Harnessing Collective Intellect: The Power of Community in HR
The field of HR can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. This is what happens when you can leverage community to help you overcome challenges at work.
Written by: Kimiko Mainprize and Noah Warder
I joined the Amplify community in the summer of 2021. I was part of the Amplify Accelator’s Bravo cohort, freshly in a new “VP, People & Culture” role at a small but mighty learning & development company. I was looking for a way to immerse myself quickly into a network of experienced peers who could help bolster my confidence and help guide my way as I entered the People space, after focusing on Operations and Delivery for the last few years.
As soon as I started into the Amplify Accelerator course, and met with peers at organizations of all sizes, I was instantly at peace knowing I had found a community of ambitious, smart, and creative people practitioners who were more than happy to share and learn from each other.
Want to know the best part? The real cherry on top of this program (aside from being exposed and introduced to incredible thought leaders and a modern way of thinking about People). It’s the access to our Amplify Slack Community where we can collaborate and connect in real time. If I’m facing a problem in the moment I know I can post my challenge and someone will reply within a day to share their insights on what to try or avoid, or offer to connect if we need to go deeper.
Since late last fall, we’ve even been meeting virtually to further our community discussions, often hosted by one of our very own Community Catalysts, Noah Warder, on timely issues that come directly from our members - from navigating turbulence to setting executive expectations to managing performance.
We’ve hosted about four in the last few months, and today we wanted to share just a glimpse into the “wisdom in the room” that we all have access to as part of this community, in case you needed another reason to join us.
We all share Lars’ passion for open-source, so we’ll continue to write up recaps of these community conversations and share some of the collective intellect wisdom externally in case it’s helpful to other practitioners.
So without further adieu, you can check out some of the key questions and insights from our last few virtual meet-ups.
Managing Performance and Setting Manager Expectations
How do you get executive teams to model a culture of feedback and how do you get executives to give feedback to each other?
Community Wisdom:
Make the business case to executives on why feedback is important to help with modeling to the rest of the organization and to create buy-in.
Dangling carrots, or rewards, can be much more effective than consequences. Consider how the rewards could help drive the creation of a feedback oriented culture and the positive impact that could have on the business.
Don’t forget to have the wider team weigh in to lean into this culture: what do employees at other levels have to say about the executive team?
And stay curious on why this isn’t working: is it a skill or will issue?
Setting Expectations with Your Executive Team:
As the HR lead, how do you get the buy-in and resources you need to really make an impact in your role?
Community Wisdom:
Practical tip: try to set your budget after other departments have been finalized to help account for headcount projections.
Lay out what X amount of resources can do in a given scenario, but also share what Y amount of resources could unlock, or what tradeoffs might occur (i.e. losing great people if a program couldn’t be implemented).
Find your allies in the organization who can have your back and help advocate for what you need to really make a difference.
Workforce and Succession Planning:
Workforce planning is challenging for fast-paced organizations, how can you prepare a roadmap for the future?
Community Wisdom:
First things first: get alignment on what workforce planning actually means in your organization. From there, set goals and expectations on what succession planning should look like and why it's important.
Work with individual departments to help identify the skill gaps, and areas of growth for their teams.
And as the HR leader, make sure you partner with Finance on the benchmarks and goals, while also taking the reins on the headcount budget.
Consider mapping out company goals using an OKR process (Objectives and Key Results) to help kick off specific scenarios of succession and growth planning against company strategy.
Executive Buy-in Roundtable:
How can you hit the ground running as the new CHRO or HR lead at a growing organization?
Community Wisdom:
Think about how you are building relationships with the other execs on the team. Do you know their communication style, how they like feedback, or how they like their information?
To support project buy-in, try presenting your ideal scenario, and then possible trade-offs if the ideal can’t be executed. One member suggested being creative and looking for different ways to bridge the gap between the ideal and what the founder/other execs want. And make sure you are always mapping it back to the company values and strategy.
Sometimes working with new founders requires extra empathy, compassion, and patience. Find another place to vent (like other HR people) when the going gets tough.
As People practitioners, we are all struggling and facing similar challenges in our roles regardless of industry or company size. But, the community and connections in the Amplify community help bring us together to share stories, ideas, and solutions so each of us can find the support and camaraderie we so often lack in our own organizations.
Want to learn more about the community including other perks, reviews, exclusive content, how to join, and more? Check out the Community page on the Amplify website.
