Human resources professionals are trained as gatekeepers and not facilitators. When an employee or manager wants to try something new and innovative that involves an issue that is under the control of the human resources department, the first answer that comes back is often, "No, that has never been done before. We cannot set a precedent." When challenged, the human resources department will frequently accuse the creative person of "digging in your heels" and "not being a team player." This is antithetical to creativity, motivation, and supporting the passion of the people doing the work.

Human resources departments block creativity, stifle independence, and thwart passion. They are a major barrier to innovation and must be re-engineered.

I am passionate about my work and I work at the highest level possible in my profession. As such, I pursued a doctorate while working full time. Part of my doctoral work was to immerse myself in a particular aspect of my work. As such, I engaged in a project about which a world-renowned expert said was "hugely important." To support the international aspect of the project, I planned on attending several national and international conferences. The project will directly support the work I did and would bring notoriety to my employer. Plus it would propel me into a higher echelon of practitioners from which my place of employment could reap major benefits.

When I asked for financial support for attending these confferences, the first response was, "No. There is no precedent set for supporting more than one conference in a year per employee." I re-explained the cost-benefit equation, and the next answer was, "No. We do not want to set the precedent for supporting more than one conference in a year per employee." More explanation proceeded. The next response was, "If you pay for it yourself, you will have to take vacation time." I did not have enough vacation time to take. "Can we make a deal, then? I'll pay the registration, the airfare, the hotel, and the per deim if I can take the time as workshop time." "There's no precedent set and we do not want to set the precedent. If you are gone from work and you do not have the time to take, you will be docked the pay and possibly lose your job."

Trust was broken. I was afraid to go to these conferences without consequences, but I knew the payoff would be amazing. The HR department was stuck in old ways of thinking and could only make decisions based on traditional senses of tradeoffs and fairness that stifled progress. I had difficulty maintaining my passion for my work knowing that the human resources department was not buying into my dream of working for them at the highest level of my profession. My immediate supervisor was very supportive and I did find a way to achieve my goals. But my success was in spite of the Department of "No!"

Human resources is not a profession. In general, and there are exceptions to this, the job of human resources is to protect the organization from the people. They are told to treat everyone equally and not grant special favors else the organization will suffer financial consequences. They are not allowed to be creative for fear of litigation or retalliation from government regulators. So as a rule, they oppress new solutions and new ways of thinking. It's easier to say, "No!" than to say, "That's a cool idea. Let's see how we can make this work."

Because human resource management theory is about keeping people in line, the solution is to throw out human resource management theory. Dissolve the HR hierarchy Taking a page from cognitive systems theory, a distributed model would preclude the need for global experts and support the proliferation of local experts closer to the people they support.

After dissolving the central hierarchy, my solution is to distribute the people supporting HR functions out among the workers. Empower these staff to work alongside of the worker bees to learn about their passions, to support them, and to provide creative solutions to their work. Open up the tight rosebud and let the creative juices flow both ways.

Redistribute some of the corporate bonus money to the HR departments to give them the flexibility to implement some of these creative solutions.

 Engage the workers in an HR forum to share ideas and strategies that have been successful.

Break down the Department of "No!" and nourish the distributed model of HR. Let the HR folks fulfill their destiny and passion for helping people by taking them to the people they support.

Barrier identified and described -- after 30 years of frustration perpetrated by HR "professionals" -- by John D Chovan

Thank you to my supervisor and my colleagues who enabled me to achieve my goals.

And to my partner, D.E.C., I extend my thanks for listening to me as I shaped my thoughts about this barrier.