Research & Writing

Human Capital Institute- Career Transition Panel

Effective May 9 2005, Mark Venning of Change Rangers joined the Career Transition Panel teleconference. This bi-monthly tought leadership panel on this date discussed the question:

Is there a War FOR Talent or a War ON Talent? And what does the answer mean for hiring, talent development and career advancement.

Click below here for the transcript of the comments made by Mark Venning as part of the conversation.

In the North American vocabulary we have claimed a “war on drugs”, a “war on terrorism” and a “war on trans-fats in food”.

Is it really appropriate any more to call the search for talented people a “war on talent” or even a “war for talent”?

What message are we sending to people who may have moved on from being seen as “pawns” in a war?

Has his phrasing that comes from the “fast company” mentality of the second half of the 1990’s worn thin?

How many companies are “fast” as opposed to “slow” or “paralytic” in terms of investing in talent management?

Is talent management or talent development or talent leadership a conversation that resonates only at mid to senior levels of organizations?

In some ways perhaps we are in a “talent auction” or even a “reverse auction” where some of the best people “bid “ or “vote” themselves off the organization’s show if the plot or script has lost its value.

At the ACP International conference in Chicago in April 2005 at a session titled

Talent Management: Who Really Has Control?
The question was asked, has the loyalty battle been lost?

(Here we are in “battle” again.)

In the sense that we know it from the “industrial age” model, the response was yes. Individuals are more loyal to themselves and managing their own career. The “manage your own career theme has been part of the early 1990’s thinking in such messages delivered by the likes of William Bridges.

His book Job Shift in 1994 was subtitled, “How to prosper in a world without jobs”

But there are people who still “want to belong”, are still be part of organizations, groups, teams. Perhaps rather than loyalty being lost, it’s simply shifted.

It’s now - treat me well while I’m here.

In spite of all the corporate marketing around “employer of choice” and considering the fall out from corporate scandals, there is a viral scepticism in conversations taking place outside and inside the walls of an organization. Conversations between individuals- friends, family, peer groups, professional networks etc. Often it’s not built on a career building dream but rather on the kind of good experience they are getting or not getting at their place of work.

I am reminded of Robert Reich’s phrase in his 2000 book the “Future of Success”

“we are living in the age of the better deal, where it’s easier to switch to something better”

• In my view Careerism in the 21st Century…
“will be more about the integration of work, learning and living in an age diverse world, where working longer by choice and in different interactions - will mean more creative thinking about what makes a life’s work and in what order we sort it and manage it.”

• There is a movement in career development thinking towards taking more of a “serendipitous” approach to career, less dependent upon following the dots but a focus on the journey, “become a good traveler” or as I would say it “this is a pilgrimage”.

• As Stuart Walkley suggested at the ACP International London Symposium in March 2005, (European Vice President of career transition and organisational consulting firm Right Management Consultants, part of Manpower Inc.)

• “As career professionals, are we being too pleasant with clients? Should we not be more provoking?... Helping people groping in the dark and finding something by accident”.

• To the closing question, what do line managers need? What we need is an open realistic dialogue that sets clarity around expectations through the “entrance, engagement and exit process”. Never lose site that an exit may be an open door to a reengagement in a different way at a different time.

• Managers at all levels need the courage to have conversations at the individual level and could also benefit from more exposure to or education about current and emerging career management thinking.