Corporate talent development is an alternative approach to organizational learning that leans on very holistic philosophies and approaches. This is an interesting idea, isn’t it? A hippy learning flow system? We’ve seen the history of holistic solutions to any given problem often end in the same way in the past, anyhow.
Often, they’re placebos, hoaxes or just standard practices wrapped in mystification. So, does that apply to corporate talent development as well? Is it just another standard practice wrapped in hokum? Well, not entirely. It can be used and be made to work. So let’s take a look at how to do that, and in the process learn what the concept actually is.
If organizational learning and knowledge management are tuned if dynamic machines, then talent development is a garden. It involves passive approaches to learning and development through nurturing input. Unlike other methodologies, it reveres the one and the whole equally, though with different practices for either.
It focuses first on the one, so the first thing to keep in mind is that you really need to know your trainees for this to work. This means a lot of face time with them, more than other models, as well. So more trust must be earned and more of a casual contact be cultivated with each employee to fulfill the responsibilities to the one.
While tending to individuals, the process involves simple interaction and hands on experience, where the individual is guided based on their strengths. Their ultimate final role leaving training may be guided to a proper point by applying this. It really requires good relations between leadership and employees, though.
On a larger scale, casual guidance like mentioned above should naturally cluster units into proper learning groups that are mutually beneficial. But don’t make the mistake of not watching them closely, lest they get away from you, or bad clusters form, which can happen in such an organic environment.
This is clearly a different approach from other learning models out there, more analogous genetic algorithms than to rigid machine implementation. It may be a less stressful way to train, as well. The problem though is that you may experience a challenge bending things like gamification to work with this very out there model. It’s inflexible, so remember to pace it wisely and do your best to just make it engaging.
Don’t try to use other models with this one, not for the moment. More case studies of this being practiced must be written up before we can forecast how it may be possible to accomplish this. It would be a hasty move to get too wild with this very new concept.
Don’t be afraid to try this, though. It’s a very interesting approach, and if tried and experimented with enough, it may yield a new way to look at training in schools and businesses in the future.
Corporate talent development may be different, but sometimes different is what’s needed to solve the problem. This could possibly be such a case, but only time can tell that. It’s worth watching, and it’s worth experimenting with, for certain. Just, be careful, it’s very new.