They’ll be back

I feel so thankful when they come back

I’ve had the fortunate experience of managing many talented people in my career.  People who surprised me with what they could do that I couldn’t.  People who got things done in the toughest of situations.  People who brightened my day with new ideas.  People whose strengths I learned and benefited from.  And then they’d move on.  Or I would.  And, we’d be a little sad.  But not for long.

Because they never really leave – those talented people you know so well.  They become collaborators in different departments.  They become advocates of a shared vision.  They make the company more successful or the industry more viable.  And because you know them so well – what they can do, what they care about, what makes them tick – they will listen when you have an opportunity to work together again.  And it will be good, because you know it will.

The people you manage may change, but the people you lead never do.  So, share your talent, let them go, and enjoy working with them again and again. 

Picture source: Welcome Back, Kotter

When you feel trapped

Sadly, I don’t really have a lot of great insights with this post.  I think it’s a personal attempt to gain perspective.

I know I’m not alone when I find that some of my toughest professional moments come from either boredom or a sense of being trapped.

For me, trapped is a state where the path to success is clear, but the barriers seem outside of my control.  I find this state beyond frustrating.  I’m sure this is an overachiever syndrome.

Ironically, this is not about constraints.  Constraints are great, as they make finding the path a challenge and challenge is good.

My only advice for myself (and anyone else who finds themselves in this situation) is to remember that in the end, things always manage to work out.

It never goes as badly as I imagined.  Once the problem starts to become a reality, others notice and begin removing those barriers.  The only thing really lost was getting out ahead of the issue and whatever stress induced hassles I gave myself in the process.

Sounds like a great time for giving thanks and taking time off, vs. sitting around stressing myself out about stuff that doesn’t matter.

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends.  For all my friends in other countries, I know you are also thankful for the peace you are afforded, as we yanks take time to enjoy our families.

______________

h/t to Denny Coates for the timely quote

From BASIC to BSc: the nameless enthusiast who rewrote my future

The Beatles on iTunes! Now, that takes me back a bit!

I grew up with the fab four oh-so-many years ago…collecting their black vinyl 45s, EPs, and LPs! Now, it’s all about the digital age with iPods, iPads, iEverything…and thankfully I’m still taking it in my stride.

I’m so grateful I didn’t get left behind by the great technological explosion, which could so easily have been the case had I not met an odd little chap by sheer chance…

1983: I and my husband (first, not current) had returned to England after living in West Africa for two years. I had almost finished renovating our first home in Faringdon, Oxfordshire, and was working as a realtor in that small market town, when I happened to take an adult education class in basic computing, and by basic I mean BASIC! To further date me, I’ll admit to practising my new found programming skills on my very own Sinclair ZX Spectrum, yes really!

The instructor was…um, how can I say this nicely?…really really weird, and quite frankly didn’t know much about the subject himself. The evenings were somewhat frustrating but, to give him his due, he was madly passionate and enthusiastic. After only four weekly night classes and despite his noticeable lack of knowledge (or maybe because of it), he lit a fire in me. I saw a need to learn more just for my own personal understanding, because it was evident that computers would increasingly impact my daily life.

Intending to enroll in just one or two classes, I interviewed at a local college (Oxford Polytechnic, as it was then) and ended up signing up, not for a couple of modules but for a three-year degree course…which led to a B.Sc. first class hons…which led to a job in IT as an Analyst/Programmer for Surrey University…which led to a technical Training Consultant role at Oracle Corporation.

2010: I recently clocked up 21 years with Oracle, in a variety of interesting, challenging roles – too many to mention, but including traveling and working in countless countries, relocating to the San Francisco bay area, managing a global team of curriculum developers, and, for the past few years, the privilege of contributing to the development of our latest Fusion applications. I owe all those experiences to a weird, passionate, enthusiastic night-class instructor whose name I can’t remember.

Wouldn’t we all like to be remembered (even if not by name!) for inspiring and enthusing a fellow human-being so much that it completely and positively changed the course of their life?

Mobile Learning

(photo by Gary Woodill)

Some time ago I participated in a webinar by Dr. Gary Woodill from Brandon Hall on the topic Mobile Learning.

Mobile Learning is something we have all been talking about for a long time, but now it seems something is really happening in this field.

He defined a set of categories that will be important to the future of Mobile Learning.

Here is a list of the ones I find most interesting and relevant:

1. User controlled learning apps – think Apple or Android Apps
2. Micro-blogging and text messaging – Facebook, Twitter etc.
3. Mobile research tools and data collection – geotag a picture of a rare flower taken with your mobile
4. Trend tracking and analysis – HealthMap, Google etc.
5. Just-in-time Information – your baker twitting when the bread is ready or the manual for your car build into the infotainment system
6. Augmented reality – Learn about the architect when you point your GPS enabled and direction sensitive phone at an old building
7. Contextual learning – personalized and location sensitive. Point your phone at a subway station and see when your train leaves
8. User controlled media production – most phones and even an iPod have a build-in camera these days
9. Performance support - a doctor operating a patient in a remote area guided by text messages from a colleague
10. Social networking and communities – Facebook, Wikipedia
11. Collaboration – made possible by the easy availability of communication devices
12. Haptic feedback – think Nintendo Wii
13. Self-organized collective behavior – think smart mobs e.g. recent demonstrations in Iran

To me they paint a very exciting new way of learning in the future – and they point to some interesting trends and truths in learning.

Often it is not technology that is limiting our possibilities but our minds
- only #6, #7 and #12 have been held back by technology – the rest is our minds catching up 

Learning gets embedded in our everyday life
- #2, #3, #5, #6, #7 and #10 are good examples 

The teacher is no longer always the focal point in future learning
- look at #1, #2, #8 and #12 

The old line between gathering information and learning becomes even more blurred in the future
- #2, #5, #6; #10 and #13 are examples of this 

Welcome to the new world of learning!

What if they find out I’m a fraud?

I bet you think you are the only person who has moments of professional panic.  You wonder how you got to where you are, you have a sense that you will wake up one day and be found out as a fraud.

Guess what?

Everyone has days like this.  We all have moments when we realize we are not everything we project.  In fact, most of us do not have all the abilities we need to progress in our careers.

Those who succeed in business are not without these fears.  They are not even without personality and ability gaps.  The difference is that they have learned to work through it.

The sooner you realize that you are lacking in some areas, the quicker you are able to put a plan in place to fill those gaps.

So quit being uptight about it or worse, defensive, and instead come to terms with your authentic self.    Know your strengths and your weaknesses and find people to work with who have strengths you are missing.

Those who get the furthest in business are not without weaknesses, they’ve just figured out how to make those weaknesses less important.

My Fantasy Football conversations are talent reviews

They're everywhere! They really are!

When we traveled through Europe with our 18 month old, we saw playgrounds everywhere.  We had been to Europe on previous occasions and, I have to say, I never noticed a playground before.  Ever.  But, suddenly they were there.  Everywhere.

Talent Reviews are like that for me now.  I see them everywhere.  At the office, of course.  But at home too.  Well, maybe not *home* per se, but a particular thing we do at home.

Yes, my (now) 4 year-old and I are obsessed with our Fantasy Football team.  Each week, we have multiple conversations about our line-up.  We review our pool of talent, both internal – already on our roster – and external – free agents available for pick-up.  We consider the data available to us (past performance, this week’s match-up, problematic injuries) and determine who we think will be most successful in their role and who, ultimately, will make us most successful.

Similar to a talent review, we have a long range view.  We might determine that a player is not likely to succeed in this week’s match-up, but has potential to take the spot in an upcoming week.  Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot we can do to develop the bench players – other than to yell loudly at the television, which I’m told is very effective.  I wouldn’t recommend that at the office, though.

As the weeks have progressed, we’ve identified more, differentiating attributes to consider – such as whether the kicker is playing in a dome.  This key attribute was something we discovered as we discussed the conditions that led to higher and lower-performing kickers.  This wasn’t something that was initially available in our analysis, but is now a key part of our talent review discussion.  Talent reviews grow like that, just like the people who participate in them.

A Gift, Improved

If you haven’t already, go directly to this story to read about an amazing and inspiring example of someone taking and refining a talent to the point that millions of people thought: savant, miracle, or cheat.

You’ll also discover a really good writer.

Hopefully, you’ve read the story now, but if you haven’t, the upshot is this: a contestant on Wheel of Fortune solved the (rather large) puzzle with only one letter. The real kicker is that she didn’t even need that letter, but the rules of the game forced that situation. What she had really done was solve the puzzle when the only thing up on the board was an apostrophe, during the turn of the previous contestant. When it became her turn, she already had beat the puzzle.

The talent angle is summed up by writer Chris Jones:

“Or Burke has a gift, and she improved it with study. She practiced. She found the little edges and secrets that make large-size success possible; she did every last bit of the math. She earned her way to her place behind the wheel, and then, on that fateful day, in that particular pattern of rectangles and lights, she saw all that she needed to beat it. “

What are you doing to continually develop and hone your talent and the talent of your team, so that when an opportunity presents itself, you also create a “miracle?”

Photo from Wikipedia

TalentedApps Turns Three!

King Arthur: Right. One… two… five.
Galahad: Three, sir.
King Arthur: Three.

That’s right! We’re five three!

It’s been three years today since Mark, Meg and Amy began this blog, and we are really proud of how far it’s come and how much it’s grown, the impact it’s had, and the platform it’s provided for a broad set of wonderful writers.

This last year found us continuing to build relationships with the rest of the HR, Talent, and Enterprise blogging community. We are honored to be part of such an incredibly gifted group of contributors committed to the improvement of this craft. Of course, the big event for us this last year was finally being able to speak openly about the Oracle Fusion applications we’ve been working on!

Our numbers continue to grow. Just take a look at the author list on the left and you’ll see we are up to 22 authors! Now, it isn’t a numbers contest, but rather the marvelous outcome of a having a diverse set of voices contributing to a common purpose. Each author has brought unique insight, new perspective, and really made us all think about things differently.

Our mission continues to be to help create change by improving the awareness and knowledge of our community, in an entertaining and informative way, of how to better achieve your goals through talent. Our thanks go out to our readership, friends, colleagues, and family for their support. We look forward to the upcoming years working together on this mission.

Your greatest ideas wont last

I’ve been a bit behind on my list lately, but yesterday I finally saw the outstanding Matt Ridley TEDtalk called When ideas have sex. (and yes, I wish I had such awesome titles).

It’s all about innovation and how it is impacted by collaboration.   Not consensus, but collaboration, in the form of sharing and building upon ideas.

This confirmed my belief that, in an information age, companies that help build and reward information sharing are going to be the ones that retain competitive advantage.

The Individual IQ is not enough, you need to build a collective IQ that is deeper and better (and more sustained) than any individual.

This got me wondering about pivotal talent identification within organizations.

I have heard of companies tracking core competencies like “team player” and “flexible and adaptable” and even “collaborative”, but I have yet to hear enough people talking about tracking and rewarding people who share what they know (and what they don’t).

It seems that without the culture to share ideas, and build upon them in new and interesting ways, you are at a disadvantage.  The cool ideas of today are probably only going to be cool for a short time, but the doors to the future that they can open, might very well be limitless.

Don’t let your ideas run dry or your collective intelligence degrade.  Build a culture that makes new ideas thrive and organizational intelligence grow.

Are your positions constraining your Succession plans?

In talking to leading  customers we have found that there is an unexpected wall that many hit when doing a complete succession process.

Over and over again we hear of customers who started a succession initiative for key positions and quickly found that position-based succession too restrictive.

What ends up being needed, is a bit of a hybrid approach.  You often want to do succession for key positions in the very top tier, but as you get 2-3 levels below (or further) you really want to think in terms of pipeline and talent pools that can better represent the needs of the individual and the organization in the process.

The key is a flexible architecture, both in the software and the process design, to recognize where the inflection point is for your organization.  You want to apply the right tool [and process] to the right business problem.  When you get this wrong you find results are compromised.

Your succession planning should support your business not constrain it.