Thank you to all my many followers for your support and comments on Blogspot.
I am happy to announce that I have moved the DNA of Human Capital to a new location because of the launch of my HR M&A consulting business services at Potentio.us.
You can sign up for your latest updates by email here:
http://Potentio.us/blog/
I look forward to seeing you on the new DNA of Human Capital blog site!
Cheers,
Keith
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Cookie-Cutter Leadership Development...The Big F...
Recently Deloitte published its Human Capital Trends 2013 report. In the report there are a number of interesting pieces, which I highly recommend you look at, but I was driven to one in particular titled "Leadership.Next: Debunking the superhero myth."
This informative piece discusses what has historically been the focus of leadership development programs...building the same kind of super leaders that organizations think they need based on some kind of leadership competency model that has been identified as the answer to the organization's current problems or future growth. This approach continues to come under attack from a multitude of directions because of the nature of the business environment today.
I originally discussed it in a blog piece last year based on a report from the Center for Creative Leadership titled "Leadership Paradigm Shift Approaching...Rise of Collective Development" where I discussed the context of the report and implications to leadership development (Which has gone largely unchanged since World War I...Yes...World War I). This blog was based on the concept of the VUCA environment...a new normal of constant volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that old ways of developing leaders to deal with is unable to keep pace.
Just as the CCL piece discussed, so does the Deloitte piece...give up on cookie-cutter super leader programs. Look at building collective leadership capabilities through leadership diversity. Why? For starters, there is no way to create the same kind of leaders in organizations because we come from such vastly different backgrounds, experiences, influences of different people and different leadership strengths and weaknesses. This requires taking a different approach to understand these variabilities in leaders and network these vast differences in meaningful ways in organizations. That requires understanding leaders in an organization at a mush different level of depth and breadth...most certainly a big data challenge...With that data...it is about building agile and adaptable networks of leaders that bring to bear their collective knowledge and abilities to bear on the most pressing business challenges within organizations...
So take a step back...and think about breaking that cookie-cutter.
Cheers,
Keith
Dr. J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: J. Keith Dunbar
Google+: J. Keith Dunbar
Blog: DNA of Human Capital
The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the SAIC.
This informative piece discusses what has historically been the focus of leadership development programs...building the same kind of super leaders that organizations think they need based on some kind of leadership competency model that has been identified as the answer to the organization's current problems or future growth. This approach continues to come under attack from a multitude of directions because of the nature of the business environment today.
I originally discussed it in a blog piece last year based on a report from the Center for Creative Leadership titled "Leadership Paradigm Shift Approaching...Rise of Collective Development" where I discussed the context of the report and implications to leadership development (Which has gone largely unchanged since World War I...Yes...World War I). This blog was based on the concept of the VUCA environment...a new normal of constant volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that old ways of developing leaders to deal with is unable to keep pace.
Just as the CCL piece discussed, so does the Deloitte piece...give up on cookie-cutter super leader programs. Look at building collective leadership capabilities through leadership diversity. Why? For starters, there is no way to create the same kind of leaders in organizations because we come from such vastly different backgrounds, experiences, influences of different people and different leadership strengths and weaknesses. This requires taking a different approach to understand these variabilities in leaders and network these vast differences in meaningful ways in organizations. That requires understanding leaders in an organization at a mush different level of depth and breadth...most certainly a big data challenge...With that data...it is about building agile and adaptable networks of leaders that bring to bear their collective knowledge and abilities to bear on the most pressing business challenges within organizations...
So take a step back...and think about breaking that cookie-cutter.
Cheers,
Keith
Dr. J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: J. Keith Dunbar
Google+: J. Keith Dunbar
Blog: DNA of Human Capital
The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the SAIC.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
The Constant Tension...
If you are like most people in the learning and talent management space...you may have experienced this situation.
You are in an organization with a Corporate (Corp) learning and talent management group, probably responsible for cross-corporate initiatives and a number of Business Unit (BU) learning and talent management groups, probably responsible for being responsive to the business needs of the BU. If you have been in either of these groups within your corporation you notice the constant tension between the two. Let's see if any of these statements apply to your company...
- We have to be faster than Corp, they are too slow and not focused on what the business needs...
- There goes the BU again...off on their own without working with us...
- They are not team players...Yes that is used equally by Corp and BU...
What is even funnier is that these type of reactions are so ingrained in these two organizations...that if you move between them in an organization...you take on that persona. It is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde action...really kind of scary.
Even in my own experience I have reacted the same way I am sad to say. It is ssssoooo easy to fall into that trap and the repercussions are extremely hard to get away from in the long run. The perceptions of you from these kinds of activities are lasting perceptions...
So what do you do to break this vicious cycle? In my current organization, my team has the roles and responsibilities for learning and talent management for our BU, for Corporate and for some of those responsibilities within the other BU. Recently as we had the same discussions internally...one way I addressed it was to have a 3-way discussion and allow my colleagues to share their perceptions about me and not try to defend my actions. We have tried to create a culture of feedback that includes telling people how you feel and being more self-aware about how w. e impact each other. It has been a healthy dialog and while it hasn't created nirvana...it has been a step in the right direction.
I do have to say that this is like walking a tightrope though. To get where we are has involved constant dialog that is honest and a focus on understanding each other's priorities and where necessary...influencing these decisions where I can.
Is there a magic potion and a silver bullet to working this constant tension? Just one...open and honest dialog to understand each other. So put together all of your best relationship management skills and see what happens...
Cheers,
Keith
Dr. J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: J. Keith Dunbar
Google+: J. Keith Dunbar
Blog: DNA of Human Capital
The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the SAIC.
You are in an organization with a Corporate (Corp) learning and talent management group, probably responsible for cross-corporate initiatives and a number of Business Unit (BU) learning and talent management groups, probably responsible for being responsive to the business needs of the BU. If you have been in either of these groups within your corporation you notice the constant tension between the two. Let's see if any of these statements apply to your company...
- We have to be faster than Corp, they are too slow and not focused on what the business needs...
- There goes the BU again...off on their own without working with us...
- They are not team players...Yes that is used equally by Corp and BU...
What is even funnier is that these type of reactions are so ingrained in these two organizations...that if you move between them in an organization...you take on that persona. It is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde action...really kind of scary.
Even in my own experience I have reacted the same way I am sad to say. It is ssssoooo easy to fall into that trap and the repercussions are extremely hard to get away from in the long run. The perceptions of you from these kinds of activities are lasting perceptions...
So what do you do to break this vicious cycle? In my current organization, my team has the roles and responsibilities for learning and talent management for our BU, for Corporate and for some of those responsibilities within the other BU. Recently as we had the same discussions internally...one way I addressed it was to have a 3-way discussion and allow my colleagues to share their perceptions about me and not try to defend my actions. We have tried to create a culture of feedback that includes telling people how you feel and being more self-aware about how w. e impact each other. It has been a healthy dialog and while it hasn't created nirvana...it has been a step in the right direction.
I do have to say that this is like walking a tightrope though. To get where we are has involved constant dialog that is honest and a focus on understanding each other's priorities and where necessary...influencing these decisions where I can.
Is there a magic potion and a silver bullet to working this constant tension? Just one...open and honest dialog to understand each other. So put together all of your best relationship management skills and see what happens...
Cheers,
Keith
Dr. J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: J. Keith Dunbar
Google+: J. Keith Dunbar
Blog: DNA of Human Capital
The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the SAIC.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Creating the Agile Organization...
Two recent articles piqued my curiosity this past week. One was UNC Keenan-Flagler's ideas@work webizine Volume 5 and one article in particular titled "Developing Leaders in a VUCA Environment." The second was a research report from Saba titled "Carpe Diem: Seizing the Opportunity to Build an Agile Organization."
The UNC Keenan-Flagler piece discussed research from the Center for Creative Leadership indicating that today's Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) business environment requires leaders possess more complex and adaptive thinking skills to work effectively within this environment. It also indicated that for the most part leadership development areas like on-the-job training, mentoring and coaching haven't changed much over the years and therefore leaders are not developing quickly enough. I have written previously about today's leadership development tactics and how they haven't really changed as the business environment as changed. For me...this is critical in organizations. Their ability to be learning agile and adapt quickly will be the hallmark in the very near future of companies that successfully grow and those that become have nots in the world.
So the question is what is inhibiting organizations from becoming more agile and adaptable? Enter the Saba research report. 552 learning executives completed a survey to identify the most common strategies for creating agile organizations, as well as primary obstacles that L&D faces. Key findings from the study are the following
- Knowledge management and leadership development are the most common strategies for increasing organizational agility through learning.
- The obstacles to L&D helping to increase organizational agility are primarily culture issues (organizational silos, resistance to change, conflicting goals of different departments).
- Strategic enablers are more focused on connecting people to people and content through knowledge management and social technologies, while other organizations are catching up in the implementation of knowledge management systems.
- Strategic enablers focus on changing the learning culture through leadership development while cost centers focus on change management. The most dramatic differences between strategic enablers and cost centers involve practices related to learning culture.
While the Saba study doesn't give details on leadership development as one of the catalysts to enable an agile organization and culture, it does present a disconnect with the UNC Keenan-Flagler article on what leadership development is doing today, vice what it will need to do tomorrow. The article references three primary thrusts to enable this:
Thrust 1 - Hire Agile Leaders: In many organizations we hire because an individual appears to have the right set of experiences, customer experience or industry sector experience for example. Very few actually hire for a leader's agility or complex thinking skills because it is sometimes difficult to pull these experiences out from an interview. The article provides examples of the types of behavior based questions that should be asked.
Thrust 2 - Develop Existing Leaders to be Agile Leaders: While on-the-job training, mentoring, and coaching will continue to have their place in leadership development programs. New tools like scenario planning and simulations should play a larger role in developing agile and adaptable leadership skills, as well as innovation, collaboration, communication, openness to change and other high-order thinking skills.
Thrust 3 - Foster an Organizational Culture that Rewards VUCA Prime Behaviors and Retains Agile Employees: Here the Saba and UNC Keenan-Flagler article agree...the importance of the culture piece. It must be a systematic effort to create the right conditions for birth and growth in many respects of a different culture than many organizations are used to operation.
The future will belong to those that can create this new capability within their organizations. As these two articles point to...L&D and talent management have a huge role in creating and enabling this future...
Enable your future...
Cheers,
Keith
Dr. J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: J. Keith Dunbar
Google+: J. Keith Dunbar
Blog: DNA of Human Capital
The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the SAIC.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Boards Giving Talent Management an F...Who Would of Thunk It
I came across a very interesting blog written by Boris Groysberg and Deborah Bell on HBR. It was titled "Talent Management: Boards Give Their Companies an 'F'"...The basis of the piece by Groysberg and Bell was a study conducted in partnership with WomenCorporateDirectors and Heidrick & Struggles to survey over a 1000 board members across eight industry sectors on how well their companies performed in 9 dimensions of talent management (attracting top talent; hiring top talent; assessing talent; developing talent; rewarding talent; retaining talent; firing; aligning talent strategy with business strategy; and leveraging diversity in company's workforce). Groysberg and Bell wanted to see how many board members strongly agreed with how their companies were handling these 9 areas of talent management.
As you might imagine some talent management areas got passing grades (All relative of course) like attracting top talent and rewarding talent and some got pretty poor grades like firing and leveraging diversity. Scores across industry sectors also varied.
Groysberg and Bell hypothesize that boards are becoming more interested because they recognize the importance of talent to successful competitive advantage. That hypothesis could be true it needs to be tested. I have no personal experience with Board of Director members, but I do know anecdotally what some boards members are interested in at any given time. For example, it could be retaining talent and leveraging diversity or another small set of things, but what I suspect is that with the exception of some companies and their boards who are having conversations across the nine functions within talent management...most are not having broad conversations about talent management and implications to competitive advantage. As Groysberg and Bell do state they are hopeful this indicates new interest in talent management.
What does this data mean? Another hypothesis maybe as simple as the board members don't know anything about talent management. If they don't know it...how would you expect them to answer this question? Most likely not going to strongly agree with it...So I have some questions about it...
Is it important for the BoD members to understand talent management and how it can impact competitive advantage? Absolutely! But to accomplish that requires a very strong CHRO to enable and influence BoD members to pay attention to talent metrics as much as they do financial metrics.
Cheers,
Keith
Dr. J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: J. Keith Dunbar
Google+: J. Keith Dunbar
Blog: DNA of Human Capital
The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the SAIC.
Friday, May 24, 2013
The Long Journey to be a Doctor
I wanted to say thanks to everyone that has continued to come here and read this blog based on my interest in expanding knowledge of human capital and talent management by giving people different perspectives to look at regarding these topics. It is the proverbial labor of love as they say.
Over the last nearly three years, I started a journey to expand my own knowledge by pursuing an Ed.D in the Penn Chief Learning Officer (PennCLO) program. For me the journey in this program has been life changing. Of course the instruction by Wharton, Graduate School of Education, and Penn faculty cannot be understated in the slightest...but where the program separated itself from any other doctorate programs I looked at was the quality of fellow colleagues in the program including CEOs, talent professionals, CHROs, learning & development professionals was the most valuable part to me.
The journey is almost complete. I successfully defended my dissertation on May 2 (The topic is on the Role of Organizational Leadership Capability in Mergers & Acquisitions...plenty to share from that at a later point!) and was hooded at graduation ceremonies at Penn on May 11. I still have some revisions to make, but will have my diploma conferred by August as planned (So technically...I am not a Doctor of Education...yet! So I am not jinxing myself by using that terminology yet)
Why I tell you this, is that I have missed the opportunity to contribute to our collective knowledge while I attempted to finish the program and that this is my commitment to everyone that I will be back in the next month or two to start sharing what I have been honored to gain in my doctorate journey with all of you!
All the best...
Cheers,
Keith
Over the last nearly three years, I started a journey to expand my own knowledge by pursuing an Ed.D in the Penn Chief Learning Officer (PennCLO) program. For me the journey in this program has been life changing. Of course the instruction by Wharton, Graduate School of Education, and Penn faculty cannot be understated in the slightest...but where the program separated itself from any other doctorate programs I looked at was the quality of fellow colleagues in the program including CEOs, talent professionals, CHROs, learning & development professionals was the most valuable part to me.
The journey is almost complete. I successfully defended my dissertation on May 2 (The topic is on the Role of Organizational Leadership Capability in Mergers & Acquisitions...plenty to share from that at a later point!) and was hooded at graduation ceremonies at Penn on May 11. I still have some revisions to make, but will have my diploma conferred by August as planned (So technically...I am not a Doctor of Education...yet! So I am not jinxing myself by using that terminology yet)
Why I tell you this, is that I have missed the opportunity to contribute to our collective knowledge while I attempted to finish the program and that this is my commitment to everyone that I will be back in the next month or two to start sharing what I have been honored to gain in my doctorate journey with all of you!
All the best...
Cheers,
Keith
Monday, December 17, 2012
People processes fail to keep pace with changing business environment...
That's the word from The Conference Board after sharing insights from their "The State of Human Capital 2012" report. A joint effort between The Conference Board and McKinsey & Company, Human Capital (HC) professionals continue to be stymied by the environment and that is leading to frustration in the ranks. After a multitude of studies since McKinsey & Company's groundbreaking article "The War for Talent" that have shared the same insights as previous studies...we appear to find ourselves no closer than we were 10, 5 or even 1 year ago.
While the report does provide context on this state of our profession, it still takes the "glass half full" approach when looking at the opportunities available to the profession to continue to make impacts on the business first and the profession second. Those opportunities are:
1. Anticipate and plan for the HC of tomorrow: Workplace demographics changes and the "virtual" workplace are reshaping work today and will continue in to the future.
2. Secure a steady, reliable pipeline for skilled workers - and tomorrow's leaders: The acknowledgement that the war for talent continues and will only increase in the future.
3 Develop strategies to re-energize employees' attitudes toward what they do and what the organization stands for: Research continues to point to engaged employees being more productive. While it is considered "soft data" in many respects by senior executives and leaders, it is still an area to focus attention on in the future.
4. Ensure that HC becomes more agile: The business environment speed of change requires HC to be increasingly agile and adaptable. That does not mean faster at transactional activities, but those things that drive business impact.
All is not bleak and apocalyptic, though December 21st is right around the corner. It does require HC leaders to be more forward leaning. If you don't have those skills...find someone on your team who is...your survival may depend on it.
Cheers,
Keith
J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader and Doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania's Chief Learning Officer (CLO) program...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: J. Keith Dunbar
Google+: J. Keith Dunbar
Blog: DNA of Human Capital
The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the SAIC.
While the report does provide context on this state of our profession, it still takes the "glass half full" approach when looking at the opportunities available to the profession to continue to make impacts on the business first and the profession second. Those opportunities are:
1. Anticipate and plan for the HC of tomorrow: Workplace demographics changes and the "virtual" workplace are reshaping work today and will continue in to the future.
2. Secure a steady, reliable pipeline for skilled workers - and tomorrow's leaders: The acknowledgement that the war for talent continues and will only increase in the future.
3 Develop strategies to re-energize employees' attitudes toward what they do and what the organization stands for: Research continues to point to engaged employees being more productive. While it is considered "soft data" in many respects by senior executives and leaders, it is still an area to focus attention on in the future.
4. Ensure that HC becomes more agile: The business environment speed of change requires HC to be increasingly agile and adaptable. That does not mean faster at transactional activities, but those things that drive business impact.
All is not bleak and apocalyptic, though December 21st is right around the corner. It does require HC leaders to be more forward leaning. If you don't have those skills...find someone on your team who is...your survival may depend on it.
Cheers,
Keith
J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader and Doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania's Chief Learning Officer (CLO) program...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: J. Keith Dunbar
Google+: J. Keith Dunbar
Blog: DNA of Human Capital
The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the SAIC.
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