Should you make waves?

Making waves is a good thing right?  I mean, that's how you get noticed!  Why would you not want to come into a situation and think outside the box?  It only makes sense that the ones who make waves are the ones who get promoted.

The HRCapitalist recently published a post giving advice to young HR professionals or to those trying to break into the field. 

What about your HR career?  How do you compete as a Gen Y up and comer in the HR game when all the dinosaurs like me have the spots you want to grow into?

You change the game.  Get good at things the dinosaurs don't want to do but companies place value on.  Then stick with the plan.

Tired of that HR VP/Director standing in the way of your career progress?  How are you different than them?  What differences do you have that are marketable?

Most importantly, are you willing to find ways that you can contribute that are far from the norms you see but add tremendous value? Are you willing to use and market those contributions in a way that the establishment would mark as "socially horrifying"?

Socially horrifying.  I like the phrase, kind of gets you in the right frame of mind to think differently.

I can say that breaking into this field isn't easy.  I've found that although only 7% of the workforce in the Birmingham area has a Masters level education or above, hr insiders still seem to be reluctant to give an outsider much of a chance.  This coming from the department that is screaming about the importance of diversity, fresh thought, training, continuing education, and the like, from the rooftops.

Making waves is certainly important in this field.  Breaking into it or changing the face of it, HR needs to make waves.  Don't get complacent.  Don't think you've been doing what you're doing for long enough that you don't have to make waves.  At the same time, don't be discouraged.  All old fish had to be minnows at some point.

Make waves.  Make changes.  Keep pushing higher.  Keep Thinking!

Find a new guy!

There's a new study from the Kellog School of Business Associate Professor Katherine Phillips that delves into the advantages of diversity within teams.  The research suggests that teams performed better when a newcomer was introduced to an existing team, even when the new ideas did not come from the new member.  This suggests, of course, that diversity in and of itself actually promotes productivity increases.  

We've long believed that diversity promotes different perspectives and different thought processes which ultimately lead to better results.  This does occur, but the reasons might be different than expected.  In my earlier post Sometimes success is an accident, I eluded to the idea that we should always examine why we succeed rather than just why we fail.  It appears that the new study by Professor Phillips shows that our success from diversity might be for a different reason all together than what we've long thought.  New people make us dig deeper and perform better.

Obviously this is important in a company setting, but the challenge is to transition this into our personal lives.  It's no secret that people gravitate towards people like themselves.  Heck, one of the most famous sayings in the world is "birds of a feather..." See.  I didn't even have to finish it!

The study demonstrates that injecting someone different into a team makes that team perform at a higher level.  Why not our own lives?  With the understanding that diversity breeds elevated performance, why not interject a little diversity into the rest of your life?  

I'm not talking about taking a different route to work, although some are in such a need of change that this might help, but maybe its listening to different music.  How about listening to the guy on talk radio that thinks totally opposite of you rather than the guy who you know what he's going to say before he gets the words out.  What would happen if you have lunch at least once a week with someone from a different department than your own?  How about going to a different blog from time to time?  

The point is, it's like a marraige; if two of you are exactly alike, you don't need one of you.  You are better when you are challenged.  You are better when you have to think.  Make sure you are challenged in every area of your life.  Find a new guy!  Keep pushing.  Keep Thinking!!!