HR pros can use Marie Kondo’s method for tidying up to simplify people practices

Does it spark joy?

Marie Kondo’s methods for tidying up may have applications in HR, according to Terence Mauri, leadership and AI speaker and author. In his recently published book, The Upside of Disruption: The Path to Leading and Thriving in the Unknown, Mauri suggests some of HR’s problems can be solved by detoxing, decluttering, and deleting outdated and complicated people practices.

He shared with HR Brew lessons from his book.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are some HR takeaways from your book?

We always overestimate the risk of trying something new. New way of working, for example, a new performance management system, a new talent marketplace, so we always overestimate the risk of trying something new, but we always underestimate the risk of standing still…Every HR leader should be adopting an iterative mindset, a curiosity to learn, but also the courage to unlearn a lot of the “always done” ways that have gone off, like yogurt in the fridge, for example.

How can HR pros prevent themselves from standing still?

Elimination, for example, and simplification [is] another example, almost like a Marie Kondo-style of unlearning. I use that, because that’s like a nice, sort of universal metaphor…Think about all the processes or ways of working that are no longer optimized or [are] dysfunctional, even broken…It’s like detox, declutter, and delete.

What are examples in the workplace that need detoxing, decluttering, or deleting?

This is a universal challenge at every HR function, which is what I call BMI—not body mass index, but bureaucratic misery index. So, what I mean by that is too many processes, too many protocols, too many meetings…We’re drowning in information…and that is a tax on agility. It’s a tax on human potential…The higher the BMI within the organization, the less engaged employees will be, because they’re spending more time on bureaucratic work rather than intelligent work…What do we need to detox, declutter, and delete in order to create more bandwidth or energy to focus on our highest value outcomes and our most intelligent work?

Do you have any other advice for HR pros?

Strategy number one is elimination…Actually removing barriers to agility, removing barriers to speed…Strategy two is automation…How much time do HR leaders spend on soul-sucking, low-value, routine, repetitive tasks that could easily be automated or augmented? The research in the book shows that, on average, HR leaders are spending [the majority] of their week on shallow work, shallow outcomes, shallow activity. What I mean by shallow is low value, low contribution, at the expense of deep work…We need to flip that ratio…What is your AI strategy? Do you have one?