Me, the CIPD & HR’s true raison d’être!

After three days back in my hometown of Manchester last week speaking at this year’s CIPD conference I return elated at the thought of HR practitioners having a route to the top table of their companies. I refrain from phrasing the above ‘finally having a route’ as my perspective and area of expertise is but one of many. However my thoughts on innovation and how businesses can change from “Good to Great” in the words of Jim Collins (who incidentally was the keynote speaker at the conference) by using it as a catalyst for everyone thinking differently about what they do and how they do it seem to provoke the right thoughts with the CIPD audience who attended the ‘Building Innovation Capability’ workshop.

A strategic, business approach to the use of ‘innovation’ as opposed to the popular misconception that ‘innovation’ is about being creative or just about the development of new products and/or services or indeed resides in the sole domain of the design or R&D department.

As a keen user of analogies, my perspective and my keynotes are less concerned with helping companies create the next iPhone but more about helping them become the next Apple!

With fellow speaker Ian Plover our task was set some months ago by the CIPD to help them communicate the truth about innovation and how their membership, HR practitioners, could use it to drive their value and contribution to their respective companies in order to gain that illusive seat at the top table.

As a thought leader on business innovation the road ahead for me was instantly clear. It was less about getting HR to focus on being innovative themselves and more about how HR could use the values and environment that sustainable innovation requires in order for their people to embrace doing things and contributing differently. Innovation should be seen as a destination and the journey towards it gives change and different thinking a sense of purpose. It helps embed the desire to move away from the well trodden path with a sense of engagement and purpose or vision into a company/organisation and its then that ‘it’ (innovation) stands a chance of becoming sustainable because the capacity and desire for it has been increased.

After Jackie Orme’s outline in her opening keynote suggesting that HR needs both specialists and generalists, and that it is a profession made up of people “who see themselves as business people” my thoughts are clear. If HR can create the momentum within a company then it gives the individual people it works with traction to grow and vice versa. At the same time if HR uses that momentum and creates a HR strategy that is aligned to the core business strategy it will by default cement its value as a true strategic partner helping deliver the business objectives through the value, engagement and contribution of its people which is surely its true raison d’être!

If you and your business want to understand the value of innovation and how it can be used as more than just the latest buzz word de jour but as a catalyst for making your company/organisation not just good but great contact myself Cris Beswick, or Ian Plover for an initial chat.

Email Cris on cris@letsthinkbeyond.com

Email Ian on ip@businessofchange.com