In late November, we were among over 500 delegates that took part in HR Tech Fest in Melbourne. The big idea behind Tech Fest was to challenge HR norms, and disrupt how we do things. The content was developed through brainstorming by 80 tech innovators from NZ and Australia.
The focus was on the future of work being dynamic, flexible, team based, collaborative, perpetual beta, global and that the workforce (not the HR function) should benefit from HR technology. So it was suggested that People Technology or Workforce Technology was in fact a better term than HR Technology (maybe they need to rethink the name of the conference!).
We learned a few new phrases and had many ‘aha’ moments over the course of the two days jam packed with speakers. But one of our favourites was the idea of “geeking out”. This was about identifying a new topic of interest to a group of people in your organisation and then getting that group together in a room talking about the topic, so that they can geek out together. It’s engaging and fulfilling for your people and good for business. And so we can confidently say that we completely geeked out for two whole days at HR Tech Fest!
There were so many highlights for us throughout the conference. And some of the simplest ideas shared had the most impact. Here are a few standouts…
Don’t stress about the 0.01%
Make HR policies only when they really matter to the people and the business – so don’t make policies and rules for the 0.01% of the team that will behave inappropriately.
Iterate or die
If you aren’t constantly changing or stepping up, then you won’t survive. In order to embrace the fast changing times, it’s important to understand that “we are all endless newbies” and that’s the future of work.
Zero UI
And a not so simple but equally memorable point – Zero UI is the way of the future. Jason Averbook highlighted it to us as a key area to watch. To understand more, we suggest you check out this discussion on Fjord https://www.fjordnet.com/conversations/zero-ui-and-our-screen-less-future/. Jason also emphasised that the way forward is to have someone focussed on innovation in every HR team. Not something that we come across every day in NZ, so an interesting talking point.
A chip in the brain
And in our final session which looked at the cross roads between brain science and technology, we learned that in around 2042, there will be a chip that we can put into our brains that will mean we can stay awake and fully productive for 24 hours per day, with no sleep. Incredibly when the presenter asked the room whether they’d accept that chip if available today, about two thirds of the room raised their hand. We weren’t so sure!
The Thankyou Water Story
We were blown away by the Thankyou water story as told by Keynote speaker, cofounder of Thankyou, Daniel Flynn. They were a group of young people who had an idea and didn’t take no for an answer. They wanted to sell bottled water in Australia and give 100% of the profits to life-changing food, water and health and sanitation programs around the world. Just because people told them something wasn’t possible, didn’t mean they stopped trying. They took a self-confessed totally naive approach to the way they did business and blew out a bunch of industry norms and expectations. There were a lot of setbacks and they needed a whole lot of nudges in the right direction, but they were tenacious and focussed. If you want to read more about their incredible story (and we really encourage you to, if you want to be inspired!) then check this out https://thankyou.co/about. And the good news is Thankyou are coming to NZ in 2017!!
Thinking outside the square
James Law from Envato had a really cool story to tell around how he has successfully driven major technology change in his business. He started with suggested positioning things as a “trial” and saying upfront that they may fail! That way people are more prepared to try something new as then they can always retract if they don’t like how it plays out and won’t be alarmed if it doesn’t work. Try it! He also mooted that with true full flexibility there is no “work/life” balance anymore, there is just life. The simple concept of treating people like adults – employing people you trust and then making trust the default. Such a simple idea, but often this isn’t the way that we relate to our people.
He emphasised “don’t be stuntin’ my growth” – it’s not about career development for people, but rather people focussing on acquiring skills and experience to give them a better impact going forward. Focussing on people’s impact rather than their development.
James’ thought provoking session finished on a super positive note, focussing on the importance of nurturing the good in everyone. When you do a review, start with the positives and over emphasise them. It may help you to see, when you get to the negatives, that they they’re really not that important. If we spent as much time fostering people’s happiness as we do on productivity, you will allow people to be themselves at work.
