Sometimes I think HR should be a show on the Fox Network.
How else do you explain competent, educated, ethical people who refuse to stand up to an egregiously erring senior manager, buy training classes from vendors without objectives or metrics or value propositions, and/or conclude that they should hear the “same old, same old” at every trade and professional association meeting from the same theoretical gurus?
Someone asked me recently how best to work with a group of two dozen senior managers who “eat presenters alive” and for whom my friend was to present a one-hour presentation on improving their leadership skills. I told her that there were only three problems with this scenario:
1. Anyone who seeks to destroy people presumably there to bring education and learning is a dummy. If these were legitimately senior people in a good organization, then the “eating” warning is probably erroneous, though I wouldn’t blame them for being upset with a presenter who wasted their time. Which brings me to point #2.
2. She didn’t know how to fill that bill in an hour and, frankly, neither do I. Oh, I could tap dance and make them laugh and provide the six (or four or fourteen) “secrets” to effective leadership, but that forum and that topic and that objective just don’t jibe. Therefore, point #3.
3. The human resource director organizing this was nothing more than a clerk or gopher. She should have advised her internal clients about the foolhardiness of attempting such a session, but instead she was too cowed (or plain unknowing) to resist. I advised my friend to find and talk to the person who actually requested the session, and start from scratch with the group’s best interests in mind.
I receive these “session” requests all the time, which is why I refuse to talk to anyone but the actual “buyer”: that is, the person who has requested and is paying for the session. (If it’s coming out of the HR budget, I still want to talk to the real client.)
It’s wearying to hear HR people bemoan their lack of “space at the table.” You get a space at the table by being valuable, involved, and essential to success. But if all you do is remove the used dishes and return with the next course, you’re going to be regarded as a waiter, not a tablemate.

© Alan Weiss 2002 All rights reserved.

Alan Weiss, Ph.D. is he president of Summit Consulting Group, Inc., a highly sought-after keynote speaker, and the author of 21 books. Visit his web site, http://summitconsulting.com, to contact him, access over 100 free articles, or to subscribe to his free newsletter “Balancing Act: Blending Life, Work, and Relationships.” His latest book is Organizational Consulting, focused on internal consulting methodology, published by John Wiley & Sons.