Talent Management - September 2008 - (Page 44)

recruitment & retention assessment & evaluation compensation & beneﬁts performance management learning & development succession planning Then it becomes the succession. [The students] start as technicians a lot of times and work their way up through the chain of occupations.” Because of the government’s merit system, where employees are hired and promoted based on their competence, NRCS cultivates a large pool of talent rather than grooming a speciﬁc individual for a speciﬁc position. “You have to be very concerned with merit principles within the federal system,” Speight said. “In the private sector, you can actually designate individuals to ﬁll a position, and they know they are in line for that position. In the federal system, everyone has to be given an equal opportunity to compete for a given position. We can build the talent, but no one’s guaranteed an individual position.” For leadership succession planning, NRCS recently rolled out a national leadership development program. The intention is to build bench strength so there’s a ready reserve of talent when leadership positions become The Story of Succession Lindsay Edmonds Wickman Once upon a time, the federal government had many employees who were baby boomers. These boomers were about to retire, and the government was in desperate need of a way to transfer their knowledge to younger workers. They looked to their hero — storytelling — to provide a solution. Organizational storytelling can be used in the government as a way to facilitate the succession of younger employees into the roles left behind by retiring boomers. It’s an apt mechanism for transferring knowledge and experience and can also help to engage, recruit and retain fresh talent. “What is the heart and soul of the organization?” asked Lynne Feingold, an organizational consultant, trainer and speaker who helped promote the use of organizational storytelling in the U.S. General Services Administration. “It’s the stories that people tell. When we talk about stories, we’re talking about shared experiences, and that’s the most efﬁcient way to share knowledge. It’s not the knowledge you can read in a book; it’s the years of wisdom and implicit knowledge that somebody’s gained.” Stories can be an integral part of most employees’ daily lives, whether the tales are personal or professional. Thus, almost everyone is a storyteller. As a result, government employees just have to harness employees’ natural talent when using organizational storytelling. “Somebody says: ‘How’d the meeting go?’” Feingold said. “You tell them how the meeting went. There were people that were involved, there were actions, there were motivations, there were feelings and there were obstacles. Those are the essential parts of a story.” Stories also can help to attract and retain talent. “People who feel engaged want to come to work every day. I like to use the metaphor of a symphony orchestra,” Feingold said. “The conductor serves like the CEO, and to play great music the conductor has to listen to all the musicians and all the musicians have to listen to each other. If you see the different instruments like stories, it’s only through the telling and listening of every person’s story in the organization that a great organization is created. “Every individual has a story [and] every organization has a story. Those stories have to be told. When you’re looking to capture knowledge or [attract] the right people, you need to match the individual story with the organizational story, and that’s the key to attracting and retaining people.” Whether an organization is using storytelling for knowledge capture or in recruiting and retaining employees, the story must be aligned with an objective to be effective. “When you’re telling a story, what’s the context, what’s the purpose, what’s the outcome that you want to get?” Feingold said. “There are different reasons for telling stories, so a story always has to be seen in context.” Organizations can take a cue from the famous character who was lost in the Land of Oz, Dorothy Gale, as she used her story to recruit and retain people and share useful knowledge along the journey. “If you want to attract and retain the best, you have to have a powerful story that brands your organization,” Feingold said. “We all know Dorothy and ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ What did Dorothy do? She shared her story, created a community of practice and engaged everybody to go on her journey with her. Her story becomes our story, and that’s what happens with stories — they bring people together.” To build a culture of storytelling, organizations must break down barriers to foster environments where individuals feel comfortable sharing their stories. “People will share knowledge when they feel trust and [passion] for what they do,” Feingold said. “I would go so far as to say an agency’s use of organizational storytelling is a mechanism and barometer of how well their retention and succession [planning] is going.” 44 talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com http://www.talentmgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - September 2008

Talent Management - September 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance: Stop Wasting Money on Training Leading Edge: No Whining, No Excuses Learning Connections: Do You Get It? The Untapped Resource Reinventing HR Doing Compensation Right: The Winning Spread Managing Performance in the Knowledge and Innovation Worker Age Stop-The-Clock Time Management Preparing for the Future in the Public Sector SAS: Connecting People, Process and Products Talent Transformation at Textron The Price of Finding the Right Gen Y Candidate Advertiser's Index Editorial Resources Full Potential: Do What You Love, Love What You Do

Talent Management - September 2008

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