Invest in your oxen

The pic on the left is our temporary home during the planning session. Nice place– lot’s of green around and the smell of the morning dew and vegetation is refreshing. During the weekend, we blamestorm err brainstorm and chart our (HR) plans for ’07.

Focused on the needs and requirements of the organization, plus taking into consideration the directions of the President, I drafted activities that may address what I thought to will add value to the organization.

And also in my reflection time, my learnings from Proverbs was geared towards organizational effectiveness and profit. Let me illustrate using the passage below:

Proverbs 14:4
Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest.

Oxen have multi use in days of old– In an agricultural society, an ox is responsible for the plowing (of the land) , irrigation (to ensure the plant will leave), hauling (to transport the harvest from point A to point B) and grain grinding.

From the passage I quoted above, two principles can be drawn:

• The importance of an ox in business operations. The absence of an ox will spell disaster for the business.
• The ox should benefit also from the produce of the land– attention and care from its owners.

In ancient time, the business owners (farmers) have recognized the importance of ox in farming, wikepedia detailed the practice and process in the use of oxen.

Oxen are male cattle carefully chosen, fed and nurtured to be as big and strong as it can be. Thus, investments on health and ox welfare.

Likewise, an ox is a trainable intelligent animal and a team player, thus sustainable investments on training should be observed– The training of an ox begins on calfhood. Ox owners buy different sizes of yokes as tool for training so the learning can also adjust as the calf grows bigger and older.

As an HR person, Proverbs just confirmed the emerging trend in modern HR– sourcing the best talent and keeping them. To an HR practitioner, the ox is an analogy of the human capital. But my oxen is not necessarily yours, your career or business is distinct, thus aside from people, you have to identify your oxen– the backbone of your business operations.

INVEST to gain more from your oxen.

Have you identified your oxen? What are they?

u p d a t e:

A similar post in the context of “brand” can be found here: “Invest In Your Buds”