Reflections on the Annual CIPD conference #cipdace17 on HR topics #hrblogs

For those of you that follow me on twitter, it will be no surprise that I have been at the #cipdace17 conference this week.

What is the CIPD annual conference?

The CIPD is a UK based professional membership body for people involved in Human Resources, Organisational Development & Learning & Development. It has two national conferences, this one is more focused on general HR & OD. It currently takes place in Manchester UK each autumn.

Key learning from #cipdace17

The conference is a real smorgasbord or meze of offerings.

KN1 – Keynote 1

The session opened with a real inspirational session from Martha Lane Fox. Martha was Founder & Executive Chair of Doteveryone.org.uk, former UK Digital Champion and Co-founder of Lastminute.com

There was a lot to think about in this session, some of the most thought-provoking elements and quotes for me were:

if I were a black cab driver I would be less worried about #uber and more worried about autonomous vehicles. @Marthalanefox we need to look to the longer term and “fight” the right battles

How can I build teams that are resilient, entreprenurial & curious

We are so bad at our digital undertanding that if we were to use the tools available today we would be at least 50% more productive #mckinsey

Here is a summary:

Adopting an Ethical Approach to HR and People Management

On HR and ethics

A panel discussion between –

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL PURPOSE AND RESPONSIBILITY IN BUSINESS SUCCESS

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School

A view on business success from a financial perspective. The key is to look at the long-term and develop purpose. By developing purpose and building your people, then over time, there is more money for shareholders. It is expensive in the first few years, but in the long term, there are increased profits. Indeed organisations that focus on purpose in the wider sense can generate 3.8% more profit than those that focus n profit alone.

Most employees stay in organisations longer than the CEO. We need to remember that if we want sustainable profits, not just short-term gain. Focus on the purpose and profits follow.

Learning from the orchestra

[KN2] Leading Great Performance – The Classical Orchestra Experience with Professor Gernot Schulz

This was a fascinating piece where Professor Schulz was able to clearly show the effects of a leader. That the leader needed to demonstrate certain skills.

The following two video clips are just part of the session.

Thinkers Tavern

The Thinker’s Tavern was an informal discussion and exploration checking our understanding of what professionalism and ethics mean to us. There were around 70 of us at the event, with a panel of four and an excellent MC in the guise of  Matthew Sweet.

The premise was Do our responsibilities start and end with our day job? Do we have a duty to use our unique skills to help others? How can we be good professional citizens?

This session was to help us think. It took the concept of being a professional way beyond the ethics and talk at the main conference. It looked at how easy it was to conform, and to make assumptions that we are doing good for others, when the reality is often we do these things for ourselves (spiders in the urinal – if you were there)