HR U Doing?

Elephant walking through gold splatter.

It’s The Elephant Hunter here to share a story from The Elephant Hunter Academy™ Archives.

Once upon a time in a far-away land, when the world of work was rather tame compared to our current times, the now dreaded Human Resources Department was a completely different animal. It was nurturing and kind, wise and supportive, protective of its people. It celebrated and calibrated individual success for achieving organizational success. Protecting the pack with no one left behind. Employees’ whole health was factored and organizational health resulted.

Life was simple then, in each organizations’ corner of the world…or at least their view of it was. This is not to say injustice was absent and equity abounded. But this HR animal of those days gone by was for the people and of the people, once they signed on. Maybe not everywhere, but in many places which I and others have witnessed and experienced at their best. These nearly extinct creatures did not report to Chief Financial Officers or anyone in a financial function. Why would they? The HR animal was a people protector, nurturer, developer. This majestic creature could only serve the organizational leader directly, to balance the financial focus and logistical operations focus—being the third leg of the original organizational stool metaphor. Ah, memories….

Office image courtesy of Navamin Studio, Canva Pro

Elephant trumpeting image courtesy of Stefonlinton, Getty Images Signature

Chained Elephant Feet image courtesy of vladj55, Getty Images

I’m jolted back into the realities of our current day by the trumpeting of the elephant in the room I’ve been asked to hunt and tag. Patiently waiting on my observation perch, my target comes into view. What is the elephant in the room I hunt today? it is a long-lost ancestor of the HR animal I once knew. This tired creature is now a beast of burden, serving financial masters in purely regulatory and compliance matters.

All other former functions passed on from its ancestors have atrophied from lack of use, becoming mere myths to many and nostalgia for folks like me.

But this elephant in the room trumpets not in triumph but in despair. It wants to be free. It will jostle and jolt you into speaking up with its most outrageous actions. Though others may trap and wield this elephant in the room, the net-neutral organizational truth it represents has a life of its own and will never surrender. You’ll tire of its antics and of wading through its waste products. As hard as its handlers work to keep it trapped here, this elephant in the room will work to provoke you into speaking up and taking action. We elephant hunters know that such action must still be compassionate and precise. You need to map the elephant scat that’s dropped in your path to find the most effective way to cut through all this crap.

Learn how in my upcoming book The Elephant Hunter, Speaking Truth in Organizations.

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