Is who you are today, who you need to be for the future? Part 2: Talent
In last month’s newsletter we discussed the importance of aligning an organization’s vision for the future with its culture. Also critical to organizational alignment is having the talent and requisite skills needed to drive change and pull the organization into the future. If you have the ideal strategic plan and vision for the future, do you have the capabilities, structure, talent, systems, and processes to achieve those outcomes? Capabilities and talent will determine if your organization will be able to advance to the next level of growth and achievement.
Typically the strategic planning process is energizing and full of high levels of participation by the stakeholders involved. When it comes to implementing the plan, conversations can become challenging since skills and capabilities that are not present within the organization may be required to move the plan forward. It is the same with evaluating the culture of the organization and determining the type of culture needed for the future. Do you understand the talent needed to build that future and shape your desired culture? These types of questions are difficult but necessary as they drive the change needed to make implementation success a reality.
Today we see organizations and leaders going through major transition and/or developing strategy that will catapult them into the future. It is a powerful thing to be part of as organizations have become victims of their own success and have broken through to new levels of growth. What enabled a company to grow to where it is today, may not be what will enable growth over the next 5-10 years.
The CEO must balance ensuring a solid and effective operational foundation to support growth with the actual pursuit of the growth initiatives themselves. Building that operational foundation requires having the right capabilities, talent, systems, processes, and structure to operate at scale and/or sustain the growth strategy.
Assessing talent and capabilities objectively can be very difficult. We suggest the following process:
Clearly define the capabilities needed to achieve the outcomes of the strategic plan.
Capture the type of culture you want to create once the strategic plan is accomplished and identify the character, values, behaviors, etc. that will be needed today to achieve that for tomorrow.
Determine the new functions or capacity that will be needed to drive the plan forward.
Assess your current talent pool to determine who has the capabilities needed and who aligns to the desired culture.
Make the difficult changes needed to acquire the talent, skills, and capabilities that will move the organization towards its vision for the future.
The process of ensuring future relevance should begin today with organizations looking in the mirror and reflecting on their alignment of talent to the strategic and cultural needs of tomorrow.