Ellen Galinsky’s Huffington Post article about Admiral Michael Mullen got me thinking about the future of talent development. Here’s the quote from Admiral Mullen that started the process.
“Basically, we’ve grown up very focused on the institution. The institution tells me what to do. It tells me where to go. It tells me what my career path is, and then I, sort of, attach my own personal desires, my own personal interests. I think we’re living in a time where we’re going to have to change–to put people in the center.”
If the Admiral’s right, it will change the way we do talent development. Instead of looking for people to fill pre-determined slots, we’ll hire people of ability and allow them to create a business around what they do well.
Jim Collins wrote about this on a smaller scale in Good to Great. In the chapter, “First Who … Then What,” Collins says this about the leaders who led their companies’ moves from good to great.
“They got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it.”
It’s not really all that new, either. There are several companies who give their people the opportunity to pursue interesting ideas that might become new products or whole new businesses. 3M, W. L. Gore, and Semco are living examples.
We’re all knowledge workers on this bus.
The idea of shifting focus wouldn’t have made sense a hundred or even fifty years ago. But when most workers are knowledge workers, it’s not more than simply reasonable.
Knowledge workers provide the source of sustainable competitive advantage through their knowledge and their relationships. Those elements move with the person, not the organization.
That seems to point to some other changes. The big magnets to draw talent, for example, are likely to be the intrinsic motivators that Dan Pink has called autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Training and development may become key retention tools, instead of either peripheral activities or rewards for your high potentials.
As Peter Drucker said, the only thing we know for sure about the future is that it will be different. But thinking about possibilities can be the best way to prepare us to adapt to the world that finds us.
