
and hearts as well as their hands.
Drive: The Surprising truth about what
motivates us, Dan Pink points out that in
a world which increasingly requires people
to think creatively, solve problems and
remain flexible in uncertain environments,
extrinsic incentives don’t work, and we
should instead focus on the kinds of intrinsic
motivation that drives artists, inventors
and other creative professions: mastery,
autonomy and purpose.
Intrinsic motivation does indeed motivate
people and drive creative success. But a
quick look at the history of inventors and
other creative people will confirm that,
while creativity and invention may be
necessary components of innovation, they
are not sufficient if you want to achieve both
innovation and business results.
The great innovators in business did not
succeed on creativity alone; their success was
a blend of creative thinking and business
logic. There was no lack of creativity and
invention in Xerox PARC, but Steve Jobs
and Steve Wozniak were able to translate
that creativity into a tangible product that
people were willing to pay for. The great
innovators in business – Henry Ford,
Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, John D.
Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Walt Disney,
Sam Walton, Ted Turner and so on – blended
creativity with business sense and a deep
understanding of customers and market
dynamics.
The challenge in aligning incentives is
threefold:
First, incentives must be real and tangible
enough that people can see the impact
they have on the business as a whole;
second, they should balance long-term
and short-term thinking; and third, they
should balance rewards so they reward
people for things that make the business
as a whole healthier and more successful.
A good incentive system should reward
people for thinking and acting like owners.
So is it possible to get every worker to act
as if they own the business? The answer
is actually quite simple. The way to get
everyone to act as if they own the business
is to give them a “business within the
business.”
The popular organization
In a divisional organization, you divide the
labor into functions and specialties. As you
continue to divide an organization in this
way, you increase efficiency, but as a side
effect you also disconnect the people from
the overall purpose of the business. People
in a functional group tend to identify with
each other more than they identify with
the purpose of the organization.
How can you divide the labor in your
organization to optimize for innovation
rather than efficiency? The answer is
to supplement divisional thinking with
another approach: popular thinking.
In a popular organization, you divide labor
into “businesses within the business,” each
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

of which can function as a complete service
in its own right. Since each pod functions as
a small business, its focus remains outside
the pod, on its customers. Those customers
might be inside or outside the organization
as a whole, but each pod delivers a
complete service. A popular approach
allows a large company to act as if it was a
flock or swarm of small companies; it gives
the whole a level of flexibility and adopts
that would never be possible in a divisional
organization. A popular organization is
a fractal organization: every pod is an
autonomous fractal unit that represents,
and can function on behalf of, the business
as a whole.
How is this possible?
Let’s look at four examples from four
different industries: A food processing
company, a retailer, a software company
and a conglomerate.
Morning Star’s self-organizing
marketplace.
Morning Star, a privately held company,
was started in 1970 as a one-truck owneroperator
hauling tomatoes. Today the
company is the world’s largest tomato
processor, with revenues of $700 million
a year.
At Morning Star, workers manage
themselves and report only to each
other. The company provides a system
and marketplace that allows workers to
coordinate their activities. Every worker
has suppliers and customers – and personal
relationships – to consider as they go about
their work.
Every employee writes a personal mission
statement that describes how they will
contribute to the company’s goal, and
is also responsible for the training,
resources and cooperation they need
to achieve it. Every employee also
creates a yearly Colleague Letter of
Understanding (CLOU), describing their
promises and expectations for the coming
year, negotiated in face-to-face meetings
with peers. All the agreements, taken
together, describe about 3,000 peer-to-peer
relationships that describe the activities of
the entire organization. Each Morning Star
business unit also negotiates agreements
with other units in a similar way.
Every two weeks, the company publishes
detailed reports of finances and other
measures, which are transparent and
available to everyone.
Business units are ranked by performance,
and those at the bottom of the list can
expect a tough conversation. At a yearly
planning meeting, business units present
their plans to the entire company and
workers invest using a virtual currency
which then informs the budgets for
the year. Workers elect compensation
committees who evaluate performance
and set pay levels based on performance.
Morning Star is a marketplace, where
every worker is a business within the
business. You can read more about
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 53

Morning Star on their website or in this
excellent HBR article by Gary Hamel, First,
Let’s Fire All the Managers.
The Nordstrom Way
Nordstrom is a publicly traded high-end
retailer, known for excellent service, with
revenues of about $9 billion a year.
Nordstrom’s employee handbook is so
short and simple it can fit on an index
card. It states:“
Use your best judgment in all situations.
There will be no other rules.”
Nordstrom salespeople are free to make
their own decisions, although Nordstrom’s
strong culture of putting the customer first
provides a guiding light for all to steer by.
That customer-service culture is at the
core of Nordstrom’s success. The entire
system is organized in order to support that
salesperson on the Nordstrom floor to help
them deliver the best possible customer
service. If Nordstrom stocks something,
they will make every effort to stick it in
every size available – they don’t want
to disappoint a customer by not having
something in their size.
Salespeople aren’t chained to a department
like they are in other stores. If a salesperson
wants to walk through the whole store to
help her customer pick out clothes, shoes,
cologne, and anything else, she can do that.
A Nordstrom salesperson might stay in
touch with customers by Twitter, email, or
whatever else is convenient. The message
to customers is: however you want to buy
it, however you want to interact with us;
we can do it that way.
“Nordstrom has the faith and trust in its
Frontline people to push decision-making
responsibilities down to the sales floor,
the Nordstrom shopping experience is
“as close to working with the owner of
a small business as a customer can get,”
said Harry Mullikin, chairman emeritus
of Westin Hotels. Nordstrom salespeople
“can make any decision that needs to be
made. It’s like dealing with a one-person
shop.” Of The Nordstrom Way: The Insider
Story of America’s #1 Customer Service
Companyby Robert Spector and Patrick
D. McCarthy.
Nordstrom culture demands that the
employee puts the customer before
the company or profit in all decisions.
Nordstrom provides a platform, the
store, and each employee is treated as an
entrepreneur who can set up a business
on the platform. With commissions,
Nordstrom salespeople can make six
figures yearly on a base wage as low as
$11 an hour. One worker stated:
“The way I saw it, the Nordstroms were
taking all of the risks and providing all
of the ingredients-the nice stores, the
ambiance, the high-quality merchandise-to
make it work. All I had to do was arrive
every morning prepared to give an honest
day’s work, and to value and honor the
customer.”
Nordstrom employees can offer the best
service in the industry because every
Nordstrom salesperson operates a business
within the business, backed by the full
support and resources of a Fortune 500
company.
Self-organizing teams at Rational
Software.
Rational software was founded in 1981
to provide tools for software engineers.
The rational was acquired by IBM for $2.1
billion in 2003.
The rational’s goal was very transparent
to everyone in the company: “Make
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

customers successful.” Customers were
served by small, autonomous pods known
as field teams. Each field team operated
as a fully functional, stand-alone unit,
with technical and business experts
working closely together. The same team
who sold a product or project was also
responsible for delivering it. The resources
were distributed to teams based on their
performance.
The cross-functional teams at Rational
were a great way to build entrepreneurial
skills within the company, because every
team member understood every aspect
of the business. Team members worked
closely together and learned from each
other constantly. As the company grew,
many technologists grew into new
careers in sales, fielding their own teams
in new territories. Many went on to start
companies of their own.
Rational management focused on
managing the teams as if they were a
portfolio of companies. Teams were
evaluated on five things: First and
foremost, customer success: Did the team
help customers succeed in achieving
their goals? Revenue: Did the team
make or beat its revenue targets? Team
development: Was the team optimizing for
the career growth of each team member as
well as the team? Territory growth: Was
the team growing in reach as well as
revenue? Business Basics: Did the team
plays well with other teams? Did they
spend money as if it was their own?
Top-down intervention in team dynamics
has been rarely necessary. When a team
member wasn’t performing, the greatest
pressure for improvement came from
the team itself. “When I was a district
manager I had 25 direct reports, but I rarely
intervened. The teams basically managed
themselves” says Kernan.
Teams made their own hiring decisions,
and hired outside consultants or traded
resources with other teams when necessary.
“You had to be careful when you brought
on a new member,” says Ray LaDriere, who
worked in one of the rational sales pods.
“If you hired someone and they didn’t pull
their weight, the deal was that we had to
carry them for a full year.” Since one poor
performer could hurt the performance of
the whole team, people were very careful
with their hiring decisions.
“It was an amazing experience for 17 years,
and I would be surprised if you found
anyone who worked at Rational for any
significant period of time that didn’t feel
the same way” says Kernan. “Our goal was
to change the world by changing the way
people design, build, and deploy software
and we did it.
Democratic management at Semco
Semco is a Brazilian conglomerate that
specializes in complex technologies and
services like manufacturing liquids,
powders and pastes for a variety of
industries; refrigeration; logistics, and
information processing systems; real
estate, inventory and asset management;
and biofuels. Semco’s revenues are around
$200 million a year.
Semco is a self-managed company. There
is no HR department. Workers at Semco
choose what they do as well as where
and when they do it. They even choose
their own salaries. Subordinates review
their supervisors and elect corporate
leadership. They also initiate moves into
new businesses and out of old ones. The
company is run like a democracy.
Says CEO Ricardo Semler: “I’m often
asked: How do you control a system like
this? Answer: I don’t. Let the system work
for itself.”
Semco is organized around the belief
that employees who can participate in
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 55

a company’s important decision will
be more motivated and make better
choices than people receiving orders from
bosses. Workers in each business unit
are represented by an elected committee
that meets with top managers regularly
to discuss any and all workplace issues,
and on important decisions, such as plant
relocations, every employee gets a vote.
Semler says simply, “If you want people
to act like adults you need to treat them
like adults.”
One of the principles underlying SEMCO’s
success is the idea that every business
should be small enough that each worker
can comprehend it as a whole system. If a
business grows to more than 150 people,
SEMCO will split it into two.
Another principle is transparency and
trust.
“The only source of power in an organization
is information, and withholding, filtering,
or retaining information only serves those
who want to accumulate power through
hoarding,” says Semler.
Once a month Semco holds open meetings
for the employees of each unit, where all
the numbers in the business are presented
for open examination and debate. The
company also offers courses to help
employees better understand financial
reports such as balance sheets, Profit-andloss
reports, and cash flow statements.
Nearly a quarter of Semco’s profits go
to employees, but the company doesn’t
decide how to distribute it. Each quarter,
the profit contribution of each unit is
calculated, and 23% of profits going to
that unit employees, who can distribute
it however they wish. So far, they have
always decided to distribute that money
evenly to everyone.
Employees who are particularly confident
can choose to put up to 25% of their pay “at
risk.” If the company does well, they get a
bonus raising their compensation to 150%
of normal; if the company does poorly, they
are stuck with 75% of their pay.
Does it work? Semco has grown from $4
million in 1980 to more than $200 million
today.
Can your company go podular?
Although each company has done it
differently, Morning Star, Nordstrom,
Rational and Semco have all found success
by organizing along podular lines. This
kind of design won’t make sense for
every situation, or for every division.
But no company can afford to ignore its
innovation efforts. To ensure its long-term
viability, every company needs to find
a balance between their efficiency and
innovation efforts.
The podular organization may be unusual,
but it’s not a theory. It’s a fact. It can work
in retail, it can work in manufacturing, it
can work in technology, and it can work
for a conglomerate. It can work for private
as well as publicly-traded companies. It
can work for a Fortune 500 company. Can
it work for you? You can only find out if
you’re willing to give it a chance.
You might start by reorganizing a single
unit, like an innovation unit, a single store
or location, or an R&D group. Look inside
any R&D department or fast-growing web
services company and you are likely to see
a form of organization that’s more popular
than hierarchical.
Podular organizations need to do a few
things in radically different ways: First,
they require information to be transparent
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

and readable by everyone; second, they
require principles, platforms and culture
to guide individual decisions and give
cohesion to the company as a whole; third,
they require people who are not territorial,
who are capable of open discussion and
who will hold themselves and others
accountable; and fourth; they require
owners and managers who are capable of
trusting people and teams to make good
decisions and manage their “business
within the business.”
When you give people a business within
your business, you are aligning their
incentives with owners and management.
Everyone is a business owner, and
everyone is a manager. The rewards are
real and tangible, short-term and long-term
benefits are in balance, and workers are
rewarded when they are good stewards
of the business.
If you want to unleash innovation, get
closer to customers, manage complexity,
and pods are worth a look.
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 57

What If Ideas Mattered?
Bill Fischer
About the Author
Bill Fischer is a Professor of Innovation Management at IMD. He
also authors a regular column for Forbes.com entitled “The Ideas
Business”. He was the President of the China Europe International
Business School, in Shanghai (1997-1999).
His most recent books include: Reinventing Giants (2013), The
Idea Hunter (2011) and Virtuoso Teams (2005).
Ideas should matter! At least that’s part
of the premise of life in the 21st century.
Especially in a time of “big data”, we
believe, or at least espouse, that knowing
things has become more important than
making them. Li & Fung, the world’s
largest player in the apparel industry owns
virtually no producing assets. What it
knows – about manufacturing quality and
capacity, about supply chains and design
– has been, at least until now, sufficient
to allow it to sustain its leadership in an
industry where, formerly, manufacturing
assets were by far the key competency for
any firm.
In fact, we live in a time that should be
a “perfect storm” for idea-work: we are
in the midst of an unprecedented period
of innovation, Creation and proliferation;
where we are the beneficiaries of a treasurebox
of products and services that are the
result of great ideas. At the same time,
many of the geographic and cultural
barriers that for so long frustrated ideaflow
has been overcome, and more than
40% of the world’s population [in the
four original BRIC nations] is finally
entering/reentering the world economy as
consumers, as well as producers. Finally,
we live in an era where we urgently need
more ideas to deal with global problems,
such as climate change, wealth disparities,
energy, water and food shortages, an end
to permanent war; where the potential of
human intelligence offers us our best hopes
for the survival of the species, if not the
planet. This would appear, on the face of it,
to be a marriage made in heaven: the need
for good, new ideas plus the capabilities
to create, find and deliver them! Yet, if we
look at the world around us, it seems selfevident
there is a disconnect between such
hopes and the realities of what is actually
happening. Perhaps, ideas don’t matter all
that much, after all?
If we follow the long-held Chinese
admonition to learn truth from facts, then
the “facts,” as I see them through many
experiences with well-known companies,
suggest that once you get past the corporate
rhetoric, in the large majority of cases, ideas
don’t matter to the degree that we might
think. They are not universally welcomed
in modern, complex organizations, nor are
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those who routinely introduce new ideas
into these same organizations likely to be
celebrated for their contributions. Consider,
if you will, that in the age of “big data,”
there are relatively few organizations
who effectively know enough about their
customers to rely upon knowledge as a part
of their value proposition; you can see it
in your own experiences as a consumer.
Somehow, we are failing to appreciate the
opportunities inherent in knowing things,
and consequently run the risk of missing
out on innovating new business models
that put knowledge and ideas at the very
center of their value propositions. All of
this raises a series of questions that are as
troubling as they are profound:
1. What if ideas really did matter in our
organization?
l How would our value-proposition
change?
l Would we work together differently?
l Is our present organizational
metaphor [most likely “command
& control”] appropriately or do we
need a new one?
l Are there organizations currently
doing this today?
2. What would an organization employing
“the brain and organism” as a guiding
metaphor look like?
l Would we hire the same people and
organize them in the same way?
l How would my job differ?
l What would it feel like to work here?
3. What is frustrating our moving to ideawork
as the basic building block of a
knowledge economy?
4. How does “leadership” work in such
situations?
What if ideas really did matter in our
organization?
For the past 250 or so years, since the
onset of the Industrial Revolution, the
scale has counted for more than smart
in the behaviors, strategies and designs
of complex organizations. Perhaps this
is naturally attributable to the rise of an
economic middle-class and the lessons of
mass production in the pursuit of economies
of scale, but increasingly I also sense that
it is partly the outcome of commonlyheld,
but out-of-date stereotypes that
characterize customers as simple (rather
than complex), unsophisticated, and
preferring price over all other product or
service attributes. With such beliefs, new
ideas are regarded as more of an irritant
than opportunity, even when they suggest
better ways of working and more efficient
processes. Not surprisingly, the dominant
metaphor around which organizations
were constructed became, and remain,
the command and control model that
is so typically represented in our tables
of organization, or in Gareth Morgan’s
“machine” or “political” metaphors 1 .
Ironically, our own work on Virtuoso
Teams 2 found that great innovative teams
regarded their customers in just the
opposite fashion: complex, sophisticated
and discriminating; in short, much more
interesting than the traditional industry
stereotype! Such a natural inclination
could never flourish in a controlled or
oppressive organizational model, and so
a new model would have to be adopted.
Gareth Morgan’s work suggests some
combination of “the organism,” where
“different organizational elements [are
allowed] degrees of freedom in which
to find their own mode of integration,” 3
and “the brain,” where ideas would be
valued, and learning would be the ultimate
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 59

organizing objective, as metaphors that
might be chosen to guide organizational
design. In fact, Lars Kolind’s efforts to
reinvent the Danish hearing aid producer,
Oticon, were interpreted by many as
being very much in the spirit of brain and
organism metaphors in its design 4 , albeit
in a fairly small, but industry-leading
organization.
Oticon is representative of a small set of
organizational experiments, including ABB
and Morning Star 5 , where employed talent
is unleashed through the authorization
of self-organizing groups that take
responsibility for creating new ideas and
then executing on them. The extreme
flexibility that is inherent in such an
approach means that such organizations
will have to adjust to varying-enlargement,
rather than the variance-reduction that
characterized the industrial revolution’s
devotion to mass production, and that,
as a result, project-based organizations
will prevail, where the typical worker
will be relied upon more for ideas than
in traditional organizing models. The real
question, of course, is just how much is this
encouragement of new ideas translated into
the value proposition of the organization?
In our recent work on the Chinese whitegoods
global leader, Haier, we found that
creating new value-propositions to agree
with changing organizational contexts,
demands the complimentary reinvention
of organizational cultures to support these
value-proposition changes 6 . Without the
synchronized changes in both business
models and organizational culture, it is
doubtful that successful and sustainable
change can be maintained.
What would an organization employing
“the brain and organism” as a guiding
metaphor look like?
We also live in a time of profound social
and technical revolution occurring in the
lives of our value-chain partners. Take the
role of social media, for example, and its
reliance upon openness and sharing that
characterize so much of our social media
behavior, not to mention the accelerated
clock speeds that are associated with
living in an internet age, is it not foolhardy
to design and conduct organizations as
if they are untouched by such trends?
This was exactly the argument raised by
former Nestlé CEO Peter Brabeck, when
he looked upstream and downstream in
their value-chain and saw a consolidation
of suppliers and customers that threatened
to shift the balance of value-chain partner
from a geographically fragmented Nestlé
to its more coherent partners, and which
ultimately led to the initiation of the
Globe project at Nestle 7 . Similarly, it was
a concern about customers living in an
internet world that led Zhang Ruimin
to decide it was time for the reinvention
of Haier’s organizational culture 8 -- if
consumers were used to instant responses
in a networked world, how could Haier
remain as a scale-seeking fortress?
The real impact of such changes has to
do with an increased reliance upon the
employees as the source of initiative and
change, and a profound shift in the role
of middle managers from decision-makers
to supporters (as a transition role), and
ultimately disappear as a leadership
role. In such an eventuality, it becomes
necessary not only to license individual
autonomy, but also to prepare the large
majority of the workforce to regard
themselves as “knowledge professionals”,
if not Idea Hunters. 9 Since such skills are
typically not taught in formal education
processes, there is a need to develop such
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

competencies as part of the organizational
reinvention. Furthermore, this new role is
not without its own challenges, and while
many employees will feel liberated with
such freedoms, others will be intimidated
by the new responsibilities that go along
with them. Addressing such challenges
may become the future of the HR function,
as it shifts from administration to the
remapping of conversational flows and
decision-making within an organizational
format.
What is frustrating our moving to ideawork
as the basic building block of a
knowledge economy?
Being smarter is not necessarily easy,
however. Many impediments arise to
frustrate it. What if your value proposition
was explicitly built around knowing more
than your competitors and then delivering
on that knowledge? What if you hired
really smart people and then actually
allowed them to be smart? What if you
no longer made or served anything, other
than knowledge? Could you actually do
this right now? What would your business
model look like? How would a manager’s
role change? Such questions threaten to
overwhelm the average manager and
invite a complete rethinking not only of
the organization, but also of his or her
role and position. In fact, when Haier
CEO Zhang Ruimin overturned his
organizational pyramid, in an effort to
remove any distance to the customer, he
was faced with fundamental questions
about the value of middle-management, 10
and it is just such fears that have proven
to be the primary source of resistance to
organizational reinvention. 11
Organizational fear is insidious, yet
widespread. If there has been any surprise
in my professional view of the world
over the past few years, it has been about
how ubiquitous organizational fear truly
is, especially in difficult economic times.
Overcoming fear is a necessary prerequisite
for liberating the soul and dreams of both
management and workers, and this is all
necessary to move into the future.
How does “leadership” work in such
situations?
The key to all of this, of course, is strong, topdown,
self-confident leadership. Without
ambitious, visionary, unreasonable and
decisive decision-making in the pursuit of
organizational reinvention, none of this will
be able to occur. It is not surprising to find
that every aspect of an organization’s culture
needs to be changed, and simultaneously, if
such daring visions are to be realized in a
coherent and effective manner. Only leaders
can do this in an effort to unleash all of an
organization’s talent.
Five Ideas That Can Be Tried Out
1. Prototype a business model for your
organization that is asset-light and ideacentric.
You can do this by employing
Osterwalder and Pigneur’s Business
Model Canvas approach 12 , and
prototype different business models.
2. Compare and contrast organizational designs
and job descriptions for your organization
that are based on the present metaphor
that guides your organization [probably
either machine or politics] and one that is
based on a combination of organism and
brain. Here, I would rely upon Gareth
Morgan’s Images of Organization,
and try different metaphors to suggest
various organizational prototypes.
3. Be an Idea Hunter: work with the
Venn diagram approach on this link 13 to
April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal 61

understand what sort of ideas you and your
team need to hunt, and then hunt for them.
4. Map the idea-flows that currently
characterize your organization. What do
they look like? How effective are they?
Then, engineer these flows to move more
and more different ideas, faster through the
organization. What would have to change
to make this permanent?
5. Identify the sources of fear within your
organization and suggest how and where
you can alleviate these corrosive features.
Finally, in the spirit that more ideas are
always better than fewer, let me add a sixth:
6. What would leadership requirements at
your organization look like if the job of the
leader was to facilitate better idea flow,
rather than controlling results?
1 Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization, Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE Publications, 1986.
2. Andy Boynton & Bill Fischer, Virtuoso Teams, London: FT/Prentice Hall, 2005.
3 Morgan, ibid., p. 78.
4 Lars Kolind, The Second Cycle, Upper Saddle River, NY, Wharton, 2006.
5. Gary Hamel, “First, Let’s Fire All the Managers,” Harvard Business Review, December 2011.
6 Bill Fischer, Umberto Lago and Fang Liu, Reinventing Giants, San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2013.
7 Charles H. Fine, Clockspeed, New York: Basic Books, 1999.
8 Peter Killing, Nestlé’s Globe Program (A): The Early Months, IMD case-3-1334, 2003.
9 Reinventing Giants, ibid
10 Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer (with Bill Bole), The Idea Hunter, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011.
11. Reinventing Giants, ibid.
12 Pekka A. Viljakainen and Mark Mueller-Eberstein, et. al., No Fear, London: Marshall Cavendish, 2011.
13 Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, Business Model Generation, New York: Wiley, 2010.
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April | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

ABOUT THE JOURNAL
The National HRD Network publishes a semi-academic quarterly journal where in each issue is
dedicated to a theme.
The journal publishes primarily three categories of articles :
• Conceptual and research based
• Contributions from thought leaders including a limited number of reprints with due permission
• Organizational experiences in HR interventions/mechanisms.
About this issue :
Publications so far include on themes of apparent relevance to HR fraternity like: Performance
Management, Coaching, Employee Relations etc., while the theme for the current issue on
“Technology and HR” is chosen as technology is increasingly playing a vital role.
This theme is aimed to stimulate our thinking about the advancement technology has made in
further enhancing the role of HR profession.
In the editorial note and the articles, these thought leaders challenge us and raise interesting
possibilities.
Editorial Board Members :
Dr. P.V.R. Murthy, Managing Editor is a product of I.I.T., Kharagpur and IIM, Calcutta with close
to thirty years experience in H.R. field. He founded and runs an executive search firm Exclusive
Search Recruitment Consultants. He is associated with a number of academic institutions. He is
trained in TQM in Japan and in human processes from ISABS and NTL, U.S.A. He is the Past
National Secretary of National HRD Network.
Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay is Director - Human Resources Citrix R&D India PVT Ltd. A doctoral
fellow from XLRI and AHRD, he is trained in OD and Human Processes from NTL, USA and he
believes in applying HR concepts to practice to make it more meaningful and effective. He is a
mentor and coach to many young HR professionals.
Dr. Arvind N Agrawal - Dr. Arvind N. Agrawal, Ph.D. serves as the President and Chief Executive
of Corporate Development & Human Resources and Member of Management Board of RPG
Enterprises. Dr. Agrawal has worked at RPG Enterprises since 1999 and his current responsibilities
in RPG comprise of HR and TQM. Agrawal held senior positions in Escorts and Modi Xerox. He
was the past National President of the National HRD Network. Dr. Agrawal is an IIM Ahmedabad
alumnus and also an IIT Kharagpur alumini, and also holds a PhD from IIT Mumbai.
NHRD firmly believes in and respects IPR and we appeal to the
contributors and readers to strictly honour the same.
For any further clarifications, please contact :
The Managing Editor
Dr. P V R Murthy, CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants,
#8, Janaki Avenue, Off 4th Street, Abhiramapuram, Chennai 600 018.
pvrmurthy@exclusivesearch.com

National HRD Network
The National HRD Network, established in 1985, is an
association of professionals committed to promoting
the HRD movement in India and enhancing the
capability of human resource professionals, enabling
them to make an impactful contribution in enhancing
competitiveness and creating value for society. Towards
this end, the National HRD Network is committed to the
development of human resources through education,
training, research and experience sharing. The network
is managed by HR professionals in an honorary capacity,
stemming from their interest in contributing to the HR
profession.
The underlying philosophy of the NHRDN is that
every human being has the potential for remarkable
achievement. HRD is a process by which employees in
organizations are enabled to:
• acquire capabilities to perform various tasks
associated with their present and future roles;
• develop their inner potential for self and
organizational growth;
• develop an organizational culture where networking
relationships, teamwork and collaboration
among different units is strong, contributing to
organizational growth and individual well-being.
www.nationalhrd.org