Strategic HR: July 2008 Archives

As we talk to senior business leaders, one thing we find in common is that most leaders wish they had more alignment in their organization. Alignment means having all people, systems, and processes taking the organization in the same direction. When alignment occurs, we say that an organization has the organizational capability of "Strategic Unity."

In this video, Mark Nyman discusses the first half of the Strategic Unity capability - the clarification of the corporate organization strategy. He describes how to answer questions like: "How many businesses do we have" - "What are the relationships between those businesses" - "What is the role between the corporate office and individual business units?"

	Strategic Unity as an organization capability is discussed in-depth in the book, How Leaders Build Value by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.
	View videos on each of the organization capabilities.

We've uncovered a few Do's and Don'ts while watching HR departments go through the process of transformation. In Part 3 of our series on HR Transformation, Mark Nyman shares a few of his favorite tips that will help you make your HR Transformation a real success:

• Link HR Transformation efforts to the company's strategy and business model and to the needs of external customers
• Benchmark against organizations that share a similar business model
• Separate transactional HR work from transformational HR work
• Think about outputs not departments
• Remember that "Strategic Work" is not the same as "Level in the Organization"

Click the play button below to watch Mark Nyman explain each of these tips in detail.

	Watch "HR Transformation (Part 2): Four Steps to HR Transformation" by Dave Ulrich.
	Watch "HR Transformation (Part 1): Making the case for HR Transformation" by Jon Younger.

We've worked with many HR departments as they go through the process of transformation. What we've discovered is a four-step model for really doing transformation well. Successful projects address these steps by answering four basic questions: Why - What - How - Who. In part two of our series on HR Transformation, Dave Ulrich discusses why each step is critical to the success of your HR Transformation project.

Watch "HR Transformation (Part 1):Making the case for HR Transformation" by Jon Younger.