Welcome to Allegro HR

Welcome to 2017!

The beginning of 2017 is a start for something new in my life. It marks the official launch of my new HR consulting firm, Allegro HR.

During the last quarter of 2016, there was work put into the planning, launch, and building of this new business and now that 2017 has arrived, the curtains are being pulled back and the official start is underway.

As anyone starting their own venture has experienced, there are so many questions that remain unanswered.  However, I move forward with confidence and an incredible network of people supporting my efforts!

Allegro is poised to focus on organizational development, executive coaching, recruitment and selection, as well as speaking and presenting. My website is active at allegrohr.com and I anticipate starting a monthly podcast within the next couple of months too!

I would like to take this moment to thank the many people who have provided guidance to me. So many of my consulting friends have willingly shared advice with me and have been so supportive as I have moved forward with this venture. Thank you all for your brilliance, your time, and the sharing of so many of your hopes and dreams.

Remember, the term allegro in music means bright and lively. It is my belief that HR can be bright and lively as well!

When you were a child, what did you want to do and did it have any impact on what you ultimately became?

Starting early on, like many boys I had the fascination with being a firefighter (even riding on my rocking horse with my plastic fire hat on!) but soon found myself considering other things. For a while, in middle school, aeronautical engineering had some appeal. That ended as my math grades saw a decline during 8^th grade.

Entering high school, there was a wide open world ahead. Ultimately, my thoughts for post high school study became focused on biology (specifically marine biology) and that was my chosen field of study as an undergraduate. As I commonly say today, I have my undergraduate degrees in biology and environmental studies and haven’t used them a lick! I might be one of those that some pundits point to about judging the true value of a college degree. That is a post for another time.

Although I am now in the field of human resources (and have my MBA) I still love life science related things and find that there are often lessons from the biological world that can be applied to the art of HR and business.  A few include:

1. While there is great complexity in our world, some of the best things in both life and business are truly simple in their composition.
2. Relationships matter and can be symbiotic, antagonistic, or somewhere in between.
3. There are rules for everything, except when there are exceptions.
4. What we do not know often exceeds that which we do know.
5. Beauty takes many forms. Consider that both the warthog and a multi-sheet Excel document with pivot tables each have admirers.
6. Life cycles exist for living beings as well as organizations.

One of the papers I had to write during my MBA studies was focused on organizational structures. While many of my fellow students focused on mechanical aspects of hierarchy and control, my approach was different. Organizations are very much like life forms in how their systems operate and function. I would make the argument that we get better results when treating organizations less like machines, and more like living organisms.

That is the impact my early fascination has had on me!

The stage at #SHRM15

Hank Jackson, the CEO of SHRM, echoed this theme yesterday. He hit upon a few points during his extended opening remarks as the conference officially kicked off.

Citing the newly released edition of Harvard Business Review, Hank talked about the necessity of HR to lead their organizations and step into roles that define to other executives what is important for the organization’s people. One of the articles in the magazine by Peter Capelli says that “the HR team can show these executives what they should care about and why.” Often, HR pros can conquer the what, but struggle with the why. This must change!

There are many in HR who would prefer to say “it’s the law” or “that is company policy” rather than provide rationale for the reason decisions are made. To me, it’s important to be able to speak to the reason behind a decision – the why of the decision. This concept is captured by Simon Sinek in his book Start with Why. Capelli cites something similar in the article when he says “knowledge of practices is essential, but it’s more important to understand what works when and where.” While this may remind some of you of your elementary school writing lessons (are you answering the W questions?) this practice is still essential in today’s workplace. Workers of today, no matter their generation, are not predisposed to simply follow orders because someone says so. Frankly, if the why can’t be explained, perhaps the decision needs to be reexamined.

Go beyond the what and cover the why. After that, ensure the when and where are correct too. This will bring the ability to thrive to not only to the organization, but to you as well.

Let’s go!

I am typing this as I return from a glorious weekend in Maine. Well, glorious with the exception of the weather!! During this trip, I received the piece of paper that signifies that I’ve completed my MBA during graduation ceremonies at St Joseph’s College of Maine. It was fun to come East and celebrate the last 3 years of work. It was especially gratifying to meet in person some of my classmates that had been in some of the 14 classes that composed the programs. Putting faces with the names I’ve seen in my on-line classrooms was great and comparing our experiences with on-line learning reassured me that the decision to pursue my MBA through this program was the right one.

The ceremony also served as a reminder that there are accomplishments big and small to be celebrated. Some of the graduates yesterday were the first to go to college in their family. Others were receiving a third Master’s degree. All were there to celebrate and embrace learning. Every experience we have can lead to learning something new. Even the smallest piece of knowledge can impact you in ways that are not necessarily known in the moment. Go ahead, think back over your day and give some thought to some small nugget of information you hadn’t known or thought about before. Perhaps it will serve you well in the days ahead!

Well, as I get back in the flow of things here on RollerCoasterHR I hope to post more frequently. In the posts ahead you can look forward to subjects as diverse as real estate, the joys of little ones in flight, and the difficulty in saying goodbye!

A view at my newest alma mater!

I remember when I decided to seriously consider whether I should take the plunge there was still hesitation on whether I should do it or not.  So I forced my own hand and put the decision (partially) in the hands of others.

The push came from my decision to apply for a scholarship from the SHRM Foundation.  Although the scholarship was certainly not a large amount of money in the grand scheme of things it, to me, was the decision point over which I did not have the entirety of control.  If I got the scholarship, then I would start; if not, then perhaps the Master’s degree was not the way to go.  After all, everything happens for a reason!

Well, thanks to kind and generous recommendations from co-workers and fellow SHRM volunteers (and perhaps a little bit to my own testimonial) I did receive the scholarship which was then applied to my first class.  Three years and 14 classes later, it’s complete.

The process was a great one not because of the end result, but because of the new ideas discussed with classmates, the systematic way in which some of my business and leadership assumptions were challenged, and the exposure to methods and exercises that will benefit me for years to come.  As I recently told my wife, it’s not the degree or even the actual course work that is proving most valuable.  It’s the boundaries that have fallen in my own mind as I approach new situations and work with others to meet their HR and leadership challenges.

I’ve (almost) always been a very positive person in my approach to the world.  I still consider myself that way, but now enhanced with a healthy dose of knowing that learning always continues. Even though one part of the journey may be done, there can be no stopping as we must recognize the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity in the world.  This journey forward is successful by having factors like vision, understanding, clarity, and agility in your arsenal.  I’m thankful and fortunate to have great friends, colleagues, and mentors from whom I can continuously learn!

St. Joseph’s College of Maine – My newest alma mater (joining Indiana University)

My wife Susanne is truly my better half and I am fortunate that she not kicked me to the curb during our 15+ years of marriage.  Instead, she has found a great opportunity in her chosen field and we have decided to grab it.  We have discovered through the process of working with headhunters executive recruiters that her skill set and expertise is highly desired and certainly much more special than some HR mumbo jumbo that I could develop over time.  So, after 10 wonderful years living in Bloomington and enjoying all it has to offer, we are moving north to pursue her opportunity in Michigan.

As we start out on the road to Kalamazoo, there are going to be bumps along the way.  Those bumps are expected and certainly provide the chance to embrace what is important and to grow as new challenges await.  I am confident that my own future is wide open with possibilities.  I have exactly one week to go in my MBA program and cannot wait to put my skills to work in a new environment and engage in unforeseen challenges.  Although finding an organization to associate with on a full-time basis would be grand, I am equally intrigued at the possibility to start executive coaching on a regular basis and could certainly do that throughout the Midwest. Any referrals would certainly be welcomed!!

Feeling abundant, seeking to empower others, and demonstrating to my children what being good is about provides me with purpose and passion.  These resonate well with my core beliefs:

• Look for the best in everybody
• Take calculated risks
• Dream Big
• Make time for what matters
• Have fun

Although there will be many things to be missed about being in Bloomington, the memories I take, visits that will be made, and lifelong friends to be cherished are always an important part of what’s next!

There has been much introspection on my part lately. The end of my MBA studies is simultaneously exciting and daunting. In my attempts to decide “What’s Next” I have started talking to others about their own milestones and what, if anything, served as an “a-ha” moment in their own career and life progression.

What I have found is that there is rarely any one thing that acts as a trigger point and that it takes much time and even more interaction with others to help set events in motion. Learning about others and what makes them tick is one piece, but there is something more that has turned out to be even more informative. A quote by Carl Jung sums it up well:

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

It is possible to learn from the mistakes we make as well as the mistakes made by others. However, it is even more important to reflect inwardly when faced with a truth that does not fit with our own preconceived notion of being, especially when that truth lays elsewhere and can serve as warning to us as we push forward.

In my organization (and many others) there is a tendency to complain and ridicule the behavior of others. It’s not a big leap to begin the process of thinking through the reasons that a particular thing is a source of irritation. That process alone is a move forward to gaining a better understanding of ourselves and then to push these areas as opportunities for growth.

So, having accomplished the cleaning and organizing of the office and the home, I am now setting aside time to clean the mind.  Now, it’s not necessarily my dirty mind (well, ok…) that needs work, but as I approach a milestone birthday, the memory banks are filling up and I want to find ways to better use the mind power I have left for purposes that are good and noble (or at least fulfilling).  Since I love technology, I’m using tools like Evernote and Google Drive to record things that I might otherwise lose in a purge of the mental databank!  I remember well the days when I would have numerous phone numbers memorized so that I could call my friends.  Sadly, I know very few of my friend’s phone numbers anymore.  Now, it’s as easy as pulling the number up on a cell phone and hitting the green button.  While that’s good and quite convenient, part of me wonders if we are losing something valuable by cleaning out our minds of such information.  What say you, is this a positive trend or should we grasp onto keeping as much in our mind as possible?

• Enjoying IU basketball being among the nation’s elite programs (Go Hoosiers!)
• Celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the 1st date with a beautiful young woman who would become my wife!
• Watching my kids play their respective sports (volleyball and lacrosse)
• Finishing my MBA(!!!!!)
• Speaking at the Louisiana SHRM Conference (which will allow me get to see so many of my great HR/social media friends!)
• Getting to read lots of non-school related books again (recommendations?)
• Turning 40 (hey, it beats the alternative)
• Attending my first SHRM National Conference (in Chicago, which is one of my favorite places to go!)
• Being part of the team for HR Indiana (August 28-30^th)

And those are just the things I know about right now!  There will certainly be more highlights so bring on a great year!  Happy New Year to all of you and may you all feel as fortunate as I do.

My honest answer at this point is a definitive “I do not know.”

What’s next

In honor of this week’s SHRM Leadership Conference (which I am lucky enough to attend for the 5^th time as a volunteer leader on the Indiana State Council) there is an emphasis on the SHRM phrase “We Know Next” and the hopes I have that I can make it to the WE side of things.

Over the last three years, my journey toward the Master’s degree has been very much about adding to my knowledge through learning and new experiences that I cannot get through either my day job or through my many volunteer duties.  As a voracious consumer of information, the program has been a fabulous way to enhance my skills and learn about new ways to look at things and approach situations.  When paired with my undergraduate studies in science, the MBA curriculum has really pushed me to examine the world in a much more critical manner. Now, that critical thinking is being focused inward and I do not have a ready answer for that inevitable question “What’s next?”  To help figure it out I am laying out strengths and likes as I start to get input from people I know and trust.

• I know I like being in the middle of new things and change does not scare me.
• I view new tools and technology as fun and believe they are there to open possibilities
• I certainly fall in the “glass is half-full” category and believe that people are inherently good
• I like connecting people to each other and new information

Even though I do not have the answers, I am confident that it will evolve and I also have faith that everything happens for a reason.  After all, just being here is a miracle on multiple levels!