The Issue
We need to redefine talent and high-performance for our modern world of work.
30 years ago the most important people in our organisations were defined by the amount and type of information they were custodians of. Information was power, and those with the power and influence held onto it tightly.
Today, in our post-information age world of internet activity and full-time connection, information has become so democratised that it effectively no longer has any power. 30 years ago high-performing talent controlled information. Today high-performing talent distributes it.
How do we start?
Firstly, we need to strip age from the equation. In too many human capital discussions Talent has begun to be used as a synonym for youth. Talent and high-performance is not age dependant. High-performing individuals constantly adapt to changing social dynamics and remain relevant – regardless of age.
Secondly, accept that Talent and High-perfomance are measured by one criteria, and one criteria only…. do they deliver? Is that delivery done in a way that is future-fit and positions the business, or team, for ongoing relevance into the future?
People who deliver in a way that fits the past are redundant.
Those who are only relevant for today are merely acceptable.
Talent considers the past, is relevant to the present, and builds for the future.
Actions
Download our Talent Re:Defined ebook as a basis for scanning through your team and business to engage more effectively with High-Performing Talent, and build your business’ future fitness.
Ray, I would agree with much of the rest of the position that talent needs to be recognised for delivery and not for their control over information flow. However, I think we need to have a more nuanced definition of knowledge vs information, and turn us back to the fact that we used to say that “knowledge is power”.
Knowledge in my mind is more of a static commodity, something more like institutional memory, and something that can be codified and populated into a knowledgebase for all to access, so that the bearer of that knowledge doesn’t have job security just because of the vault in their head with military-grade password encryption. Knowledge can also be one of the input streams to machine learning such as how IBM’s Watson won at Jeapordy – being fed ‘the internet’ and then learning how to sort it into logical responses to cryptic questions.
Information is more dynamic, is a result of the interpretation of constant streams of new data, at ever increasing volume and velocity, a result of the data manipulation, transformation and analysis. I would agree that it is being democratized, in as much as good solutions provide more users with access to the information or data that they can take and analyze further for their specific business needs – always knowing they have the most current and accurate data.
To quote Amit Walia, Chief Product Officer of Informatica, has pointed out
“…there is a big change happening in the world of big data. Self-service – that is the whole idea. You don’t want to create some massive IT project that takes years to bear fruit, before business users can benefit from it. Business users want to be able derive value now. This whole business and IT time-to-value issue is a big thing in the world of big data because again, it’s the idea is that you make quick decisions and you can create value instantly.”
Information has not lost its power within the organization, it is more critical than ever, and the power lies with the people and organizations who know how to analyze, interpret, and build flexible and responsive strategies around it. These people cannot hold the organization to ransom based on what they know, because they are measured on the quality of what they share.
Information is Power.
The nuance and distinction between knowledge and information is valuable. Thanks for the contribution Jeremy.