The Power of Impact

"So how did you get into doing... whatever it is you... do?"

I get that that question a lot. One of the challenges of Learning, Talent and Organizational Development work is the somewhat fuzzy nature of where it sits within most companies. It is Human Resources... but sort of not. It is Corporate Communications and Marketing... but sort of not. It is Systems and Process... but again, sort of not.

I found I liked it because I got hooked on it as a teenager, I was onced asked to design training sessions for a national youth organization I was involved with, as part of a push to support its core programs. The material I designed was to be presented at a National Leadership Seminar that was being held in Colorado later that year.

So I went ahead and designed the courses and delivered them The programs were successful and very well received. Yet after the warm, fuzzy feelings of the Kirkpatrick level one evals wore off, I found myself wondering what, if any lasting impact would the work I had done actually have?

I have always been a big Star Trek fan. There have been entire dissertations written on the elements and motivations of the various characters. Star Trek's creator, Gene Roddenberry once described the character of Captain Kirk as a futuristic Horatio Hornblower, driven by a intense desire and need to "make a difference".

Impact is a funny concept. It can be either a good or bad thing. To seek to have an impact also has very real risks to it. Yet in the nearly three decades I have worked in this wonderfully hard to define field of "Learning & Development" I have found it to be my most powerful motivator. Impact is a very real part of the compensation I seek for doing this job. I want to, and even need to know, that the work I do has had an impact, that it has made a difference.

British-American author, motivational speaker and organisational consultant Simon Sinek once gave a TedTalk that went viral, where he spoke of "finding your why". The motivation that makes you do what you do.

In more cynical corners of American Corporate culture his exhortation to find your "why" has been quietly snickered at. Yet the concept remains incredibly relevant in an age where salary may attract talent, but it won't be enough to retain it. If you want people to come for job, but stay for a career, you need to be able to connect what people do, to the desired outcomes you want to have achieved by having them do it. The bigger "Why".

I am fond of asking people; "Where does your job come from?" Meaning, how does the work you do map to the larger reason for your organization to exist in the first place. Often I will here someone say; "Well I'm just a _______, those kind of questions are way above my pay grade!" That's nonsense. Here's why...

Let's say you are a widget stamper. Your job is to just stand on the assembly line all day, and stamp the widgets as they roll by. Fair enough. But here is the thing, can you answer three key questions for me about your widget stamping job? 1)Where do your widgets come from? 2) Where do they go after you stamp them? And lastly, 3) Why do these widgets need to be stamped?

No job is an island. So often we fail to see the larger organizational impact of the jobs we do everyday. Picture three dominos standing up in a row. Think of your job as the middle domino. Who has to stay standing for you to not fall over? Likewise if you fall who in turn is going to be the next domino to topple? Who has to be successful at their job for you to be a success in yours, and vice-versa?

Making a difference rarely if ever, happens in a silo. There is a very real interdependence that enables someone to have real impact. Do your people know how their job fits in the larger organization? Can they answer the very real question of how their success makes a difference?

I work for a big health care company. Okay, I work for a really really BIG health care company. I work for one of the largest providers of healthcare in the world. Over Twelve Million health plan members served by over 280,000 employees. An organization with at times, a ridiculously complex business and organizational model. Operating in a regulatory environment that makes most every other industry look simple by comparison. Providing health care both in the inpatient and outpatient setting, conducting groundbreaking medical research and engaging with the communities and populations it serves both inside and outside of the Doctor's office.

Yet I don't work on the clinical side. I am not a medical professional. I don't deliver health care, or do medical research and if you asked me what any sort of medical symptoms you were having meant, I'd be pretty much clueless. I work in Talent Management and Development.

So where's my "why?" How do I "impact map" my job to the company's bigger mission of delivering "Total Health"?

Find where your organization's deliverables live. When I first joined the company, my office was actually at a Medical Center. So I would often see our Patients around the campus. I remember one day walking from my office to grab lunch and I saw a young Mother, with two very energetic kids in tow, trying to get both of them from her car to the Pediatric clinic across the parking lot. I found myself making a mental list of all the stuff I had to do that day and asking myself; How do the items on that "to do" list make this person's experience as patient better? How does it make her ability to access our services easier? How does what I do, make this a better place to get health care?

It was there, that our company's deliverables, our "product" lived. With this busy, tired frustrated Mom, trying to get her kids to their Doctor appointment. If I couldn't reasonably connect everything on my "to do list" with that deliverable, it probably didn't belong on my list.

Support Services too often get seen as something separate from an organization's core purpose. "Necessary evils", when in truth they are just as integral to that overall mission as the "front line". In all the industries I have worked, be it healthcare, banking, professional services or non-profits; HR, Finance, IT, Facility Services, Marketing, Legal, Learning and Talent Development, all support the core mission. The question is can your people articulate that? As a learning and professional development resource I like to say "I care for the people who deliver care to our people". Being able to draw that Impact Map is what brought me here, and is a huge part of the what keeps me here.

Connecting the dots is vital. In the Talent space, the ability to help your people map their impact is critical. Organizations are made up three elements. First are your Values, ( what you believe in). Then your Mission, (what you do), and lastly your Vision, (what you want to look like when you've done it.)

Of course, compensation and benefits, along with advancement opportunities are very important factors in talent retention. But they are not the only factors. A critical piece of enabling people to see a career path and not just a job, is providing clarity around the "why" their role exists. How it supports the Mission, adheres to the Values, and how when successful, will help realize the Vision. That clarity enables people to draw that clear connecting line from the aspirational to the operational.

Talent Retention is more than just "what are you offering?". It is about having a very real reason to stay. Give people the tools and opportunities to make a difference and to SEE that impact, and you create a very real and powerful connection between what your organization does, and the people employed there to do it.