I love television. Truly and deeply love it. I can spend mindless hours on my couch or in the bed watching marathons of shows I’ve seen a hundred times and feel at complete peace. There is rarely a moment when I am home when my television isn’t on. It is on as I type this post! Along with the fights and giggles of my children, television is the background noise of my house.

Television helps me escape the craziness of my days and the loneliness of my nights. It helps me stop thinking, stressing and worrying as well as encourages and inspires me. It is an appliance and utility in my home as necessary as the refrigerator and water.

Did I mention that I love television?

So I was delighted when I stumbled across this post from Ron Thomas at TLNT entitled ‘What HR Can Learn From’ … Here’s What You’ll Get When You See That. Ironically, it happened right around the time of a tragic television event — the cancellation of the long-standing daytime dramas All My Children and One Life To Live.

And here’s how those two things have come together to inspire my series for the month.

Ron’s post resonated with me because it is so true! There are tons of things for HR to learn from what’s on television now. HR writers and bloggers especially! Practical examples of good and bad HR, management and leadership abound for us to glean and share with others to help everyone improve. As Ron said in the article, everything then becomes a learning moment. For HR to survive and thrive, we have to “look into the future and design workplace strategies that select, deploy, motivate, engage, develop, and partner” in the organizations where we consult and/or work. We have to think outside of the box and look to different sources to guide us. Certainly, television doesn’t have all the answers — but it is definitely full of potential lessons that we can use.

Growing up, my grandmother lived for ABC soaps. She passed her love onto me. I always assumed I would pass that onto my children. When I read about the cancellations, I was devastated. I joined in with other fans to write letters, sign petitions and make phone calls to the network to ask them to reconsider the decision. When it became clear our efforts were not going to save our shows, I accepted the inevitable and decided to spend the last few weeks and months enjoying what was time was left.

If it sounds like I’m talking about losing a member of my family … well, I am. I’ve been a soap fan my whole life. I grew up with these characters in these fictional towns. Watching daytime drama slowly become extinct in favor of more talk and reality shows is hurtful. I’ll save my thoughts on why this is happening for another post.

Because the rest of the month of September is going to be a salute to my beloved ABC soaps, specifically All My Children, with a series entitled “Everything I Learned About HR, I Learned From …” and each post taking a look at an iconic character from the show. The fun starts September 12th. Stay tuned …