TECHNIQUE FOR TRANSFORMATION: "talent liberation"

Sometimes we don't see what's staring us in the face. In recent times I've been fascinated with "transformation" and especially practical techniques for transformation. And I missed the most obvious one. Talent liberation is a progressive strategy for talent management that I have been working on since 2002. It is based on the premise that:

organisations reach prime performance when they recognise, value, develop and use the unique talents of all their people in the delivery of their objectives

more about talent liberation
There is much more about talent liberation at the Primeast website and in my book on Talent Liberation so I'm not going into detail except to draw attention to the basic technique and comment on why this is transformation.


the talent liberation technique
The most succinct outline of the technique can be found at the Releasing Potential site which expands just a little on the fact that "recognise, value, develop and use" is a process for making the most of talent and there are eight strategic steps for implementing in an organisation.  So with that explained and links provided let's move to why talent liberation is truly a transformation technique.

the energy associated with most workplaces
In many organisations, there are some prevailing principles which are less than helpful.

1. Talent is a scarce commodity which needs to be managed carefully in the fear that otherwise it will be lost to competitors.
2. The most important aspect of skill that needs to be managed is competence.  So find out where people are weak and get them up to speed through training and performance management.

these two principles alone are scarcity and risk averse mindsets
The sort of workplace these two factors promote is one where the majority of the workplace feel inferior to the "talent stream" and where the focus is on where people fail.  In these organisations learning budgets are spent on "fixing people's weaknesses".  This is despite tons of evidence that turning natural talent into strength is a far better investment.  In fact our experience is that "talent liberation" provides massive return on investment - in excess of ten to one.

transforming the prevailing energy
The transformation quest is to look at the "energy" in the workplace and to transform it from negative into positive.  So, scarcity is transformed into abundance and a focus on weakness into a focus on strength.

in talent-centred cultures there is an abundance of talent and a focus on strength
Imagine the power of a workplace where everyone can name and describe the key talents they bring to the party.  Where they know how these talents add value.  Where everyone has a development plan focused on turning their talents into strengths.  And where people feel special, with their talents valued and being put to ever-increasing use every day.  That's transformation.