Embrace the “Brown Fat”

By Barry Stern, Ph.D.

Years ago, a former colleague and business partner, exasperated with a client’s middle management layer, referred to them as “the arteriosclerosis in the veins of the organization”. Today it has become de rigueur to fret over the arteriosclerotic impact of the current global economic climate upon leadership pipelines. Yet while watching the news early one morning this week I found out that there is a “brown fat” that comprises a small percentage of an adult’s body weight which might play some role in regulating body weight and energy balance. Perhaps, I was informed, there may even prove to be a link between obesity and a lack of brown fat. And the very next morning my sensibilities were further assaulted when I was reminded on the same show that the cholesterol scouring class of drugs called statins could cause lethargy, muscle weakness, and liver damage.

So this got me to thinking about two sets of questions:

• What is our responsibility as HR professionals to seize this unique moment in the business environment to leverage those “brown fat” leaders now more likely to remain in our organizations?  How vital to our organizational leanness and energy balance are they? And finally, have we the nuanced approaches and systems to accomplish this in a meaningful way?
• Are our statin-like efforts to “unclog our pipelines” too heavy handed? Will the side effects of our efforts likely sap the vitality from our organizations and ultimately result in permanent disability? 

Just as researchers are sure to learn more about brown fat in the immediate future, I propose that we “embrace the brown fat” with our Talent Management efforts. There’s much to learn. What steps are you taking? This golden opportunity won’t last forever. The clock is ticking. 

Barry Stern is vice president, Consulting Services and Delivery for Development Dimensions International (DDI).

Comments

[Barry Stern]

Stephanie, thank you for your post. My fear is that we in the HR field sometimes don’t act courageously enough in these situations. While I have many opinions, I’m very interested to learn more about how and if people are seeing this time as a unique opportunity to reduce brain drain. In my experience at least, most organizations like to think of themselves, or at least to aspire to be as you put it, “quick and decisive.” It takes some courage (and some tools) on our parts to inject a little tension into the system in the spirit of making better decisions…even if it means slowing things down and being a little more organizationally introspective. In my ideal world at least, I’d like us to be able to ensure that our organizations don’t use “quick and decisive” to enable “brown fat stupidity”.

[Stephanie Crowe]

Yes, we will lose some of the good stuff. I am all for careful and thoughtful strategically-driven decision-making. But in case of emergency - pull this chord! It's time for a marines approach to decision making: a quick and decisive decision now is better than an optimal decision later. Not only will some high potentials get lost, some high potential companies will go under. To mix the metaphor... that's what happens when you trim the fat.