Monday, April 18, 2016

“CIO Master” Tuning X: Innovating Talent Management via Three “How” Inquiries

“Digital fit” should be first defined as “mind fit,” and then following with attitude fit and behavior fit.

The digital transformation means that companies need to infuse digital into every aspect of the business, shaping the enterprise-wide digital capabilities and overall ecosystem which include people, process, and technology. As Digital is the age of people, people are always  the most invaluable human asset and capital investment in any business, but often the weakest link in Digital Transformation. So how would you define the right people? How do you define wrong, average, mediocre, good, great and extraordinary person? And how can you innovate Talent Management via inquiries?


How do you define “Digital Fit”? The term 'fit' can be interpreted with a degree of variability. “Digital fit” should be first defined as “mind fit,” and then following with attitude fit and behavior fit. Where you want to look for 'fit' is in relation to the cognitive intelligence to speed up digital transformation, values you want to build or maintain within your team, and the kinds of behaviors that you would expect to see as a result of, or in alignment with, those values. 'Fit' doesn't mean that everyone needs to have the same thought process, the same personalities, the same preferences, or the same experiences. On the opposite, the beauty is in the color of characters and many shades of creativity. Fit and diversity are not mutually exclusive. Just because two different people have different backgrounds, different approaches, and different opinions does not mean they can't be a good fit. Organizational fit means "incluversity," not about cookie cutting or hiring clones. Further more, fit or misfit is contextual. Are you planning to build a homogeneous or heterogeneous team; a complimentary team or a competitive team? Organizations need to be thoughtful about whether you are hiring people who are an obvious "fit," and passing on people who are less so (at least on the surface). Thought, skill and experience diversity are what make effective innovation and growth possible, and you are selling short when you hire for homogeneity. Organizational fit from conventional lenses makes relationships easy and perpetuates the status quo, so if companies are satisfied with where they are and going then they should pay attention to the profound understanding about the Digital Fit. If things need to change then they need to quit hiring clones. What is important is that everyone feels committed to the goals of the team, and are comfortable with the behavioral expectations associated with those goals. The fitness is also an important predictor of retention, so finding someone with the right fit can be a significant cost saving over time if turnover has been a challenge for you.


How to attract, develop, and  retain the best digital talent? Recognizing that talent is people and people have ambition and drive. If you enable and empower people to do what they were hired for and feed their ambition and drive, they will stay. Most people want to feel wanted and appreciated for their effort and work. Find the embers of drive and desire and then feed it with encouragement, keeps people interested in growth opportunities and projects challenges. Also to accept we are human and mistakes are made at times. Do not to dwell on the mistake but take it as a lesson to learn and work with your staff to find those lessons. Advocate the talent  to "compete for the uniqueness from "compete for the best of everything,"  build a healthy culture to nurture professionalism, talent growth, be cognizant on talent strength, encourage talent to take extra miles, build up a high-performance team to embrace the cognitive difference.


How to accelerate employees to the top of Maslow’s Pyramid 2.0? According to Maslow, once a person has fulfilled a need for one layer, they’ll move up to a higher level. And numerous studies have shown that in the workplace, the revised Maslow pyramid 2.0 is a good practice: if you’re going to motivate your people, besides compensation, fair and consistent talent management should be in place, acceptance, appreciation and affiliation can attract talent to have the sense of belonging. There needs to be a better appreciation for problem-solving abilities; to examine a situation from multiple angles and develop new approaches, because once you could identify the right fit, you had one less task to handle. At the societal level, there are needs to change so that the independent and critical thinking are encouraged and problem-solving minds are engaged. They need to be pragmatic and practical, analytical and empathetic, have an eye on solving the problems and continually striving to make things better and the society better. There are set of questions can help you check the status: (1) Peel back the layers of the position. What are the necessary skill sets for a person to be successful in this role? (2) What tools and networks are you using to identify talent? Building a strong network in niche fields allows you to utilize other subject matter experts and their professional network. (3) What are you offering in comparison to your competitors? At the Digital Era, and today’s cross-generational, cross-cultural and cross-geographical working environment, the new generation of workers pursue freedom, independence, and autonomy, at highest level, to find meaning, purpose and mastering of work, so focus on what will matter most to your employees, and build the culture of learning and innovation to accelerate employees to the top of Maslow’s pyramid 2.0.


Talent Management is the key business capability in digital transformation, it has to be built upon all the dimensions such as scope, alignment, design, execution, governance, metrics, etc. to enforce cross-functional collaboration, and to embed agility into the process of adapting to the changes, Innovating via inquiries, to untap the talent potential and unleash the full digital potential of your organization and our society.


1 comments:

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