HR Without Boundaries - Deconstructing How We Practice to Move Organizations Forward
"Organizations have never been about work. Organizations have been about people who do work."
What it was about
HR has boxed itself into rigid roles, hierarchies, and 'because I said so' policies that dehumanize both employees and HR practitioners themselves. Deconstructing HR means treating everyone as a person first, including senior leaders, interpreting policy instead of blindly enforcing it, and rebuilding structure and daily behavior around curiosity, appreciation, and fun.
By the numbers
Key notes
- Stop introducing or thinking of senior leaders by their title — treat and address them as people, the same way you would a frontline employee.
- When meeting someone new, ask them where they're from instead of what they do, since 'what do you do' invites comparison and status games while 'where are you from' invites stories and breaks down barriers.
- If you cannot apply a policy (e.g., attendance) consistently across every employee regardless of role or class, you should not have that policy at all.
Take this back Monday
Personally thank three support/frontline staff by name this week — people rarely thanked by their own employers.
If we can't apply a policy the same way to every employee, from frontline staff to the CEO, we shouldn't have that policy.
Watch out for
- Applying attendance and conduct policies inconsistently by employee class (e.g., giving white-collar workers more leeway than blue-collar/frontline workers) while still calling it one policy.
- Reducing people, especially senior leaders, to their job titles and treating those titles rather than the humans behind them.
- Rigidly enforcing rules and policies instead of interpreting them for the specific person and situation in front of you.
Steve Browne is the author of three HR books and runs a global HR network reaching over 14,000 professionals every week.
