VBI - Vexing Bradford Issue or Velour Based Innovation...we have lift off...

So, Cris Beswick and I launched VBI today - and after only 6 or 7 people sat down (3 of which we knew)...we were a little unsure how it would go.  Well, by 1.59 we had a little posse of clearly passionate HR people, sat conversing with us, coming up with key issues and creating some little solutionettes (like solutions only smaller).

We had a range of topical interest areas ranging from the ills of performance management getting in the way of people being exceptional; HR's role in recruiting the brightest and more edgy people to their business; and referencing Ram Charan's philosophies from earlier in the day.

And then we had the Bradford Question.  How can a small but perfectly exciting organisation attract people who have a Leeds or Manchester transpennine bias and ignore poor Bradford.  And then we had some thoughts...we had a solution from the floor, we had some supporting comments and some hope that maybe, just maybe the Bradford Question could get solved...I hope so - we're with you Bradford - all the way..!

We had a lovely provocative statement about ripping up agendas in meeting so that we in HR CAN talk about the excpetional people we're interested in; we had challenges about untapping innovation in people - despite the fact that therer core role may necessarily lend itself to a creative slant; and we had the frustrations with the culture of the organisation being something that stifled creativity and exceptional behaviours where risk aversion and slapping wrists when something edgy didn't quite work out (Cris's word - juvendiceed)

We WANT to support people who stand out and have a desire to be exceptional - but we recognise the "business" may not want this.  Anyway, there's no such thing as a failure - just an outcome you didn't expect.

So what do I think people took away from the hour spent near our splendid red couch..?

Well I think we shared our frustrations about the things that we find get in the way of outstanding people doing exceptional things and driving an organisation to success after success; we didn't have all the solutions, but we now know that's a shared zone.

We learnt that pleasure and pain force change and that we - in HR - have a chance to play the "pleasure enabler" and help people discover how much they love their job.  And we can be the "pain administrator" for those who hate it and need to move on.

We learned that recruiting to competencies is a poor predictor of success and we should be relying more on our instinctive talent magnetism - we can feel the magnetic pull of talented people.

We learned that in amongst inspirational leaders there are inspirational people who don't lead, they are though splended in the art of passionate; clever; creative application.

We learned that many organisations have people who are mediocre yet they think they are exceptional and performance management does nothing to help remove that delusion of grandeur.

We learned that people in HR have get a little more Judgement; Drive and Influence to get what is wanted. needed and deserved.  We really do want and need to step up the challenges that we know are there.

Are we passionate about what we do?  I would say so.  Do we have the capability to drive our agendas forward?  Largely and where not with intent we will have.  Can we answer our own Bradford question and attract talent to us so we become exceptional?  Hell yes, and we started that at #CIPD10.

A world's first - VBI - those in attendance were all part of something that really is Forward Planning: Forward Thinking; Forward Moving.  Thank you for sharing our enthusiasm for being exceptional.

Until tomorrow's session at 1pm in H65 ACE Interactive...out for now...

Perry