Talent Management - October 2008 - (Page 12)

[leading edge] by Dr. Jac Fitz-enz T T Wake Up America he costs of food, water, fuel, health care and housing are overwhelming us. The disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan have burdened us with an unpayable national debt, an anemic dollar and the enmity of several hundred million people throughout the Middle East. Congress and the Bush administration offer no solutions as they devote their energies to self-serving re-election. And, for the ﬁrst time in more than 200 years, American children do not expect to live as well as their parents did. The question is, can the American dream be revived? The nightmare of the Great Depression gave way after World War II to the greatest dream of afﬂuence ever known. By the 1950s, thanks largely to the GI Bill and FHA Home Loans, most Americans could go to college, own a home, buy a new car every two years and travel a secure world on vacation. Today, almost none of those privileges are attainable. In a recent “World Values Survey” of national happiness by the University of Michigan, America came out 16th. And 81 percent of respondents to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll said they were angry with the direction in which we are being led. There is an illness in the land. Dying From Mistakes I once asked my dermatologist how anyone could die from skin cancer. He told me people die from mistakes. Misdiagnosis and mistreatment contribute to the transformation of an irritating skin condition into lymphatic cancer. The question for America is, do we have a bad rash or cancer? As bad as things are — and they are bad — we’ve had worse. We are not dead yet. Unemployment today is half of what it was in 1982, and inﬂation is less than one third of 1980’s high of 14.8 percent. There is time to save the dream. We have to return to sound economic behavior and stop get-rich-quick schemes such as buying and ﬂipping houses. Executives must instill better ways to manage businesses instead of continuing mindless cost-cutting that has long passed the point of diminishing returns. When confronted with a potentially fatal threat, the cure is to think and act rather than hope. There will be no miracle drug or superhero coming out of Washington no matter who wins the upcoming presitrade gap ﬁlling in favor of building capability, and analyze organizational process methodologies. How well did they work in the past, and more importantly, are they up to the challenges of the future? Next, we should integrate all functions rather than continue to work in silos. If there is a magic cure, that is it. Silos are inherently selfcentered and inefﬁcient, not to mention ineffective. Finally, we need data on future possibilities so we can develop leading indicators and measures of intangibles to tell us what is likely to happen tomorrow. Intelligence has to replace hand wringing or blind optimism. As my father told me many years ago, “Son, you can’t use old ways to solve new problems.” Einstein said it more pointedly: “Those who Executives must instill better ways to manage businesses instead of continuing mindless cost-cutting. dential election. Economies run in cycles more powerful than any administration. We have to work our way out of this nightmare, and the same goes for talent management issues. The talent manager’s ﬁrst step is to acknowledge he or she may not know everything about a problem. Over time, it’s natural to fall into management patterns that gradually lose their value. Periodically, the next great idea comes along and turns out to be another false hope. One must know when to avoid the hype. Let’s restart by expanding our view of the marketplace from myopic concentration on diminishing labor supplies to include all global factors that might affect our capacity to perform. Then, we’ll update our mental models. Workforce planning has to change to capability planning. Talent managers should About the Author Dr. Jac Fitz-enz is founder and CEO of the Human Capital Source and Workforce Intelligence Institute. He can be reached at editor@ talentmgt.com. continue to apply old methods to new problems expecting to ﬁnd solutions are insane.” We are suffering what is quickly turning into the death of America’s dream world. We have already lost our halo in the eyes of the world because of our Middle East incursion. America stands on the brink of a calamity as grave as the Great Depression. Drastic action is called for. But the cure must come from the source that has always driven and supported the dream: namely, hardworking, selﬂess Americans in education, government and business, like you and me. In the talent management space, that drive and strategic support must come from HR. 12 October 2008 talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com http://www.talentmgt.com

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

Talent Management - October 2008 Editor’s Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Foundations The Three Pillars of Executive On-Boarding Role-Based Assessment: Thinking Inside the Box Who's Going to Speak Up for Health Care? Obey the Push to Automate Managing the Star Performer No One Wants to Work With Adopting a Mutual-Funds Model for Talent Management Hewlett-Packard: Simple Talent Management in a Technical World Team Effort Pays in Talent at London Business School The Employee Survey: What’s in It for Me? Why Most Managers Are Stuck Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

Talent Management - October 2008

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