Strategic Human Capital Insights

What is Upskilling? 

Organizations face continuous change as the 'new normal'.’ To meet these changing business demands, every person in the organization must critically look at their current knowledge levels and skill sets and measure them against the current and anticipated required task benchmarks. The frustration for an individual and an organization is that as soon as you get the required knowledge and skill sets, it is very likely that the benchmark will shift once again. It is often reflected in the statements, "I'm dancing as fast as I can," or the famous treadmill analogy," I'm running faster and faster just to stay in place."

It’s never too early to start managing people, your most important asset.  Increase the ROI of your people investment.  Focus on improving financial results by unlocking human capital potential. 

We recently held a Lunch & Learn in partnership with the Arizona Technology Council on September 25, 2014.

Start-up and high-growth companies, by their very nature, are fast-paced and change continually.  Every person in every role will make a critical, strategic difference.  There is no room for error and no place to hide. During the Lunch & Learn with the Arizona Technology Council, attendees learned how to take a disciplined approach to strategic human capital planning focusing on business agility and unlocking the strength of your people.

Leadership Landscape: Identifying & Understanding the Subtleties of Transition Leadership

Today, we are experiencing unprecedented change in ways we could not have imagined. One day, life was normal, and the next day we were dealing with a ‘new normal’ for which there was no blueprint. This is discontinuous change at its finest. During this time, change leadership skills are more important than ever before. Managing people whom you will need to bring with you on the change journey and critical thinking through your business operations that need to adapt to our new VUCA reality are the ‘new normal.’ This is the new reality. Our old reality is gone.

The Internal People Side of Change Management: Transition Leadership and the Change Trajectory

Transition Leadership:  Dealing with how employees transition through the phases of change. 

Transition Leadership focuses on the people side of change management. Transition Leadership requires the leader to go far beyond the processes used in change management to the gray area dealing with employees’ emotional reactions and responses to change. Here the leader must fully understand the psychology of how change impacts the organization at the individual level.

Leadership Landscape: Beware of the External Horizon

Of the many facets of Change Management, this focuses on the leader, the environment, change, and the process responses required for success. 

• Some leaders make things happen - The Proactives
• Some leaders watch what happens  - The Passives
• Some leaders wonder what happened? – The Reactives

Our first focus will be on the knowledge and skill sets required to manage the elements of change coming from outside the organization. Think of it this way - no one else in the organization can do this but you, the leader.

Here’s what we mean by Change Management: Change Management deals with change that comes at an organization from the external environment. That external environment can be external to a division while still internal to the organization. From completely outside the organization, other changes can come from industry, competition, regulation, government, etc.

You can’t escape all the literature, conversation, and often just ‘noise’ around the topic of leadership. We hear what leadership is, what it isn’t, what it was, and what it will be.

In the current operating environment, there is no substitute for quality leadership. Leadership is required on both a process and people level. Let's take some time to focus on the five emerging skills and competencies around future-focused leadership. 

1. Organizational Agility for Business Readiness and Responsiveness
   
   
2. ‘Altrocentric’ Leadership - Soft Skills:  Renewed, Refreshed and Revisited
   
   
3. Managing the External Side of Change Management:  The Organizational Journey
   
   
4. Managing the Internal Side of Transition Management:  The Individual Journey
   
   
5. Leader as Corporate Steward - Risk Management
   
   

Why is the topic of leadership getting so much attention today? Our world and our organizations are living in a new reality, and there is no more escaping this point. Old organizational paradigms that have served us for the past 50 years are quickly approaching their ‘sell by’ date. Our new reality results from the aggregate effect of change converging at multiple levels? Too many people, it seems so sudden. It’s not so sudden!