Building Elite Teams During Crisis Requires HR to Take Transformative Action

CheeTung Leong: [: 00:00:00

Jessica Sydnor: Thank you for having me, CT. I am the director of Human Resources. here at the University of Chicago Library.

ng needs. there was a lot of [: 00:01:00

CheeTung Leong: Thanks for sharing that, Jessica. What I found very interesting in that introduction, it almost feels like you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders as HR. it's, for me, it's unusual because when you're going through change, surely this should be the responsibility of every leader, to try to navigate that change together with their team. It sounds almost like you feel an extra set of responsibilities. As HR, to carry the weight of that change, why do you think that is,?

Jessica Sydnor: I think sometimes when you, you are dealing with.

le are technicians of sorts, [: 00:03:00

CheeTung Leong: you feel like this is H. R. in, [00:04:00] in some sense, being a victim of its own success, because you responded well during the pandemic, you stepped up, took that seat at the table, and then all of a sudden, when things go wrong, people start looking at HR and say, hey, what should we do? And to some extent, I would almost say that this is what HR professionals for decades have been working towards doing. Earning that seat at the table, being that trusted advisor to the business, being that strategic voice, in times of change. Do you feel like this is something that you actually want to hold on to a little bit tighter?

r. Passing them off to their [: 00:05:00

We also know some things are coming down the pike, whether it's strategic, Strategic initiatives for the upcoming year. There might be difficult messaging that we will have to roll out in the upcoming months. And so we have to know that this is coming down, but also understand what is going on in the actual workplace. And when we're at those tables, be able to advocate, but also sometimes just share because we can't necessarily change a decision that is being made. But we need to let people know this decision is forthcoming. But this is currently the temperament of our employee base. And so how do we craft a [00:06:00] message?

And how do we roll out a plan that is useful to be successful for the organization? And we don't completely, disappoint or discourage our employee population. And so having that seat at the table is critical. But to your point, we want to maintain that seat. So we almost have to shift how we've been positioned.

g leaned on. And, that is an [: 00:07:00

And that's difficult when you are constantly being thrown in the midst of panic.

what they think and how they [: 00:08:00

And now the demand on HR becomes, how do you make sense of this for the people that you're dealing with? How do we navigate this change in a way that, our people are most going to be able to Not just adapt to it, but even thrive in this change. What are the tools that you use personally to get yourself through? and thread this needle as you're working with the business and the changes that you're going through.

ease out really what was the [: 00:09:00

They want to know what is going on. They don't necessarily want you to say, I'm going to solve it because that's, that is also misleading because when that deadline inevitably approaches. They're going to expect something. And then if you continue to kick the can down the road, you lose credibility. You build distrust, reinforce whatever narratives they've created in their minds or seen another administration.

alking about employees, they [: 00:11:00

CheeTung Leong: Let me break this down into the three parts that you laid out, right? So the first one is really teasing out that those true strategic needs of the organization, identifying what needs to be prioritized and by when. Second one was around that self compassion, understanding. And squaring it with yourself that some of these fires that you can hear that is just going to take a little bit more time and giving yourself that permission to resolve them in the time that's needed. And then finally, it's around communicating and managing stakeholders, in a very transparent manner. when it comes to teasing out the true needs of the organization, there are all these different techniques out there, five ways and so on. What is it that you found helpful, when it comes to actively listening and piecing together and making sense of what the priorities should be?

people to lay out what their [: 00:12:00

And so that's the first approach. And then secondly, if everything remains the same and they say that they have to get it. These 10, strategic initiatives across the board, then you have to really have a conversation about compromising and be straightforward and say, this is a very ambitious timeline. I like to identify times in the year that are just typically hard for us to get anything accomplished for us. Being in academia is usually those November, December months because of the [00:13:00] holidays and people take times off. So I identify pockets of time that we know are a wash. And so once you start having that conversation, you're able to then probably have a smaller list of things. And then from there, we can talk about identifying who needs to do what. Does this person have to do everything more oftentimes than not? Then who are we delegating? Who are we identifying to complete these specific tasks? So in other organizations, I've used this, model called the rapid model where you are essentially identifying like who's the decision maker, who is the implement or who's the processor?

run into, everybody hates at [: 00:14:00

And for me, it's no, at the beginning we identify who is the final decision maker and who's doing all the work to get it up to a 90 percent big product. So the decision maker can react, respond. You edit it and then we finalize. So those are the three steps that I go through and I found success in that.

A huge part of that process is you're also going to have to be comfortable with. You're gonna have to manage resistance because I don't want you to put it out there like everything is always this is a fail self way to get things accomplished. You're going to manage resistance. You have to help them understand, I see a lot of other components and I'm here to assist you not to be an impediment.

CheeTung Leong: For the listeners who don't know the RACI model, R A C I. The R stands for the person who's responsible for the task. A would be the person who's ultimately accountable for it. C is just people that need to be consulted.

And I [: 00:15:00

Jessica Sydnor: Oftentimes I'm sometimes sitting in the room and in my head I am trying to identify the positive aspects of a. a plan or a project. But if I'm being frank, that is not necessarily why we're here. We are, HR role is also to be a risk mitigation. And so while I can be complimentary and we can talk about things that look great in which we do, my role is to think about what is some of the risks that is maybe risking the employee, whether [00:16:00] it's contributing to morale or, where there's legalities that we have to.

Be worried about. and so that's my role. it's not to, for lack of better words, poo on people's plans, but we have to make sure that we are operating in a framework that is legal, but also does not completely, cause chaos. And while you can be complimentary, That's not my job.

And I have to remind people of that. I will applaud you. I would say great. And oftentimes when people look, they'll say, you all don't, you don't have anything to say. And I said, no. yay, let's celebrate that. I honestly have nothing to say. There are times where people, I would say, CT, people got used to, when they bring things to me, they know exactly the line of questioning.

o necessarily, rain on their [: 00:17:00

That goes into some other components as HR professionals is that you can't keep fishing for people. You teach them how to fish. And sometimes people teaching people how to fish is when I come to HR and this is my style. Other organizations might have a different HR philosophy. But when you come here and you're a leader, you need to have worked out some of the tactical aspects of your plan because I don't proclaim to know the nuances of your department. of your people, of the initiatives and the goals that you have. I won't know all that in and out. So I'm entrusting you to know that and I'm just here to advise you and that's the role I do. So when they go through that process and they know how Jessica or her team is going to the line of questioning, they do that preliminary work, that upfront work. When they bring it to us, we are typically being complimentary, celebrating that they've identified and for them, they feel empowered and [00:18:00] stronger. So as they continue to make these decisions down the line, we do shift from what you what we talked about is no longer being the firefighter but being that aspirational group where we are helping people decide what they want to accomplish.

ood way to navigate through, [: 00:19:00

Jessica Sydnor: I would say the first thing is to breathe. But then I would say, going back to The central themes of listening, active listening, ask probing questions, and then see if you can have an understanding of what the true priorities are. Recite, repeat it back to your senior leadership team and make sure you're crystal clear. Have self compassion, but ask those challenging questions. Your tone and the way in which you ask can, it does wonders, but you will have those, have to ask those challenging questions. What if this does not? What if we can't accomplish this? What would happen then? Be prepared to manage resistance. You manage resistance through having conversations, being, clearing your communication. Then I would say find change agent. Find champions. someone is inevitably going to show themselves and demonstrate, the willingness [00:20:00] and the ability to help you carry some of these things across the line. And this might be embedded within the department. So I would say find these change agents. And then lastly is empower, We want to be advisees and consultants and again, move from that transactional transformational component.

So when you empower those department line managers, and they then are seen by their team as the leader and as the person who are making these decisions. The last thing is to divorce for yourself from a style that may have worked in another industry and a smaller company, a larger company, you're going to have to adopt that component. And that's a shift for yourself, because if you've seen success in another area, you sometimes want to copy and paste. It's impractical because you're dealing with different players and sometimes different budgets, et cetera, et cetera.

ld be able to take away from [: 00:21:00

Jessica Sydnor: So you can reach out to me via LinkedIn. It's my name as spelled. so you can find me, shoot me a message. If we need to take it offline, meet via zoom email, I'm completely open to it because I'm interested to continue this dialogue because someone might have. A very drastic, different take on this topic. And, so I'm interested to also just hear the successes of others, as well in a change environment space.

CheeTung Leong: Thanks so much for hanging with us today, Jessica. And for those of you who are listening, I hope you enjoyed the show. Please do drop us a review. share this with a friend, if you enjoyed it and tune in next time to the HR Impact Show, where we cover. more, interesting and useful nuggets of wisdom, just like what we've done with Jessica today. Thanks so much for listening and see you again next time.