When you argue with reality

I have over the past few years been practising The Work by Byron Katie. It is a somewhat meditative practice, involving what is fundamentally four questions and a turnaround. One of Katie’s most memorable quotes is “when you argue with reality, you lose – but only 100 percent of the time”.

This resonates with me as recent reality has involved a pandemic, riots, floods, recurring electricity and water outages and a myriad other matters in my environment. On a more personal level, family members and friends have passed away, lost jobs, gone through acrimonious divorces and been the victims of crime.

Amid such negative happenings, The Work gives me a chance to take a breath and gain perspective. Chatting with HR leaders in our community has the same effect. It gives me the opportunity to learn how organisations are transitioning to what can no longer be called “the new normal” in a “time of unprecedented change”.

It has become clear, through the conversations I have had with CHROs over the past year that life is only getting more demanding and – as opposed to the Darwinistic approach of the industrial era – progressive HR executives are fast adopting a new way of working with human capital.

The cut-throat company cultures of the past, of unhealthy competition being incentivised, are being replaced with healthy collaboration. Where once HR was the paper pusher, instructed to implement decisions made by the board, the discipline has been elevated to board level – thus taking the conversations around employee value and wellness into the C-Suite.

Where once an employee was considered a cog without context, the workplace is now embracing the whole human. When I hear stories of the strategic transformation that our HR executives are pioneering, and see the metrics within their organisations, I no longer need to argue with reality.

This is simply because with employees experiencing such positive –and humane – change within their organisations, it is but a matter of time until these same individuals start to impact the broader society, the country and the planet.

So, every day I argue with reality a little bit less – because every CHRO that I come across shows me that we are all just doing the work.

RONDA NAIDU Associate editor

rnaidu@chro.co.za

+27 82 695 9704