This has a really strong fit with a model I have been developing working with UK Universities. I look forward to sharing ideas to see how we can evolve strategies together.

My experience of system thinking in thje practical sense that I understand Deming, Scholtes, Seddon and others espouse is fundamentally about continuous experimentation. Experiment with a small team doing the redesign of the work to deliver better service, improve things, and then when things are working well, begin to roll in (not roll out), roll in the other people and teams to the new way of working. The "experimenters" become the coaches to the new set of people. Brilliant! And where should HR people be in all this?
In my view HR and people practitioners should start to become the change it and they want the organisation to be, and I reckon the key area would be around the systems thinking as espoused and demonstrated both academically and eminently practically by Deming, John Seddon in Vanguard, Senge, Ackoff, Scholtes, and countless others.

All change beings at the thinking level and not the doing level, yet the result of the change in thinking then delivers change at the doing level. Great intentions, motivation and competencies underpinned by the wrong thinking changes little.

Managers need to recognise the organisation as a system, it’s their job to remove the obstacles within the organisation. They also need to understand human motivation (Dan Pink, Alfie Kohn, etc.). Design of the work from the outside in, and focus on what is the real purpose what matters to the customer. Then, analyse the demand, design measures for what matters, then when you understand the systems thinking that determines the current way of doing things, you simply get the people who do the work to re-design the work in order to achieve purpose and what really matters, and what happens is almost magical! Service improves, costs reduce, morale increases, and the culture change happens for free. At no time do we do anything to the people, we simply get the people to work on the work. That's the systems thinking at the practical and yet quite profound level that I believe HR could help to make organisations more adaptable and adept.
If you want to work more on the Systems Thinking hack, please join the team on page 2!

Hi Edna, I like the 'experimentation up front' methodology. It is actually akin to a scheme we have for students that attend Polytechnics in Nigeria. You have to do a mandatory 1 year 'industrial attachment' with an organisation in order for you to proceed to a Higher National Diploma. Usually this period affords organisations to 'sample' the students and hence on completion of their HND, the interview process is not 'stretched becuase the candidates had been 'tested' in the organisation. The concept of a friend brings a friend in my view is also similar to an 'employee referral' programme which is a tested and tried method. It doesn't guarantee good results always, but most of the time...especially where the employee making the referral is a good performer with good judgement.

is the focus of the hack on talent acquisition or on experimentation?

I like the experimentation theme, and for me is related to the hack about learning from failure - actually there is no such thing as failure, it's about emergence and evolving, and learning how not to do something (as in Edison). We have to be more agile today and this is a good way to start.

Edna. I think this is a great idea. Recruitment process belong in the age of the ledger rather than Lnked-in. The build for me would be to make sure it didn't become like some intern programmes, where to be blunt rich kids are recruited by connected people. CIPD is involved in a programme to help young people into jobs called Learning to work. Central to that is “How do we help young people without connections?” For me we could bring some randomness to mix up things and get a pool of people , use social networking going far and wide to build new friends of friends would really make this work and would build some much need inclusion and create a more diverse talent pool. Great thinking.

Edna, your recruitment practice is a recipe for securing good retention and provides the employee with an insight into your companies organizational culture which is not always apparent during an interview. I wonder if your practice enables attraction from diverse candidates and those who are not at university?

Edna, in order to do your due diligence for executive hiring, one would hope that you have checked them out extensively before they arrive at your offices. My partner and I made some unfortunate instant hiring mistakes by going with our guts.

Edna, you are absolutely right! With increasing shortages in skill sets, companies seeking top talent simply cannot afford the luxury of taking the time they used to have to make up their minds. That top talent will be gone with the wind. This concept of instant hiring does require more upfront work, however, I join you in believing it is well worth it.

Hi Edna,

I think this is a terrific idea. I am reminded of Henry Stewart, CEO of Happy Ltd in London which is an IT training company. He refuses to look at CVs when hiring - he just asks candidates to run a brief training activity for a panel, so he can see what they are like doing the job they are being hired for. Often he finds the best trainers are NOT the ones with the fancy CVs. I would love to see how far this principle of "trying people out in the job itself" rather than a painful screening and interviewing process can be taken. Julian

Heidi, that's just poor strategy, it's not a problem with strategy itself. And actually I think Edna's hack is a strategy, it's just a strategy to experiment.

I think this is a good idea, although does it work for more senior roles, over and above trainees? I've always been struck by the fact that even the lengthiest selection processes are typically dwarfed by a new employee's first week in the role, never mind their first month and this doesn't even get close to the famed first 90/first 100 days that are often talked about...

I think this principle should be adopted through HR practices. Act first, strategise later! Writing a strategy before taking action suggests that everything has to be perfect before we make a start and needs to be signed off. It totally paralyses innovation.

I hadn't considered the principle in relation to recruitment of young people into an organisation, so thank you for sharing your thoughts.