This past weekend, my wife and I celebrated “date night” by going to see the new movie Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson. It was spectacular !! A quirky love story that was colorful, insightful, well acted and involved incredible visual images and dialogue. Also, it portrays Scouting in a perfect way which made me proud to be a Scoutmaster. But I digress . . .
This post isn’t a movie review, but an observation. You see, this movie is rare in this day and age of film. Companies tend to opt for the bombastic blockbuster with the hopes of pulling in mass amounts of revenue regardless of the quality of the characters or the story. Don’t get me wrong, I’m right in line to see these visual joy rides as well. My son and I have an agreement to see all comic book related movies (except Ghost Rider – I mean . . .) We love the distraction and the ability to pretend to be Superheroes. It is fun !!
But . . . it is also short lived. We keep wondering “what’s next?” Will there be a sequel, and will it “live up” to the one we just saw? It’s honestly a lot like many people approach HR.
We want to have the blockbuster program, change, initiative that would make the Senior Management team take notice and give us that strategic position that we yearn for. So, we focus so much on grand moves and positioning within our organizations to get noticed and justified, that we stop being creative.
Whenever I hear the term “best practices,” it just means that you’re copying what someone else is already doing. That may work for you and certain components to transfer between companies in their HR efforts, but many do not.
It’s time for us to be creative !! When you were a kid, you could take ANYTHING and make it into something incredible and limitless !! As adults, we keep forcing ourselves, and our employees, to be rational and pragmatic beings. Creativity gets sapped when it runs into policies, procedures and rules.
So, what can YOU do about it? Willing to be the Moonrise Kingdom in your organization? Willing to look at things differently and see how they lead to have long-lasting, meaningful change?
I am. I hope you join me !! It’s a far brighter adventure !!
