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Human Vaules in a Technological Age

Mary Cronin Director of Human Resources, Harvard University

Members of the graduating class, parents, friends, invited guests, and Dean Comeau:

Mary Cronin

May I begin by offering my sincere congratulations to you on the completion of your studies in the various graduate certificate programs in Harvard University Extension School. On a personal note, let me also thank you for inviting me here today, thereby giving me the opportunity to add a bright and positive memory about Lowell Lecture Hall. Prior to today, my most vivid and, I might add, unhappy memory of this building took place when I was a Harvard/Radcliffe undergraduate (I won't tell you the year). It concerned a higher-level economics course, a term test, and me. Let me tell you, thanks to you, this memory will now be much sweeter.

As graduates of Harvard University, you are probably familiar with our anthem, "Fair Harvard." Its last line describes Harvard as an institution that has kept its bearings, sometimes in the midst of turbulence--Harvard as "calm, rising through change and through storm."

I am here to tell you that there is much change, and a little storm, brewing at Harvard. And it is not change in our political, social, or intellectual relationships with the outside world--it's inside, it's about change in our technology, and therefore, it's about the working relationships all of Harvard's faculties and staff have with one another. The implications of this technological change are enormous.

What we have taken on is Project ADAPT, a major multi-year replacement and improvement of our financial and human resource software systems. Fundamental changes will take place in how people are hired, how materials are ordered and bills paid, and how financial accounts are established, maintained, and reported. We will eliminate duplicate processes, and staff will conduct business through more sophisticated web-based tools. A major training initiative supports these changes in jobs and skills. Decentralized, individual ways of accomplishing similar tasks will give way to more consistent procedures. Harvard's administration is involved in its own technological revolution.

In the planning stages of Project ADAPT, many administrators forecasted that ADAPT would bring with it a substantial level of change in how people would work with the new technology and with each other. Their predictions were right, but are no longer theoretical. The intensity of change, both exhilarating and discomforting, is being felt now, as we move toward implementation over the next year.

How would I characterize what is happening right now? The complexity of the software design for an organization of the size and scope of Harvard, coupled with the speed of change in the technology itself, poses a major challenge for any institution. But what we are understanding more and more as we move through this project is that the most difficult challenges of all may be the ones that do not change over time--for example, how to align goals, how to coordinate disparate units, how to define the best practice among many different models, and how to set a vision that encourages people to forsake old practices and embrace improvements. In other words, how do you prompt people and organizations not only to accept new technology, but to also improve with new technology?

Technology brings us new opportunities to communicate sophisticated messages clearly through words and images, but it can also separate the speaker and the listener. One of the first lessons in organizational behavior courses is that true communication is defined by what the listener understands, not by what the speaker says. In earlier days, the speaker saw the expression on the listener's face, and responded accordingly to clarify the message--these days we send e-mail into the cybersphere without a ready way of ascertaining whether our listeners understand. Technology can provide the means to inform large populations rapidly yet it can also be isolating, as anyone who has lost a checker game to a PC will tell you. As the power and uses of new technologies grow, we have a particular obligation to pay attention to the human side of our organizations. In other words, the technology will only be as good as the people who design it and use it.

Project ADAPT has taught us that installations of new systems require that we clarify what is most important to our organizations--because information on how we're doing against the priorities we've set can be more easily captured with better systems. This opportunity forces us to be precise in areas where we have been vague before. What are our highest priorities? Who is accountable? How much standardization is enough? What are the essential skills we expect in all staff? How will we integrate new acquisitions with different organizational cultures? These new systems require human skills. In fact, they will require human skills more than ever.

I have been hiring and developing staff for a number of organizations for quite awhile now, and have come to believe that the people who make a difference--the people who can lead necessary change, hopefully through calm rather than through storm--are the following:

• People who are analytical and can look around and inside a problem and not jump to conclusions.

• People who are creative and willing to risk discomfort in proposing new approaches to tough issues.

• People who can work in teams by being flexible in role and in task, by showing a positive attitude, and by placing the team's success ahead of their own.

• People who can write clearly and on point, and who can speak persuasively and convincingly.

• People who can listen for the multiple messages that people convey, and respond positively, constructively, and empathetically.

• People who can lead others with both strength and grace.

• People who have personal integrity and respect for the multiple, varied contributions an increasingly diverse workforce can make to the success of an organization.

This is a tall list, but in many ways, an enduring list. Human skills transcend time and technology. I would suggest that many of these same skills were needed by an earlier team that met in Philadelphia to craft the United States Constitution over 200 years ago, but well after the founding of Harvard. There, 12 states with divergent, conflicting interests were represented. Diverse occupations--farmers and merchants--were present; though, as usual, the majority of them were lawyers. The ages of the delegates spanned seven decades. What carried the day, and allowed compromise on the most basic political philosophies, was knowledgeable, careful argument; creative compromises in designing the houses of Congress; healthy debate; attention to detail; leadership; and personal integrity. In the end, 39 of the 42 delegates signed a document none would have proposed initially. There being no cell phones then, the national debate on the foundation of federal and state government took three years to complete--not a bad timeline at all for so momentous a task. An early and successful example of how interests can be integrated, and of how that integration rested on communication and respect.

These human skills--the ability to work as part of a team, to analyze a problem, to communicate interpersonally, and to value disparate opinions--are crucial when we think about essential qualities in new senior management at Harvard, along with academic and administrative achievement. It is my opinion that this set of skills and abilities will increasingly provide the glue that holds together both the technologically complex international organizations and the creative start-ups that exemplify the future of business.

Communication, leadership, and respect for each other will remain as important in the new global organization as well. The integration of cultures is hard work. It's very instructive to hear discussions about the merger of Chrysler and Daimler-Benz. The complementary nature of the product lines is a marketer's dream, and the financials look very good. The big question is whether there can be successful integration of a European company with great respect for the highly individualized and crafted work of an artisan and an American company that has capitalized on the best features of the standardized assembly line. Can two views of workers--craftsman versus standardized producer--be effectively meshed with the best practices of each emerging? This requires sophisticated human skills to communicate across cultures, and to listen well to what is said.

Similarly, moving from a start-up to a more mature organization also prompts questions about human values and skills. Managers struggle with delegating control and authority, and in ensuring that healthy communication is not stifled as more people are brought into the firm, and physical, geographical, and time distances start to grow. Staying close to the customer is more difficult too, and is being remedied in two ways--first, by improving service delivery and information systems through progress in technology, and second, by training staff in really listening to the customer and giving staff the authority to act on behalf of the organization to satisfy the customer. The former requires skill to build responsive information and control systems, the latter requires confidence in the skills and abilities of people to do their best. Investing in the human infrastructure means looking at each employee and responding to their needs for growth and development, for flexibility in their multiple roles of worker, parent, child, and citizen, and for a way to improve their skills, to be recognized for their achievement, and to contribute to the greater organization.

What would I like you to take away from this talk? One main idea: that human values and skills are as necessary now as they always have been, probably more so in our sophisticated technological and global environment.

The work that you have done and the achievements that you have realized in your time at Harvard contribute in a real way to the portfolio of skills necessary to success in the next century. Many of you are or will become managers of others. In the increasingly more complex organizations in which we will work, our employees will demand much of us, and the manager's ability to identify, motivate, and keep talent is the new comparative advantage. It is known now as intellectual capital--an organization's recognition that our greatest assets leave the office every day around dinnertime, and what are we going to do to make sure that they keep coming back?

We recently surveyed some of our technology professionals and found, as many organizations have, that fair salaries are important, but what people really need from an organization is a trusting relationship with their supervisors, opportunities for growth, and a sense of being a valued part of a greater whole. The lesson we have learned from the restructuring and downsizing of the 1980s is that employees have lost trust in the goodwill of their employers. Few people will stay with firms for their entire careers, but they will continue to seek out employers who recognize the importance of development, training, and growth. This investment in workers will be the new definition of workplace trust, and this trust will have to be gained in order to retain skilled workers in a shortage labor market. Managers will play a crucial role in the development of this new contract. Again, communication, listening, and respect for human values will cement the new work relationships.

It is a dizzying amount to think about on a day for the simple messages of achievement and celebration. Let me leave you with this: take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way to learn another skill or another part of the organization, to take a risk, to manage staff, to brush up your presentation skills, to counsel an employee, to recognize good work well done. Listen before you speak. Use your head, of course, but don't ever forget to use your heart.

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