Barrier:
The Department of "No!"

By John D Chovan - Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner at Grant Medical Center / OhioHealth

December 1, 2010 at 5:29pm

human resources

human capitol

Moonshots

Increase trust, reduce fear

Enable communities of passion

Transcend traditional management trade-offs

Summary

Human resources departments are a major barrier to getting the right people on the bus, motivating people, helping people grow into their natural talents, and getting things done.

Description

Human resources professionals are trained as gatekeepers and not facilitators. When an employee or manager wants to try something new and innovative that involves an issue that is under the control of the human resources department, the first answer that comes back is often, "No, that has never been done before. We cannot set a precedent." When challenged, the human resources department will frequently accuse the creative person of "digging in your heels" and "not being a team player." This is antithetical to creativity, motivation, and supporting the passion of the people doing the work.

Human resources departments block creativity, stifle independence, and thwart passion. They are a major barrier to innovation and must be re-engineered.

Illustration

I am passionate about my work and I work at the highest level possible in my profession. As such, I pursued a doctorate while working full time. Part of my doctoral work was to immerse myself in a particular aspect of my work. As such, I engaged in a project about which a world-renowned expert said was "hugely important." To support the international aspect of the project, I planned on attending several national and international conferences. The project will directly support the work I did and would bring notoriety to my employer. Plus it would propel me into a higher echelon of practitioners from which my place of employment could reap major benefits.

When I asked for financial support for attending these confferences, the first response was, "No. There is no precedent set for supporting more than one conference in a year per employee." I re-explained the cost-benefit equation, and the next answer was, "No. We do not want to set the precedent for supporting more than one conference in a year per employee." More explanation proceeded. The next response was, "If you pay for it yourself, you will have to take vacation time." I did not have enough vacation time to take. "Can we make a deal, then? I'll pay the registration, the airfare, the hotel, and the per deim if I can take the time as workshop time." "There's no precedent set and we do not want to set the precedent. If you are gone from work and you do not have the time to take, you will be docked the pay and possibly lose your job."

Trust was broken. I was afraid to go to these conferences without consequences, but I knew the payoff would be amazing. The HR department was stuck in old ways of thinking and could only make decisions based on traditional senses of tradeoffs and fairness that stifled progress. I had difficulty maintaining my passion for my work knowing that the human resources department was not buying into my dream of working for them at the highest level of my profession. My immediate supervisor was very supportive and I did find a way to achieve my goals. But my success was in spite of the Department of "No!"

Root Causes

Human resources is not a profession. In general, and there are exceptions to this, the job of human resources is to protect the organization from the people. They are told to treat everyone equally and not grant special favors else the organization will suffer financial consequences. They are not allowed to be creative for fear of litigation or retalliation from government regulators. So as a rule, they oppress new solutions and new ways of thinking. It's easier to say, "No!" than to say, "That's a cool idea. Let's see how we can make this work."

Solution

Because human resource management theory is about keeping people in line, the solution is to throw out human resource management theory. Dissolve the HR hierarchy Taking a page from cognitive systems theory, a distributed model would preclude the need for global experts and support the proliferation of local experts closer to the people they support.

After dissolving the central hierarchy, my solution is to distribute the people supporting HR functions out among the workers. Empower these staff to work alongside of the worker bees to learn about their passions, to support them, and to provide creative solutions to their work. Open up the tight rosebud and let the creative juices flow both ways.

Redistribute some of the corporate bonus money to the HR departments to give them the flexibility to implement some of these creative solutions.

Engage the workers in an HR forum to share ideas and strategies that have been successful.

Break down the Department of "No!" and nourish the distributed model of HR. Let the HR folks fulfill their destiny and passion for helping people by taking them to the people they support.

Credits

Barrier identified and described -- after 30 years of frustration perpetrated by HR "professionals" -- by John D Chovan

Thank you to my supervisor and my colleagues who enabled me to achieve my goals.

And to my partner, D.E.C., I extend my thanks for listening to me as I shaped my thoughts about this barrier.

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October 9, 2011 at 2:07am

Gary Arcus

I totally agree but think the issue is with the CEO passing their responsibility away to the HR department. Why should HR be responsible for staff turnover and meeting the payroll budget? That is the responsibility of the business manager and CEO. In my view HR should not be evaluating business cases or strategy - as I have seen several times. Rather they should be facilitating business managers to achieve their aims when the business decision has been made. The business managers should be managing their turnover and staffing budget, not opting out by making it the responsibility of HR.

July 18, 2011 at 2:02am

Tomas WALLAERT

True and painful story, probably only the tip of the iceberg. But looking at some root causes avoids shooting the piano player.
This story is an ecxellent example of how goal oriented behavior is blokced by a system barrier: a department with a misson to force people into a set of procedures, based on the idea: treat everybody the same way. (underlying vision: prevent people from cheating)
In my experience not only the HR department works along this principle. What to think about the accounting department and the controlling department? Most of these departments work in a control an command mode -based on a fundamental mistrust towards human beings - and put the system before the person.
The consequences for improvement project are dramatic. More and more CEO's see a major role for HR as change agent and they are theoretically right. But it is fundamentally impossible to combine a role of gatekeeper with a role of change agent. It requires not only a goal oriented way of working, but a new set of values that goes 180° the other direction. You can't change that over night. Let alone supporting you organization to evolve in that direction. So blaming the people in HR is not the entire story.

July 12, 2011 at 3:26am

Santosh Shevade

@Labovitz: This is so true...its always how the business(boss) and business partner (HR) want to deal with together...but some times it also is a person specific issue, the culture is right, the business is open for suggestions and idea exchange but HR personnel doesn't understand the strategy...

July 11, 2011 at 11:55am

Stanley Labovitz

The department of "no" might well be created by the boss of the department of "no". Is the he culture of the organizationon of silos, too big or to communicate or relate to the "average worker?".

Fear to talk about new stuff--if that's what is is- can be fixed. On the other hand, if its a pain in the a... HR person,. time to look for new.

March 9, 2011 at 1:41pm

Jim Wilson

Although there is an undertone within your posting, I must agree with the sentiments. HR (or Human Remains) as they are some times known do have the potential (within the correct culture) to make staff flurish and grow. Usually they are a department of growing number and can not always justify their value. They create barriers to ensure their status and importance but this should not be the case.
I endorse your view. HR should be turned on its head and serve the people and not the other way around.