Here's a new year's resolution for regular readers of this column. In2008, we're going to work together to come up with some really big newideas that will transform HR forever. And before you start thinking I'vebeen overdosing on the mince pies and sherry, I have to tell you thatI've been building up to this for a while.
It started in the summer when I was updating my website. Chatting to thedesigner (a local student) in his studio I suddenly noticed an iconappear on his computer screen. "Oh look, it's Pingu," I exclaimed,pointing at the image of a cartoon penguin. But this, it turned out,wasn't the much loved children's cartoon character but Tux, the logo forLinux - a computer-operating system rapidly emerging as an alternativeto Microsoft Windows. And what I've subsequently found out about Linuxis fascinating. Not because of the technology, but because of theapproach used to develop the technology.
In an essay entitled The Cathedral and the Bazaar Eric S Raymondcontrasts two different models of software development. Like theconstruction of a cathedral, the first model, which is known as ClosedSource Thinking, depends on a master architect marshalling a small teamof experts who do all of the building on behalf of the wider usercommunity. This is the Microsoft model. However, the product created bythe second model, Open Source Thinking, is the result of input from allthe stakeholders - experts and users alike. This is the Linux model.
Open Source Thinking was particularly intriguing to me because it chimedwith two other ideas that were going round in my head: engaging themillennial generation in the workplace, and enhancing the links betweenHR practitioners and academia.
Research shows that although millennials have grown up in an environmentwhere they have been encouraged to ask challenging questions, they havealso emerged as more heavily dependent on the support of friends andfamily than any generation before them. No surprise then that theconcepts of social networking and co-creation are at the heart of therevolution that has transformed the internet over the past few years bymeeting the needs and behaviours of this generation. Might Open SourceThinking be a way of winning their commitment at work?
And as an advocate of bringing HR and academia closer together, I hadbeen looking for a way to create a 'revolving door' betweenorganisational practice and academic thinking - a mechanism for gettingthe best brains working on the knottiest operational issues. Might OpenSource Thinking provide this mechanism?
So I thought I would try an experiment. With the support of HR magazineI approached my former university - Manchester Metropolitan UniversityBusiness School - to host a session where I could work with five of itstop HR students in the co-creation of some big HR ideas for 2008.Together we used a range of stimuli for discussion from global trends toHR-specific issues and put all of our thinking into a 'shared space' (inpractice a wall covered in PostIt notes). We then looked for anyemerging trends and reached a consensus on the implications for HR. Ourconclusions are summarised in The HR Director's Yearbook included withthis month's issue.
For me it was a wholly worthwhile experiment which I believe hasresulted in some interesting ideas we would all do well to reflect on in2008. But I think the underlying message is even bigger: that if we areto deliver innovative, value-adding ideas in the future, HR will need toembrace concepts such as Open Source Thinking and make them a part ofmainstream practice.
And if we really are going to work together to come up with some big newideas to transform HR forever, this won't be the last you hear from meabout Open Source Thinking and co-creation in 2008. Now, pass me thatleftover mince pie. Happy New Year.
