Developing Speed and Agility in the Workplace

Recently, my son, who is a thriving young baseball player, met with his club coaches about starting a program called Peak Velocity. This is a major league baseball program to groom and develop young baseball players into college and major league material. The sales pitch was heavy. The benefits were outlined: increase throwing velocity, increase bat speed, bat quickness, add bat acceleration. Plus 3D motion analysis! This 12 week program is rigorous and demanding, including four workouts a week.

So what parallels do I see with this program and the people operations programs needed to accelerate performance in today's technology workplace? There are many opportunities for an HR Leader Partner to help drive speed and agility in the organization.

1) Technology organizations must be nimble and adept at adjusting to change. Installing bureaucratic processes, with multiple layers of approvals, bogs down an organization and shows a lack of trust in leadership capability. Each day organizations can practice what I call "the speed drill"-- a spin off of the daily stand up-- but a quick rapid fire of #1 priorities that day, to help drive speed and quickness.

2) Technology organizations must practice what they preach--invest in the HR technology and processes that match the beauty and simplicity of the software they sell. Using simple and powerful HRIS systems will aid in accelerating leaders' ability to make decisions. Another "velocity drill" I recommend for HR and line managers is a regular review (weekly) of accurate headcount and system data. There are simple tools and files which can be created.

3) Technology organizations should instill a budget process which is tied to the staffing and recruiting process for new and existing talent. Without it, approvals and processes are bogged down. In the past, a situation occurred where finance made the decision to reduce headcount in a department--they did not inform the team manager or HR. Thus, when an employee resigned, it had been determined by finance that this position would not be replaced. No one else was aware. A weekly talent pipeline drill should occur to help HR, managers, and finance align and support the staffing and recruiting processes which are key for organizations to scale and grow quickly.

Like baseball, an employee's speed and velocity can improve in the workplace when major roadblocks are eliminated and regular OD drills are installed.

These are times when technology organizations need to expect automation and workflow capability for their people processes...so the system and data will be accurate and be simple for leaders to access and analyze.

In conclusion, employees should work on their speed and agility daily... work through issues quickly and develop regular practice "people drills" to hone their skills and competencies.