5.18.2008

Adaptable Workforce, Manufacturing, & Paths vs Hierarchies,

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Unlocking the DNA of the Adaptable Workforce - IBM (executive summary)


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Developing the workforce is the prime ingredient for an organization's success.

"As any firm that has attempted to transform its workforce to meet changing conditions will attest, the journey is difficult and littered with obstacles. Understanding key workforce performance challenges and identifying the leading practices companies are using to overcome them have become central focus areas." - IBM

download the complete paper

Back to Basics - Metropolis

In our rush to build a knowledge economy we forgot that we need a backbone.

"Manufacturing is still more relevant to long-term economic development than glitzy museums or massive sports stadiums." - Joel Kotkin

Think about paths instead of hierarchies - Signal vs. Noise

While this short post is about web navigation, the same principles apply to all forms of knowledge in the learning and development field.

"Instead of thinking in terms of hierarchy or up-front structure, I think it's better to work with paths. A path is a line that goes from a starting point A to an accomplishment B." - Ryan

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you think when IBM said "passing on knowledge from older to younger employees" they meant "passing on knowledge from more experienced to less experienced employees?"

Donald Clark said...

Although I do agree that "older" does not always equal "experienced," the full length version (the link is in the post and requires a free registration), appears to be speaking of "older" rather than "experienced." This is mainly due to the baby-boomer generation getting set to retire. A couple of quotes from the article:

“People in our business are getting older, and we need to develop the next generation of leaders.”

"Given the departure of older employees, the smaller number of Generation Y employees who will be replacing them, and the increasing demand for talent around the globe, attracting and retaining talent is likely to become more, rather than less, of a challenge."

Adaptable Leadership - Building Leaders for Changing Times said...

It is interesting see that an Adaptable Workforce is a critical capability for companies today. However, only 14% of companies said that they feel very prepared to adapt to change. If adaptability is so critical why don't more people do more to create an adaptable workforce?