2019 HPRCT Conference

I am sure there are many ways to get a seat at the executive table. All I can present in this session are ways that have been proven successful in my career. I will share how to be successful in Human Performance and the paradigm shifts I needed to make. I am betting that either you had to make the same shifts or you may need to make them in the future.  In this breakout session we will explore those proven methods on how to get to top leadership for initiatives involving Human Performance. My definition of top leadership is senior leadership such as CEO and Presidential level support. To accomplish this, it usually requires a stair step approach through levels of management to work your way up to the top.   We will explore a number of common paradigm shifts that may be necessary to set the path to the top level support. For each paradigm shift I will share the situation, how I learned and internalized the enlightenment moment.    Some of the following potential paradigm shifts that will be explored are:  

1. Don’t go to the leadership asking for support. Take a different approach. Redefine what you are there to present or discuss. It is a proven method to get there permission to have you support leadership and not leadership supporting you. We will explore how to control the expectations and the roadblocks that are almost always there. The path for arrival depends on organizational culture. Due to the duration of the presentation we will explore the most probable and difficult type of culture you will encounter with a brief discussion of the other types of culture.
2. Redefine you role in the organization. You are not and should not be an employee. Many may think of yourselves as employees of your organization. Although you are getting paid by your organization and you are in an organizational chart you are really internal consultants. We will explore what that means and how to transition into that role.
3. Need to thoroughly understand what Human Performance is and what it encompasses.
4. Management doesn’t really know the true issues within their organization so you need to develop ways to for you to know. Management wants to know but they know that they only know part of what is going on. If they truly knew what was really going on they would implement effective corrections to eliminate the issue so you wouldn’t have to be involved. This means that you have to live by the consultant’s number one rule: “Give them what they need disguised as what they want.”

Other life lessons will be mentioned but due to time limitations not developed. My goal is to shift some paradigms to allow more effective Human Performance implementations and define a path to get to interface with the top levels of your organization on your own terms.