Ron Ashkenas, an author, consultant and expert in GE workout processes discussed the challenges with succession and talent planning. In short, many organizations spend an incredible amount of hours on talent management and most have not seen the benefits.
When the process doesn’t work, a typical reaction is to re-design the talent system or spend countless hours studying and borrowing from other organizations. Ron talks about common pitfalls with this approach, either lack of adaption or adoption.
Lack of adaption is about moving a process from one organization to another without changing it. Imagine the disaster of taking a GE practice and plunking the same process at Disney. Adoption focuses on the lack of buy-in from leadership, Ron states, “as though the tool itself will generate results.” And, sadly many believe this or view the talent challenge as an HR issue.
Reflecting on the conversations and presentations at the Diversity and Inclusion conference organized by Community Business, there’s another pitfall that is rarely discussed, ‘bias’ particularly gender and cultural bias. Catalyst a leading non-profit organization and a gender think tank talks about how talent management often becomes a roadblock for women. Last year, DDI, a human capital research firm produced a report stating that “women more so than men fall off the talent ranks.”
Why or what contributes to this problem?
Two ideas and one solution come to mind:
1. Bias – ubiquitous and unconscious, and a mental fixedness on leadership.
2. Politics – ambivalence towards power and an aversion to corporate politics.
One solution demand “courageous leadership” from everyone. Raise awareness, challenge thinking and take a counter intuitive approach to politics; use power for the good of the organization and level the playing field for everyone.
Will talent management be different as a result of raising awareness?
Try it.
