I found this at one of Guy Kawasaki’s Twitter posts. It’s Malcolm Gladwell speaking at the New
Yorker’s Stories from the Near Future conference back in May. His speech revolves around our antiquated approach to hiring talent. You can view the speech here. Mr. Gladwell makes some great points, but I will allow you to glean that on your own.
Here are my thoughts on the matter:
- Organizations have spent too much time and money on removing all doubt.
- Organizations don’t use leadership to “size” talent up.
- Organizations don’t know what system they’re built on (thank you Michelle).
- Organizations need to teach and hold managers accountable for evaluating talent.
- Organizations need to decide what value they place on people-really.
I know you may be thinking that the above has been said before. And you would be right. Nothing new under the sun as once been said. But here’s something to consider:
A friend once asked me, during a time of great struggle/learning, how I knew if the lessons learned would stick. I told him that sometimes God has to orchestrate such winds upon our life-tree that our roots go so deep that we never turn back. I’m living proof of this. Maybe this applies to organizations too.
We’re not short on data that tells us to change, but short on character and courage to move forward in change.