The Human Revolutionaries Show - HR, Leadership, Well-Being and Culture stories in the news Blaire Palmer

Hi and welcome to the last show of Season 2 of The Human Revolutionaries Show!

I'm taking a break over the summer and lining up some amazing new interviews for Season 3.
But we're going out with a bang.

Hima Vaghani is a thought leader and expert in leadership and DEI. She has had an international career spanning almost 30 years predominantly focused on advising organisations around the world on how they can create the conditions for their people to thrive and perform to the best of their abilities.

Hima runs her own consultancy firm providing leadership and DEI consulting services and has a recently co-founded The Careers Company which helps individuals and organisations engage in careers conversations. Her specialist topic is inclusive leadership and cultures and how we need to go beyond the tactical initiatives around DEI to really tap in to the business benefits of diversity.

Sometimes we lose sight of why we are trying to encourage diversity in organisations. We make it about the numbers...but in this conversation, Hima and I talk about how to get diversity that supports innovation and business success.

We cover -
* The diversity lens on the Great Resignation
* The various life stages of women (and men) and whether companies are adapting to more than just the child-bearing years
* Choosing between the professional career you WANT versus the career you feel OBLIGED to pursue.
* Unconscious bias training
* Hima's decision to 'go it alone' with her own business after corporate life
* Her inheritance lessons!

You can connect with Hima on LinkedIn

And you can connect with me of course!

If you haven't yet listened to the other shows in this series of the podcast, please feel free to go back through the archive! There are some amazing discussions and some really practical ideas for you to take away. 

If you'd like to recommend a guest for Season 3, please drop me a line blaire@thatpeoplething.com 

And do tell your colleagues and friends about the show too!

Hello and welcome back!

This week's podcast guest is Laura Overton. Laura and I have both been judges for the HR Zone Culture Pioneers programme for a few years now and got to know each other a bit better earlier in the year when we both worked on the awards show which was broadcast live rather than happening in person due to the pandemic. 

I really wanted to get her on the show because she always brings fresh ideas whenever we talk. Being judges means we get to see how we view the same story differently. Our scores are often very different! But the conversation that follows is always thought provoking and the final result represents a breath of opinions. 

Laura Overton is an author, facilitator and award winning learning analyst dedicated to uncovering and sharing effective practices in learning innovation that lead to business value. She is known for leading a 15-year global research programme to uncover and share learning strategies that lead to business success. 
In the last decade, Laura was the first woman to be awarded the Learning and Performance Institute’s prestigious Colin Corder Award for services to training and was the recipient of the inaugural elearning age Special Achievement award at the Learning Technology awards. 
More recently Laura established #Learningchangemakers and is a co-founder of Emerging Stronger - a global initiative to support the changing world of workplace learning.

On the show we discuss - 


How HR professionals think about their valueMeasuring the impact of our workHow to have a more curious mindsetWhy HR needs to test ideas and approaches on ourselves before expecting others to jump on boardWellbeing and mindfulness for HR peopleYou can connect with Laura on LinkedIn.

Here's the link to the Thinking Habits ebook https://www.go1.com/en-au/resource/5-new-thinking-habits-for-a-smarter-stronger-ld 
Emerging Stronger for more resources https://emergentmasterclass.com/resources/ 
Learning Changemakers newsletter https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/learningchangemakers-6768177569251520512/
My piece on pay rises and the cost of living

And of course you can also connect with me on LinkedIn! Please tell everyone you know about the show! 

Hi and welcome back to the show.

On this week's episode I'm talking to Kirsty Duck, HR expert at Face2Face HR.

When I asked her what she wanted to talk about she said "Appraisals" which was a surprise since hardly anyone wants to talk about appraisals...which, of course, is the problem.

How did we develop the annual performance management process and are there better ways? Well, that's what we are talking about in the show.

Kirsty has over 20 years experience in HR and has spent much of her working life in small businesses as well as 5 years in one of the biggest companies in the world, GE. However she  realised she was not cut out for the large corporate world as she is not a big fan of too many rules and regulations with convoluted chains of command.  She understands small businesses and the numerous transitions they go through as they grow. She loves the fact that impact of decisions and communication are immediate, and that decisions are (mostly) approached with a balance of pragmatism and love.  Kirsty’s goal is to help create working environments where people want to come to work and business owners are proud of what they have created.

We cover -
- The history and rationale for appraisals
- How to break away from annual performance reviews and what to put in instead
- How to have good conversations
- Pay and bonus decisions

Kirsty mentioned a couple of resources.

The Velvet Hammer – From The Joy in Business by Joy Baldridge. 
DisruptiveHR - https://disruptivehr.com/product/leader-box-a-disruptive-hr-toolkit/

You can connect with Kirsty on LinkedIn 

And you can connect with me on LinkedIn too. 

And please do recommend this show to EVERYONE you know! if they find one bit of advice useful it could make a massive difference to how they feel and how they perform at work. 

Hi and welcome back!

Working with the FA over the last year has been an eye-opening experience. 

I'm no football expert (by any means) but luckily they aren't expecting me to be. Instead, together, we are working to create an environment where everyone in the Education directorate can do their best work. 

That's how I met Butch Fazal, Coach Inclusion and Diversity manager for the Football Association. 

He has made a huge impact on the profile of inclusion and diversity within the FA, making it everyone's business rather than something marginal. I noticed very quickly how often diversity and inclusion was part of every conversation and how the idea of a game free from discrimination was the ambition of all. 

And that's why I wanted to talk to him, to see how we can put inclusion at the heart of our work rather than a topic or project which sits slightly apart from the main focus of the work. 

Butch's key remit is to address the significant under representation of Black, Asian and ethnic minority coaches including females within the professional men and boy’s game. Supporting players coming out of a professional playing career who are transitioning into coaching, alongside emerging high potential coaching talent with the aim of developing a pipeline of ethnically diverse and female coaches who will challenge for and secure full time role within the professional game.
He manages a number of positive action programmes and initiatives for the FA in their aim of delivering world class coach development and a game server objective of a game free of discrimination. ‘The real joy I get from coaching is supporting and developing the future generation of coaches who will make a positive difference within the game and in turn become agents and catalysts for change’
Butch spent 12 years as chair of the National Asian in Football Forum in which he pushed provoked and prompted football stakeholders across the game to consider the embarrassingly low number of South Asians within the game, winner of the unsung hero award at the Asian Football Awards in 2013 is testament his longevity and his passion for equality within the game at all levels.
His 45 years of experience within the game as player and coach has enabled him to carve a creditable reputation within the industry and to this day he is as passionate about football as he was when he first kicked a ball. 
 I hope you'll enjoy this conversation and get some get advice about how to get Diversity and Inclusion in to the middle ground rather than on the edges of your HR strategy. 

One of the first things this week's guest, Ginny Baillie, says is how hard it is for leaders to do nothing.

It's comforting to be busy, to attend every meeting, to be the expert, to be the decision-maker, the one with the strong opinion...but is that really what we need of leaders?

Ginny Baillie was one of Europe's first Master Certified Coaches and a veteran in the leadership development field. And she knows one thing - the way people talk to each other and the way they meet are rocket fuel for organisations.

The emphasis on task completion and bottom line growth as the primary focus are a deep distraction away from what would be possible and are not keeping up with the times. She says "We need more from these connections".

In our discussion she declares a meetings emergency, saying we have to draw a line and ask everybody how to make it better. No one is saying I'm happy with the number of meetings I have and they are all really useful. If she was in HR that would be her mission.

You can find out more about Ginny's Drum session on her website and connect with her on LinkedIn. I highly recommend talking to her about the state of emergency your meetings are in and see what she advises.

And you can connect with me of course on LinkedIn. 

Do remember to tell people about the show, play it to your team and get a conversation going! and please leave a review and star rating as it helps people find us and see if it's any good!

With the Great Resignation post-pandemic, many people are embarking on new roles. 

I've coached a lot of leaders in the weeks before they start a new job, helping them think about what they stand for in their new role, how to 'land' on day one, and how to work out where to start actually doing the job. 

Well, that's exactly what this week's guest has been thinking about and in the show she shares just what questions she's been trying to ask herself before she walks in to the office on day one. 

Kirsty Lynagh is the newly appointed Chief People Officer at Seccl Technology, a company helping to rebuild the infrastructure of investments and advice whilst promoting financial inclusion.
Kirsty’s human centric, yet first principles, approach has been shaped over twenty years during which she has adopted non traditional methods to deliver people strategies that enable inclusive, engaged and performing workplaces.  Kirsty’s had a diverse career across four industries in the UK and Australia and has sought out opportunities where she can make a difference to the people and organisations she works with, and a close eye on their impact in broader society.   
She’s been recognised as a pioneer of forward thinking, human centric people practices that really deliver results and has won multiple awards for workplace, people engagement and leadership.

In this interview we talk about - 


What she thought about during a 6 month sabbaticalHow she's preparing to embark on a brand new role in her new companyHow she will protect her time and manage her diaryHow she's deciding on her philosophy and vision for the people strategy at SecclBeing extrovert at work and introvert at homeOur privileged 'knowledge work' echo chamberThe gender pay gap
You can connect with Kirsty on LinkedIn.

And here's my LinkedIn profile.

Please do share the show with anyone you think would find it useful! And please also leave a review and star rating which helps people find this podcast! Thank you.