Is technology killing social capital?

Joe,

I have found myself recently chatting with several people who seem to be making the argument that social networks, text/instant messaging, and the internet in general are diminishing the relationships between people. To be fair, the people making the argument are generally Gen X or older and are people who pride themselves in networking the old-fashioned way, face to face and eyeball to eyeball. So, they could just be resisting change or maybe they are on to something.

While I think it's very short-sighted to suggest that technology is ruining relationships, I do think it's an interesting topic to consider how it is changing the relationships and connectedness between people. So, I'd like to propose that we discuss this issue in our next several posts. Here are some of the questions that I'm interested in discussing:

• How has the advent of social networks, email, and texting changed the way we connect and interact with others?
• What are the differences between being connected and having a relationship?
• How is technology impacting the way children and young adults are connecting to one another and what is the long term impact of that?
• How does the difference between connection and relationship play into the creation of social capital?

Clearly, a major shift is underway in how we interact with one another. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on exactly what's going on and how we can both make sense of it and embrace it.

-Jason

Get out of your office.

Yo VIP lets kick it.

Jason-

In your last post you mention a lot of good stuff, and one of the things that caught my attention was that you touched on the importance of building internal relationships a couple of times, and I think that this is sometimes overlooked. How HR is viewed within the organization has a great deal to do with the nature of the relationship that HR has with the organization…as a function and as individuals.

I think that we can look to some ancient wisdom for guidance on this one.

The poet-philosopher Vanilla Ice encouraged us to “Stop. Collaborate and listen.” Powerful stuff. Powerful stuff indeed, and I do not claim to entirely understand what the prophet had in mind with this line, but it might be advice worth considering.

Part of what makes HR work hard is what everyone else thinks they know about HR.

The less the rest of the organization knows about you (as an individual and as a function) the more they are going to make up their own story, based on what they think they know about HR and the most recent episode of The Office.

I think that it is vitally important for HR professionals to be students of the organization, to be students of the people within the organization and to be always on the look out for an opportunity to add value.

Get out of your office. (now)

Ask questions and listen.

Know the business.

Know the people.

Find a way to add value.

Be in partnership.

We all want to rock the mic like a vandal…and the lack of internal relationships or the wrong kind of internal relationships can easily stand in our way.

Hey HR...got any friends?

Jason

I agree with your post and think this is very relevant to the message we will be sharing with the ND SHRM Conference on Thursday…especially your comments on the importance of relationships.

I cannot emphasize the importance of relationships enough, and not the cheesy, shmoozy, “I want everyone to like me” kind of relationships, but real relationships; with some trust and some candor and some common ground. I think that one of the key challenges facing HR professionals is the nature of their relationships with those outside of HR.

HR professionals and HR teams need to become part of the business, and in too many organizations they are something apart from the business. They are the “touchy-feely” people, or the compliance cops, and not a part of the everyday business of the business. I think that this disconnect is as much about personal relationships as it is about organizational charts or seating arrangements.

HR needs to become more relational in nature. Screw the tired lamentations (that is my fancy word for the day) about how to get the “seat at the table” and becoming more “strategic” and invest aggressively in building your social capital. Meet people. Ask good questions. Listen. Really listen. Take notes. Follow-up with people. Stay in touch. Find ways to help. Find more ways to help. Repeat. Forever.

None of this is about being popular. All of this is about being valuable. If you are an HR professional or leader, go meet people.

-joe

Coffee's for Closers (HR as Sales Professional)

Joe,

As we prepare to invade the North Dakota State SHRM Conference this week, I thought maybe I'd share some of my philosophy regarding why I think all Human Resources professionals should think of themselves as being in sales.

People are often surprised to find that while I now spend my days leading an HR department for an organization of about 800 employees, I have no formal education in Human Resources. As you know, my career started with a job selling copiers in small town rural America. I literally spent my days walking up and down main street of small towns, making cold calls hoping to find someone who might give me a few minutes to talk about copiers or fax machines. I ultimately found my way to HR by way of executive recruitment (another sales job that happens to do with connecting people and jobs). So, when I finally landed as a professional in HR, I viewed it through a sales perspective. Fortunately for me, I think this perspective has played a major role in my success in HR. Here's a few of my thoughts on why.

Sales is about relationships. Sales people spend a lot of time trying to connect to people and get to know them. We were trained in sales to build and leverage relationships to help us make sales. It's easier to buy from someone you know. In HR, most of the really important work we do involves convincing leaders and employees to do something different than what they have in the past, to buy a new way of doing things. We want them to adopt a new performance appraisal or participate in a new wellness program. Whether or not the "buy" into this new program has a lot to do with their relationship with HR. Do they know you? Do they trust you? If the answer to both questions is yes, your new program has a significantly higher probability of success.

Sales is strategic. Sales people know that in order to make a big sale, several people have to say yes and only one person has to say no to stop it. If the sale is big enough, people from several departments and levels of responsibility will have to sign off on it. A sales professional knows this and maps out this process in advance. The sales pro knows who has to say yes, who has the power to say no, and what each person will want to know to make the "buy" decision. HR is no different. Let's use a new HR software purchase as an example. To make the purchase, you may need the approval of your head of HR (if that's not you), the CFO, the IT department, purchasing, legal, etc. A savvy HR pro will lay all of these approvals out on paper and outline what each approver is likely to be looking for. If this HR pro is really good, she probably has established relationships with each of the approvers so she can go to them early in the process to find out what questions each might have. By knowing ahead of time who needs what information to say yes, it's much more likely to get the approval when it's crunch time.

The list goes on. These are two of the biggest reasons I've found how HR pros with sales skills get ahead. You started off in sales like I did, have you found the same to be true?

Jason