We have all been asked the question at a job interview, 'do you prefer working as part of a team or as an individual?' Nine times out of ten we sit on the fence with our answer.
Looking at our Future Talent in terms of team skills we need to consider 'team learning and development'. There is no single 'off the shelf' model which exists for development of a high performing team based environment so when it comes to setting agile, impactful skills focused targets/KPI's for your employees often a compromise is needed between individual and team based priorities. This results in 'sandbagging' (convincing others to set lower targets than that which may be ultimatly achievable)
Risk Inertia - managing the risk of not achieving your individual KPI's can be an important skill set however also leads to lower overall organisational growth and innovation. Employees need to be able to feel safe to challenge themselves and potentially make mistakes. Fear of the consequences of failure within an organisation can have a significant effect on the growth of your future talent. Of course there are many different individual coping mechanisms however developing 'team based' personal development is key.
Physiological Safety - The fear negative consequence when challenging an organisations 'status quo' is also a common area of concern especially within larger organisations where deep rooted idealism have made true agility difficult to implement. This in turn leaves little room for stretching personal development.
OKR's are usually set by teams to create ownership and to manage risk with input form senior management to ensure broad direction and strategic relevance.
Let's look at OKR's with an L&D lens. One of the main benefits of face to face learning is pier knowledge transfer which occurs in many ways from coffee break networking to deep subject matter discussion groups. This is very hard to replicate in digital learning environments due to technology constraints and concentration/distraction theories when sitting in a remote environment.
Many organisations are using organisational transformation programmes to implement agile, team based skills and learning. Firstly, although most companies may have made baby steps towards team KPI's, some are now basing the main measurement of performance of an individual on team performance and directly linking this with remuneration. Following on from this, future talent needs to be able to recognise the benefits of this model and posses the skills to influence others, often out-with their own sphere of responsibility.
Developing Individuals to Cultivate Craftsmanship
In an organisation where roles may change, and matching people to needs is based on the applicable skills they can deploy, we return to the idea of crafts (continuous learning and growth towards achieving mastery). For example, a software developer could continue to achieve mastery in their craft, instead of moving into a manager role.
The key to instilling craftsmanship in the people model is developing a consistent set of overarching competencies and behaviors to leverage for selection, performance management, development and advancement. An organisation can define competencies across business and technical knowledge, agile expertise, individual skills (e.g., cognitive flexibility), mindsets and behaviors (e.g., servant leadership). They then designed the remainder of the people model against these with, for example, structured interviews for talent selection, and role specific learning journeys.
Dynamic Future Talent Community
The concept of our DFTC starts with quality and consistency of future talent. There is a real disconnect between many FE and HE providers, economic impact groups, local authorities and commercial organisations. DFTC seeks to create a step change in the collaboration between all the key stakeholders ensuring more impact, more future ready talent, higher quality engagement and real innovative partnerships.
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Thanks for reading!
Gary Boyd
Co Founder - Future Talent Training