Sunday, January 30, 2011

Complex Adaptive Systems Approach to Human Capital Development


Greetings,

In any organization there are a lot of great human capital professionals that are doing their best to enable organizational success. Typically we approach human capital processes and activities in isolation from one another...we pull, push and prod these levers not really understanding the impact they have on each other.

The Department of Defense has learned this through experience...because of these lessons learned it utilizes a concept called Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) to examine complex adaptive systems. This provides the ability to look at complex adaptive systems made up of Political, Military, Economic, Social, Infrastructure, and Information (PMESII) systems and start to determine critical nodes, vulnerabilities, strengths, weaknesses, links, relationships and key nodes. This then allows determination of the appropriate types and level of responses using Diplomatic, Information, Military and Economic (DIME) levers. By taking this integrated approach, you are able to apply the appropriate response at the right place and at the right time to generate the correct response in the complex adaptive system.

Now think to your own organization...in many respects it is like any other complex adaptive system. But in many organizations, we don't take an organizational network analysis approach to human capital development. We have a number of human capital processes and levers available, but no sense of the true overall state of the human capital system (HCS). So we continue to apply what we know and have available hoping for the right response. As Albert Einstein stated...

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

So it is time for change...

Just like PMESII to determine the organization, we have access to similar tools to understand the human capital component of our complex adaptive system. Those things are Leadership, Engagement, Adaptibility, Knowledge, Skills and Strategy (LEAKSS). Having a complete picture of these critical pieces and how they are connected with one another allow for a complete picture of the organization and its strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. It also allows Human Capital Management (HCM) to apply appropriate levels. It comes down to asking the right sets of questions...

Leadership - What is the overall leadership capability of the organization? Are we developing the right leaders to spur innovation and growth in the organization?

Engagement - Are employees engaged? Do they understand what it is we do and do they do what they need to do to enable it?

Adaptability - Is the workforce agile and adaptable to change?

Knowledge - What are the knowledge creation and management capabilities of the organization? Are the right people and groups connecting at the right time and place to foster innovation?

Skills - What are the skill capability needs of the organization? What is the workforce capacity to execute on these future capabilities? What is the gap in capability and capacity?

Strategy - What is the business strategy? How does human capital and talent enable the business strategy?

By taking a holistic systems thinking approach to the organization's human capital system, only then can we hope to enable it to meet business strategy.

Nuff Said!

Cheers,
Keith

Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jkeithdunbar
DNA of Human Capital: http://dna-of-humancapital.blogspot.com/

The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the Department of Defense or the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Does it really matter what we call what we do?

Greetings,

So I have caught my share of people who were unhappy with me using the term "human capital." My general perspective has been to "virtually" shrug my shoulders and think to myself...Who cares what it is called? If it is us...then get over it. Our bosses don't care...they just care about results.

We expend so much energy on debating what we should call what we do...that we forget what the real goal is...getting quality people to come and stay in our organizations and fuel the organization's success.

At the end of the day we can call it any of the following things...

Human Resources
Talent Management
Social Capital
Human Capital
Coherent Human Infrastructure
People

It really doesn't matter...all that matters is our cumulative efforts enabling the business or mission success of our organizations.

So a little less bickering about the name for what we do and a little more focus on what is important...the people and the results they bring to the organization.

Nuff Said!

Cheers,
Keith

Sunday, January 9, 2011

In My Business...This is an Indicator! A Talent Indicator...

Greetings,

The United States Intelligence Community has suffered through a number of surprises. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor created the Intelligence Community and other world events like the the North Korean attack on South Korea and the 1973 Yom Kippur War helped precipitate the modern Indications & Warning system used to help limit strategic surprise. The goal? Identifying a set of critical indicators to prevent or negate strategic surprise.

Indicators are important...really important. Indicators allow us to try and see patterns in the events that are occurring around us and that may have a significant impact on our organizations ability to execute business strategy. Indicator is defined in this document from the then Joint Military Intelligence College titled "Indications Warning Terminology."

"Indicator: A generalized, theoretical statement of a course of action or decision that is expected to be taken in preparation for an aggressive act and that can be used to guide intelligence collection resources."

Why should you care about this in relation to your organization's talent? A recent query for the term "Talent Acquisition" on LinkedIn "indicates" an interesting dynamic taking place...there are a lot of companies gearing up for a new War for Talent. Looking for these types of "Talent Indicators" is important to track. This one for "Talent Acquisition" would tell me my competition is preparing for "an aggressive act" like the definition indicates. If you were preparing to start hiring...seems a critical indicator would be hiring Talent Acquisition positions in preparation for it. This would not only tell you who is hiring, but also lead you to what talent segments an organization is targeting. This can help you focus retention efforts within the organization if they are critical to your organization's success.

This concept of Talent Indicators is not all that strange. The concept of metrics and dashboards are intended to do the same thing...provide you the ability to make proactive, strategic decisions before they turn into strategic surprise...the new War for Talent that is upon us will demand it.

Cheers,
Keith

Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jkeithdunbar
DNA of Human Capital: http://dna-of-humancapital.blogspot.com/

The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the Department of Defense or the Defense Intelligence Agency.