My very first article was published in a professional magazine (HRMagazine) almost exactly thirty years ago and it was titled: The Case For Valuing Diversity. At the time I was a young, idealistic first woman executive in a male-dominated utility and someone committed to helping this organization  go beyond compliance to actually embracing the idea […]

I am sitting at my desk in my home office looking out over a foggy Puget Sound. A cold pack is wrapped around my foot, a hot pack strapped to my shoulder, my face mask is hanging on it’s hook ready to cover my nose and mouth if I have to venture out from the safety […]

  At my HR Executive Forum last week two dozen CHROs and senior HR leaders spent some quality time discussing the ins and outs of M&As. I was surprised how much juice there was around this topic. Here are some of my takeways: HR Seat at the Table. If you are not invited, are you […]

“VA FAAN! WHAT IS HAPPENING OVER THERE?” The phone is ringing on the morning of September 11, 2001, and to my surprise it’s my older brother calling all the way from Stockholm. I begin to exchange pleasantries, but my brother interrupts loudly. “Suzanne, listen to me. You must turn on your TV, NOW.” His voice […]

Lately I have been doing some thinking around a discussion I had with my group of top HR executives a while ago. The general topic was around how organizations position themselves in the market vis-à-vis their values, a question we discussed in the context of knowing that consumers of products and services are increasingly paying […]

Today my group of HR executives revisited “wellness” in a fascinating discussion which started out by declaring “wellness” a tired and antiquated concept. Somebody said “it feels like a checkbox.” In keeping with our commitment to challenge conventional thinking and ride the crest of the wave of what is new and exciting in our meetings, […]

Last week a small group of HR executives  (about a dozen HR Executive Forum members) braved the snowy road conditions in Seattle and spent a chilly morning discussing teams. Our discussion catalysts (Sandra Gilliland, Google, and Ben Bratt, Team Effectiveness Project) shared some interesting stats to get the dialogue going such as: • 97% of teams […]

Research from McKinsey, Deloitte Bersin, and Catalyst all show that diversity leads to better outcomes. If that is the case, why is HR still struggling more than 30 years after the inception of diversity work to make a case to senior executives? Can you think of another business problem that companies have continued to stumble […]

Purpose of the performance review: to improve employee performance. In recent years, there’s been a continual and growing number of executives calling for death to the performance review.  In January the Human Resources Executive Form (HREF), a peer learning group facilitated by Suzanne Elshult, owner of HRNow, met to share experiences with transforming the performance review […]

Another lively and provocative discussion occurred amongst Human Resources executives from companies all around the Puget Sound region.  This group meets monthly and is part of a peer learning community facilitated by Suzanne Elshult, executive coach and owner of HRNow.net. Peer learning communities like this one that Suzanne formed bring real, everyday challenges front and […]