This time of year always brings back a flood of memories of my family and friends. To all of you I wish you the happiest of holidays, and a 2012 bright with promise.  Please click on this link for a special holiday surprise.  Sometimes it takes just little things to make big changes. Move your mouse across the picture to see the transformation! Enjoy!

Image courtesy of iclipart.com

Ever had your routine completely discombobulated? Imagine what would happen if all of a sudden someone dumped a 13,500 gallon swimming pool into your place of employment with absolutely no warning.  Imagine it was over a holiday weekend when the building was unoccupied, and the water was allowed to sit for hours.  Well, that isn’t just a “ferinstance.”  It really happened where I work.  Our sprinkler system malfunctioned over the July 4^th weekend, and went unchecked long enough for the equivalent of a backyard, in-ground swimming pool poured into the third floor and worked its way down to the first floor.  Total pandemonium … massive destruction … major disruption.

All the preparation in the world can never prepare you for the shock of the real thing. You’ll never know if you’re truly ready until it happens and all those preparations and plans come off the shelves and into real life.  Imagine your office drenched from ceiling to floor with a steady flow of water dripping through the ceiling.  What do you have out that would be ruined?  What would be safe?  Where would you move until repairs were completed?  Would you be able to continue working?  These and more questions we faced as many employees cut short their holiday celebrations to begin to work on the devastation.  Adrenaline kicked into high gear, and people began to show the stuff they were made of and took charge.  Much praise goes out to those who were first responders, particularly since this is the worst disaster ever to strike our organization in its 50 year history.   Even hurricanes had spared this office, even though four of them had our area in their sites in 2004.

As we began the recovery efforts, I began to notice an amazing transformation.  People were talking to each other, helping each other, joking with each other.   Departments have merged with others, taking every spare desk, closet, lobby, or alcove as makeshift office space.  We’re seeing faces we haven’t seen in years.  And we were interacting, sharing, helping, breaking down our self-made silos and building relationships.  Has it been hard – of course it has.  Any time there is major change, we are challenged to our limits to adapt and roll with the changes, particularly changes over which we have no control.  People have the opportunity to step up to the plate and show what they’re really capable of doing, above and beyond their normal job duties.  We’ve developed a new sense of community that we might not have ever experienced otherwise.

Would I recommend a disaster to bring folks together?  Absolutely not!  But, if we look for the positive impact of disruptive change, maybe we might be more prone to shake things up a bit every so often.  It’s nice to be secure, but sometimes we can become too secure and entrenched.  I see the outcome of this upheaval as a positive one for my organization.  Yes it is inconvenient, annoying, and frustrating sometimes as we get accustomed to the swelled population or our remaining buildings.  But the positive results of drawing us together towards a common purpose might never have been realized without this event that rocked us to our core.

Welcome to the premier edition of the HR Enthusiast! I have been researching blogs for a while now, and believe me, there are lots of HR blogs out there. One of my favorites is is HR Bartender (www.hrbartender.com). Before I ever ventured into this “odyssey” I checked with the Bartender about how to get started. She advised me, before anything, that I should find my voice. My voice? … more research….but what I found was pretty amazing.

What is my voice … well, first off, I have to admit I am a professional student. Up until now, my “voice” has been academic. That can be downright boring! So, in this blog, you’re going to get the real deal, the real me, my real voice. You might agree with me; you might think I’ve gone bonkers. Either way, we’ll get some good conversation going.

Why the “HR Enthusiast?” I’ve been in HR a looooong time, way before PCs and other geekly stuff that would have made my life so much easier. Ever worked on a mainframe the size of Manhattan? With punched cards no less? Make one simple mistake, and the whole thing starts smoking …. But, here I am, it’s almost a decade into the 21st century, and I still love HR. In fact, I’m more excited about my profession than I was when I started.

Why an “odyssey?” Truth is, I wanted to call it an adventure, but that term is so last century. Odyssey is much more descriptive. Check out Miriam’s online and you’ll find that it means 1 : a long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune and 2 : an intellectual or spiritual wandering or quest. Feels a lot like that, right? Look at the changes in the last year alone. Sometimes I feel like I’m fielding fly balls, and I’m the only outfielder. But, my enthusiam remains intact.

How about you? What do you think about where HR is headed? Are you as enthusiastic as when you first started? Need to recycle your enthusiam? Want to join the voyage? Fast Company told us why they hate HR, but let me know what you love about HR. I think there’s more to love than ever. Got any HR heroes? Share them here.

You can reach me at enthoosed@hrenthusiast.com