David Ulrich’s HR Model Failed HR—And No One Had the Courage to Say It
For over two decades, HR professionals have been taught to revere the David Ulrich HR model as the gold standard—a supposedly revolutionary blueprint that would finally earn HR a seat at the table. Instead, it left us in the hallway.
What began as a framework for elevating HR became the very structure that dismantled its power. The Ulrich HR business partner model fragmented the profession, severed strategic influence from operational understanding, and reduced the function to compliance, coordination, and clean-up.
Let’s be honest: HR didn’t evolve under the Ulrich model—it eroded. And the profession stayed silent. Until now.
What the Ulrich HR Model Promised—And Why It Failed
The original pitch was seductive: divide HR into three pillars—Centers of Excellence (COEs), HR Business Partners (HRBPs), and Shared Services. This would supposedly free HR leaders to be more “strategic,” while operations became lean and efficient.
But what looked brilliant on paper unraveled in practice:
COEs became siloed experts detached from day-to-day culture.
HRBPs became relationship managers without the tools—or authority—to drive change.
Shared Services became the transactional graveyard where real issues were buried in ticketing systems.
The model was designed for a stable, hierarchical world that no longer exists. In today’s volatile, risk-riddled landscape, culture is infrastructure—and this model is structurally incapable of managing culture risk.
The Silent Consequences of Fragmentation
Ask any HR leader off the record, and you’ll hear the same refrain: “We’re too busy reacting to be strategic.” That’s not a performance issue. That’s a design failure.
Under the Ulrich model, no one owns the system. When culture erodes, burnout escalates, or inclusion efforts stall, HR teams bounce issues between COEs, BPs, and Service Centers—while executive leaders tune out entirely.
The fragmentation is the failure.
The model doesn't just dilute accountability—it disconnects strategy from execution. It traps HR in a reactive loop, managing symptoms while the system corrodes.
The Strategic HR Business Partner: A Role Designed to Fail
“Strategic HR” has become the profession’s favorite buzzword. But under the Ulrich model, the term is meaningless.
HR Business Partners were intended to be trusted advisors, aligning talent strategies to business goals. But most were never given the data, authority, or access required to operate strategically. Instead, they became diplomats with no army, tasked with influencing managers they couldn't challenge, in systems they didn’t control.
This wasn’t a mistake. It was built into the design.
Strategy without structural power is just suggestion.
And while we trained HRBPs to align with business objectives, we forgot to empower them to question those objectives—or redesign the systems they enable.
Culture Risk Is Today’s Core Business Risk—and Ulrich’s Model Can’t Handle It
The David Ulrich HR model was created in a different era—before #MeToo, before DEI mandates, before culture scandals could collapse a company’s stock price in a single news cycle.
Today, the real risk isn’t in payroll errors or late performance reviews. It’s in toxic leaders, broken trust, and systems that fail people when pressure hits.
HR needs the ability to:
Audit cultural fault lines before lawsuits hit.
Confront executives when psychological safety is ignored.
Redesign systems—not just respond to symptoms.
The Ulrich HR business partner model wasn’t built for this. It leaves HR teams reacting to crises they didn’t cause, inside systems they can’t fix, using roles that were never meant to lead.
Why the Model Still Dominates—and Why That’s Dangerous
Despite its limitations, the Ulrich model remains embedded in SHRM certification programs, MBA syllabi, and Fortune 500 org charts.
Why?
Because it’s comfortable. Because it aligns HR with business norms rather than challenging them. Because it keeps HR "strategic"—but not disruptive.
But alignment is not transformation. And certification isn’t courage.
Every time we reinforce this outdated architecture, we prolong HR’s marginalization. We train the next generation of leaders to serve the system instead of redesigning it.
It’s time to stop teaching HR professionals how to fit into broken systems—and start empowering them to fix them.
A New Model: From Compliance Partner to Culture Architect
If the David Ulrich HR model failed HR, what comes next?
We need a new mandate—one that treats HR as a strategic architect of systems, culture, and trust. This requires collapsing silos, redesigning roles, and repositioning HR as the central nervous system of organizational performance.
At Seattle Consulting Group, we’ve built that alternative. We call it:
The Resilient Disruption Model™
This isn’t a rebrand. It’s a reimagining. Our framework empowers HR to:
Lead culture risk assessments before reputational damage occurs.
Redesign systems to prevent burnout, bias, and attrition.
Build executive accountability into the architecture—not post-incident remediation.
We don’t train HR to “get a seat at the table.”
We train them to build the table—and flip it when necessary.
Conclusion: HR Doesn’t Need a New Language. It Needs a New Spine.
The truth is simple: HR has outgrown the Ulrich model—but the profession hasn’t outlived its grip.
If you're still operating within this structure, you're not just underutilizing your potential—you're actively participating in your own irrelevance.
Smart HR leaders are replacing this model. They're building bold, insurgent systems that:
Elevate their authority.
Protect their people.
Redesign culture from the inside out.
It’s not too late to rebuild. But you have to stop defending the blueprint that broke you.
If This Resonates, Here’s How We Help
If you’re ready to:
Dismantle the legacy HR model that’s holding your team back,
Redesign your people systems to reduce risk and drive performance,
And lead culture with power—not permission—
Schedule a private Executive Briefing with Jim Woods. In this session, we’ll map your current HR architecture, identify where power has been unintentionally outsourced, and design a roadmap that returns system-level leadership to the function where it belongs.