“BluePath Program” Coffee Chat @Boom coffee roasters
I still remember first seeing the BluePath Program’s message about three years ago, through the HR “little weekend” community. I was struck that a team this close to coaching and hands-on exchange existed — and only yesterday did I get to experience it in person.
Before ten in the morning, the room had gathered nearly 70 HR people from different industries. Program managers Jamie and Angela walked us carefully through the blueprint for the plan ahead, and the quick focus from mentors Chris and Grace made the mentor’s role, and the program’s core ideas, much clearer. When principal Grace came on, a few simple words tied the mission and vision together through the ideas of passing it on, of being a Giver — and made it easier to believe that HR’s influence goes well beyond the workplace; it is the S in ESG. It also reminded me of what teacher Jian-Bo once said: an excellent HR person doesn’t need many words; a single sentence can land with weight.
In the round of self-introductions, each of us had one minute to explain our background, our goals and motivation for joining BluePath, plus our own sense of the work, the role and the definition of HR. Every HR person showed a highly flexible way of speaking and an active attitude, and I couldn’t help being amazed at how rare it is to meet a group of people this good.
Having once been a stay-at-home dad, a music teacher and a performing artist, I entered training and talent development after re-entering the workforce, and that became the motivation and the knock on the door for a mid-career switch into HR. But after the switch, short on professional knowledge and hands-on experience, all I could do was keep expanding my learning outward in my spare time. In just five years, one thing has become clear: HR knowledge and skill have to be gained through people. By getting close to excellent benchmarks, you gain thinking of the same dimension; through HR people from different fields, you gain the most objective fairness of understanding.
HR work, for me, is a balance of reason and feeling. The rational thought is that you fulfil yourself by fulfilling others; the emotional thought is that you heal yourself by healing others. In mentor Chris’s Q&A, he mentioned that HR’s most important basic skill is to protect your own body, mind and spirit first — because in work that involves so much contact with people, what gets spent most is your own head and heart, and only a healthy body, mind and spirit lets us have the greatest influence.
I pray for a transparent heart that sees the truth, and a pair of eyes that can weep, to keep me humble and empathetic. Like water, able to exist in any form and temperature, in any environment. But wherever it has flowed, it changes the temperature and humidity there, and carries everyone toward the same goal.
I hope for a chance to join this cohort of the BluePath Program,
to find a group of people with kindred ideals, and together push forward and contribute — for the workplace, for society, for the world.