For those of you who grew up with the comic strip For Better or For Worse, the news that Lynn Johnston – the comic strip creator -- is going to take the family back over one quarter of a century may or may not be welcome news. This comic strip family will now enter a time machine in which grown up children becoming babies and aging parents returning to pre-middle age.

This concept makes me think, what if……

What if we could go back to the earlier days of our careers – armed with many years of knowledge and experience – and re-live some of the more challenging moments? Just as Johnston writes on her website “I can fix what I don't like about my early work as I add and subtract...redraw and just improve everything,” we could go back and implement everything to perfection.

Since a great deal of learning about how to work with others comes about as a result of experience and mistakes, many years working in HR should be adequate preparation to make a time warp like this run smoothly.

The main question then becomes: would we, if we could, go back and correct some of our mistakes?

Obviously this is an exercise in imagination, but it does bring to mind the value of well-placed advice. There is a great need for professionals to speak with others who have experience with new and/or challenging tasks. Does the mobile nature of todays working world make us less able to rely on mentors or speak with co-workers in this capacity or are new social networking tools making it easier?

So, I ask you – what advice would you give to your former self during those first few years in HR?

References:

Johnston, Lynn. “A Letter from Lynn about FborFW.” For Better or For Worse NewsBites [www.fborfw.com]. August 29, 2008.