Do you Communicate or Connect ??

At a recent Leadership Team meeting at work, one of our Board of Advisors asked us – “As a company, do you communicate or connect?”

It was a fascinating question and we did some good work around it because the answers around the table ranged from ones that felt “communication was a strength” of ours to “we communicate in volume !!”

In looking at HR, especially when you take in all that is out in this “space,” I would tend to think that volume takes the lead.  This doesn’t mean that there is junk out here.  It just means that there is a ton of information to read, absorb, respond to, or ignore.

Often with so much volume, we tend to take in little because we want to be good stewards of what we read, and people have various capacities when it comes to communication.

What would happen if we chose instead to “connect” ??  What if our efforts regarding HR were more like the classic Conjuntion Junction from Schoolhouse Rock ??

Next week Jason Lauritsen and I are fortunate to be presenting at HRevolution2011 in Atlanta.  Our session is called “If HR stinks, what are YOU doing about it ??”  If you’re out on Twitter at all, it’s blowing up with tweets from HRevolution attendees who can’t wait to get to the event, want to see this speaker or that speaker, but most of all they want to see EACH OTHER !!

You see they want to CONNECT!!  Now, this camaraderie shouldn’t be limited to one conference or to a certain group of people.  HR has to take the step to break out of the shadows, intentionally connect with others and move the field forward.  This isn’t a call for one forum or one association or one event versus another.  However, it IS a call to get connected !!

I hope two things happen when I get to go to HRevolution.  (1) That I take time to connect with as many folks as possible and get to know them behind their “voice in the space” and (2) that our session makes that step from just communicating more about what HR should do – and move it to what I can do (and YOU can do as well) to continue to make HR a thriving, challenging, intriguing and relevant profession !!

Be forewarned . . . I plan to connect with as many HR people as I can !!