Content everywhere, all at once
In a world drowning in content, from endless Netflix series to an avalanche of apps, the question arises: do we really need more?
I don’t care what anyone says.
Building a talent strategy is tough. I have a few war stories. I’m sure you do too.
Smart companies are reshaping their talent strategies
Bain & Company provides some useful pointers to future-proof your talent strategies in their working futures report.
I’ve summed them up here with a sprinkle of my own thoughts:
1/ From Talent Taker to Talent Maker
In the cutthroat world of business, companies have often acted as “talent takers,” looking externally to fill skill gaps. It’s the classic ‘build vs. buy’ dilemma.
The New Way: Bain & Co. suggests a paradigm shift—become a “Talent Maker.” Focus on the goldmine of untapped potential within your existing workforce.
Something to try: Why not start an internal “Talent Marketplace” where employees can pitch their hidden skills? It’s like eBay but for talent within your company.
Tool to Consider: Check out Gloat, a talent marketplace platform that can help you unlock internal mobility.
2/ Rethink L&D Models
Traditional L&D models are as outdated as flip phones. Side note: I saw one in the wild the other day. Trippy!
The New Way: Bain recommends creating frameworks that align with individual strengths and career aspirations. Sounds simple but not so straightforward.
Something to try: Consider creating specific learning pathways that match skills and roles in your organisation.
Tool to Consider: Degreed offers skill-building pathways tailored to individual needs.
3/ Think Laterally About Career Journeys
Vertical career ladders are so last decade.
The New Way: Embrace lateral career paths to cater to diverse strengths and interests. That means more than your typical ‘traditional’ skills.
Something to try: Encourage career maps instead of a ladder, offering multiple directions for growth. Check this article for more inspo.
Tool to Consider: Progression is great for building modern-day career maps. I’ve used the tool with two previous companies and it worked well.
4/ Create Better Visibility on Evolving Talent Needs
Companies often struggle to articulate their future talent needs, leaving employees in the dark about their career paths.
Future skills discussions often end up as opinion circuses rather than data-driven dialogues.
The New Way: Be transparent about the skills needed for future business goals. Chase real data not ad-hoc opinions from conversations.
Something to try: Use data analytics to forecast skill needs—no more guessing games. Your HR and L&D systems should help with this. If they don’t, lose them.
Tool to Consider: TechWolf is a platform I like the more I read about it. Check it out for yourself to learn more.
5/ Support Career Development
While each of us is ultimately responsible for our career development, companies can play a supportive role too.
Provide the right tools, better visibility, and an open environment for career discussions. People don’t want to feel like cogs in a machine but rather active participants in shaping their career paths.
The New Way: Empower them as active participants in their career paths.
Something to try: Regular Career Health Check-ups can go a long way. Yes, it’s simple but always effective.
Tool to Consider: Quite a few in this space. Progression can help with their career check-in support tools. As can Culture Amp. Always do your own research!
6/ Diverse Skill Sets
Skills pay the bills!
They’re the currency we use to play in the career marketplace.
The New Way: Bain encourages investment in a diverse and adaptable set of skills to keep pace with global shifts.
Something to try: Run a quarterly skills health check to identify gaps and opportunities. This is probably one of the best tools I ever implemented in the corpo world.
Tool to Consider: You could do this manually, but that would be a pain. My advice is to see if you can leverage existing HR and L&D tech to do this. If not, investigate something like TechWolf.
Go do your thing!
Ok. Now go forth, and kick-ass with your super-amazing talent strategy.
You’re welcome 😉
Before you go… 👋
If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.
You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.
Ooo does that ruffle the feathers?
Maybe if you’re an investment banking grad it does.
It’s easy to fall into the instant gratification trap of immediately making as much money as possible. But, what if I told you this is finite thinking?
If you want to play the infinite game (aka the long game) to future-proof your financial capability, then I have a strategy for you.
In the beginning
When you first start out, you don’t know shit about shit.
You might think you do (our egos convince us of this). Yet just like Mike Tyson’s opponents in the early 90s found out. You get knocked out quicker than you think. This is a good thing though.
Yes, I said it was good. Sometimes a reality check is just what we need to set us on the right path.
When you first jump into the career game you’re earning potential is capped by 3 things:
- Skills
- Experience
- Credibility (industry and/or subject)
The only way you can improve on these is through learning. Your money can’t buy any of this, no matter how hard you try.
“Everyone has a plan until they got punched in the face”
Mike Tyson
The Short Game vs. The Smart Game
Every career has two paths.
The first, the short game, is about immediate gratification. It’s the quick promotions, the hefty bonuses, the flashy titles. This path often leads to a glass ceiling.
At this point, players in this game face their first real challenge, “How do I break through the glass to the next level?”
Without investment in the 3 pillars we discussed earlier, it’s bloody hard. Often, these people are trapped in this level longer than their peers who did invest. Sometimes they never breakthrough.
The smart game, on the other hand, is a marathon.
It’s about pacing yourself. You could say it’s sacrificing the financial gains today for the bigger prize down the road. Like a savings account that never stops paying out great gains.
The first 5 years of your career is a great time to be a sponge.
Ask the stupid questions, make mistakes to learn from, and build your network. This is the way to build your skills, experience and credibility.
Time spent annoying your boss for a promotion or more money when you have little to exchange in return is not the best strategy.
The Long-Term Benefits of Learning over Earning Early
Consider this: the skills and knowledge you acquire compound over time.
Compounding is a beautiful thing.
Whether it be money, skills or anything else. It has the best returns, always. Don’t just take it from me, here are much smarter folks talking about the same thing:
Before you go… 👋
If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.
You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.
You might think I’m being mean (even crazy), but I’ve found this to be true.
The best learning experience doesn’t always win.
It stings, and I’ve felt that sting many times before. I’m sure you have too.
So how do we solve it?
Many factors come into play for success. Some are beyond your control, and others you couldn’t foresee. Yet, we can look across the industry for signals.
Where do projects fall flat? Why, and most importantly, what can we learn from this?
Here’s 4 classic mistakes that will derail your work
1/ Building in silo
Don’t spend 6 months in your monk temple building something that people no longer need, or at the very least, can’t remember why they needed it in the first place.
Too many good and great L&D/HR projects have died behind closed doors.
You need to collaborate. We’re human after all.
What I’m not saying here is for you to take an order from stakeholders to go and build. That never ends well. Instead, partner with them like a consultant.
I know it’s easy to say, and not so easy to do.
This guide on why performance consulting is so important for L&D will help you with that.
2/ Drop and hide
The old build a product and tell no one about it.
This is a classic L&D pitfall. Launch the best thing since sliced bread, but tell no one about it. Only to bemoan why no one is using it.
Madness.
This can easily be avoided.
Here’s a few guides to help you get the engagement you want:
- How to position your product for success
- What you need to understand about using smart marketing for L&D
3/ Spray and pray
This one always makes me chuckle.
You build an experience because a senior leader says a team desperately needs this. You don’t talk to the end users because you take the leader’s words as truth.
You then build an experience based on this only to discover at launch, the end users have no idea why they need this.
This is what I call a spray and pray tactic.
You build something based on an assumption and hope it works. Only to be left with your time wasted and your experience in the graveyard.
Two things I want to share with you to help with this 👇
- The performance consulting cheatsheet for L&D pros (8 questions you need to ask)
- How to ask better stakeholder questions for solution design
4/ Not solving a real problem
Ever built a solution and wondered WTF is this actually solving?
Me too.
In this age of my career, the first question I ask without fail is “What are we solving for?”. It’s amazing how those five little words can change a conversation.
It causes the recipient to think deeply about whether they are seeking:
- A training solution aka an engagement event, to make people feel good and tick a box. No performance improvement objective here
- A performance solution focused on enabling a skill and/or behaviour change that improves the team, business and individual.
80% of the time, I find it’s number 1.
Nothing wrong with that. Just be clear with your stakeholders on the outcome being sought.
🧰 The Fix: I’ve pretty much given you the answer already. Ask why and get super clear on it. Everything else means nothing without this.
L&D is no longer about design alone.
Final thoughts
There we have it, friend.
Success is built on an interconnected hive of choices and investments. So, while AI tools promise to do it all, we still have actions we must take.
Before you go… 👋
If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.
You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.
Organisations have two choices with AI (and any tech for that matter).
Choose to augment or automate.
For clarity:
Augmentation = Supports and improves human decision-making and actions with technology
Automation = Completely replaces human decision-making and actions with technology
This isn’t an exclusive task to AI.
We’ve been doing this with all forms of technology for centuries. That includes more than digital tools.
At this moment, organisations (just like us) are looking to understand the opportunities and limitations of generative AI technology. Let’s be honest, it’s good but it ain’t perfect.
In my work researching the roles of the future with generative AI. I’m focused on the tasks it could replace and or support.
Based on this, I work with organisations to identify the common skills needed to do those tasks.
The question then becomes whether current Gen AI standards replace those entirely or only partly. If partly, what % and how much human interaction is needed?
Looking at this from a task lens (vs jobs) enables companies to evaluate where they can:
- Best utilise humans
- Simplify time-killing processes
- Get a clear view of the skills needed for future organisational performance
Gen AI will replace some tasks and thus jobs, but it will also create new ones.
That’s my Ted Talk over. You’re welcome.
Before you go… 👋
If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.
You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.
