This article is a part of the All Things Talent Magazine (July 2018 Edition) – An Initiative By iimjobs.com | hirist.com
In today’s VUCA, a world of rapid change, we are constantly engaged at work doing one of the three things: Thinking, designing, deploying strategy or implementing and embedding change.
Organizations evolve over time just as human beings do. However, the essence of us remains the same (what I would call the core), yet on the outside, we change continuously. So too many things around us, such as brands, they evolve in order to remain contemporary. Even after many decades, we are still familiar and unchanged in many ways, and recognizable to those from our past. While outwardly, we may have changed, the core remains.
Change is a constant and as commonly stated a new normal. In today’s VUCA world of rapid change, we are constantly engaged at work doing one of the three things: Thinking, designing, deploying strategy or implementing and embedding change.
We are both implementing change management, even as we are changing leadership. Our change efforts include building collaborative teams, or working on breakthrough renovation and innovation, or competing and responding with agility to competitor moves, even otherwise making changes to current processes and technology and improving productivity. Depending on the context, our emphasis on each varies.
Today’s leaders need to clearly recognize that they work in an environment in which all of the three stages thinking unit, building unit and operating unit is in play. Being able to pick the right talent is critical to success.
In all of these changes, it is people who cause these changes who lead, follow, execute the change or get impacted by changes. Perhaps this calls for a new way of looking at talent: those that are involved with the thinking unit (TU), some who are involved with the building unit (BU), while others in the operating unit (OU). Here’s a simple analogy to explain this.
Suppose, we want to build a world-class Hospital on 30 acres of land, you would first want a team of specialists who would be involved with the thinking unit: those who would be responsible for developing the blueprint, the actual plans. They would be tasked with the Design and Architecture. This would be the most critical stage in the whole piece and would require deep subject matter expertise.
The next phase would be the building stage: clearing the land, digging, building the foundation, the columns and the floors. This stage is the conversion of the design to that which is physical and would require its own brand of expertise, but quite different from the earlier set above. This is the building unit.
“We are both implementing change management, even as we are changing leadership. Our change efforts include building collaborative teams, or working on breakthrough renovation and innovation, or competing and responding with agility to competitor moves, even otherwise making changes to current processes and technology and improving productivity.”
Finally, once the hospital is built, one would require talent that can operate the unit well: doctors, nurses, administrators, cashiers, lab technicians, etc. This stage requires the design of the operating model that would allow for integrated operations to come seamlessly together.
As we resource projects, we need to be very clear, what phase we are on: TU, BU or OU. This would determine the right talent that would be effective at this phase.
Usually, one tends and brings in consultants at the TU Stage, Service Partners and external vendors to help in the BU stage. It’s only at the OU stage that regular role profiles are appropriate.
I strongly believe that business leaders need to keep this perspective in mind when selecting the right resourcing. Projects fail, often because the specific competencies required for each phase is not available.
Today’s leaders need to clearly recognize that they work in an environment in which all of the three stages are in play. Being able to pick the right talent is critical to success. Reviewing relevant talent from this lens of TU, BU and OU is one other way to review capability needs of an organisation.
