Creating a Critical Mass in HR

¶ … Function or Task): Involvement O = Current level X = Desired level Critical Mass Grid Make it Happen Help it Happen Let it Happen Not Involved Position Jim Barfield Co-owner Rich Hall CFO/CIO Sherri Scott VP GVMT SRV There are many different potential routes to evaluate someone's perspective towards any particular organizational objective. In any given project, it is important to evaluate the key stakeholders in order to have a sense of their level of support for a project.

In most cases, interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a participant's experiences and the interviewer can pursue in-depth information around a topic (McNamara, N.d.). In this scenario, our team will conduct interviews with the key stakeholders at Luke and Associates to determine their level of commitment towards the new project. Interviews represent a form of information collection that can be effective in regards to being able to identify someone's individual perspective.

However, for this medium to be effective, the interviewers must have strong listening skills so that they can identify the needed information in an objective fashion. In many cases, if the interview does not take an objective stance then they can influence the entire process and skew the data. One technique that can be practiced to increase the ability to listen in an unbiased manner is referred to as active listening.

Active listening has been defined as (Manktelow & Carlson, N.d.): "This is where you make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more importantly, try to understand the complete message being sent. In order to do this you must pay attention to the other person very carefully. You cannot allow yourself to become distracted by whatever else may be going on around you, or by forming counter arguments that you'll make when the other person stops speaking.

Nor can you allow yourself to get bored, and lose focus on what the other person is saying. All of these contribute to a lack of listening and understanding." It will be important to ensure that the team applies an active listening stance throughout the course of the interviews to determine the positions of the key stakeholders at Luke and Associates. These interviews will be informal, conversational interviews and no predetermined questions will be created.

However, there can be a few questions designed to get the conversation rolling but most of the interview will be adaptable towards the participants and their individual contributions. Given this format, it will be critical to prepare and exhibit active listening skills throughout the interview.

Other ways to prepare for the interview include factors such as choosing a proper setting that will have limited distractions, explaining the purpose of the interview to the participants, and cover the format as well as address other issues such as confidentiality terms beforehand (McNamara, N.d.). It is also important to document the respondents' answers during the interview. Some people try to rely on their memories to record the needed information, however memories are definitely fallible.

In fact, if the interview is of key importance to the organization, it can also be recorded so that it can be studied later. In this scenario, understanding the stakeholder's position in regards to the project will serve as a platform to negotiate a stronger buy-in to ensure the project's success. The psychological study of negotiation has undergone tremendous shifts in perspective over the last 30 years, and most recently, analysis has begun to look at social or personal factors.