Unlocking the value of HR to drive a change-ready culture
| Pages | 171-176 |
| Date | 14 August 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-05-2017-0032 |
| Published date | 14 August 2017 |
| Author | Campbell Macpherson |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Employee behaviour |
Unlocking the value of HR to drive a
change-ready culture
Campbell Macpherson
Campbell Macpherson is
CEO and Senior Advisor
at Change and Strategy
International LTD,
London, UK.
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to present a case study focused on developing a change-ready culture
within a large organization.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper is based on personal experiences gleaned while driving
an organization-wide culture change program throughout a major financial advisory firm.
Findings –This paper details over a dozen key lessons learned while transforming the HR department
from a fragmented, ineffective, reclusive and disrespected department into one that was competent,
knowledgeable, enabling and a leader of change.
Originality/value –Drawing on the real-world culture change intervention detailed here, including
results and lessons learned, other organizations can apply similar approaches in their own
organizations – hopefully to similar effect.
Keywords HR, Culture change, Change catalyst
Paper type Case study
“C ulture is everything” declared Louis Gerstner when he was CEO of IBM.
He was half right. Execution is actually “everything”. It does not matter how innovative,
clever or expensive your strategy may be – unless your organization is ready, willing and
able to deliver it – the strategy will have been a complete waste of time. Only your people
can deliver your strategy. But of course, to do this, they will need an environment where
they are encouraged to challenge the status quo and where they are allowed to fail and try
again. If your people are to execute your strategy in this age of ever-increasing change,
they will need a change-ready culture.
When I was asked to accomplish this for the UK’s largest financial advice network, the first
place I started was HR.
Until that moment, my philosophy when it came to the “Human Remains” department was
to avoid it at all costs. Receiving a call from HR was akin to getting a surprise visit from the
police: even if you are absolutely innocent of all possible wrong doing, for a fleeting instant
you find yourself thinking that you must be guilty of something. As a management
consultant, I found that HR rarely had the budget, the decision-making authority or even the
influence that they professed to enjoy. As an employee, HR’s purpose in life seemed to be
to make recruitment far more difficult that it needed to be, to pronounce edicts as a
panicked reaction to the latest change in employment law or to launch an avalanche of
last-minute job cuts as soon as the market hiccupped.
However, each one of my preconceptions was to be turned on its head the day I was
offered and, even more surprisingly, accepted the job of HR Director. One day I was a
DOI 10.1108/SHR-05-2017-0032 VOL. 16 NO. 4 2017, pp. 171-176, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398 STRATEGIC HR REVIEW PAGE 171
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