Are you ready for the IP exodus?
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don’t want to”. — Richard Branson
Richard Branson’s famous quote is an aspirational beacon in the business landscape. It’s an attractive sentiment and it’s easy to be emboldened by it’s author and his business pedigree. In past decades, this courage has often been tempered with the reality that this is a radical idea in many Baby Boomer stacked boardrooms.
Senior leaders have often had to carve their own paths through unyielding resistance. The skills, approaches, and tactics used to grow their careers are rightly treasured artifacts. They represent large vaults of intellectual property that organisations protect from competitors.
This protective stance also extends inwards in organisations. Much of the power and influence garnered via business savvy is often thought to be derived from it’s exclusivity. As such, it is handed down in small amounts to the few designated protégés. While this has instilled trust and achievement in the fabric of our organisations, there is a new force that threatens the continued relevance of this approach.
It’s anticipated that this will make way for one in every four millennials to step into management roles. The risk of losing valuable business IP in this transition is unprecedented. Our traditional methods will likely be far too slow with the knowledge and skills walking out the door faster than it can be transferred.
What would drive a revolution that trains our next generation of leaders not just in our business processes, but the hard fought skills that instil the unique leadership values specific to organisations? There are many generic leadership training resources out there. The skills millennials can learn from these can cover 80–90% of the leadership equipping required. What they won’t do is teach that last 10%. And it’s that last 10% that gives your organisation it’s unique values, and dare I say, it’s competitive edge.
We need to tackle this challenge with generosity. No, it’s not some new ‘disruptive’ training methodology. It’s simply gifting the things of value that have grown our businesses, careers, even whole industries to the next generation. It’s about spending time and resources now to provide widely accessible, desirable training that effectively communicates that unique 10%.
Branson’s philosophy may sound like two separate actions on the surface. Generosity, expressed as a striving to package valuable business IP into inspiring training, achieves both.
