That’s a nice assortment of pre-SHRM mail.

As someone who has been blessed to attend multiple of these annual extravaganzas of everything HR, I have gotten used to some of the mailings and the content they contain. Some vendors appear to use the same thing each year. For example, I can count on TalentSmart to have their shiny mailing envelope containing a mini flyer advertising the book Emotional Intelligence 2.0. It’s 50% off at their booth this year.

Each year also brings mail from institutions of higher education touting their Masters programs, law school, or even industry certifications like CEBS.  A new one for my noticing this year was from Houston Baptist University with their on-line Masters in Human Resource Management program.

One element that I have noticed before was a couple of exhibitors touting student loan debt management. I know this is a growing area of benefits that companies are exploring (adding to existing tuition reimbursement programs) as many of the new hires coming into companies have large amounts of debt. This, of course, could be another arrow in the quiver of talent acquisition in a challenging recruitment environment.

In this age of electronic communication and mass e-mails, some may think that sending a conference tease or booth invitation by “snail mail” may not be effective. I would argue differently. As our e-mail becomes overwhelmed with junk, spam, and other distractions, these pieces (when well designed) can prompt a look at something that an attendee hasn’t considered before. For me, this will be electronic document management. While we have one in place, I am hoping to see some upgraded capabilities. The folks at ColumbiaSoft will be first on my list as I peruse the exhibition for potential solutions. Why is that? Because their direct mail reached my office and caught my attention. While I LOVE e-mail, don’t discount the old fashioned method of marketing either.

My intent is not to answer any of life’s big questions (like who will win a battle between Batman and Superman) but to trigger some exploration and reflection. My plan is to post the question for all to see on Monday and provide my own response to it the following day. Even if this doesn’t trigger public discussion or disclosure, I hope that anyone reading this will think to themselves about how they might answer the question.

Look for the series to begin next week. Until then, stay warm and safe my friends!

It’s time to do some thinking and reflecting.

As a leader in an organization, it’s important that we regard change not as a mechanism for loss, but as an opportunity to grow and expand our horizons. Share examples from your own change events that demonstrate this. These stories can be powerful tools to show a little of yourself while emphasizing the ultimate outcome that has happened to date.

Ralph Waldo Emerson captured this sentiment beautifully when he said:

“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”

As we wrap this year please go ahead and add to your life through change!

Mr. Pink, as discussed in detail in his book, To Sell is Human, talked about that all of us are in sales and that selling ideas, as HR pros are often trying to do, is more difficult than the selling of things. Much like Hillary Clinton earlier in the conference, Pink talked about the importance of relationships. He also dispelled the popular notion that extroverts are the best sales people and that it is those who are “ambiverts” who tend to have the most success in selling. His messaging is consistent and builds upon his previous studies on motivation. I could not help but poke a little fun when he stated that to sell, we need to be ourselves. I jokingly asked on Twitter who else i could be. Someone suggested that George Clooney might be a nice choice!

Other day 3 highlights included an excellent presentation by Brad Karsh with a theme using the Hunger Games. His messaging targeted toward better relationships with the C-suite meshed well with the movie points he used to highlight real life examples. The stories told were designed to give concrete examples to the theories that many other presenters talk about without giving real world applications.

The Tuesday Masters Series presenter, Dan Heath, is a best selling author of several business books. His presentation, in the Lakeside Theater at McCormick, was the most heavily attended session outside a general session that I attended. Watching Dan, it was obvious that he knew his material well and that the information shared in the books was well researched. One element that really resonated with me was finding a way to more closely examine the decision making process. One hint that the process has not been fully vetted is hearing the phrase “whether or not” when examining options. I liked his suggestion that we “should fall in love twice” or looking at things as if there were “vanishing options” among the ones being considered.

The social component of the conference also continued on Tuesday evening and these events, like the ones from the previous nights, will be covered in a later post!

Performing some self-reflection on this, I know that I love new things and that connecting with people is important (for those who are familiar with StandOut by Marcus Buckingham, I am a Pioneer/Connector) for me to be at my best.  Being able to do so while seeing what is possible with the continued evolution of technology and human resources is a great thing.

In the 2 weeks since the show, the emphasis on technology has lessened while the people around the technology have grown in importance.  Some of the vendors have reached out and connected with me personally, noting specifics of our conversation and my interest (even if it was minor!) in the products and services they offer.  Others have sent me a standard e-mail and made no real effort to connect with me.  Really, it’s quite easy to find me and I am happy to speak with someone if they have a real reason to connect.  The best technology will not help if the people associated with it are also not the best.

People must touch technology for it to be effective

This lesson is of course not limited to technology companies.  No matter how great the product or service offered by a company is, the bottom line still comes down to the people in the company.  For that reason, it will always be easier to convince me that an organization’s people are a better investment than the newest technology.  If technology can help me maximize the human capital, then a great partnership is possible.