WANTED: ROMANTIC HR MANAGERS

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A 'romantic economist' arouses much the same reaction as the idea of the 'creative accountant'. While we may need both economists and accountants, we hardly associate either with the fluffy side of life.

Richard Bronk in his new book The Romantic Economist: Imagination in Economics, however, makes a strong case for economists in particular to stop relying on the usual metaphors and language that currently describe their discipline.

Like economics, management too is littered with metaphors, concepts and frameworks drawn from mechanics and early physics. Management science for instance, tried defining the job of managing almost entirely through the language of mathematics. Based on this, some organisations even assumed that only highly numerate managers could expect to succeed in their profession.

Now though, managers, and indeed economists need to follow the lead of literary people and use more intuition and be more willing to go with their feelings.

To be a Romantic Manager you need to be someone who, while not ignoring the value of metrics, decision theory, or statistical analysis, is also happy to follow the logic of viewing your organisation as like a living organism, a complex adaptive system.

What will it mean in practical terms then to be a Romantic HR Manager? There are at five important new management behaviours you will need to adopt.

Simplicity versus Complexity:
First, the familiar notion that the secret of successful management lies in always keeping things simple must give way to seeing the world through a lens of complexity. HR people may already use such a lens but often seem wary of sharing it with colleagues for fear of being thought impractical or not suitably positive. But not only are many situations not simply black and white, they often have hidden depths and nuances that can radically affect the outcome of decision making, planning and problem solving.

Certainty versus paradox:
Secondly, Romantic HR Managers rather than always appearing sure of what they are doing, must instead recognise and communicate that the work place is indeed stuffed full of ambiguity, uncertainty and paradoxes that must be resolved or contained.

Clarity versus Good Enough:
Much of traditional management has been about getting clear on everything, making sure you know exactly what you are doing and how you are going to do it. The Romantic HR Manager in contrast realises that the world is not really like that. It is often impossible, for example to get absolutely clear on some courses of action and that what is needed instead is merely a good enough vision.

Optimism versus the Dark Side:
In many organisations the way you succeed is by adopting a relentless and often draining form of optimism. In such places pessimists generally do badly and receive scant attention from those in authority. In contrast, the Romantic HR Manager will accept that there is a shadow side to the organisation, and indeed to every person. Ignoring this shadow side can be disastrous, for example, by sweeping evidence of fraud under the carpet or rejecting warnings about the dangers of a particular course of action.

Big bang versus simple linked systems:

The Romantic HR Manager has no illusions that the big bang approach to solving organisational challenges makes sense. In complex adaptive systems you cannot expect massive upheavals to produce either predictable or even desirable results.

Take for example mergers and acquisitions. The vast majority never deliver the expected business results and the Romantic HR Manager would proactively step in early to focus on the human side of these grandiose projects, rather the dutifully deferring to the commercial pressures.

For some, the notion of the Romantic HR Manager may seem a step too far in the evolution of HR practice. For others though, it will allow them to create pictures of reality that make more sense and be more convincing than the often sterile assertions of those currently in charge of organisations.