Thoughts around the Sunday game Chelsea vs ManU

Jose Mourinho was humiliated at Stamford Bridge, his former home stadium until December 2015. Before the game started, I had expected Manchester United to beat Chelsea FC despite its away game.

However, Chelsea stole a goal 30 seconds after the kick off due to a poor coordination between the defender and the goalkeeper. Jose Mourinho had to change the game plan after one goal was conceded, but Manchester United could not change the game and were beaten to 4 - 0 miserable defeat.

What concerns me is that ManU failed to demonstrate resilience. Nobody is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. When it comes to football games, you may take a terrible start and concede a goal. What matters is how you recover from the painful mistake you have made and show resilience. Man U failed to do so.

What has Jose Mourinho been doing to instill a fighting spirit and winner mentality so that his 'boys' could demonstrate resilience and neutralize the game? What you see on the pitch is the outcome and you do not see the process during a game. However, as HR Professional, I cannot stop imagining the process behind the pitch.

I wonder if there are ingredients to resilience. If there are, are there confidence, self-esteem, or recognition? Perhaps I should watch more football games from this angle so that I can formulate a hypothesis around how resilience can be formed.

人事部は特殊な専門性が必要か

数年前に、とあるフォーラムのようなものに参加したことがあります。短いフランス映画が上映され、その後、東京大学の先生などがお話をして、質疑応答を行うという構成だったと思います。フランス映画では、工場に人事の学位をとった若い社員が入社して、いろいろ施策を行うのだが却って労使関係がおかしくなってしまうというストーリーでした。

ぼくは質疑応答において、日本において人事部を専門性の高い部門だとみなして、将来の人事プロフェッショナルを育てるべきだという考えを述べたのですが、東京大学の先生は反対の意見をおもちのようでした。曰く、そういうことをすると、映画のような顛末になると。

百歩譲ってその通りだといいましょう。大学を出たばかりの社員に会社の人事制度や人事政策を担当させ、そのまま実施すれば労使関係は壊れる可能性はあります。でも、それは人事を大学で専攻したからいけないのではなく、大学を出たばかりの社員に全権委任したことがいけないのではないでしょうか。つまり、会社や組織をあまり知らない新卒に人事制度や人事政策を担当させるというかなり大胆な任命をしたことが問題だと見るのが妥当なはずです。東京大学の先生の回答にはがっかりしましたが、ある意味で、この回答は的を得ていたかもしれません。

日本の企業では、人事部は専門性の高い部門とはみなされていないと思います。東京大学の先生の回答は、この認識を体現していたと言っていいでしょう。上場企業において、営業や物流を担当して、人事部長になるというのは驚かない人事異動です。なぜなら、日本の企業の多くは、人事はだれでもできると捉えているからです。曰く、優秀な人はどんな部署だってこなせる。これはあまりに楽観的な見方です。時代遅れと言ってもいいかもしれません。この程度の認識では、21世紀において日本企業は競争力を維持できないと思います。

まず、優秀な人ならなんでもできるという発言には、キャリアマネジメントやキャリアデベロップメントという考えは微塵もありません。これでは、各社員の能力を最大化することは奇跡に頼るしかありません。

次に、人事部の仕事は誰でもできるとみなすことは、人事部が会社に与えることができる貢献を認めていないということです。人事部は給与計算をして、福利厚生をまとめてくれればそれでいいと考えている裏返しです。企業をつくるのは人だというのに、この考えは、事業計画と市場環境があえば、会社は成功するというナイーブな考え方に見えます。スポーツの世界において、すばらしい選手たちに恵まれており、資金も潤沢にあるクラブがうまくいかないケースを何度となく見たはずなのに、こういう考えがうまくいくでしょうか。ぼくは、20世紀終わりに日本企業が勢いを失い、一方で、米国企業が勢いを取り戻したのは、人事部に対する認識が原因だと思っています。

米国企業では、人事部を戦略的パートナーと捉えて専門的アドバイスの元、戦略的に人的資源を活用・開発することに取り組みました。一方、日本企業では、戦後から進歩はありません。たとえば、報酬・評価を取り上げて見ても、基準が曖昧で不安定であり、たまに現れるカリスマ的リーダーによって業績が上がるくらいで、永続的に業績を築ける文化と人材を提供する仕組みはほとんどないでしょう。人事部は採用オペレーションをこなし、あとは給与計算と福利厚生オペレーションを行うコストセンターという捉え方しかしていないと思います。仮にそれ以上を期待していたとしても、その期待を満たす人材はいないでしょう。

先日、友人たちと話をしていたときに、奇しくも、将来の人事プロフェッショナルを育成するべきだという話になりました。自分だけでなく、他の人も同じように考えていたと知ったことはとてもうれしかったし、勇気をもらいました。このブログがそのような動きの助けになればと思う次第です。

紳士靴と会社

紳士靴と会社って似ている点があるなと思うことがあります。新しい会社に入るのはウキウキします。新しい靴を履くのもウキウキします。
憧れの靴を買っただけでもうれしいものですが、それを履くのはさらにうれしい。もちろん、そこで終わりではありません。靴が自分に慣れる、または自分が靴に慣れるまでは、しっくり来ません。時間とともに、靴と自分の相性がよくなって履き心地がよくなる。
新しい会社に入ったら、新しい環境に慣れる必要があります。人々、部署、決まり、そして仕事のやり方が文化を形成すると思うのですが、それに順応していって、居心地がよくなるのではないでしょうか。

Code de Travail japonais - (労働基準法第1条)

第1条

労働条件は、労働者が人たるに値する生活を営むための必要を充たすべきものでなければならない。

2. この法律で定める労働条件の基準は最低のものであるから、労働関係の当事者は、この基準を理由として労働条件を低下させてはならないことはもとより、その向上を図るように努めなければならない。

Article 1 (Le principe des conditions de travail)

1. Les conditions de travail doivent satisfaire les besoins d’un employé qui mérite la vie humaine.
2. Les conditions de travail définies par cette loi constituent un niveau minimal. Ceux et celles qui sont engagés dans les emplois doivent non seulement éviter de réduire les conditions de travail sous prétexte de cette loi mais aussi s’efforcer d’améliorer les conditions de travail.

Cet article affirme que la loi est définie pour que les employés puissent mener une vie que les êtres humains doivent mériter. Le devoir des employeurs est d’assurer que les conditions de travail qu’ils offrent soient pareilles ou meilleures que les conditions de travail qui sont définies par cette loi.

Leadership styles in UK mysteries

I am an avid fan of UK mysteries. Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot are the classic of UK mysteries. I feel very secured when I watch these classi UK mysteries, but I also enjoy watching more recent dramas: Inspector Barnaby, Inspector Morse, A touch of Frost, Georges Gently and so on. One of the things which attract me is the leadership style of the main character.

For instance, Foyle’s War is a UK drama written by Anthony Horowitz. The story takes place in the 1940’s when UK was threatened by the growing power of Nazis. Foyle sets a highest standard to his conduct and always behaves with integrity. In one of the episodes, a bomb by a German bomber devastated the city where Foyle lives. Anemosity against German rises and a German lady gets killed. Foyle says that it does not matter whether a killed person is British or German. It is a murder. If we behaved differently simply because the victim is German, we would be similar Nazis, Foyle says.

I think this is the leadership quality that is really difficult to demonstrate because this is a matter of human quality and human quality is not something you can acquire quickly. You may be able to think ahead and form a powerful vision in 2 - 3 years; you may be able to learn to influence people through your passion in 2 - 3 years; however, this quality will take at least 10 years of conscoius and unconscious behaviours over integrity.

Inspector Barnaby is also interesting in that the hero, Mr. Barnaby, behaves with respect and uses his intelligence as a weapon rather than power or intimidation. Detectives tend to speak loud or aggressively and intimidates suspects so that hopefully they start to tell the truth. In other words, old fashioned detectives use physical power as persuasion. However, Mr. Barnaby speaks gently and shows respect to suspects. When suspects see Mr. Barnaby getting to the truth with just a glimpse of sign or a fragment of facts, suspects feel unable to resist and tell the truth. He pushes suspects to the corner and compels them to tell the truth by using his developed ability to deduce a integrated story from the isolated pieces of facts. Is this also an interesting leadership quality?

I know that it may be absurd to discuss characters in a fiction, but it makes sense because I am talking about the value the author cares and promotes.

Apply sports to Human Resources

Do you like sports? If so, what kind of sports do you like? I love watching football games. For avoidance of doubt, I refer to football in the global context rather than North American context. Football is a game played by two teams of 11 players.

I am interested in football for 2 reasons. First, I am purely a football fan. I love watching beautiful goals. Secondly, I recognise lots in common between football management and business management. A football team plays differently with the same squad but with a different manager on top. It is exciting to imagine how the football manager engages and inspires the players so that they play as a team and achieve better results.

One thing I have learnt recently is that football managers tend to give exercise to players so that they are used to specific fundamental movements. The football managers repeat these exercises until the players can replicate a desired pattern of collective actions with ease.

Then, here comes a question: can we apply this to the business?

Suppose you have a new HR Business Partner onboard. There are a lot for your HR Business Partner to learn so that they can be operational. They have got to be familiar with the HR system, the shared drive and the folders in there, the organisation and its key members, etc. Usually, we take it for granted that as time goes by the new staff member will master all of this. But is this a reasonable expectation? Is this achievable independently from the new staff member’s ability?

What I mentione above is a basic foundation. It is so basic that it seems that you do not need to pay attention to it. But, I believe that there is a lovely opportunity to bring improvement. The learning can be easily accelerated. Suppose you ask the new staff member to find you specific files in the shared drive. You exercise this drill for 30 minutes every day. I am convinced that at the end of five business days, your new staff member will master the file structure of the shared drive and will never lose time in trying to figure out where to find a specific file or information. 

These days we call learning function L&D or Learning & Development as opposed to training. I have no objection about this and I am supportive of the way this is called Learning & Development because this shows a right focus on people’s ability  and opportunities to learn , and people’s needs to develop themselves and organisation’s needs to develop their specific capabilities.

Having said that, there is still an element where training is the most appropriate intervention. Mastering the shared drive, learning to be operational in a specific system or technology platform, and remembering the key stakeholders in the context of the organisation is a typical area that can be resolved quickly by training. Yet, I think that we are missing opportunities.

Let’s start to identify the fundamental systems and the fundamental behaviours which lay out the foundation of success.

Attractive incentive award for Japanese companies

If I were asked to design a reward system for a Japanese manufacturer wishing to promote and reward revolutionary innovation, I would implement an incentive bonus system. When an employee's innovation generates a large profit, a bonus of JPY100 million will be awarded.

From a Japanese company perspective, the amount of bonus award may look gorgeous because many of the board members are not entitled to an annual total compensation of JPY100 million. Hence, the amount should serve as a visible recognition and eventually serve as a retention.

However, I will also pay attention to how to design the distribution. A large amount of bonus in a year will cause a large amount of resident taxes in the following year. If JPY100 million is awarded in a single year, the incumbent will need to pay JPY10 million of resident taxes. Besides, this will put the incumbent to the highest tax bracket. More importantly, once the payment has been made, there will be no further way to retain the incumbent.

One of the ways to distribute this incentive is to defer the payments in several times and in a few forms. Here is an example: 8% each will be paid as bonus allowance through monthly payroll for 5 years thus the total payment representing 40% of the award; 20% will be added to the retirement allowance as a special contribution, fully payable in 10 years from the award; 40% will be paid as bonus, deferred over five years from the second year. Suppose an engineer is entitled to a base salary of 10 million yen, their annual income could reach JPY 26 million without seasonal bonuses for four years and JPY 18 million for another two years.

This will allow the company to retain the talent for probably 5 - 10 years. This will prevent their competitors from stealing the talent and creating competitive advantage from the stolen talent for 10 years.