Weirdos rule

When you first read the opening words of John Putzier’s HR Summit presentation title, Weirdos in the Workplace, it may well sound like a comedy show. Everyone has a tale of a strange personality within their organisation, and these are often punctuated by a laugh track at the end.

But Putzier’s work is a celebration, not a putdown, of the workplace weirdo. And he’s heading to Singapore and Hong Kong in May to tell HR professionals here all about why. His exclusive and extended presentation will explain just how much an organisation can benefit from engaging and developing those strange ones in the office. As Putzier says, “a little weirdness may not be a bad thing”.

The power of weird

To begin with, it helps to define what a “weirdo” actually is. Putzier says the concept is broader than what many may realise. It’s not the people with strange habits or interpersonal skills, though they can certainly be included under the “wierdo” umbrella. More importantly however, the term applies to anyone who breaks the typical mould of a professional worker in a corporate organisation. “It not a pejorative term,” Putzier says. “It’s just that we’re all different.”

It’s the people who look to do things in a different way or style, questioning the culture and norms within an organisation, and daring to rock the boat. Putzier says these people were once pariahs in the workplace, but the changing world economy now makes them indispensable.

Putzier isn’t simply an observer in these matters. He happily notes that his knowledge of weirdos in the workplace comes partly from having been one himself. Some 25 years ago, as an HR officer within a large organisation, he was chastised and held back for questioning policies and practices. “I got good results, but didn’t fit in,” he said of his former job. “The ‘organisation men’ were put off by people who questioned the status quo.”

But that stone-walling led Putzier to take on a much greater personal challenge. He completed a Master of Science (HR Development) and went on to found the FirStep consultancy which now specialises in bringing the “weirdo” message to a wide and influential corporate audience.

Age of creativity

Putzier has found an ally in time. While in 1985, the message to embrace the workplace weirdo may have been hard for many corporates and executives to swallow, globalisation and other fundamental changes to the world economy now demands a new attitude.

Putzier says there has been a significant generational shift in the way the world works. Faster and more effective communication channels, and more open trade has led to different skills and behaviours being demanded from organisations. It’s only natural that workplaces will also change. “As goes the world; so goes the workplace,” he says.

The latest changes spell important news for weirdos everywhere. Where once they may have had their ideas laughed off, now organisations that want to prosper need to stand up and listen to the weirdos in their workforces. It’s their creativity, ideas and passion for the organisation that will keep it winning.

Putzier says the world is now entering an “Age of Creativity”, where these are the skills that will set organisations apart. It follows on from the “Age of Diversity” (a result of the Baby Boom generation first entering the workforce) and the “Age of Compliance” (in which the “organisation men” ruled workplaces and few dared to question the way things were done). His message for HR professionals is to make sure their organisations are not getting stuck in one of those previous generations.

Lessons for HR

There are lessons for HR professionals working in the current economic environment, but also for those looking ahead to the future.

Putzier says the immediate challenge for HR departments in Asia is to ensure their organisations are supporting a transparent, creative and free-thinking culture. Where changes are needed, HR needs to be the driver. “I’ve spent my entire career in HR,” he says. “That’s definitely where change should originate from.”

More importantly, HR needs to begin planning further ahead to be ready for the next generational change. “If we want to be truly strategic, we need to be preparing for the future.”

That’s something he says few HR teams have been able to master, partly because of earlier trends toward the administrative and reactive side of the function. As an example, Putzier says most organisations and HR departments should have been able to predict the Age of Diversity. Whatever its name, the huge social change that occurred when Baby Boomers first entered the workforce came with several years of warning.

But organisations were slow to react to the demands for more flexible, family friendly workplaces.

Likewise, the current shortage of skills and talent in many developed economies had also been on the cards for many years. The most successful organisations foresaw this, then planned and executed strategies to cope. The Age of Creativity gives HR the opportunity to step up and proactively address these problems before they happen – but chances are, there will be a few weirdos involved in the creative thinking. Keep them close, Putzier says.