Strategic Human Capital Insights

Current literature and corporate pronouncements continually state that Human Capital is a key business issue. Yet the current research data suggests that there is a significant disconnect between corporate pronouncements and reality.  The logic would assume that if human capital is indeed one of the top business issues, then HR, where that functional responsibility must reside, needs to be the strategic voice of human capital AND MUST have a seat at the strategic planning and implementation table.  Right now, the research data suggests otherwise.  Until HR is included in the organization’s business strategy discussions, we are all living in the comfortable but dangerous state of denial. 

There are many reasons for this alignment disconnect that we will explore in our HR as a Business Accelerator blog series, but it is necessary to evaluate two critical pieces of recently released research.  The research suggests that globally a deep organizational alignment disconnect exists between the business and HR.  And now is the time to address this situation, before this misalignment becomes a chasm too deep and wide to close.  If HR does have insights on the current state of the workforce, they are not being heard at the appropriate level. 

What is HR's Business, and How Does it Contribute to the Business?

What is the fundamental role and contribution of HR?  The thread of people development within organizations is wrapped around the business fabric. So, what is the golden thread that unites business and people development?

In a series of blogs and online discussions, we will help facilitate and accelerate the delivery of solutions to weave the golden thread of HR into the fabric of the business.  Mike Smith and Carolyn Dare from LTSglobal.com and Joanne Flynn from Phoenix Strategic Performance will engage with you to address the themes that underpin the essence of HR.

What are the critical issues that keep business leaders awake at night?

The Business Case for HR Managing Human Capital to Optimize the Business of the Business: Piecing Together the Organizational Performance Puzzle

Let’s think of the three critical P’s of optimal organizational performance:

• Product
• People
• Processes

Regarding people, let’s refer to them as Human Capital (HC) because they are indeed one of your key assets.  HC is one of three parts of the performance puzzle necessary to ensure successful business outcomes.  With that operating premise, evaluate your people against the same criteria you use for your product and processes.  All three need to be operating at peak performance in order to produce accelerated, sustainable business outcomes and growth.  If any one of the three is not at maximum performance, the results of the other two will be compromised or decelerated. 

Who says great presentations ‘just happen’?  What will excellent presentation skills do for you?

As a professional, your ability to present information is a core career skill. Giving great presentations enhances your career brand, and you will be known as a great presenter who can effectively and reliably promote:

• Your product & company to the competitive marketplace 
• Complex ideas with simplicity and sophistication
• Yourself, your brand & your career 

While presentation tools are getting more sophisticated, great presentations are not keeping pace. Why? Great presentations are so much more than a PowerPoint. Great presentation skills are the complete and integrated combination of delivering great, audience-friendly content with excellent, aligned delivery skills.

What are the three challenges to global business and global leadership?
Global business acumen, deliberate planning, and exceptional execution.

Becky DeStigter of The International Entrepreneur interviewed me about the challenges of running successful global businesses and the global leadership issues critical to successful outcomes. If we think domestic business issues of competition, growth, profitability, and sustainability are daunting, those issues magnify exponentially when we move outside our geographic operating core.

In preparation for this interview, I reflected on the international growth experiences I have observed over the years, both successful and unsuccessful.  Too often, even successful experiences resulted from luck rather than method, and we could fool ourselves into thinking that international business was easy. In a global theater, we could usually deny our mistakes under the guise of, “This local business just doesn’t have what it takes to be successful.”  Sometimes, we closed businesses and moved to other locations or allowed marginal business results to decline.

In today’s highly competitive global marketplace, we no longer have the luxury of making mistakes – the consequences are too high. We must approach global business issues with the highest business acumen, deliberate planning, and exceptional execution.  To be successful in international business – there is no other choice.

With this backdrop, I organized my thoughts for the following interview. 

The goal of any presentation is to introduce or promote an idea to an audience.  In the course of the presentation, the structure of the material is designed to:

• Lead the audience to ‘see’ your information from your perspective
• Understand what you intended to deliver
• Ensure your information transmits from your brain to the audience’s brain, keeping the integrity of the message intact
• Move people’s minds
• Inspire the audience along the way

How do you go from making a good presentation to making a great presentation, one that is so memorable that people talk about it long after it’s over?  To do that effectively, here are two checklists to help you create the best presentation possible to drive audience engagement.

The aim of any presentation is to impart your information to the audience, ensuring they receive the information as ‘in tact’ as possible. To achieve maximum impact, it is critical that you present with the following three tools: 

            1.  Visual Billboard

            2.  Physical and Vocal Energy 

            3.  Synchronizing the Audience with You and The Visual Billboard

This may seem obvious, but it requires careful orchestration, preparation, and practice. 

PowerPoint presentations can be mundane, but there are still ways to connect with your audience through PowerPoint. This blog reviews the tools available to you and how you can enhance your presentation to get your message across to your target audience.

Background – The Visual Billboard

When used effectively, this is your storyboard. Before you create your first slide, you must determine your message/story from start to finish. To be audience effective, determining your message/story should take the most preparation time. Your overall story must have logic and flow, a start and a finish. When you create your slides, you must have a way to transition in and out of every slide. The information must pass the storyboard filter. Unrelated information must be eliminated, or it will create audience confusion and weaken your message. Every slide must have a purpose, with an introductory transition into the slide and an exit transition from one slide to another.   All this is done before we begin to create the presentation slides themselves. Start with your story and develop the slides to support it, not the other way around. Remember, the sides are not the presentation. You are! The slides are your supporting tools. 

What makes a great presentation great? Great presentations don’t ‘just happen.’ Yes, there is a theory behind the presentation process. Great presentations are carefully crafted on many levels to ensure the presenter captures and keeps the audience’s attention. After all, isn’t that why we make presentations in the first place? There are three critically integrated parts to an excellent presentation that will make it high impact, memorable, and game-changing. Before you even begin to create your presentation, you must consider all the underlying components and your intent for the presentation. To meet all three requirements, you must understand how the audience processes the presentation. 

Where have all the powerful presentations gone?  

I have just spent two months watching presentations that are sorely lacking impact. As an audience observer of the presentation process, I decided to dissect the presentations from a professional presentation discipline – a professional skill set that I have taught and coached for many years. Here are two key observations.

1. The Power of PowerPoint

We have equated presentations with a PowerPoint deck. 

1. The PowerPoint presentation is NOT the presentation – it is merely a visual tool used as part of the presentation. 
   
   
2. The PowerPoint presentation MUST follow presentation standards. As an audience member – that’s not negotiable.
   
   
   • There ARE best practices associated with great PowerPoint presentations. They are focused on how and why the audience perceives and retains information. (The most egregious mistake is the poor bullet that has now become a multi-line sentence – or worse, a blob-like paragraph, which is impossible to read and highly improbable that it will create the intended impact.)
     
     
   • Where did the format and presentation roadmap go? The format and roadmap allow the audience to proactively accompany the presenter on the presentation journey. For the audience’s sake, let’s give them a reason and a rationale to listen. A member of your audience should never think, “Where is this going, or why am I here listening to this?”