What is ProKo? What do you do?
ProKo is a consulting matchmaking agency that represents independent consultants who specialize in HR and organizational effectiveness, and related fields like org design, org transformation, change management, and talent and performance management. We’re talent agents that match highly-vetted consultants with projects at Fortune 500 companies. It's a like how the Creative Arts Agency in Hollywood represents the best actors, but ProKo represents the best HR and org effectiveness talent. Our clients know that our consultants are all world-class so it’s just a matter of helping the client find the right fit for their situation, problem, or challenge.
What’s a trend or insight that our community might find interesting?
I’m sure everyone in the HR.Hackathon community knows that the COVID pandemic turned the world of HR upside down and inside out. First, HR had to figure out how to get everyone to work from home, then how to handle health and safety concerns to get people back into the office, and then we were faced with the Great Resignation. Most HR organizations are still dealing with these things. Here are two examples:
One of our consultants is helping a client figure out how to adjust their operating model since they’ve had a significant shift in their business. The company changed how they serve their customers, and now they realize they need to catch up by changing how they approach their work internally.
Another ProKo consultant is helping a Fortune 500 tech company align their processes, culture, and approach to performance management to better align with a hybrid workforce where some people are in the office and others are remote.
I can’t think of a single part of HR that hasn’t been affected by the pandemic. ProKo consultants are being asked to help with initiatives related to less hierarchy, more empowerment, increasing engagement, and preserving or strengthening company culture. Oh, and how to manage and lead effectively in a hybrid world.
What intrigues you about the application of design thinking in Human Resources?
When I first heard about design thinking, I thought it was all about products, art, and architecture, but the more I learn about it (particularly thanks to the things you write, Nicole), I realize that we can definitely apply design thinking in HR.
The problems we're trying to solve in organizations today are ones that require artistry and creative thinking. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions; we need to be creative. This doesn’t mean getting out 50 colors and throwing them at the wall to see what happens. It means going step by step through a process to figure out what will work. There's a structure behind it. There's a way of guiding groups of people to be creative to solve the problems they’re facing in the organization.
This is why I think design thinking is super valuable—to help us look at a problem from different angles and different points of view and then make sense of that. As I mentioned earlier, the situations and challenges we’re facing now coming out of the pandemic are completely new, which requires even more design thinking.
Why did you become an HR.Hackathon Alliance sponsor?
The main reason was to support what you’re doing in terms of pushing the envelope forward for the HR profession. HR has been on a long journey to reinvent itself, going to back to when it was called the personnel department. I think what you’re doing with the HR.Hackathon Alliance is really helping to simulate new ideas and new ways of thinking, and to make HR more relevant and forward thinking as a profession and as a function. That's the reason we became a sponsor—to encourage new ways of thinking, new ways of working, and helping organizations be their best. Of course, this is where ProKo consultants excel so it was an easy decision!
