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Talent Management - just a thought
Posted on: Tuesday, June 08, 2010
I look at talent management as containing four key components which, during my time as Director of Leadership Services at HayGroup we came to call So, Know, Grow and Flow.
“So” is about the strategic aspect of talent. What roles are we going to have in the future and therefore what kind of people will we need. It is the “so what” that should drive all talent activities.
The “Know” is knowing your bench strength. What have we got against the “so what” we need.
“Grow” is about the tactics we can use to grow our bench, be they development or recruitment activities.
Finally “Flow” is about the movement of talent throughout the organisation to where it is needed.
Whilst most organisations have a long history of Know and Grow both in terms of activities and successes, most struggle with So and Flow.
The issue with So, like with any other forecasting activities, is that we are working in highly changeable environments will little knowledge of what the world will throw at us. For those people looking at how to do this better, I would recommend looking at talent in the same way we look at dynamic planning or supply chain management (maybe I will get to writing another blog post on this at some stage.
Here however I want to just share a thought on Flow.
Talent deployment and movement is hard for a number of practical reasons (e.g. reward systems) but mainly even the most talent focused organisations seem to hit a behavioral roadblock. It seems that leaders are not that keen on losing some of their best people to other functions and don’t really trust that others will share their best prospects either.
This morning it looks like the UK government might have offered us a potential solution.
The UK government, has most other European governments, is trying to cut the size of the national debt and spending in general. Rather than going for a typical salami slicing approach, the Prime Minister has decided that the cabinet should all contribute to the best of their abilities and determine what each of their departments should contribute.
Now anyone working in an organisation will know that senior leaders are pretty good and safeguarding their own budgets. To avoid this, the government will be creating a “star chamber”. The idea is simple. Ministers will have to submit their proposed spending to a group of other ministers who will scrutinize them. That sounds like a control procedure most of us will be familiar with. However, here is the clever part. Any minister can be on the star chamber - How? By cutting their budget. So here it is in a nutshell if you agree to be a good corporate citizen and work to support the government’s goals you get to ensure others do the same.
Now how does that apply to talent management? Well lets say you decide that you have had enough of sub optimizing talent in the organization and that you are going to work for the good of the organization. You are however somewhat reluctant to let your best people go because you don’t trust other leaders to do the same. Enter the star chamber. How about having a committee of senior leaders who meet regularly to discuss all talent flows. The only way to get on it is to let your people go. You’ve got to play the game to be part of it.
I know a lot of executive teams review appointments but how may have a cross functional star chamber where all functional plans are reviewed by the people who demonstrate the biggest commitment to talent. My bet is that in no time your star chamber will be overflowing with leaders as let’s face it few will like the idea of having a game being played without them taking part.
Anyway it’s just a thought.
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