Who are the people that are taking the lead in disrupting the future of work?
They’re the official Disruptors (Organizers) of DisruptHR events held in cities around the world.
Each week, we’ll introduce you to one of these intelligent, inspiring, and beautiful people (okay, pick two) who have stepped up, and volunteered to organize a Disrupt HR event in their city.
Meet Tammy Colson – DisruptHR Cleveland (Disruptor #9)
LinkedIn – Tammy Colson
Twitter – @tlcolson
Who are you, and what do you do in your “day job”?
I’m Tammy Colson – CEO of TalentCrib.
How did you first hear about DisruptHR?
I heard about DisruptHR through Cleveland SHRM, Michelle Salis, and Frank Zupan.
I volunteered to help with social media for the first event.
Why did you decide to raise your hand and become an organizer for DisruptHR events in Cleveland?
Frank (my husband) was involved, so it was natural to assist where I could. He moved to working on other projects, so I took over the speaker wrangling, and social media.
How many events have you organized?
We’re in the midst of planning our sixth event, which will be held February 23, 2017, and we usually hold an event every 6 months.
Our last four events have been held at a great venue in downtown Cleveland called The Music Box Supper Club. The first event, held at the Cleveland Zoo, had about 100 people in attendance, but now we can accommodate around 250, and we either sell out, or have gotten close to selling out every event since we moved to The Music Box Supper Club.
What types of people/industries attended your event?
Mostly HR practitioners, but we see a good group of agency recruiters, some small business CEO’s, and other leaders and executives as well.
What are you most proud of that has come out of being involved with/organizing DisruptHR events?
I think the best thing that has happened is seeing good HR people network to find new opportunities by attending this event.
The cool thing is seeing our speakers being asked to speak at other events – but they spoke at ours first!
What kind of feedback did you receive from those who have attended DisruptHR Cleveland events?
One of my favorite comments was – “Breaking through the reputation of HR people as boring.”
(I’m a lot of things, but I don’t think boring is one of them!)
What is your favorite DisruptHR Talk, and why?
Mary Faulkner – Head of Talent at Denver Water – doing HR Improv with Heather Bussing’s slide deck (Employee Privacy: Bits And Butts) at the last event (DisruptHR Cleveland 5.0 in August 2016).
Due to flight delays, Heather couldn’t get to Cleveland from California, but we had her slides. Mary rocked the improv, and Heather had produced broadly topical and easily improvisable slides, which made it both funny and informative!
Employee Privacy: Bits And Butts | Mary Faulkner | DisruptHR Talks from DisruptHR on Vimeo.
Based off of the Talks and conversations at your events, what do you feel are the areas with the biggest opportunity for disruption?
Cleveland tends to be a bit of an old school HR community. I think the opportunity for disruption is in us embracing new ideas and perspectives, and then implementing them. The talks are fun to listen to, but taking action is where we need to look next.
What excites you or frustrates you about the future of work, your career and/or DisruptHR?
I’m excited about what I see the Cleveland community moving toward. There are a lot of really brilliant people in the HR field here.
The challenge is motivating senior leadership in companies to embrace some of the more disruptive ideas to improve their business. Finding the levers to bring them to the events, have them speak, and get involved, is a challenge. That’s the next phase of disruption.
Follow What’s Happening With DisruptHR Cleveland:
– DisruptHR Cleveland Community Page