HR Shadow Puppets

GREAT Shadow Puppetry - The funniest home videos are here

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My friend, Bill, used to talk about people using shadow puppets when they weren’t prepared. I’ve sometimes felt like that when I hear weak discussions about “HR needs a place at the table” instead of HR grabbing a place at the table because of their business contribution. It’s shadow puppetry. But not this kind.

If HR is showing shadow puppets, at least do them like this. You’ll get a place at the table. Dazzling people is always the right thing to do.

By the way, one of my favorite all-time blog taglines is for The HR Capitalist: Get to the table — stay at the table.

You Know You’re Old in HR When…

Today is Guy Kawasaki’s birthday, and he did a fascinating post called You Know You’re Getting Old When…. It’s a fun read. I even contributed three to the mix. Go have a look. You’ll get a laugh. In that spirit, here are a few HR-related “you know you’re old when” statements.

You know you’re old in HR when…

You remember when HR was called “personnel.”

You remember that human capital were called people. (Soylent Green was people, too.)

Engagement meant that people were getting married.

You could work your way up, and it wasn’t by climbing a career ladder.

MBOs were in vogue, and you loved them.

Stock option scandals didn’t happen because people didn’t get stock options.

You did what you were told to do because you were part of Generation GET-TO-WORK.

You doled out twice annual double-digit increases in the 1980s.

You lived through the rise of self-directed teams, the end of self-directed teams.

What other things let you know you’re old in HR when…?

UPDATE: Guy Kawasaki reads The Best of You Know You’re Old When. Some of them are really funny. Your truly even rates a mention.