Lessons from Google

I was uploading a document on my gmail and I clicked send. Only to get a pop up window from google that said “you have put int the words find attached in your email, but there is no attachment on this email, would you still want to send this?” (or something to that effect. That absolutely thrilled and impressed me. Not just the fact that google just saved me from making a right monkey of myself (I was applying for a job and the missing attachment was my cv!); it demonstrated the clever things you can do with the tools that a company already has. Like the article I read tge other day of a hairdresser, getting a jewellery maker to move into her shop during the down turn because she was forced to shut down on some days when she could not afford to keep the shop open as there were no customers. Not only did she end up splitting the rent and bills, she inadvertently generated additional traffic for her store and her “tenant” (wouldn’t you love a new necklace with that new do?).

As simple as this sound I know that it is not in reality, the possibilities of what we already posses is not always that obvious to us. There is a saying in my home land “common sense is not common”. It makes perfect business sense for google to configure its widely successful search capacities to provide helpful reminders to emailers on what they should have added onto their mail , using the presence of key words or phrases.

In the same way HR should lookl into itself and the wealth of tools, models, skills and experiences and look for ways to use “the obvious” in more creative and thrilling ways.