Jean Roberts

And what, you may ask, is HRD?   It’s almost the opposite of HRM!   HRD is Human Resource Development

In place of managing your human resources – try developing them.

In place of managing your customer relations – try developing them.

In place of managing your stakeholder relations – try developing them.

In place of managing your internal relationships – try developing them.

Let’s explore these four aspects of HRD:

•  your human resources – ie people at any and all levels of activity within your company or organisation – will consist of a number of individuals, and each will be affected by:
• their immediate relationships (immediate and extended family, those they live and love with – now and through their lives; those with whom they share and have shared important aspects of their lives),
• present and past experiences (workplace, personal, social, economic, spiritual, educational, physical, emotional, intellectual, cultural experiences),
• formal and informal learning (qualifications, courses, workshops, self-paced learning, reading, studies they have earned or attended), and
• formal and informal networks and linkages (groups and organisations with whom they are already involved and through which their lives are enriched)
•  your customers, clients, consumers, service-users – ie people whose needs, interests or aspirations should be guiding the development and delivery of your products, components or services – will consist of a number of individuals, and each will be affected by:
• their experience with, expectations of or reservations about your company, organisation, products, components or services, and
• the nature and extent of their needs, interests or aspirations
•  your stakeholders – ie people who have a stake or interest in the manner in which your company or organisation operates – will consist of a number of individuals, and each will be affected by:
• the nature of their ‘stake’, which means the extent to which they may experience loss or gain,
• the nature of their ‘interest’, which means the extent to which they may benefit from the opportunity to learn from or about what you do, and how/why you do the things you do
• your internal relationships – ie people within your company or organisation whose actions, decisions or performance affect or are affected by your own actions, decisions or performance – will consist of a number of individuals, and each will be affected by:
• your understanding of your own role, responsibilities, accountabilities and, most importantly, the nature and extent of authority delegated to your position,
• the understanding of their role, responsibilities, accountabilities and, most importantly, the nature and extent of authority delegated to their position, and
• your company’s or organisation’s expectations of and support offered to each and every person at any and all levels of activity.

Most importantly, the focus of Human Resource Development is the person – whoever the relevant person is – at a particular moment in time, and within a particular context:

 Your company or organisation will move through many life-cycles in its existence, and many stages within each life-cycle.  The four major stages are:

1. innovation,
2. establishment,
3. growth and development, and
4. evaluation and review – as a basis for further innovation.

And the primary resource within each of these four major stages will be people!   Therefore, you need to know and understand the difference and relationship between these four major stages, and where your company or organisation sits – or sat – at a particular moment in time.

An extract from my 2008 e-book, My Spiritual Journey as an Independent Consultant:

Listen, do you want to know a secret?   People are what and where and who they know they are.

And that’s the secret.  That’s what you have to find.  That’s the secret even to people themselves – to know what they know about themselves.   Each will have a perception of themself, and that perception leads to an understanding of themself.  It is that understanding which either limits or facilitates or motivates or inflates their sense of self.  This is the knowledge base from which they make decisions.

It begins with the perception of themselves.  There’s the literal perception, and there’s the interpretation of that literal perception.   Now, to bring people along, to give them the opportunity to expand, to grow, to blossom, to develop – you have to find what is their perception.  If their perception of themselves is that they are power-less, that everybody is against them, that their benefactors are actually their enemy, that nobody loves them – then that is the understanding that they will operate from.

No matter what message you give them, the knowledge base they operate from is their perception of themselves.  And that’s what you must find, that’s where you work from.

Your questions are: ‘How do you see yourself?  How do you understand who you are and what you are?’   The response will always be: ‘Listen to me – this is what I understand about myself, this is what I know.’

Together, you move from and with that understanding.

An extract from my 2008 book, One Man Show – the Smallest of Small Business:

Entrepreneurs use the principles and practices of innovation as a basis for entrepreneurial activity.

My trusty Dictionary defines innovation as ‘something newly introduced, such as a new method or device: inventing or beginning to apply methods or ideas: renewing or creating something new from what already exists’.

A common myth about innovation is that innovation is only about new ‘things’. Innovation can also be about improving, changing – or even doing away with – existing ‘things’.

Entrepreneurs are people, not organisations.

Entrepreneurship is a personal characteristic or quality, not an organisational function. There is no such thing as an entrepreneurial organisation. Why? Because an organisation is an intangible entity.

You cannot touch ‘an organisation’. An organisation of any kind is simply a group of individuals – and the people within that group can change, as can the level of interest in and commitment to entrepreneurship.

HRD is a field of study, a profession, and is introduced on WikipediA as

• the integrated use of training, organization, and career development efforts to improve individual, group and organizational effectiveness.  HRD develops the key competencies that enable individuals in organizations to perform current and future jobs through planned learning activities. Groups within organizations use HRD to initiate and manage change. Also, HRD ensures a match between individual and organizational needs.’