Performance Science

Activities and analysis requests picked up significantly in week1 for us, and we are very thankful for that.  We received several positive emails for our last week’s email around what will occupy the minds of HR and TA trends and practices for 2021.  But many leaders asked what HR can do that is truly disruptive and innovative  in elevating the organizations they serve.  We have identified a few areas that can be highly innovative to implement.

To understand this question, we went back to the history books and studied some of the work done by British Historian  Arnold Toynbee.  Toynbee, in his work on the study of history, examines why civilizations fail.  Toynbee wrote that Nomadic civilization failed because of energies consumed in providing pasture for herds. He wrote that the Polynesians failed because they responded to the challenge of the sea with no instrument better than a canoe.

When facing disruptive times, it is therefore important to develop new tools and, more importantly, truly make sure that the workforce is not lost in tactical things. Human Resources can play a significant role in ensuring this across the functions of Reskilling, Talent Acquisition, Strategic Workforce Planning, and Performance Science (notice that I have consciously dropped the word Management).  In this email, we have focused more on Performance Science in the Digital Age and Talent Acquisition.