Organic Talent Transformation: The Roadmap to Remaining Relevant
The war for talent is on. The playing field is incredulously competitive, with every organization looking to recruit and secure top talent in new and emerging fields. With the declining relevance of traditional in-house talent development, poaching for talent has become the new tactical approach for many firms. This critical challenge is becoming a survival issue for many organizations. And it’s especially true for technical talent at almost every level, from CIOs to hands-on practitioners. Many organizations have either given up on organic talent development — or simply are at a loss of how to do it.
Organic talent development has always been one of my passions, and areas of focus throughout my career. I’ve always known that acquiring and developing talent requires continual change and continuous re-education. Skills needed today might not be the ones needed tomorrow, and today’s roles might not even exist in the very near future. Luckily, I enjoy being challenged by new market demands. That’s why I’ve developed a system of continuous learning, to help people remain relevant and essential for whatever the future brings their way.
As a university professor, I have always tried to be a coach to my students whenever I was asked for advice or help on how to prepare for professional life after university. As an executive in one of the world’s largest technical organizations in the world (IBM), I’ve developed a systemic way to transform technical talent into capabilities that can deliver what’s necessary for clients, employers and individuals themselves. Continuous learning has always been at the core.
1. What Should We Learn?
This question can be broken down into two parts: Part I is to define the needed target skill framework and its components. Part II is to create a gap analysis between the target and the current states. Executing Parts I and II will result in the creation of a roadmap illustrating how to fill the gaps to get where you need to be.
What Kind of Technical/Business Professionals Does the Business World Need?
The short answer is π-shaped professionals. For example, a π -shaped technical professional is a person who has deep expertise in two areas: (1) A specific technical arena, (i.e. Could Technologies) and (2) A specific industry (i.e. Insurance).
In addition to those two areas, which are the legs of a π-shaped professional, the individual needs to have experiences and knowledge in many relevant and complementary areas (i.e. Cognitive Technologies and Banking). The depth of experience, skills and knowledge in these tangential areas does not need to be at the same level as the legs of primary π, but they should be important and significant. The same framework could be used for nontechnical professionals as well. Figure 1 illustrates this approach while also encompassing the attitudes and habits that will also be needed.
What Are Experiential Skill Gaps?
Every time we discuss any type of personal or organizational development, the primary focus is identifying new initiatives and actions that are missing. Looking forward is great, but how about deciding what things are not relevant anymore — or have been holding us back? In a lot of cases, it is equally essential that we ‘unlearn’ things — and simply stop doing them! We can’t forget Einstein’s wise words that doing the same thing and expecting different results is insanity. Therefore, in addition to identifying the new skills, habits and attitudes needing development, we also need to identify the habits, attitudes, and activities that we need to stop — and unlearn. Identifying skills that we need to continue practicing is key as well. Figure 2 illustrates this concept.
2. How Should We Learn It?
In most professions, particularly in technical areas, having only theoretical knowledge is not sufficient. Having experiential skills in relevant areas is the true key to success. Experiential skills cannot be developed simply by reading, listening to lectures and performing educational tasks; they require the right combination of learning techniques that encourage thought provoking discussions, successful performance — and even teaching others.
To further emphasize this point, the Figure below shows the average retention rate for each learning method. Most individuals or learning departments within large organizations focus only on one, or some, of these methods. This stands in the way of getting expected results. In order to succeed in organic talent development, organizations need to develop a holistic system to deploy all relevant learning methods. Needless to say, individuals in such a system need to take responsibility for their own skill developments and insure their experience includes all parts of the puzzle.
How Do We Know We’ve Learned Enough?
With so many tweets, news feeds and blogs, it’s easy to feel knowledgeable in a specific area when we are truly not. That is why I conceptualized the Technical Professional Litmus Test to help technical professionals do a self-assessment of their learning journey in a specific area. It simply requires answering the following three questions:
If one answers “yes” to these three questions, then the person should be considered a qualified Subject Matter Expert (SME) in his or her’s Subject Matter Area. However, if the answers are ‘No’, individuals should re-assess using the architecture described in this simple article. Things are changing, times are moving quickly. Whether a technical professional or not — make a developmental, educational plan and stick to it — while also incorporating every new nuance thrown your way. Map your strategy, be flexible enough to change it, and most importantly — be open to all of the wonderful new tools given us to achieve our goals.
