The Corporation in the 21st Century

Being a strategic HR and communications professional means navigating the organisational roadmap to deliver success. I understand the direction of travel, the subtext and impact of decisions. Drop a pin in the organisational maze and I will get you to your destination. But if I cannot see the vision, I could be like Colin from The Great Escape, pretending I can see it, to avoid being left behind.

There is only so long you can fake it until you make it. Being strategic, sounding strategic, controlling or influencing the narrative. It’s easy to become fluent in the corporate vocabulary. A transferable dialogue that rolls off the tongue to describe what good looks like. Articulating the who, what, when, where, why and how to enable your audience to understand the situation and relay your strategic insights. Thereby spreading your reputation, reach and language across the organisation.

Sounds great on paper. Talking strategically is easy to say, difficult to do, especially if the organisation is complex and unconsciously designed to obstruct change and innovation. Salient points are surrounded by filler as you incorporate round-the-table feedback, interpersonal relationships and the ticking clock to turn words into action.

Communication and subject expertise are becoming integral to professional roles, conflating the work of different professions into one to prove your worth and do more with less. Thinker, speaker, doer, the collator of information, risks and recommendations. You may not have narrative control, but you still have a voice. The challenge is saying something worth hearing.

How reading helps

I read The Corporation in the 21st Century: Why (almost) everything we are told about business is wrong by John Kay to complement my knowledge and expertise. His perspective on the division of labour looks at how human talent and relationships are shifting the corporate focus from rigid task specialisation to knowledge-based collaboration. ‘Humans have become better at almost everything as a result of the steady accretion of collective knowledge and its transformation into collective intelligence.’

As I work in the knowledge sector, the power of combinations and capabilities is what I want to weave into my strategic HR playbook. The author is not sycophantic like some authors who reference celebrities, famous people and those in dangerous professions to eulogise about the skills we need to earn less and stay safe in our average jobs. Instead, famous names like Lionel Messi are referenced to emphasise the importance of teamwork and collaboration to give talent the means to excel.

This no I in team approach can be applied to all trades, professions and organisations. However, it made me question if I am the skilled enabler for the stars or the maverick star. Bursting out the nine box grid I will settle for ‘Talent matters but is most productive when deployed in context.’

I need to measure the commercial value of collective intelligence and convert individual capability into competitive advantage. Skills gaps, training, interoperability and the fusion of human and artificial intelligence are trending in the world of work discourse. I must contextualise knowledge gleaned from books to give substance to my words at work. This is HR’s opportunity to establish what specialist skills are needed for the organisation and how they differ from and supplement leadership and people skills to achieve corporate objectives. Creating flatter organisations to recognise expertise without ignoring the importance of hierarchy, pay structures experience and inclusion as everyone ages and we must work together.

Collaborate to excel

A recurring theme in the book is that an overemphasis on individualism has weakened the sense of community at work and the relationship between business and society. I interpret this as organisations investing in culture, job design and recognition to make our jobs worth more than affording to live. Tapping into that community spirit that brings people together for a shared purpose.

That is a tough ask when looking for the right people with the right skills at the right time. I am imagining myself on the podium in a presentation to the senior leadership group about the new corporate vision on what good looks like. The book states: ‘We must abandon the pretence of knowledge that individuals, institutions and businesspeople need to act in the face of uncertainties. The proper response is not to insist on receiving answers to unanswerable questions – I need to know – but to reformulate the problem in ways that allow the preparation of information that relates directly to the issues faced by decision makers.’

If I repeated those words, I would be asked to define the problem statement to make it relevant to the organisation. I learn a lot from books, podcasts, news articles and human interaction. Being strategic is balancing that knowledge with business needs to get everyone talking sense. Drop a pin in the organisational map after reading this article and you will not want to escape when facing difficult questions on how to get to the outcome.

Good luck

Thank you