Strategy and Talent
Talent is the raw material for making strategy happen. Talent reflects in people whose competence, motivation, relationships and confidence match-up with the organization’s strategic agenda. Individuals have specific talent patterns that reflect background, knowledge, personality, and experience. Teams represent collections of individual talent, blended together for the greater purpose, the broader, strategic work to be done.
So far, so good. But how do we approach talent development – for strategy?
Talent Blocks and Beams
Our research for Strategic Teams and Development began with a critical focus on different types of competence and temperament, at the individual level. What emerged from this research became known as “Talent Blocks” of which there are six:
- Technical – Subject matter knowledge and mastery
- Analytic – Data sensing and system connections
- Creative – Constructive imagination; idea management
- Resource – Effective management of scarce assets
- Solution – Deconstruction and resolution of problems
- Relational – On the personal, technical and economic level
At first blush, these seem like common perspectives and groupings of capacity and competence. However, in a working team context or setting, these six Talent Blocks come into focus as structural and behavioral assets.
Surrounding these Talent Blocks are a number of Talent Beams that support individual and team development. The individual and collective beams are two essential support elements, and these serve to guide engagement, integration and performance. Another set of Talent Beams support professional and career track development. These are defined by credentials, experience and functional knowledge, as well as the capacity for leadership and management.
Where to Go with Talent
People make strategy happen, and more often than not, talented people make strategy happen in teams that are developed and deployed for a purpose. What matters from the very start of the company’s strategic agenda; what do we stand for, and where are we headed? The answer to that question of purpose and intent is the foundation for team development with Talent Blocks and Beams. Consider:
- First, the Strategic Agenda
The nature of the company’s growth, performance and change intentions as expressed in the strategic agenda. What kind of talent is needed for advancing these intentions, from direction to integration to execution?
- Second, Required Talent Blocks and Beams
The specific and general competencies, motivations, relationships and confidence factors that will be necessary for individual and team readiness, for owning the work to be done, the collective impact of people and efforts. Specific and general Talent Blocks, combined with Talent Beams … this is the mix that equips teams of people making strategy happen.
- Third, Talent Informs Culture
Culture is an amalgam of principles, values, habits, thought patterns, norms, and belief systems. Talent is catalytic and influential relative to everyday culture, thought and behavior. This fuels strategic leadership.
How we view talent is subject to bias, assessment, perspective, and the strategic tensions that shape an organization’s mindset. Load this up with policy dictates, compliance factors and development models, and the essence of Talent Blocks and Beams can get lost in the shuffle. We need to make sure the discipline remains in clear focus, above the noise. Strategic teams are built, for better or worse, with Talent Blocks and Beams, in the context of everything the organization faces.
The ideas defined above are the subject of our new fieldbook entitled Strategic Teams and Development planned for release at the end of the year. The fieldbook is designed as a resource for individuals and teams at every level of the enterprise. From every angle, Strategic Teams and Development speaks to the ideas that contribute to better, stronger, smarter, faster teams that are focused on results, and on making strategy happen, taking care of today and getting ready for tomorrow.
Daniel Wolf is the President of Dewar Sloan, a consulting group with expertise in strategy and governance. He is the author of Strategic Teams and Development — as well as Prepared and Resolved: The Strategic Agenda for Growth, Performance and Change.
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