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NOVEMBER 2015

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Five Ways to Drive Talent Management Agility in the Gig Economy

By Nick Horney, Ph.D., Leadership Agility Practice Leader

This is the era of Uber. Airbnb. TaskRabbit. Handy. All of these firms are examples of the "gig economy," and human resources (HR) professionals are being pressed to update their approach to talent management as a result.

The gig economy will continue placing pressure on HR leaders, HR policies and HR processes to become more agile so that they can accommodate the kind of turbulence now being created by contingent workers as a growing element of their talent pool.

The word "gig" has its origins in the music industry and now can be applied to all sorts of part-time employment: adjunct professors, management consultants, lawyers, doctors, farm managers, architects, street vendors, barbers, auto mechanics, landscapers, cab drivers, caregivers, truck drivers and more.

Most organizations have embraced the need to effectively identify their key talent who will enable them to thrive into the future. Many conferences, articles and books have been focused on the contribution of key talent identified and developed through a rigorous process of talent management.

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Creating Inspired and Agile HR Teams
By Tom O'Shea, CMC, Organizational Agility Practice Leader

"May you live in interesting times" ... this often used saying normally attributed as a Chinese proverb turns out to be an English saying after all. According to Wikipedia, the closest Chinese proverb goes something like this, "Better to be a dog in a peaceful time, than to be a man in a chaotic (warring) period" written by Feng Menglong in a 1627 short story entitled Stories to Awaken the World. Well, like it or not, there is no question that we are living in highly chaotic period with more to come as we look ahead to new iterations coming in 2016. Stayed tuned.

The first half of my business career involved operating in or leading HR teams of different varieties in mid to large global consumer products companies in the US and Europe. Throughout my business career, I was also fortunate to been actively involved with or more often responsible for guiding strategic planning. This fusion is greatly responsible for shaping my perspectives around organizational agility and the factors that enable real, meaningful agility. My take on the proverb above, whatever the real origin, is loud shout-out to all strategic HR business leaders ... "should you be so lucky as to live in interesting times" ... and you do.

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Using the Premortem to Drive HR Agility

By Ben Baran, Ph.D., Agility Analytics Practice Leader

When the unexpected strikes, our brains often start working like we're being chased by a wild animal. Levels of hormones-specifically, adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol-increase, resulting in a range of reactions including increased heart-rate, elevated blood pressure and tunnel-vision like focus on the threat.

This is great if you actually are being chased by a lion. The threat is singular, and your immediate actions are likely singular as well (for example, run fast to shelter).

But it's not so great if you're facing a complex problem in your organization.

That's because solving complex problems often requires the ability to consider many sources of information and to sort through the ambiguity of the situation with other people. It requires a calm mindset and critical thinking to deliver the best solution, not just the first one that comes to mind.

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What VUCA Will the Sharing Economy Create in
Your Industry & Business?

By Mike Richardson, Team Agility Practice Leader

Take a guess - how many companies are there in the sharing-economy already?

Let's start counting:

1. Uber

2. AirBnB

3. Lyfft

4. hmmm ... running out of steam?

So therefore, we might think that the sharing-economy so far only exists of a few companies we have heard of. Correct? Wrong! There are thousands already, 99% of which we have never heard of! Read these articles:

This March 2013 Article in the Economist: The Rise of the Sharing Economy
This January 2015 article in TIME magazine: Baby, You Can Drive My Car, and Do My Errands, and Rent My Stuff... (this article estimates 2000-3000 sharing economy companies)
This post: What is the Sharing Economy (this site say it has a directory of 7500 sharing sites)
The Wikipaedia page Sharing Economy does a pretty reasonable job of outlining the scope, drivers and controversies!

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Creating Agility in a VUCA World!

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